Costelloe-KuehnMemo26

Memo26: Extrapolating and Abstracting
This memo should include three abstracts for conference length (15-20 minute) presentations with your project material. Think about how you can carve out pieces of your project that speak to particular theoretical questions, or narrow by focusing on a particular scale. Aalok’s abstract titled “Networks In/Of Mobility”, for example, narrows by focusing on the meso level, aiming to speak to questions about what enables and constrains mobility within contemporary global order. A sample memo with two of Aalok's abstracts is on the templates page.

Ways to slice 'n dice:

A) Break up my main question into 3-5 abstracts?//

How // and //why// do EMOs use new media to develop capacity? More specifically, how do these organizations:
 * 1) Produce and circulate knowledge and expertise.
 * 2) Enable intra- and inter-group communication and collaboration, often with individuals and groups not immediately recognized as “activist."
 * 3) Develop and deploy innovative protest [strategies and] tactics


 * Abstract.** New information and communication technologies (ICTs) are transforming the ways environmentalist organizations produce and circulate knowledge and expertise. The Catapult Arts Caravan fosters articulation of and deliberation over local knowledge relevant to critical environmental issues by using old and new media technologies. A wide range of expertise is developed and mobilized, from agricultural information specific to the locality to the skills needed for shooting, editing, and distributing video on online satellite maps. Community capacity is also developed by intervening in power hierarchies, drawing together street vendors, politicians, farmers and others into a single video - the "democracy of the moving image." Drawing on ethnigraphic interviews and participant observation, this paper documents and anlyzes some of the most promising experiments in new relays of environmental information afforded by (new) media technologies, but also examines specific "blockages" that may limit imaginations and practices. The paper concludes by offering strategies for circumventing these blockages and offers preliminary insights into the benefits of pushing further the democratization of information in environmental struggles.


 * Abstract.** Intra- and inter-group communication and collaboration are key aspects of any social movement. For struggles over environmental justice, which are often highly complex and contested, developing innovative ways to circulate rhetorically persuasive knowledge and expertise is especially important. While environmentalists often have ambivalent views of and relationships with science, strategic collaboration with scientists can contribute to the development of powerful new relays. Following a brief analysis on the intersection of the literatures on community informatics, social networking and alternative media, this paper drawing on ethnographic interviews and participant observation to document and anlyze how emergent information and communication technologies (ICTs) are changing environmentalist practice and enabling new forms of collaboration, sometimes with individuals and groups not immediately recognized as "activist." The paper concludes with a discussion of the roles of "community" and "diversity" in building capacity to deal with critical environmental justice issues.

B) Focus on "community" aspect of project (and the "difference" aspect).

Model abstract from my paper "mediating participation: articulating diversity and community at the sanctuary for independent media" [i would probably rephrase this abstract by placing the first two sentences first, adding another sentence on my analysis and findings, and leveraging the somewhat lengthy description of the Sanctuary to make a more clear analytic point, or at least illuminate why the site was a good one for exploring my questions.]
 * Abstract**. The Sanctuary for Independent Media, in Troy, New York, is a historic former church that holds film screenings, lectures, concerts, an art gallery and ‘Be the Media’ workshops. Over the past two years, it has become an important center of community for many of its regular visitors. While there appears to be great potential for positive interaction between the Sanctuary and the surrounding neighborhood, thus far, this relationship has remained largely underdeveloped. The Sanctuary is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in upstate NY and race and class differences between its neighbors and its regular visitors are readily apparent. Drawing on participant observation and ethnographic interviewing, this paper seeks to understand barriers to greater diversity in participation in community media centers (CMCs) located in poor urban areas. Promising strategies are sketched that are intended to be of use to grassroots organizers seeking to build diverse, vibrant member-bases

update on Sarai: "mediating participation: articulating diversity and community at the Sarai Media Center" [if i do end up doing anything with the above paper on the Sanctuary, I will re-do the title...]
 * Abstract.** Community media "centers" are perhaps better conceived as nodes in a rhizome of alternative media practices with diverse applications, participants and goals. The Sarai Programme at CSDS (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies) is particularly noted for its network structure. Co-founded by the Raqs Media Collective and CSDS in 2001, Sarai is a "research center, publishing house, cafe, conference center, cinema, software laboratory and studio for digital art and design... Through its institutional partnerships, the research fellowships it provides each year, its residencies for visiting artists, researchers and programmers, multiple email lists, and many informal collaborations, Sarai has developed a large network that allows it to accumulate a vast range of knowledge and opinion from across the world and to make it available in many forms, places and languages. "Cybermohalla", the network of media laboratories established by Sarai in slum areas of Delhi, has led to a particularly impressive collaboration between members of Sarai and groups of young writers, artists and thinkers from these areas; while collaborations with programmers have led to "OPUS", an online experiment in artistic production inspired by the working practices of the free software movement" (wikipedia... [will be rephrased and shortened... I don't want this to look like a report on Sarai, I want to highlight and forefront my contribution and analysis).] Yet there are also blockages in Sarai's network that may limit imaginations and prevent collaborations, corroding its ability to utilize difference and provide social benefits to those it wishes to serve [such as _____]. Plugging ethnographic data from participant observation and interviews at Sarai into Deleuze & Guattari's insights on mapping lines of flight and their blockages, this paper sketches possibilities for developing more "absolute" deterritorializations in collaborative projects that draw together elite and subaltern actors. i definitely don't "need" this jargon... i only partially understand it myself, and a year ago i would not have understood it at all... i could say the same (?) thing in plain language... not sure what i think about this.]