Elizabeth Lane Lawley
Her Blog
http://mamamusings.net/The Sociology of Culture
Most studies of computer-mediated communication (CMC) have focused on conceptions of the technology as a tool, rather than as a constructed environment. This is not surprising, given that the bulk of research about computing in general has taken this tool-oriented approach. A few researchers have turned to anthropological and sociological theories to study individual interactions in a "culture of computing," and have found these theories to be particularly useful in better understanding the impact of computer technology on human behavior and interaction (Sproull & Kiesler, 1991; Sproull, Kiesler, & Zubrow, 1984). This direction has particular relevance in the study of CMC. In fact, popular discussions of CMC activity already commonly incorporate the ideas of "virtual" culture and community. (Cisler, 1992; Rheingold, 1993; Tyckson, 1992; Von Rospaq, 1991)While the door has been opened to the study of CMC in a cultural context, little has been done to ground this study in a theoretical base of anthropological or sociological research on culture. To that end, I intend to examine the potential applicability of the work of Pierre Bourdieu in the sociology of culture--work which has been widely cited in recent years in the fields of anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and communication--and propose a project of study to analyze CMC using Bourdieu's theoretical model. One group of authors described Bourdieu's program as a "study of the conditions of production of academic knowledge, technical expertise, and bureaucratic power in contemporary France." (Postone, LiPuma, & Calhoun, 1993) This paper attempts to provide a justification for substituting the milieu of "cyberspace" for that of contemporary France in Bourdieu's theoretical model. --http://www.itcs.com/elawley/bourdieu.html