It is a great pleasure to sit in the Emirates and watch Arsene Wenger's Red Army play Total Voetbal. But for the sociologist the culture around the beautiful game can also be a goldmine of sociological insight and investigation.
For example, the unexpected and rapid departure of Jose Mourinho as manager from Chelsea to be replaced by relative novice Avram Grant. It was fascinating to see the initial press reaction and comment mania in the blogosphere. One particular exchange of particular interest to media ethics and sociology featured the Times Chief Football Correspondent Martin Samuel, the Times editorial staff and their online newspaper readers.
Let me explain. On 19 September, 2007 Chelsea held a series of talks that resulted in the replacement of Mourinho with Grant. On 20 September Samuel wrote a column for the Times that appeared in the daily edition and online. This moment was a massive one for football writers across the country and few are as influential as Samuel. Wenger famously said that Mourinho needed to do more entertaining on the pitch and less in the press room. An icon of the game was leaving and Samuel chose this moment to expound on a particular theory.
"There is no doubt that these ties are strong and, with Abramovich as owner, Grant as manager and Zahavi a trusted confidant of the pair, Chelsea are not so much Russian these days as kosher." (Samuel, Avram Grant appointment makes Chelsea no more than rich man’s plaything, Times).
On the evening of the 19th it was also very interesting to see how few online publications responded within half an hour to the news that Mourinho was on the way out. TV and radio were all over the story but the sleeping administrators of vaunted 24-7-365 online sites remained largely out of view. When Samuel's story went live on the Times site an initial well articulated reader comment was published by "David Silver" along the lines of "... in speaking with others and reading this story on the train we find it the most anti-semitic piece of writing in a major UK newspaper in recent memory".
To understand how this comment got there it is important to note that the Times' online editors review each potential comment posted to the site for approval. So this comment had passed the editorial gatekeeper for the online version of the newspaper. It was shortly followed by a response post by Koldo, Galway, Ireland: "... can in europe, in 2007, a newspaper have an opinion and a comment on israel and its citizen that it is not consider (sic) antisemitic". In typical dualistic fashion for online comments the debate raged on in the form of those claiming anti-semitism and those denying the charge. Yes it is, No it's not ... Yes it is, No it's not ... that kind of thing.
This is where it gets really interesting. Logging in to the story 15 hours later that evening the comment from Silver was deleted, leaving Koldo's response dangling as the first comment on the post, part of an online conversation now interrupted by the editorial staff at the Times. In fact several of the comments claiming anti-semitism in the article were deleted. For a reader arriving at this time, or anytime after, the comments now read very strangely as ... not it's not, no it's not, no it's not, etc. The readily apparent question at this point is who on earth is saying it is?? The remaining fragments of comment make up not so much a conversation as a bunch of censored letters from a warzone.
It is apparent that someone approved the comments, someone advised deletion of the comments, and readers (and history) are left with the remains. An email query to the Times editorial staff asking why the comments were deleted went unanswered. So what about the ethics of deleting a standards meeting comment posted to the public record?
In order to analyse the situation it was first necessary to get a copy of an archived page from the Times that contained the original post. Many Internet users are not yet aware that this facility is available through use of the Wayback Machine that keeps a daily archive of every indexed web page on the Internet.
Or at least that is what I thought. In trying to access a Times archived page from the 19th the software informed that the Times was blocking access to the Wayback automated archiver. Debate on the impact of the Wayback Machine on copyright and intellectual property has been going on since its inception. There have been several attempts to use archived pages from the Wayback Machine in legal cases as evidence and this has also been cited as justification for blocking it. But I had never actually encountered a mainstream media publication that took this approach, let alone one with a long-standing claim as Britain's "newspaper of record".
In the weeks following Grant's appointment Chelsea executives spoke out about a need to stop anti-Jewish chants at games, insisting the club would not tolerate such actions "whether in written correspondence, on the chat pages, on posters or banners or through singing and chanting". Jewish publications ran several stories warning of potential racism. Samuel - who reportedly has Jewish ancestors (if it matters) - wrote another column, this time insisting that Grant's hiring had nothing to do with his faith but was instead just a typical old boys club act. Samuel writes: "Chelsea believe that much of the negative reaction to the appointment of Grant is suspect, but that which is tainted by prejudice can easily be identified and acted upon or ignored, and the rest does not deserve to be disparaged so glibly". Would that be glibly as in accepting comments from your readers into the public domain, subsequently deleting these comments, offering no explanation for the actions and ignoring further public queries for clarity on the process?
So if a tree falls in the internet forest with no one to hear it and it is later dragged away and all evidence of its existence erased, does it make a sound?
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Football Sociology
Friday, January 26, 2007
Theory of Everything
Tensions in academia between science and social theory are largely the result on an over-inflated sense of righteousness and self-importance from both sides towards the other. Sometimes they have far more in common than they are willing to admit.
For example here at Goldsmiths computing research is developing an algorithm for beauty, assuming that by analysing beautiful things it will be possible to create beauty through rules-based models. The assumption that beauty can be contained in variables and fixed definitions is almost laughable to social theorists considering the subjective experience and context. And the technology, as almost always, seems grossly optimistic. After all image recognition software can barely decipher (looking for a job?) what objects are in a photograph let alone identify the social and cultural representations that go into ephemeral beauty.
But the real issue is not if it is currently possible to do such a thing but whether it is possible at all. To that question the scientific community would advice constant testing and advancement, moving forward all the time, largely discarding the notion that not all variables in beauty can be eventually counted. When unaccountability is apparent science devises names for things that can be inferred like Dark Matter. Basically we don't know what it is (or its partner in darkness Dark Energy) but we know it is Dark Matter. After all in all the known universe only about 4% of total energy density can be seen directly, about 22% is inferred as dark matter and the remaining 74% inferred as dark energy. It sounds a bit like how sociologists view society with about 4% of what is going on obvious and directly observable, the rest inferred. Journalists love the idea by describing anything that is not observable as "the dark matter of ...".
That's what makes the as yet untested theoretical physics concept of a "Theory of Everything" so engaging as a scientific topic. Personally I would not be happy with any theory of everything that doesn't definitively explain why all belly button fluff is blue or why bullets fired into the sky never seem to hit anything on the way down. And from what I have read this one doesn't seem to be able to do that. Instead it is a hypothetical theory that would make any postmodern proud. The idea is that everything around you is made up of tiny strands of energy that vibrate at different frequencies. Kind of like all the people on earth vibrating in their own frequency to make up the complexities of social life. It grafts together quantum mechanics with relativity in an attempt to explain the fundamental interactions of nature. It brings a new meaning to being strung out if we consider that if the universe collapses on itself after expansion (a Big Crunch) superstring theory suggests that the universe can never be smaller than the size of a string before expanding again. If you are imaginative you can imagine us all just hanging out on that string, chilling and waiting for the universe to get a bit bigger so we can fit a few couches in.
To date superstring theory has launched a number of best-selling scientific texts and television programs, most notably The Elegant Universe, while continuing to struggle with the fact that it makes prediction that cannot be tested. But in an academic paper appearing in the January 26 edition of Physical Review Letters a test has been proposed. It involves use of the incredible Large Hadron Collider, a subatomic particle collider scheduled to be fully operational in early 2008. Weaving under the borderlands of France and Switzerland, the CERN based 27-kilometer tunnel will collide bunches of protons and observe the results. It takes a proton around 90 microseconds (one millionth of a second) to travel around one uber half-marathon lap of the circuit. In tests of the Theory of Everything observations will input to substantiating the canonical forms of string theory.
“Our work shows that, in principle, string theory can be tested in a non-trivial way,” said Ira Rothstein, co-author of the paper and professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon. Now that's some postmodern dark matter.
For example here at Goldsmiths computing research is developing an algorithm for beauty, assuming that by analysing beautiful things it will be possible to create beauty through rules-based models. The assumption that beauty can be contained in variables and fixed definitions is almost laughable to social theorists considering the subjective experience and context. And the technology, as almost always, seems grossly optimistic. After all image recognition software can barely decipher (looking for a job?) what objects are in a photograph let alone identify the social and cultural representations that go into ephemeral beauty.
But the real issue is not if it is currently possible to do such a thing but whether it is possible at all. To that question the scientific community would advice constant testing and advancement, moving forward all the time, largely discarding the notion that not all variables in beauty can be eventually counted. When unaccountability is apparent science devises names for things that can be inferred like Dark Matter. Basically we don't know what it is (or its partner in darkness Dark Energy) but we know it is Dark Matter. After all in all the known universe only about 4% of total energy density can be seen directly, about 22% is inferred as dark matter and the remaining 74% inferred as dark energy. It sounds a bit like how sociologists view society with about 4% of what is going on obvious and directly observable, the rest inferred. Journalists love the idea by describing anything that is not observable as "the dark matter of ...".
That's what makes the as yet untested theoretical physics concept of a "Theory of Everything" so engaging as a scientific topic. Personally I would not be happy with any theory of everything that doesn't definitively explain why all belly button fluff is blue or why bullets fired into the sky never seem to hit anything on the way down. And from what I have read this one doesn't seem to be able to do that. Instead it is a hypothetical theory that would make any postmodern proud. The idea is that everything around you is made up of tiny strands of energy that vibrate at different frequencies. Kind of like all the people on earth vibrating in their own frequency to make up the complexities of social life. It grafts together quantum mechanics with relativity in an attempt to explain the fundamental interactions of nature. It brings a new meaning to being strung out if we consider that if the universe collapses on itself after expansion (a Big Crunch) superstring theory suggests that the universe can never be smaller than the size of a string before expanding again. If you are imaginative you can imagine us all just hanging out on that string, chilling and waiting for the universe to get a bit bigger so we can fit a few couches in.
To date superstring theory has launched a number of best-selling scientific texts and television programs, most notably The Elegant Universe, while continuing to struggle with the fact that it makes prediction that cannot be tested. But in an academic paper appearing in the January 26 edition of Physical Review Letters a test has been proposed. It involves use of the incredible Large Hadron Collider, a subatomic particle collider scheduled to be fully operational in early 2008. Weaving under the borderlands of France and Switzerland, the CERN based 27-kilometer tunnel will collide bunches of protons and observe the results. It takes a proton around 90 microseconds (one millionth of a second) to travel around one uber half-marathon lap of the circuit. In tests of the Theory of Everything observations will input to substantiating the canonical forms of string theory.
“Our work shows that, in principle, string theory can be tested in a non-trivial way,” said Ira Rothstein, co-author of the paper and professor of physics at Carnegie Mellon. Now that's some postmodern dark matter.
Paul Halliday
Photo by Paul Halliday
Visual sociology is a still emerging but exciting form of social practice as researchers seek to harness the powers of multimedia to contribute to understanding social life.
At Goldsmiths College, University of London my colleague Paul Halliday recently completed a 20-year photographic project of London faces and public places first inspired by a series of walks around Greenwich with his late father that opened up a new way of thinking about history, place and memory. As a module leader in Live Sociology Paul inspired my own first attempt in Deptford at exploring visual practices as an input to sociological methods.
Paul leads the MA in Photography and Urban Cultures at Goldsmiths and outlines his approach to his London photographs on the project website:
"The work is a kind of auto-ethnography of my day-to-day life harnessing the power of photography to speak a language that resonates with a part of my on-going experience of being a Londoner - in a city that fascinates, infuriates, perplexes and at times leaves me utterly lost for words. A city that I have a deep sense of shared belonging with, that continues to intoxicate me, and that I am happy to call my home."
Labels: academia, culture, london, photography, sociology
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Civil Liberties in the UK
As a teenager in the process of establishing social and political consciousness I was swept away by John Stuart Mill's On Liberty and questions of "the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual".
Witnessing the erosion of civil liberties first hand in London over the past 10 years is only slightly less startling than the appetite for public acceptance that accompanies it.
In June, 2006 Steven Jago was arrested for carrying a placard without permission bearing the George Orwell quote: "In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act". Police seized Jago's photocopies of Henry Porter's expose in pop culture magazine Vanity Fair on the erosion of civil liberties in Britain and termed it "politically motivated material".
Porter's story is a fascinating piece of journalism featuring thunderous email exchanges with Tony Blair on questions of liberty. In this contradictory land of the Magna Carta and Superman CCTV Porter's quote from Labour peer Baroness Kennedy resonates: "What we seem to have forgotten is that the state is there courtesy of us and we are not here courtesy the state".
In a continuing political spin culture of "war on terror" respect for civil liberties has taken a battering. In a 2007 survey of British Social Attitudes by the National Centre for Social Research, 80% of citizens support detention without charge for more than a week, 25% back police holding suspects for up to a week without letting them see a lawyer, and seven in 10 support compulsory identity cards for adults. In December, 2005 a peace campaigner was arrested for reading out names of soldiers killed in Iraq within half a mile of Westminster.
In the storm and rush to contain through legislation and law, liberty has found an unlikely ally in the form of UK director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald : "It is critical that we understand that this new form of terrorism carries another more subtle, perhaps equally pernicious, risk. Because it might encourage a fear-driven and inappropriate response. By that I mean it can tempt us to abandon our values. I think it important to understand that this is one of its primary purposes."
London is a city and scene of contrast, on one hand priding itself on a steely business-as-usual response to the transport bombings and on the other accepting glaring changes in the relationship of society and the individual without compliant.
Macdonald reflects: "London is not a battlefield. Those innocents who were murdered on July 7 2005 were not victims of war. And the men who killed them were not, as in their vanity they claimed on their ludicrous videos, 'soldiers'. They were deluded, narcissistic inadequates. They were criminals. They were fantasists. We need to be very clear about this. On the streets of London, there is no such thing as a 'war on terror', just as there can be no such thing as a 'war on drugs'."
Witnessing the erosion of civil liberties first hand in London over the past 10 years is only slightly less startling than the appetite for public acceptance that accompanies it.
In June, 2006 Steven Jago was arrested for carrying a placard without permission bearing the George Orwell quote: "In a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act". Police seized Jago's photocopies of Henry Porter's expose in pop culture magazine Vanity Fair on the erosion of civil liberties in Britain and termed it "politically motivated material".
Porter's story is a fascinating piece of journalism featuring thunderous email exchanges with Tony Blair on questions of liberty. In this contradictory land of the Magna Carta and Superman CCTV Porter's quote from Labour peer Baroness Kennedy resonates: "What we seem to have forgotten is that the state is there courtesy of us and we are not here courtesy the state".
In a continuing political spin culture of "war on terror" respect for civil liberties has taken a battering. In a 2007 survey of British Social Attitudes by the National Centre for Social Research, 80% of citizens support detention without charge for more than a week, 25% back police holding suspects for up to a week without letting them see a lawyer, and seven in 10 support compulsory identity cards for adults. In December, 2005 a peace campaigner was arrested for reading out names of soldiers killed in Iraq within half a mile of Westminster.
In the storm and rush to contain through legislation and law, liberty has found an unlikely ally in the form of UK director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald : "It is critical that we understand that this new form of terrorism carries another more subtle, perhaps equally pernicious, risk. Because it might encourage a fear-driven and inappropriate response. By that I mean it can tempt us to abandon our values. I think it important to understand that this is one of its primary purposes."
London is a city and scene of contrast, on one hand priding itself on a steely business-as-usual response to the transport bombings and on the other accepting glaring changes in the relationship of society and the individual without compliant.
Macdonald reflects: "London is not a battlefield. Those innocents who were murdered on July 7 2005 were not victims of war. And the men who killed them were not, as in their vanity they claimed on their ludicrous videos, 'soldiers'. They were deluded, narcissistic inadequates. They were criminals. They were fantasists. We need to be very clear about this. On the streets of London, there is no such thing as a 'war on terror', just as there can be no such thing as a 'war on drugs'."
Monday, April 03, 2006
Robotic Sociology
There is a tendency in current sociological theory to wax on endlessly about the 'western' influence on the world and the importance of not looking at the world through 'western' filters. I'm not sure if there is a fundamental lack of understanding about the changing socio-demographic and socio-political makeup of the global community, or if the discourses are simply lagging behind the reality. Like how the Chinese Government is a bigger threat to the emerging open-standards and interconnectivity of information and knowledge than the Fortune 500 put together.
Maybe it will be more obvious when South Korea, the world's most wired country, puts a robot in every home by 2015. And not just the $500 robots who sweep and clean the house, using sensors to chart a path around the kitchen table, but robots that teach and converse in dozens of languages, sing and dance for children when they are bored and patrol public areas.
That's right folks. The future is here. Well not here really, but in South Korea. As we speak, South Koreans watch free government-subsidized TV over cellphones, are connected anytime, everywhere, through blanketed national high-speed wireless Internet access, and over 40% of the population has a home page. Every school is interconnected by high speed Internet and collaborative educational initiatives. Homemakers enroll regularly in IT courses targeting use in real life situations and low-income families receive tax credits and subsidies for the purchase of hardware and software to participate in the national explosion in digital data.
But perhaps the most interesting developments are in the service sector initiatives to create robots capable of integrating into daily life. According to the South Korean Ministry of Information and Communciation, instead of operating independently, these service robots derive their information from being part of a network - a kind of collective robotic intelligence.
So beware to 'western' sociologists. The time for self-loathing and great laments on what we have done and what we should never do again is nearing an end. Soon we will speak of how the Koreans thrust their robots upon us and we scrambled around in a disoriented, robotic state.
Maybe it will be more obvious when South Korea, the world's most wired country, puts a robot in every home by 2015. And not just the $500 robots who sweep and clean the house, using sensors to chart a path around the kitchen table, but robots that teach and converse in dozens of languages, sing and dance for children when they are bored and patrol public areas.
That's right folks. The future is here. Well not here really, but in South Korea. As we speak, South Koreans watch free government-subsidized TV over cellphones, are connected anytime, everywhere, through blanketed national high-speed wireless Internet access, and over 40% of the population has a home page. Every school is interconnected by high speed Internet and collaborative educational initiatives. Homemakers enroll regularly in IT courses targeting use in real life situations and low-income families receive tax credits and subsidies for the purchase of hardware and software to participate in the national explosion in digital data.
But perhaps the most interesting developments are in the service sector initiatives to create robots capable of integrating into daily life. According to the South Korean Ministry of Information and Communciation, instead of operating independently, these service robots derive their information from being part of a network - a kind of collective robotic intelligence.
So beware to 'western' sociologists. The time for self-loathing and great laments on what we have done and what we should never do again is nearing an end. Soon we will speak of how the Koreans thrust their robots upon us and we scrambled around in a disoriented, robotic state.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Live Sociology
Visit Faces of Deptford photos
Participating in Live Sociology at Goldsmiths College is an inspiring experience. The first workshop focused on photography as a method of sociological representation. The 20 participants from around the UK are a diverse group with lots of good ideas. Phil Mizen, senior lecturer in sociology at Warwick University, joined me in snapping shutters. He even posed for me. We all went out and took photographs for a couple of hours in the afternoon as a form of experimental sociology in southeast London following an inspiring introduction to the topic from Les Back and some practical photography training from Paul Halliday.
For my project I selected Assignment 1 in the workshop suggestions: "Produce a series of portraits of people in Deptford". You can see the results by visiting Faces of Deptford in the Chris Brauer Media Gallery. The topic of the first workshop was "Redesigning the Observer" and you won't need to look further than the steady gazes of the portrait subjects to understand what this means. Who was the observer and who was being observed?
Live Sociology is similar to the London Project we have planned at City University as a study of London people, places and things through journalism. Interestingly this is the same title as a project Paul Halliday has been conducting in photographing London over the past 15 years. What was fantastic about this workshop experience was interacting with the people. The subject of the photograph featured in this post was a very cool guy. Anyone who participated indicated a willingness at the first question but this gentleman was particularly responsive. In cropping and editing I noticed the Jose Morinho ad in the top right corner. My decision to not include any text of words with each photograph was a conscious one. Introducing the photographer's terms of reference for these photos would in my opinion and in this case only further complicate your interpretation.
Labels: internet, london, photography, sociology
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Happy Slappy Sociology
Russian mystic and novelist Leo Tolstoy said everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. And you know the world is changing when the slang word used for cool is book, the first option given by the predictive text on mobile phones when typing cool. And from the Daily Mirror last week comes an offering and translation of London street slang from the baffling phrase:
"I hope these skangers are wankstas because if they're langers we could get happy slapped - be careful, some of the kutas are carrying chibs."
to the Collins English Dictionary translation:
"I hope these casually dressed working class youngsters are pretend gangsters because if they are disagreeable men we could get beaten up and filmed. Be careful, some of the nasty youths are carrying knives."
Filmed with a camera phone in a craze that has reached sufficient penetration in the general London population that it is not unusual to hear on a night bus one say to the other, only half joking: "Don't fall asleep! You'll get happy slapped!" Naturally there has been discussion of how these acts might relate to the violent tv and video games available in the market.
When Frankie Roberto first published his take on the happy slapping phenomena he never could have guessed that the article would become the most popular page on his website overnight. Scroll down on this page to read the comments (commenting no longer permitted) for an idea of the slang used in discussion of the fad, probably by teenagers searching for happy slap videos. Living in south London where the craze is said to have emerged it is a recognizable meme, on the lips at watercoolers and bus stops. Recently the idea of using your phone to capture video to later show off has led to the even grimmer bravado of 'train chicken' in some kids.
It is difficult to reconcile this craze of filming violent attacks on mobile phones with the fanfare that greeted the initial sale of 3G licenses and the subsequent, if delayed, arrival of the advanced networked multimedia capabilities delivered by the third generation mobile networks.
I first heard about the fad months ago when speaking with a young man living in Kennington who told me about it as he frantically texted a friend: "They just slap you silly. You fall asleep or they just come across you in numbers. It's crazy innit?"
Issues of appropriate use of camera phones is an issue all over the world, see this article for example from the early days of the technology in Japan, or this piece on how Rumsfeld banned camera phones from US military installations in Iraq out of fear of misuse (not much imagination needed here). And Africa is the fastest area of global growth in mobile phone use.
The sociological conclusion is that camera phones are a technology like any other, open to benefit or misuse depending on who is in control. As a society we need to evolve flexible ways of interpreting, understanding and responding to the impact of the technologies on our communities and social interaction. Policy makers are slowly adjusting to the new forces of power introduced by technologies like mobile camera phones. Or maybe we just need to admit that we haven't actually advanced much further beyond life as apes, who would undoubtedly find a happy slap a funny gag.
See also on the Chris Brauer Media Project:
"I hope these skangers are wankstas because if they're langers we could get happy slapped - be careful, some of the kutas are carrying chibs."
to the Collins English Dictionary translation:
"I hope these casually dressed working class youngsters are pretend gangsters because if they are disagreeable men we could get beaten up and filmed. Be careful, some of the nasty youths are carrying knives."
Filmed with a camera phone in a craze that has reached sufficient penetration in the general London population that it is not unusual to hear on a night bus one say to the other, only half joking: "Don't fall asleep! You'll get happy slapped!" Naturally there has been discussion of how these acts might relate to the violent tv and video games available in the market.
When Frankie Roberto first published his take on the happy slapping phenomena he never could have guessed that the article would become the most popular page on his website overnight. Scroll down on this page to read the comments (commenting no longer permitted) for an idea of the slang used in discussion of the fad, probably by teenagers searching for happy slap videos. Living in south London where the craze is said to have emerged it is a recognizable meme, on the lips at watercoolers and bus stops. Recently the idea of using your phone to capture video to later show off has led to the even grimmer bravado of 'train chicken' in some kids.
It is difficult to reconcile this craze of filming violent attacks on mobile phones with the fanfare that greeted the initial sale of 3G licenses and the subsequent, if delayed, arrival of the advanced networked multimedia capabilities delivered by the third generation mobile networks.
I first heard about the fad months ago when speaking with a young man living in Kennington who told me about it as he frantically texted a friend: "They just slap you silly. You fall asleep or they just come across you in numbers. It's crazy innit?"
Issues of appropriate use of camera phones is an issue all over the world, see this article for example from the early days of the technology in Japan, or this piece on how Rumsfeld banned camera phones from US military installations in Iraq out of fear of misuse (not much imagination needed here). And Africa is the fastest area of global growth in mobile phone use.
The sociological conclusion is that camera phones are a technology like any other, open to benefit or misuse depending on who is in control. As a society we need to evolve flexible ways of interpreting, understanding and responding to the impact of the technologies on our communities and social interaction. Policy makers are slowly adjusting to the new forces of power introduced by technologies like mobile camera phones. Or maybe we just need to admit that we haven't actually advanced much further beyond life as apes, who would undoubtedly find a happy slap a funny gag.
See also on the Chris Brauer Media Project:
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Internet empire mauls Star Wars Kid
There are few stories in the brief history of the WWW that better describe the sociological conflict embodied in humanity's interaction with modern media.
If you are not familiar with the story of Quebec teenager Ghyslain (it's like asking if you are familiar with the Internet), a brief synopsis will suffice as there are countless sites out there providing complete histories of his saga. In 2003 a video of him using a golf-ball-retriever as a light saber and making Jedi sounds was released on Kazaa by fellow students, apparently without his consent. Within five days this video was "remixed" to include special effects, sound and graphics. Here you can watch the original, and the remix (files are windows streaming media and windows player is required). Subsequently and with a little less originality he was remixed into Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Kill Bill, Undercover Brother, the Matrix, and even somewhat unconvincingly in Canadian cult classic Strange Brew.
What kind of insight can we glean into the WWW society that with over 12 million people saving the original video Ghyslain is "the most downloaded man on the Internet" (Paris Hilton is the most downloaded woman)?
Well somewhat unsurprisingly it suggests that sex and geekdom are the two big sellers on the Internet. And while the former attracts widespread appeal in the population both on and off line, it is in the latter that the Internet has uniquely provided a vehicle for voice. For although these videos can be seen from bland to mildly amusing and even hilarious it is in the sociological interpretation that the popularity resides. Geeks are a rambunctious bunch at the moment, organizing their own dinner parties, punts, and parties and though some geeks have been self-identifying forever it has never been easier. The speed of change in technology and the benefits and methods of harnessing technical knowledge to promote a lifestyle of choice has made being a geek more desirable than ever.
Maybe that is why this community seems so determined to embrace Ghyslain as one of their own. A unscientific but nonetheless textual analysis of the comments on many of the major posts regarding the Star Wars Kid reveals traditional themes in this regard. Sixty-four per cent of the over 200 posts that are positive about Ghyslain make some reference or similar to how he is "one of us" or that "we were like you" and how cool it is that he has been "embraced" by the geek community.
The only problem is that there is precious little evidence that Ghyslain self-identifies as a geek or is pleased with the attentions of the community. In fact quite the opposite. The only two interviews available with him are a National Post email correspondence shortly after the video was released where he indicates that he "wants his life back" and a transcript of a telephone call that reads like an iPod advertisement with Jish Mukerji of the now defunct Jish.nu who along with Fark and Andy Baio of Waxy.org helped propel Ghyslain's popularity. Baio and Mukerji were later responsible for the campaign to buy Ghyslain an iPod and some Future Shop certificates as a symbol of their allegiance and support. The only problem again is that none of this seems to be driven by any expressed desire by the Quebec teenager. Could anything be more revealing of the lack of regard for his wishes than the lack of questioning in this interview of whether he wanted them to promote his cause (instead ... Do you also read weblogs????). In a French interview with Radio Canada his lawyer (the family sued the other teenagers who put the video up on Kazaa) indicates that the family had pleaded with all media to stop promoting the story and drawing attention to Ghyslain's situation. Is it a big leap to assume that all media applies to online media?
So before the geeks start slapping each other on the back for a job well done getting the boy an iPod, and starting a campaign to get him into Star Wars III (how about over 146,000 signatures???) it should be noted that all of this goodwill may not have been received as such. Despite repeated pleas from Baio for an update including this one just months ago, the silence from Ghyslain and his family speaks volumes.
Perhaps surprisingly the most lucid response to the situation came from Lucasfilm spokeswoman Jeanne Cole: "We are deeply saddened by this current situation and any difficulties this uninvited publicity might be causing Ghyslain and his family. We have no other statement."
Hopefully we will never know whether the publicity avalanche drove Ghyslain into permanent psychiatric care (his parents indicated that he would be under such care for an indefinite amount of time when filing their lawsuit) or if he felt deep gratitude at his fame and has been reveling in it ever since.
The sociological conclusion is that none of this was ever about the Quebec teenager but instead fed the need for the geeks, bloggers, privacy lawyers, guerilla video editors and star wars aficionados to express themselves through his story. All of the rest of it is just bold-faced speculation, unnecessary and uncomplicated and unfortunately Ghyslain has been forced to embody this meme by an excitable audience. It provides unwelcome support for Thomas Hobbes' view of man as naturally selfish hedonist -- "of the voluntary acts of every man, the object is some good to himself". Important to note that while Hobbes held this view of the world he also saw that men would rebel against recognizing this indication and would often see themselves as outside but observant of this natural law.
If you are not familiar with the story of Quebec teenager Ghyslain (it's like asking if you are familiar with the Internet), a brief synopsis will suffice as there are countless sites out there providing complete histories of his saga. In 2003 a video of him using a golf-ball-retriever as a light saber and making Jedi sounds was released on Kazaa by fellow students, apparently without his consent. Within five days this video was "remixed" to include special effects, sound and graphics. Here you can watch the original, and the remix (files are windows streaming media and windows player is required). Subsequently and with a little less originality he was remixed into Lord of the Rings, Braveheart, Kill Bill, Undercover Brother, the Matrix, and even somewhat unconvincingly in Canadian cult classic Strange Brew.
What kind of insight can we glean into the WWW society that with over 12 million people saving the original video Ghyslain is "the most downloaded man on the Internet" (Paris Hilton is the most downloaded woman)?
Well somewhat unsurprisingly it suggests that sex and geekdom are the two big sellers on the Internet. And while the former attracts widespread appeal in the population both on and off line, it is in the latter that the Internet has uniquely provided a vehicle for voice. For although these videos can be seen from bland to mildly amusing and even hilarious it is in the sociological interpretation that the popularity resides. Geeks are a rambunctious bunch at the moment, organizing their own dinner parties, punts, and parties and though some geeks have been self-identifying forever it has never been easier. The speed of change in technology and the benefits and methods of harnessing technical knowledge to promote a lifestyle of choice has made being a geek more desirable than ever.
Maybe that is why this community seems so determined to embrace Ghyslain as one of their own. A unscientific but nonetheless textual analysis of the comments on many of the major posts regarding the Star Wars Kid reveals traditional themes in this regard. Sixty-four per cent of the over 200 posts that are positive about Ghyslain make some reference or similar to how he is "one of us" or that "we were like you" and how cool it is that he has been "embraced" by the geek community.
The only problem is that there is precious little evidence that Ghyslain self-identifies as a geek or is pleased with the attentions of the community. In fact quite the opposite. The only two interviews available with him are a National Post email correspondence shortly after the video was released where he indicates that he "wants his life back" and a transcript of a telephone call that reads like an iPod advertisement with Jish Mukerji of the now defunct Jish.nu who along with Fark and Andy Baio of Waxy.org helped propel Ghyslain's popularity. Baio and Mukerji were later responsible for the campaign to buy Ghyslain an iPod and some Future Shop certificates as a symbol of their allegiance and support. The only problem again is that none of this seems to be driven by any expressed desire by the Quebec teenager. Could anything be more revealing of the lack of regard for his wishes than the lack of questioning in this interview of whether he wanted them to promote his cause (instead ... Do you also read weblogs????). In a French interview with Radio Canada his lawyer (the family sued the other teenagers who put the video up on Kazaa) indicates that the family had pleaded with all media to stop promoting the story and drawing attention to Ghyslain's situation. Is it a big leap to assume that all media applies to online media?
So before the geeks start slapping each other on the back for a job well done getting the boy an iPod, and starting a campaign to get him into Star Wars III (how about over 146,000 signatures???) it should be noted that all of this goodwill may not have been received as such. Despite repeated pleas from Baio for an update including this one just months ago, the silence from Ghyslain and his family speaks volumes.
Perhaps surprisingly the most lucid response to the situation came from Lucasfilm spokeswoman Jeanne Cole: "We are deeply saddened by this current situation and any difficulties this uninvited publicity might be causing Ghyslain and his family. We have no other statement."
Hopefully we will never know whether the publicity avalanche drove Ghyslain into permanent psychiatric care (his parents indicated that he would be under such care for an indefinite amount of time when filing their lawsuit) or if he felt deep gratitude at his fame and has been reveling in it ever since.
The sociological conclusion is that none of this was ever about the Quebec teenager but instead fed the need for the geeks, bloggers, privacy lawyers, guerilla video editors and star wars aficionados to express themselves through his story. All of the rest of it is just bold-faced speculation, unnecessary and uncomplicated and unfortunately Ghyslain has been forced to embody this meme by an excitable audience. It provides unwelcome support for Thomas Hobbes' view of man as naturally selfish hedonist -- "of the voluntary acts of every man, the object is some good to himself". Important to note that while Hobbes held this view of the world he also saw that men would rebel against recognizing this indication and would often see themselves as outside but observant of this natural law.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
The sweatshops of our mind
One can only imagine the horror on the faces of the organizers of the Make Poverty History campaign when they learned that the white armbands at the heart of the campaign were being manufactured in sweatshop conditions in China.
The news came as delicious irony to those who see such organized movements as fruitless but speaks more to the challenges of management than ethics. Of course we can assume the movement would never have used the armbands if they were aware of the conditions at the manufacturing source. But the fact that such a massive undertaken could be duped after all the manufacturing and shipping is complete speaks to the challenges of not just supporting ethical enterprise but practicing it.
Such are the challenges of working within a system to change the system. By the sounds of the explanations it is as simple as not enough research going into the source of the manufacturing in order to save a buck. Classic economics and it is immeasurably difficult to make yourself immune from opportunism when participating in the market.
But sweatshops can come in all shapes and sizes, or not. Wired contributing editor Julian Dibbell wrote about 'virtual sweatshops' for the magazine in January, 2003 but later questioned whether more evidence could be produced of their existence. It seems that by their very nature sweatshops are a dirty secret or an embarrassing mistake for those who employ them. Discreet little enterprises feeding the culture of consumption in rich societies.
Now you see them, now you don't.
The news came as delicious irony to those who see such organized movements as fruitless but speaks more to the challenges of management than ethics. Of course we can assume the movement would never have used the armbands if they were aware of the conditions at the manufacturing source. But the fact that such a massive undertaken could be duped after all the manufacturing and shipping is complete speaks to the challenges of not just supporting ethical enterprise but practicing it.
Such are the challenges of working within a system to change the system. By the sounds of the explanations it is as simple as not enough research going into the source of the manufacturing in order to save a buck. Classic economics and it is immeasurably difficult to make yourself immune from opportunism when participating in the market.
But sweatshops can come in all shapes and sizes, or not. Wired contributing editor Julian Dibbell wrote about 'virtual sweatshops' for the magazine in January, 2003 but later questioned whether more evidence could be produced of their existence. It seems that by their very nature sweatshops are a dirty secret or an embarrassing mistake for those who employ them. Discreet little enterprises feeding the culture of consumption in rich societies.
Now you see them, now you don't.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Living the Culture of Consumption
Sometimes we simply let ideas fester, ignoring or abandoning the reason within them. Was there ever a more self-evident truth than the one articulated by sociologist Raymond Williams forty years ago (that's right! The 1960s were 40 years ago!):
"It is clear why 'consumer', as a description, is so popular, for while a large part of our economic activity is obviously devoted to supplying known needs, a considerable and increasing part of it goes to ensuring we consume what industry finds it convenient to produce. As this tendency strengthens, it becomes increasingly obvious that society is not controlling its economic life, but is in part being controlled by it. The weakening of purposeful social thinking is a direct consequence of this powerful experience, which seeks to reduce human activity to predictable patterns of demand. If we were not consumers, but users, we might look at society very differently, for the concept of use involves general human judgments -- whereas consumption, with its crude hand-to-mouth patterns, tends to cancel these questions, replacing them by the stimulated and controlled absorption of the products of an external and autonomous system."
That little gem is from The Long Revolution, laying special emphasis on the 'creative mind' in relation to social and cultural thinking. Funny how in the advertising and marketing industries today 'creative' is a term applied to roles in the company who substantiate the modern push marketing techniques through authoring of convincing scripts that play into cultural stereotypes.
Williams went on to pioneer the field of 'cultural studies' and continued to articulate still unresolved questions about how we form the self and social. According to the John Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, Williams was:
"Confident that 'all kinds of writing produce meaning and value', he wrote in a multiplicity of modes and discourses (as critic, theorist, historian, journalist, political commentator, pamphleteer, dramatist, and novelist) and in a variety of styles (conversational, high academic, technically condensed, literary, and polemical). At his death in 1988, after a career of 40 years, he left behind more than 650 publications, including 27 academic books, 5 novels, 3 plays, 7 pamphlets, 60 columns on television in The Listener, and more than 500 articles and reviews, among them his regular book reviews for the Guardian and New Society."
"It is clear why 'consumer', as a description, is so popular, for while a large part of our economic activity is obviously devoted to supplying known needs, a considerable and increasing part of it goes to ensuring we consume what industry finds it convenient to produce. As this tendency strengthens, it becomes increasingly obvious that society is not controlling its economic life, but is in part being controlled by it. The weakening of purposeful social thinking is a direct consequence of this powerful experience, which seeks to reduce human activity to predictable patterns of demand. If we were not consumers, but users, we might look at society very differently, for the concept of use involves general human judgments -- whereas consumption, with its crude hand-to-mouth patterns, tends to cancel these questions, replacing them by the stimulated and controlled absorption of the products of an external and autonomous system."
That little gem is from The Long Revolution, laying special emphasis on the 'creative mind' in relation to social and cultural thinking. Funny how in the advertising and marketing industries today 'creative' is a term applied to roles in the company who substantiate the modern push marketing techniques through authoring of convincing scripts that play into cultural stereotypes.
Williams went on to pioneer the field of 'cultural studies' and continued to articulate still unresolved questions about how we form the self and social. According to the John Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, Williams was:
"Confident that 'all kinds of writing produce meaning and value', he wrote in a multiplicity of modes and discourses (as critic, theorist, historian, journalist, political commentator, pamphleteer, dramatist, and novelist) and in a variety of styles (conversational, high academic, technically condensed, literary, and polemical). At his death in 1988, after a career of 40 years, he left behind more than 650 publications, including 27 academic books, 5 novels, 3 plays, 7 pamphlets, 60 columns on television in The Listener, and more than 500 articles and reviews, among them his regular book reviews for the Guardian and New Society."
Labels: sociology
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Sociology of racism in Brockley
Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.
- Samuel Johnson (18th century English writer) in conversation with James Boswell
Brockley is a rising star. The way that Londoners understand that Camden has had its moment in the sun, and Shoreditch is the flavor of the month, so too we can see the promise in little SE4. But does that promise also come with a lingering sense of failing multiculturalism?
Crunched between Lewisham and News Cross, the Zone 2 district became a conservation area in 1974 "following a campaign from local residents to protect the area's overall character of period houses, large gardens and open spaces; all of which had largely survived intact since the area was first developed from around 1870, but were beginning to be under threat of extensive re-development".
This attention to preservation has paid off as a walk through this neighborhood of 4000 houses will attest. The houses are that much better kept-up, a neighborhood watchman strolls leisurely through in the evenings chatting with residents, his walky-talky occasionally blurting out sounds from other foot soldiers patrolling and protecting the unique serenity of these streets in an otherwise rambunctious quarter of southeast London.
Lewisham is a transportation hub but comparatively soulless with bland urban landscapes and New Cross is to Camden what Brockley is to Swiss Cottage. The area is currently a hotbed for musical talent building on a legacy that saw Siousxie and the Banshees kick off the goth movement in the 1970s and in the last couple years Bloc Party, Art Brut and most recently Geniac, who I saw play at the Catapult Club last month and are one of the best unsigned punk/rock bands in Britain at the moment (download this raw mp3 for an idea of the sound).
So it is more likely New Cross, with two stations on the East London tube line, will lead the charge from the southeast to promote a new hub of cultural and artistic activity and eventually inherent the trendy mantle from Camden and Shoreditch. The council recently turned down planning permission for a new Starbucks on the high street and the borough very nearly elected the UK's first Green MP in recent political elections.
But it is Brockley that the househunters and transplants will seek out as the most obviously pleasant place to live in the surrounding area. Many of the academics at nearby Goldsmiths College already call it home and the suited commuter rush at local St Johns train station speaks of an already bulging middle class occupation.
So that sets the stage for our exercise in sociological imagination, understanding the self and the social in little SE4, and exploring those "human habitations" of which Johnson speaks in our opening quote. For there remains demons lurking in the multicultural milieu of the streets and those who live among them.
Despite recent growth in the area commercial support for the residents continues to be very undeveloped . The big grocery stores call Lewisham and New Cross home, restaurants and coffee shops are few and far between, and most residents trek to Greenwich for any evening activities. Arriving locals lament the lack of decent pubs in the area. So with most of the newcomers avoiding the local establishments, it provides a unique opportunity to connect with a more traditionally fixed Brockley resident.
Approximately five blocks apart sit two pubs, on the main arteries leading into Brockley from one side, and for the purposes of this little exploration it is unnecessary to identify them by name. Unless of course we adopt the names articulated by patrons.
"We're all white," says Tad at the bar with a wink. "That's what we say around here. Ha ha ha. You know, We're all right and we're all white."
And this pub is all white. On the half-dozen occasions I've been in I've never seen a black or visible minority of any kind. Well I guess that's not actually true. A local Pakistani shopkeeper occasionally stops in for a pint after work. When he's not around the other patrons make an exception on his behalf.
"That Paki," says another patron. "He's a good Paki."
The barmaid laughs and others join in. "Ya. He is a good Paki, that one," another chimes in. The racial slurs are not spoken with obvious malice, although there is tremendous distrust for other skin colors among the 20 or so patrons who linger around the bar making small talk and downing pints. The fact the my skin color is white and I am sitting in their pub makes them comfortable speaking naturally (racially) with me as well.
Herein lies one of the greatest challenges of the sociologist. Like an undercover policeman who wants to infiltrate a gang of drug dealers, so too must the sociologist often put personal convictions and perspectives to the side in the interest of being allowed to participate in sociological activity. On one occasion I let slip during a conversation with a patron that I had overheard racism from fans of a local football club. My tone was disapproving. We'd been chatting for an hour but he subsequently turned his back on me for the remainder of the evening.
A colleague here at Goldsmiths had done an in-depth study of fans of this club and also had to submerge himself in the communities and conversations of the subjects of his research.
"Yes I did some of that research," he says. "And I certainly have the scars to prove it."
Five blocks down the road the situation does not improve. If the other was the 'white' pub, this is the 'black' pub. On the four occasions I have been in this busy pub I have never seen another white patron. The music is dub reggae, the atmosphere significantly more lively, and a more nomadic patron population circulates among each other, from table to table. Here the color of my skin provides obstacles to even engaging in conversations or observing interaction.
On my second visit, after sitting alone for the entirety of the first, I got frustrated and tried to barge into the community. I sat down at a table with other patrons and introduced myself. They rose from their chairs to find another seat. Subsequently I managed to pin one of them, obviously uncomfortable with our conversation, at the bar where we spoke softly. After several futile forays into small talk I approached the situation directly.
"Why doesn't anyone want to speak with me?"
His response surprised the sociologist in me: "Racism my friend. We've lived under slavery. We don't trust you. You want to dominate."
Later the bartender would politely ask if I wanted to find another place for a pint. As the door swung closed behind me I heard a laugh from inside: "Blood Clot Bakra".
A browse of an online Patois Dictionary tells me that I was being called a curse followed by a derogatory term for a "white slavemaster, or member of the ruling class in colonial days. Popular etymology: 'back raw' (which he bestowed with a whip)".
It is a product of my relativist perspective that I was more shocked to hear that the patrons were connecting my skin color with racism a century before than the utterings at the 'white' pub. But perhaps these blacks understood the derogatory emphasis and words spoken in the pub down the street, without needing to sit and listen.
So like two garrisons camped on two hills, these pubs in Brockley serve their own populations, oblivious to the multicultural agenda so prolific in political and social discussions in the UK. And of course these perspectives are not limited to these particular pubs, or to Brockley, where blacks and whites move freely on the streets, if not interacting, interliving.
I have written a short story soon to be published based on my experiences in another part of East London where the glaring chasm between races and hopes for reconciliation is far more dramatic than the discussions and observations highlighted here.
And like most sociology, there really isn't much scientific validity to the perspective presented in this blog posting, more simple observation of people in a place or time to do with as you please.
But what these observations do suggest is that we need to dig still deeper within the cultural and social fabric of communities to illustrate the work that still needs to be done to arrive at a collective perspective of shared humanity. In the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu, disrespect the other and you disrespect yourself for you and the other are the same.
- Samuel Johnson (18th century English writer) in conversation with James Boswell
Brockley is a rising star. The way that Londoners understand that Camden has had its moment in the sun, and Shoreditch is the flavor of the month, so too we can see the promise in little SE4. But does that promise also come with a lingering sense of failing multiculturalism?
Crunched between Lewisham and News Cross, the Zone 2 district became a conservation area in 1974 "following a campaign from local residents to protect the area's overall character of period houses, large gardens and open spaces; all of which had largely survived intact since the area was first developed from around 1870, but were beginning to be under threat of extensive re-development".
This attention to preservation has paid off as a walk through this neighborhood of 4000 houses will attest. The houses are that much better kept-up, a neighborhood watchman strolls leisurely through in the evenings chatting with residents, his walky-talky occasionally blurting out sounds from other foot soldiers patrolling and protecting the unique serenity of these streets in an otherwise rambunctious quarter of southeast London.
Lewisham is a transportation hub but comparatively soulless with bland urban landscapes and New Cross is to Camden what Brockley is to Swiss Cottage. The area is currently a hotbed for musical talent building on a legacy that saw Siousxie and the Banshees kick off the goth movement in the 1970s and in the last couple years Bloc Party, Art Brut and most recently Geniac, who I saw play at the Catapult Club last month and are one of the best unsigned punk/rock bands in Britain at the moment (download this raw mp3 for an idea of the sound).
So it is more likely New Cross, with two stations on the East London tube line, will lead the charge from the southeast to promote a new hub of cultural and artistic activity and eventually inherent the trendy mantle from Camden and Shoreditch. The council recently turned down planning permission for a new Starbucks on the high street and the borough very nearly elected the UK's first Green MP in recent political elections.
But it is Brockley that the househunters and transplants will seek out as the most obviously pleasant place to live in the surrounding area. Many of the academics at nearby Goldsmiths College already call it home and the suited commuter rush at local St Johns train station speaks of an already bulging middle class occupation.
So that sets the stage for our exercise in sociological imagination, understanding the self and the social in little SE4, and exploring those "human habitations" of which Johnson speaks in our opening quote. For there remains demons lurking in the multicultural milieu of the streets and those who live among them.
Despite recent growth in the area commercial support for the residents continues to be very undeveloped . The big grocery stores call Lewisham and New Cross home, restaurants and coffee shops are few and far between, and most residents trek to Greenwich for any evening activities. Arriving locals lament the lack of decent pubs in the area. So with most of the newcomers avoiding the local establishments, it provides a unique opportunity to connect with a more traditionally fixed Brockley resident.
Approximately five blocks apart sit two pubs, on the main arteries leading into Brockley from one side, and for the purposes of this little exploration it is unnecessary to identify them by name. Unless of course we adopt the names articulated by patrons.
"We're all white," says Tad at the bar with a wink. "That's what we say around here. Ha ha ha. You know, We're all right and we're all white."
And this pub is all white. On the half-dozen occasions I've been in I've never seen a black or visible minority of any kind. Well I guess that's not actually true. A local Pakistani shopkeeper occasionally stops in for a pint after work. When he's not around the other patrons make an exception on his behalf.
"That Paki," says another patron. "He's a good Paki."
The barmaid laughs and others join in. "Ya. He is a good Paki, that one," another chimes in. The racial slurs are not spoken with obvious malice, although there is tremendous distrust for other skin colors among the 20 or so patrons who linger around the bar making small talk and downing pints. The fact the my skin color is white and I am sitting in their pub makes them comfortable speaking naturally (racially) with me as well.
Herein lies one of the greatest challenges of the sociologist. Like an undercover policeman who wants to infiltrate a gang of drug dealers, so too must the sociologist often put personal convictions and perspectives to the side in the interest of being allowed to participate in sociological activity. On one occasion I let slip during a conversation with a patron that I had overheard racism from fans of a local football club. My tone was disapproving. We'd been chatting for an hour but he subsequently turned his back on me for the remainder of the evening.
A colleague here at Goldsmiths had done an in-depth study of fans of this club and also had to submerge himself in the communities and conversations of the subjects of his research.
"Yes I did some of that research," he says. "And I certainly have the scars to prove it."
Five blocks down the road the situation does not improve. If the other was the 'white' pub, this is the 'black' pub. On the four occasions I have been in this busy pub I have never seen another white patron. The music is dub reggae, the atmosphere significantly more lively, and a more nomadic patron population circulates among each other, from table to table. Here the color of my skin provides obstacles to even engaging in conversations or observing interaction.
On my second visit, after sitting alone for the entirety of the first, I got frustrated and tried to barge into the community. I sat down at a table with other patrons and introduced myself. They rose from their chairs to find another seat. Subsequently I managed to pin one of them, obviously uncomfortable with our conversation, at the bar where we spoke softly. After several futile forays into small talk I approached the situation directly.
"Why doesn't anyone want to speak with me?"
His response surprised the sociologist in me: "Racism my friend. We've lived under slavery. We don't trust you. You want to dominate."
Later the bartender would politely ask if I wanted to find another place for a pint. As the door swung closed behind me I heard a laugh from inside: "Blood Clot Bakra".
A browse of an online Patois Dictionary tells me that I was being called a curse followed by a derogatory term for a "white slavemaster, or member of the ruling class in colonial days. Popular etymology: 'back raw' (which he bestowed with a whip)".
It is a product of my relativist perspective that I was more shocked to hear that the patrons were connecting my skin color with racism a century before than the utterings at the 'white' pub. But perhaps these blacks understood the derogatory emphasis and words spoken in the pub down the street, without needing to sit and listen.
So like two garrisons camped on two hills, these pubs in Brockley serve their own populations, oblivious to the multicultural agenda so prolific in political and social discussions in the UK. And of course these perspectives are not limited to these particular pubs, or to Brockley, where blacks and whites move freely on the streets, if not interacting, interliving.
I have written a short story soon to be published based on my experiences in another part of East London where the glaring chasm between races and hopes for reconciliation is far more dramatic than the discussions and observations highlighted here.
And like most sociology, there really isn't much scientific validity to the perspective presented in this blog posting, more simple observation of people in a place or time to do with as you please.
But what these observations do suggest is that we need to dig still deeper within the cultural and social fabric of communities to illustrate the work that still needs to be done to arrive at a collective perspective of shared humanity. In the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu, disrespect the other and you disrespect yourself for you and the other are the same.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Car sharing reaches tipping point
The man standing outside Angel tube station thrust out his hand and I took a leaflet from him as I entered. Ever since reading George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London (a strange and poignant autobiographical vignette on poverty and his first published work) I tend to take the leaflets or am left imagining Orwell standing freezing on the corner unable to seek shelter until the last leaflet leaves his hand.
This time I don't toss it in the garbage. "Love it. And Leave it," the text reads. Car sharing has arrived in London and the brochure notes how there's a Volkswagen Golf waiting for you around every corner, or at least "walking distance from here". If you are unfamiliar with the concept of car sharing, pioneered by the Swiss in the early 1980s, the basic premise is that a network of cars is positioned around a city and members go online to reserve a vehicle when they need one. A typical car can lead a very interesting life, serving many masters for functional purposeful missions.
So for all the talk of gas guzzling SUVs, rocketing car sales in the far east, and clogged commuter lanes, this is the very real flip side to that coin. People are taking action to share a car, like the nine people from my hometown Edmonton who share a 1999 Toyota Tercel through a non-profit co-op, in the interests of more affordable and environmentally sensitive travel. Transportation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. In places like London efforts like the newly enforced congestion charge in the center and practical alternatives like car sharing are attempts partially aimed at addressing this critical issue.
In his sociological manifesto, The Tipping Point: How Little things can make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell writes of ideas and behaviors spreading like viruses instigating the mysterious changes that mark everyday life. I'm not sure why but seeing that leaflet at Angel tube kind of confirmed for me that car sharing is an idea whose time has come, an idea that is ready to tip. There certainly has been a lot of news coverage lately discussing the concept. But more than that it is a very 21st century idea - reducing hassle (rates include petrol, insurance and maintenance), offering flexible affordability (it's not that you don't ever drive, but you only drive when you really want to), and a hint of whimsical adventure (how about asking a girl on a date, waltzing over to a local car park to pick up your car, enjoying a romantic night out, dropping her off, dropping your car off, and retreating home to blissful slumber). Watch this space.
This time I don't toss it in the garbage. "Love it. And Leave it," the text reads. Car sharing has arrived in London and the brochure notes how there's a Volkswagen Golf waiting for you around every corner, or at least "walking distance from here". If you are unfamiliar with the concept of car sharing, pioneered by the Swiss in the early 1980s, the basic premise is that a network of cars is positioned around a city and members go online to reserve a vehicle when they need one. A typical car can lead a very interesting life, serving many masters for functional purposeful missions.
So for all the talk of gas guzzling SUVs, rocketing car sales in the far east, and clogged commuter lanes, this is the very real flip side to that coin. People are taking action to share a car, like the nine people from my hometown Edmonton who share a 1999 Toyota Tercel through a non-profit co-op, in the interests of more affordable and environmentally sensitive travel. Transportation is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. In places like London efforts like the newly enforced congestion charge in the center and practical alternatives like car sharing are attempts partially aimed at addressing this critical issue.
In his sociological manifesto, The Tipping Point: How Little things can make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell writes of ideas and behaviors spreading like viruses instigating the mysterious changes that mark everyday life. I'm not sure why but seeing that leaflet at Angel tube kind of confirmed for me that car sharing is an idea whose time has come, an idea that is ready to tip. There certainly has been a lot of news coverage lately discussing the concept. But more than that it is a very 21st century idea - reducing hassle (rates include petrol, insurance and maintenance), offering flexible affordability (it's not that you don't ever drive, but you only drive when you really want to), and a hint of whimsical adventure (how about asking a girl on a date, waltzing over to a local car park to pick up your car, enjoying a romantic night out, dropping her off, dropping your car off, and retreating home to blissful slumber). Watch this space.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Towards a Collective Intelligence
Research into media literacy is the study of the human ability to "access, analyse, evaluate and communicate messages in a variety of forms". In an internetworked digitally intermediated world, how media literate do you have to be to translate human potential into actual results? Are these skills universal or dependent on cultural and/or social context? Can media literacy skills promote individual abilities to contribute to and draw out of a networked collective intelligence, defined by technologist and philosopher Pierre Levy as "a universally distributed intelligence that is enhanced, coordinated, and mobilized in real time"?
The central focus of these emerging areas of research is the impact of grid computing for the human brain (our know-how repositories) connecting with our inter-networked information collections (our know-about repositories) to open possibilities and improve our lives. The premise is that we require a new framework for understanding literacy in an increasingly digitally intermediated world and that establishing this framework will provide a foundation for individual abilities to access the wealth and depth of knowledge digitally stored (the collective intelligence) and accessible through human/computer interfaces. My draft PhD central research hypothesis is: "There is a teachable media literacy skill-set that promotes collective intelligence."
Any questions/thoughts?
The central focus of these emerging areas of research is the impact of grid computing for the human brain (our know-how repositories) connecting with our inter-networked information collections (our know-about repositories) to open possibilities and improve our lives. The premise is that we require a new framework for understanding literacy in an increasingly digitally intermediated world and that establishing this framework will provide a foundation for individual abilities to access the wealth and depth of knowledge digitally stored (the collective intelligence) and accessible through human/computer interfaces. My draft PhD central research hypothesis is: "There is a teachable media literacy skill-set that promotes collective intelligence."
Any questions/thoughts?
This is the second post on the Chris Brauer Media Project for this topic. The first post can be found through this wormhole
Labels: collective_intelligence, sociology
Saturday, November 20, 2004
Benelux not very Gezellig right now
Strange and bizarre happenings in the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) region of Europe and a far cry from 'Gezelligheid', the famous Dutch word for feeling the unique experience of coziness, of a comfortable, relaxing time and place that Dutch homes and cafes seek in their decor and atmosphere.
The tolerant image of this region has been badly shaken in recent weeks following the murder of outspoken filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and subsequent charge of a Muslim suspect. Since his death on Nov 2 there have been over 20 arson attacks on mosques and churches in tit for tat violence. And now a popular Dutch politician is calling for rejecting immigration from non-western nations. Geert Wilders has formed his own right-wing political party, the Wilders Group, and opinion polls shows his popularity soaring. Predictably videos have been released on the Internet calling for his beheading as a path to the reward of Paradise. Wilders has gone into hiding but continues to communicate with the media. Muslims make up about 6 per cent of the Netherlands' 16 million people. As often happens during times of inflamed emotions it is the radicals on all sides who are dominating the debate ... "No more Muslims in our country!" ... "Off with his head!" ... that sort of thing.
Meanwhile in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, the most popular national political party in recent opinion polls has been banned by Belgium's appeals court. The Vlamms Blok was banned for violating anti-racism laws and campaigns for forcible repatriation of immigrants and promotes fear of Muslim citizens. This is the most popular political party with over 25% support in opinion polls?? With a radical far-right agenda so deplorable as to find itself banned by a court of law for prejudice!
There is a lot of righteous conflict going on in the world today, negotiations increasingly marginalized to be replaced by war, terrorism and more conflict. Maybe it is extending beyond the soldiers in these conflicts to the streets of the world's cities where a common sense of shared humanity is increasingly elusive. Game after game is currently going by in Spanish football (soccer) at the national and club level with fans hurling racist chants at black players and joining together to brazenly make monkey sounds when these players are in possession of the ball. Where is the silent majority in all this, the ones who will not stand for these kinds of abuses in the name of tolerance and a fundamental understanding that all we share is our humanity? In the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu, "when you demean the other, you demean yourself".
The tolerant image of this region has been badly shaken in recent weeks following the murder of outspoken filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and subsequent charge of a Muslim suspect. Since his death on Nov 2 there have been over 20 arson attacks on mosques and churches in tit for tat violence. And now a popular Dutch politician is calling for rejecting immigration from non-western nations. Geert Wilders has formed his own right-wing political party, the Wilders Group, and opinion polls shows his popularity soaring. Predictably videos have been released on the Internet calling for his beheading as a path to the reward of Paradise. Wilders has gone into hiding but continues to communicate with the media. Muslims make up about 6 per cent of the Netherlands' 16 million people. As often happens during times of inflamed emotions it is the radicals on all sides who are dominating the debate ... "No more Muslims in our country!" ... "Off with his head!" ... that sort of thing.
Meanwhile in Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, the most popular national political party in recent opinion polls has been banned by Belgium's appeals court. The Vlamms Blok was banned for violating anti-racism laws and campaigns for forcible repatriation of immigrants and promotes fear of Muslim citizens. This is the most popular political party with over 25% support in opinion polls?? With a radical far-right agenda so deplorable as to find itself banned by a court of law for prejudice!
There is a lot of righteous conflict going on in the world today, negotiations increasingly marginalized to be replaced by war, terrorism and more conflict. Maybe it is extending beyond the soldiers in these conflicts to the streets of the world's cities where a common sense of shared humanity is increasingly elusive. Game after game is currently going by in Spanish football (soccer) at the national and club level with fans hurling racist chants at black players and joining together to brazenly make monkey sounds when these players are in possession of the ball. Where is the silent majority in all this, the ones who will not stand for these kinds of abuses in the name of tolerance and a fundamental understanding that all we share is our humanity? In the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu, "when you demean the other, you demean yourself".
Thursday, October 14, 2004
What's with the Germans?
According to The Economist: "Germany's economic growth has lagged far behind that of the rest of the rich world during the past few years". The recommended solution is cutting taxes, allowing more skilled immigration, and making the education system more efficient.
But the causes of Germany's economic distress are possibly rooted in deeper cultural misgivings about the "economization" of all aspects of civic life. Even political advisor Wolfgang Schäuble, architect of a German Conservative Credo promotes a notion that "the market is merely a tool, not an answer to every human problem".
One day in 1991 I sat on the stoop of an elite Frieburg University frat house with the magnificent Naomi Creutzfeldt and a couple of friends who were members of the university fencing club and had the chivalrous battle scars to prove it. The subject was the economy and there was a cockiness to the German perspective, at the end of a flourishing run where the Mark (R.I.P.) had soared. Even I remembered getting 2.5 to one against the Canadian dollar and was astonished to see the currencies near equal.
But then something strange happened to a nation that I have learned to love, having been to the country over a dozen times in the last 20 years. My father was born in Bremerhaven on the North Sea in 1940 (significant date?), and I have deep nostalgic connection through my grandmother and relatives, many still in the country.
But after 1992 Germany made a stutter step, and then another, and shortly stopped moving all together. It was around that time that I worked on the floor of a coffee factory for Jacobs-Suchard, makers of fine coffee and chocolate (beauty Toblerone). One day in my first week I opened one of the coffee vats one turn too far and couldn't get it closed. Three tons of coffee spilled out on the floor and all around me. "Helfen! Helfen!" I hollered but my co-workers simply gathered in a circle around my misfortune, my boss smiling and slapping me on the shoulder. They helped me shovel it into the trash and later in the shower I brewed some of the gourmet lost in the unfortunate accident. It reminded me again of the teamwork and pride that have made the German brand respected for reliability and quality. But it is precisely these workers, unionized, apparently overpaid and over benefited according to economic theories, that are at the center of the economic dispute. Those workers were proud of their jobs, made a good living, were loyal to their company, and contributed back into the economy. But those jobs are getting squeezed and it looks like Germany faces no alternative but to assimilate.
Their malaise extends beyond the economy into their national sport of football (soccer) where they seem unable to exhibit anything close to support. While the stands are filled for many a Bundesliga game anyone who has spoken to a German national team supporter will tell you that they are the most self-depreciating lot in all of the world's most popular game. When I went to World Cup 2002 in Japan I had to stand alone in supporting the team even though they went all the way to the final before falling to a Brazilian team that was the best in the world by some distance. No shame in that surely? Wrong. German fans will tell you that their team was boring and played uninspiring football. You can bet that if the English made it to their first World Cup final since 1966 the fans wouldn't care if they did it by scoring in the first minute and kicking the ball into the stands for the rest of the game.
So why can't Germans get back on their feet after the boastful 80s? Nationalism and pride are dirty words in Germany, associated with their collective guilt at past endeavours. Maybe hosting the 2006 World Cup will invite the world to see a happier and more stable Germany, aware of the unique contributions they can offer to the world, and not afraid to admit it.
But the causes of Germany's economic distress are possibly rooted in deeper cultural misgivings about the "economization" of all aspects of civic life. Even political advisor Wolfgang Schäuble, architect of a German Conservative Credo promotes a notion that "the market is merely a tool, not an answer to every human problem".
One day in 1991 I sat on the stoop of an elite Frieburg University frat house with the magnificent Naomi Creutzfeldt and a couple of friends who were members of the university fencing club and had the chivalrous battle scars to prove it. The subject was the economy and there was a cockiness to the German perspective, at the end of a flourishing run where the Mark (R.I.P.) had soared. Even I remembered getting 2.5 to one against the Canadian dollar and was astonished to see the currencies near equal.
But then something strange happened to a nation that I have learned to love, having been to the country over a dozen times in the last 20 years. My father was born in Bremerhaven on the North Sea in 1940 (significant date?), and I have deep nostalgic connection through my grandmother and relatives, many still in the country.
But after 1992 Germany made a stutter step, and then another, and shortly stopped moving all together. It was around that time that I worked on the floor of a coffee factory for Jacobs-Suchard, makers of fine coffee and chocolate (beauty Toblerone). One day in my first week I opened one of the coffee vats one turn too far and couldn't get it closed. Three tons of coffee spilled out on the floor and all around me. "Helfen! Helfen!" I hollered but my co-workers simply gathered in a circle around my misfortune, my boss smiling and slapping me on the shoulder. They helped me shovel it into the trash and later in the shower I brewed some of the gourmet lost in the unfortunate accident. It reminded me again of the teamwork and pride that have made the German brand respected for reliability and quality. But it is precisely these workers, unionized, apparently overpaid and over benefited according to economic theories, that are at the center of the economic dispute. Those workers were proud of their jobs, made a good living, were loyal to their company, and contributed back into the economy. But those jobs are getting squeezed and it looks like Germany faces no alternative but to assimilate.
Their malaise extends beyond the economy into their national sport of football (soccer) where they seem unable to exhibit anything close to support. While the stands are filled for many a Bundesliga game anyone who has spoken to a German national team supporter will tell you that they are the most self-depreciating lot in all of the world's most popular game. When I went to World Cup 2002 in Japan I had to stand alone in supporting the team even though they went all the way to the final before falling to a Brazilian team that was the best in the world by some distance. No shame in that surely? Wrong. German fans will tell you that their team was boring and played uninspiring football. You can bet that if the English made it to their first World Cup final since 1966 the fans wouldn't care if they did it by scoring in the first minute and kicking the ball into the stands for the rest of the game.
So why can't Germans get back on their feet after the boastful 80s? Nationalism and pride are dirty words in Germany, associated with their collective guilt at past endeavours. Maybe hosting the 2006 World Cup will invite the world to see a happier and more stable Germany, aware of the unique contributions they can offer to the world, and not afraid to admit it.
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