Public Sociology in the Digital Era
Jessie Daniels, PhD British Sociological Association Meetings
April 24, 2014
Twitter: @JessieNYC#britsoc14
@ 365 Fifth Avenue
public sociology
"Academics are living in a fool's paradise if they
think they can hold on to their ivory tower.
The public is no longer prepared to subsidize
our academic pursuits.
We have to demonstrate our public worth."
~ Michael Burawoy, 2004
legacy academic scholarship
learning from journalism
pre-21st century, analog, closed, removed from the public
sphere, monastic
“legacy”
This was the only option for publishing.
We typed words & paragraphs on paper.
That technology had some problems.
This was “cut and paste.”
This is where we would go to find & read information.
This is how we looked things up.
Many journals or books not open & accessible.
Measuring “Impact”
How many inches?
expansion of digital technologies
What is ‘digital’ & why does it matter?
changing scholarship
changing knowledge production
peer-review is changing
changing pedagogy
From ‘MOOC’ to ‘POOC’
changing activism
‘Battle of Seattle’
Jena 6 Protests
Occupy Wall Street
Tahrir Square
changing the scholar-activist
2004
Unique Visitors (each month): ~ 200,000Total Visitors (since 2007): 2.7 million
Individual Blog Posts: 1,579Comments from readers: 10,476Subscribers: 9,861Authors: 123
publishing is changing
how we measure success
is changing
‘altmetrics’metrics
Evidence of Reputation
“altmetrics”
21st century, digital, open, connected to the public
sphere, worldly
“digital”
”Disciplinary and subdisciplinary
specialization, and the emphasis on internal
academic communication, peaked
in the late twentieth century. North American
social science is increasingly oriented
outward and focused on pressing public
problems. "
~ Craig Calhoun 2010
digitallegacy
sociopolitical context of academia
funding is changing
democracycommerce
MediaCamp Workshops
for Academics, Activists
The POOC: Opening Education
videos open to anyone
readings open to anyone
Knowledge Streams
activismscholarship
Data Maps
Data Visualizations
Produced 4 e-Books
Infographics
Podcast Series
“metrics that matter”
Changing Landscape of Higher Ed
2004 ASA Presidential Address
zero mentions of “digital” or “Internet”
none in the 10 years since
Twitter: @JessieNYC
Thank you!
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