History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
Moses A. Boudourides
Department of Mathematics
University of Patras
265 00 Rio-Patras
Greece
e-mail: mboudour@upatras.gr
http://www.math.upatras.gr/~mboudour/
Science & Technology Studies in the Information Society:
A Social Study of the Internet
Here we intend to contribute to the study of the social dimensions of the information and communication technologies. In particular, we are interested in exploring some dynamical aspects of the Internet from the point of view of the Science & Technology Studies. First we are discussing the Internet as a technological artefact and the mechanisms of its social construction. Viewed as a large technological system, we discuss the produced very interesting intermingles between the various components of the Internet. Next, we are trying to apply some ideas of the Actor-Network Theory to the Internet. We are isolating the main Internet actors and discuss their enrollment, negotiations and stabilization. Among others, both the roles of public or state institutions intervening in informational policies and the interests of individuals and citizens on cyberspace are examined at the present thrust of globalization. Finally, the complexity of the social dynamics on the Internet is discussed through theories of possibility of an accident (P. Virilio) and sociological unanticipated consequences. As concrete examples of the latter, we are referring to the emergence of the so-called informational Balkanization and to the dynamics of social differentiation, fragmentation and partition occurring in random socio-technological graphs and networks.
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006