[Air-l] road-warriors, study of

[Barry Wellman]

Wendy Robinson writes;
"As is so often the case, e-roads and railroads typically lead back to the
anomie and distributed communication enabled by the telegraph.  Many of the
"road warrior" issues have been theoretically considered within cultural
studies by those influenced by Innis, McLuhan, Beniger and Carey for many
years.  Nothing new in that for most on this list."

BW:
1. I don't understand the anomie reference to e-roads, RRs and telegraphs.
I know the e-road data pretty well, and it shows no effect or a positive
effect on sentiments and behaviors of community. (Time for another plug
for our Nov 2002 issue of American Behavioral Scientist, and
Wellman-Haythornthwaite's forthcoming _Internet in Everyday Life_).

2. As to "Innis, McLuhan, Beniger and Carey. Nothing new for most on this
list".
BW: I knew McLuhan, know Carey, and Beniger slightly and work often in
a building named for Harold Innis. These are all smart guys and deep
theorist. But except possibly for Beninger, none did a systematic study of
long-distance communication and community at the interpersonal level.
Innis, to be sure, wrote the wonderful Empire and COmmunication, etc., but
as the title implies, that was not a detailed, deeply-textured look at
community or work relations. Surely, we don't think that deep theorizing
is enough without systematic evidence to back it up and, more likely,
develop and extend it.
I have received one pointer to a study of road warriors. I am leaving on
the road myself in 10 minutes; will check it out when I get a chance.

Cheers, Barry
 ___________________________________________________________________

  Barry Wellman        Professor of Sociology       NetLab Director
  wellman at chass.utoronto.ca   http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman

  Centre for Urban & Community Studies        University of Toronto
  455 Spadina Avenue   Toronto Canada M5S 2G8   fax:+1-416-978-7162
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