[Air-l] structuration

[Steve Fox (NISD)]

Interesting to incorporate Giddens' structuration...it seems sometimes that we are under-emphasizing the contributions of the 'infrastructure'...depending on the environment (e.g. asynchronous/synchronous, use of avatars, etc.) the end-user experience can shift, thus the way in which people interact, communicate and envision that interaction can shift as well...an interesting question is to what degree does structure, or in this case infrastructure, impact human action/consciousness/communication/etc. -->community...I would extend this infrastructure to include all that affects the end-user experience (e.g. bandwidth, processor speed, type of content, etc.) would need to be considered...
 
Steve

________________________________

From: air-l-admin at aoir.org on behalf of Kevin Tharp
Sent: Sun 2/8/2004 1:18 PM
To: air-l at aoir.org
Subject: [Air-l] structuration



I suggested:
> Similar to the concept of community (dare I use such word in
> educated company), it is not the infrastructure that makes the
> community, it is the people that make the community.  The
> community is then supported by the infrastructure. 

To Which Jonathon Marshall replied:
>I'd suggest that the infrastructure is not quite that passive. The
infra structure allows certain types of community to form,
>and is in turn shaped by the politics of that community and
>may reinforce those politics. The more permanent the structure the more
it enstructures. But even a permanent shifting structure
>enables certain behaviours more than others.

I Absolutely agree!  This is much in the vein of Giddens structuration,
which is a balance between determinism and social shaping.  I still
stand by my conviction that it is not the infrastructure that makes the
community it is the people.  Without the people, there is no community.
Perhaps it would have been better stated,  "the community is then
supported and shaped by the interaction of the people and the
infrastructure."

Regards,
Kevin W. Tharp




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