1,721,042 research outputs found
Introduction: Learning from the past, present and future
No full textThe event summarized in this volume was one of four official side events that occurred in conjunction with the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society. Both events were held in Tunisia, near the Mediterranean coast of Tunis, during mid-November 2005. Past, Present and Future of Research in the Information Society (PPF) took place over the three days (13-15 November) preceding the main Summit (16-18 November). The chapters in this volume are abbreviated versions of the sessions at the PPF conference. Each author was asked to provide an extended abstract of their presentation and the lead author of each chapter edited these together.1 © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
What caused the flood? Controversy and closure in the Hurricane Katrina disaster
No full textCausal attribution for one of the largest disasters in American history has undergone three major shifts. From August 2005 through November 2009, the principal explanation of the flooding of New Orleans was characterized by three distinguishable phases - reactive, organizational, and legal - as the catastrophic events of Hurricane Katrina were ascribed to natural, geotechnical, and environmental causes. From a monstrous storm, to failed levees, and ultimately the loss of wetlands through an insidious shipping channel, \u27what happened\u27 should be viewed as a technoscientific development in which media and litigation processes transformed the structural conditions for the production of knowledge claims. Video ethnography is used to examine causal transitions as structural conditions of inquiry changed. Levees - the most important symbol of failure - shifted from cause to consequence. Understanding of disaster cycled from nature to humans, and to nature once more. © The Author(s) 2013
Negotiating neutrality in controversy: Engineering studies after Hurricane Katrina
No full textThis essay argues for a renewed commitment to impartiality and neutrality in scholarly research. These values are understood as the accomplishment of nonalignment in the interest of understanding the social world. This ethnographic study of the role of engineering in Hurricane Katrina provides an overview of two pivotal events in the public analysis of the disaster: the sheet pile pull at the 17th Street Canal and litigation in federal district court over environmental damage caused by the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. After Hurricane Katrina, three teams of engineers and scientists were formed to investigate the flooding of New Orleans. The author\u27s inclusion in engineering events after the storm was facilitated through membership in a team, but continued access required his resignation. This form of non-alignment became a struggle during the ensuing years, in which litigation drove forensic engineering, and the achievement of impartiality, in the wider sense, required re-alignment during the course of the trial. My argument is that these negotiations over neutrality are necessary for an understanding of engineering in the field and courtroom. Both engineers and attorneys succeeded far better than science and technology studies in contributing their collective efforts to understanding the disaster. © 2010 Taylor & Francis
Reagency of the Internet, or, how I became a guest for science
No full textThis essay is a call for research on the role of information and communication technology in distant lands. I address the globalization of science as a process by replacing the concept of development with the idea of reagency, a process of redirection involving a contingent reaction between identities. I focus on the Guest, an identity that assumes particular importance in relation to Hosts in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Following recent work that stresses the dependence of knowledge production on places, the Guest House is introduced as an architectural structure that crystallizes and reinforces a Guest/Host relationship that has developed during the aid era. The advent of the Internet offers the possibility of a change in the structure of science, with the inclusion of researchers in distant lands as full participants in global scientific communities. The principal issue is whether the connectivity initiative centering on the Internet is just another development program, like so many others that have come and gone, or whether it is different in character. Three empirical research questions are posed to assist in examining this question. A minor thread throughout the essay explains the author\u27s romantic interest in the subject, and his transition from a phony donor to a real one. © SSS and SAGE Publications
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
View from afar: \u27Visible\u27 productivity of scientists in the developing world
No full textMuch of what we know about science and technology in less developed countries comes from international databases such as bibliographies and citation indices. However, it is not clear if researchers whose work appears in international databases are representative of scientists in the developing world as a whole, or whether they differ in terms of important social characteristics. A search of international databases on agriculture and natural resource management in Ghana, Kenya, and Kerala was used to compile a bibliography that could be compared with results from a face-to-face survey of researchers. Results indicate that many of the characteristics of those who are internationally visible differ from the wider population of scientists. The implication is that the view from afar based exclusively on information drawn from international databases does not accurately reflect the population of researchers or domestic productivity in less developed countries
Science and story in development: The emergence of non-governmental organizations in agricultural research
No full textGiven the importance of social location to research practice, a particularly compelling problem for social studies of science is how research activities emerge in a new sector. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in less-developed countries (LDCs) are initiating research, often in a style of \u27alternative\u27 agriculture. I account for this development using concepts from semiotic and structural network approaches. While many studies stress linkages as the key to technoscientific organization, \u27delinking\u27 is especially important to the emergence of a new research sector in the Third World. Stories of participation, indigenous knowledge and greening allow NGOs to capitalize on local relationships and tap external resources by offering the technological alternative of \u27organics\u27. But such institutions are also buffeted by the opportunities and constraints of resources imported from outside. This development is illustrated by the case of Shamba, an NGO whose research involvements illustrate the promise and pitfalls of both locality and linkages
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