Tara L. Conley Racial Literacy Roundtables Talk

On Monday, October 14, 2013 I presented at this year's first Racial Literacy Roundtables talk at Teachers College Columbia University. I presented on my current and ongoing research involving participatory design and working with young people who are involved in foster care and juvenile/criminal justice systems to develop TXT CONNECT, a free mobile platform for court-involved youth in NYC.

Highlights from the talk include:

• Ways to conceptualize and re-imagine participation.
• Reviewing youth demographic statistics in NYC, highlighting, in particular, the disproportionate number of Black and brown youth involved in juvenile/criminal justice systems and foster care.
• Reflecting on what it means to engage multiple stakeholders in the process of designing a technical and digital artifact with and for young people who are often disconnected and lack reliable access to information.

Some notable statistics (references included in slides below):

• 25% of youth (< 18-years-old) in NYC are considered Black/African American, yet make up 65% of the juvenile justice population in NYC, and 59% of the foster care population in NYC.
• 35.5% of youth (< 18-years-old) in NYC are considered Hispanic, and make up 30% of the juvenile justice population in NYC, and 27.4% of the foster care population in NYC.
• White youth make up 25% of the youth population in NYC, yet make up less than 5% of the juvenile justice and foster care population in NYC

This was the first time I was able to present my research, in depth, to my peers and others in the academic community. The conversations that emerged from the chat were inspiring, particularly as it had to do with the ways educators and researchers are currently thinking about how social and digital media can, and ought to be used as meaningful tools in the classroom and beyond.

So often we assume media are something young people simply and only consume, but in fact, we're learning that young people are also integral mediamakers and designers in the "stuff" they use.

Below is a highlight video from the talk.

Tara L. Conley Racial Literacy Roundtables Talk from Media Make Change on Vimeo.

I've also posted my presentation slides HERE.

For more information on my current research, please visit www.taralconley.org

Credits: Lalitha Vasudevan (photography and videography), Joe Riina-Ferrie (videography)

Ethnography of the Online/Offline Continuum: An Introductory Review (MSTU 4020 - Final)

Abstract Ethnographers researching social practices and interactive communication within computer and non-computer mediated environments face various challenges in the field. That is to say, ethnographic research methods have been further complicated by the online/offline continuum. For this analysis, the online/offline continuum is defined as an interactive and communication phenomenon characterized by the distribution of identities and social practices that shift between computer and non-computer mediated environments. The following literature review is an introductory exploration into various theories and constructs that guide discussion about meaningful approaches to conducting ethnography of the online/offline continuum. Specifically, the following questions are addressed:

1) How can conceptions of space, place, and time help us to understand and approach researching the online/offline continuum?

2) How have scholars been reworking ethnographic research methods of the online/offline continuum?

3) What new constructs and forms of ethnography are emerging because of online/offline continuum?

4) What new formulations have emerged as a result of the literature reviewed?

Discussion

Based on literature presented, several new insights and formulations have emerged about ethnographies of the online/offline continuum.

First, emerging ethnographies of the online/offline phenomenon are characterized by connective methods, reflective approaches, experiential epistemologies, relational theories, and experimental practices.

Second, researchers must continually revisit interpretations of space, place, and time to further guide research of the online/offline continuum.

Third, ethnographers must formulate and rework definitions of the online/offline continuum and of alternative forms of ethnography to expand upon those mentioned here.

Fourth, ethnographers must continue to investigate social practices in relation to computer and non-computer-mediated environments.

Finally, researchers must be incline to consider the “cyberspace knowledge question” (Hakken p. 182) to better understand pedagogical approaches and assessment practices in relation to the online/offline continuum. The last formulation is also important to how we understand the influence of technologies on doing research (Wolf, 1992, p. 127) doing community, and seeing ourselves throughout the online/offline continuum.

Outline

Space, Place, & Time

• Manuel Castells' Space of Flows (1996)

Virtual Ethnography

• Christine Hine (2000)

Reworking Ethnographic Research Methods

• Christine Hine's "connective ethnography" (2007)
• danah boyd (2008)

Ethnography as Epistemology

• David Hakken's "knowledge question of cyberspace" (1999)

Emerging Constructs & Ethnographies

• Johan Fornas, et. al "digital borderlands" (2002)
• Robert Kozinet's Netnography (2010)
• Michael Wesch's digital ethnography (2010)

Final Project (MSTU 4020; Week 11)

Source

Over the past few weeks, I've mulled over ideas for the final project. I think I have a solid idea of what I'd like to focus on. I'm thinking about a literature review that discusses emerging methods of researching identity and communities within digitally connective spaces. I'm particularly interested in Christine Hine's idea of 'connective ethnography'. I think perhaps it's useful to think about how we, as researchers and educators, go about researching and understanding identity and community engagement within this space. I've felt as though some of the methods that have been presented in class, for example, the research studies on Facebook, are missing something - not sure what though. However, I do believe that ethnography can be a great entry point to begin exploring new ways of researching the Internet.

My interest in this topic is grounded by the following quotes (though not limited to these):

"We do not have the empirical ground on which to assess how (if any) online community affects offline community (Bayum, pg. 1998). Bayum asks us to develop an 'emergent model of online community (pg. 1998).

"[When] enacting space, a way of being as you interact with space, a new kind of imaginative space emerges" (Vasudaven, in class, 10/21/10).

"A really good ethnography is one in which you can present it to the community and they're not surprised [by the research]" (Vasudaven, in class, 10/21/10).

Likewise, I may look at how ideas/theories of time and space can lead us toward a new understanding of research models.

A few references I intend to use:

• Gloria Anzaldua's writings on nepantla theory: I will refer to my MA thesis on nepantla theory to see if I can apply this idea, in terms of borderland/liminal space, to understanding what the Internet looks like as "a kind of imaginative space" that emerges.
• Leander & Mckim's Tracing the Everyday 'Sitings' of Adolescents on the Internet: a strategic adaptation of ethnography across online and offline spaces: This article takes a look at ethonography within online and offline social spaces.
• Jankowski's Creating Community with Media: History, Theories, and Scientific Investigations: I'm hoping to use some of the questions that Jankowski and Bayum propose in the article to ground my research paper.
• Christine Hine's Virtual Ethnography & Connective Ethnography and the Exploration of e-Science: Hine's provides useful ideas about connective ethnography that I'd like to explore further.

I'll be looking over more readings from the beginning of the semester this week to see if there's some more useful ideas to work with.

Understanding the Cyberspace Continuum: A Critique (MSTU 4020; Week 7)

The following is a critique on Adrian Mihilache's “The Cyber Space-Time Continuum: Meaning and Metaphor” for a graduate course Social & Communicative Aspects of the Internet at Teachers College, Columbia University. Abstract Adrian Mihalache’s article “The Cyber Space-Time Continuum: Meaning and Metaphor” argues against “ready-made” (2002, p. 293) ideas about spatial meanings and metaphors of cyberspace. Mihalache believes that these notions suffer from two major deficiencies: 1) Cyberspace as a preexisting territory and, 2) Cyberspace as a metric space. He points to the works and ideas of poet William Blake as “extremely” useful examples for making sense of cyberspace (p. 29). In the interest of researching connections between theories about space, place, time and practices according to identity formulation and knowledge production through online interaction, I found the author’s arguments persuasive. However, I also found his arguments critique-worthy, particularly pointing to the hierarchal division the author implies between the arts and sciences to understanding the cyberspace-time continuum. Considering Mihalache’s positions, I seek to further investigate the question: How does identity formulation happen and knowledge production emerge from/within digitally connective spaces like cyberspace? This question requires in-depth analyses that borrow from various theories and practices that span across multiple disciplines. Keywords: cyberspace, space-time, place, identity, virtual, real, epistemology, ethnography

Critique

Multiple Meanings, Multiple Approaches: Understanding the Cyberspace Continuum In his article “The Cyber Space-Time Continuum: Meaning and Metaphor,” Adrian Mihalache argues against “ready-made” (2002, p. 293), and mostly scientific, ideas about spatial meanings and metaphors of cyberspace. Mihalache believes that these ideas about cyberspace suffer from two major assumptions: 1) Cyberspace is a preexisting territory and, 2) Cyberspace is a metric space. Mihalache further argues that mathematical operations are not meaningful to interpret cyberspace because they are limited to understanding virtual space as “a set of objects and rules of interaction,” which fail to explain the connection to the real world (p. 295). To interpret cyberspace as a preexisting territory “waiting to be filled” (p. 293), and to describe it using mathematical operations reinforce a false divide between ‘real’ and virtual worlds. Finally, instead of understanding cyberspace as topographical or in relativistic time-space terms, cyberspace, according to Mihalache, is better understood through the works and ideas of multimedia artist, William Blake.

To better understand meaningful metaphorical constructs of cyberspace, Mihalache points to the multimedia technology of William Blake’s plates. Blake’s plates “blended the text and the image” (p. 296) to produce new meaning. Mihalache believes that multimedia technology, past and present, is imbued with aesthetic power and imagination necessary for meaningful production. He relates modern web experience to the function of Blake’s multimedia works in how both mediums “transform . . . events into lived, meaningful experiences” (p. 297). Through analyzing Blake’s multimedia work, Mihalache asserts a view of cyberspace as a place where spatial divisions are useless metaphors based on an the precept of connection.

While I agree that a false dichotomy exists between the ‘real’ and virtual, I find Mihalache’s explanations of interpreting cyberspace ironically narrow. William Blake’s multimedia art and his notions about the Web are powerful examples of interpreting cyberspace. However, in celebrating these metaphorical interpretations of William Blake, namely by rendering scientific notions useless, Mihalache perpetuates (perhaps unintentionally) the very thing he critiques: a false divide. Though Mihalache points to scientific and mathematical concepts to understanding cyberspace, he does so only to set up a hierarchal model that separates the aesthetic from the material. These ideas do not necessarily function independent of one another. Mihalache refers to Blake’s idea that the arts and sciences can exist, but only in “minutely organized particulars” (p. 296). Even Blake’s slight acknowledgment of the interconnectedness between the arts and sciences is further weakened by Mihalache’s commitment to argue against, for example, post-Newtonian ideas, which I believe can provide equally useful interpretations about what cyberspace is and how we can make meaning in, and of, the digital age. To this end, Mihalache seems to forget the peculiar idea that scientific concepts can be aesthetically meaningful. To better understand identity formulation and how knowledge production emerges from/within digitally connective processes, I argue for broader perspectives and insights that span across disciplines. Going forward, I will look toward various theories, disciplines, and practices to address the following research questions:

1) How does identity formulation happen and knowledge production emerge from/within digitally connective spaces?

2) How can we measure when identity formulation happens and knowledge production emerges in digitally connective spaces, particularly in the context of learning environments?

In-depth analyses that employ multiple disciplines and theories may inspire multi-method approaches to pedagogical and ethnographic practices (Leander & McKim, 2003). Notions that perhaps even Mihalache, in the spirit of William Blake’s works and ideas, can appreciate.

References

Leander, K. M. & McKim, K. K. (2003). Tracing the Everyday 'Sitings' of Adolescents on the Internet: a strategic adaptation of ethnography across online and offline spaces. Education, Communication & Information, 3(2), 211-240. doi:10.1080/14636310303140 Mihalache, A. (2002). The Cyber Space-Time Continuum: Meaning and Metaphor. The Information Society: An International Journal, 18(4), 293-301. doi:10.1080/01972240290075138