bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Learning to Manage Welfare and Health Services
Authors: Viitanen Elina
Published: July 2003

In recent years, several training programmes in professional development (PD) have emerged to complement academic further education in Finland. These programmes, a novelty due to their long duration and often processlike nature, are organized by universities for university graduates and others with sufficient study skills, to promote professional development Iy complementing the degree system. Evaluation data on the outcome of these courses are still sparse. Evaluation is always connected with the idea of change and with the guidance and development required by it. Evaluation should thus lead to utilizing knowledge in decision making and planning. This article summarizes the evaluation of a programme in welfare and health care services management, which was an integral component of the training process.
Process and Product Issues in the Evaluation of School Development Planning
Authors: O'hara Joe , McNamara Gerry
Published: July 2003

In recent years, state funded, practitioner-led organizational improvement programmes have become increasingly common within the Irish education system. Central to this new model of public funding has been the demand for extensive evaluation of each programme, a demand that has raised a number of important theoretical and practical issues for programme evaluators. The issue addressed in this article is that of the difficulty of designing approaches to evaluation which can meet the cultural and organizational needs of schools, while at the same time providing evidence as to the effective or otherwise implementation of national educational policy.

Initially, the article identifies and examines the tension that has arisen between programme funders' demand for an evaluation process that produces measurable 'outputs' and the programme participants' demand that the evaluation be sensitive to the specific cultural climate and needs of the organization under investigation.

An approach to overcoming these conflicting demands arising out of a project where such problems became central to the process of evaluation is suggested. This approach grew out of the distinction drawn by Habermas (1972) between practical and emancipatory knowledge and was developed in light of Daly's (1997) application of this concept to research, in her identification of first and second order stories or narratives.
Understanding Dialogue as Practice
Authors: Schwandt Thomas A.
Published: July 2003

This article discusses implications of Ove Karlsson's article, ‘Critical Dialogue: Its Value and Meaning’, for thinking about the union of dialogue and evaluation. It argues that Karlsson's empirical example can be read in several ways each illustrating a different understanding of what dialogue is and how it relates to evaluation. These different understandings are further elaborated. Karlsson's article is also instructive in alerting us to three tensions or aporiai (disputed issues or questions) in the effort to grasp the nature and meaning of dialogue and the concept of ‘dialogic evaluation’. These tensions have to do with the interpretation of the Socratic conception of dialogue, notions of learning and judging, and the idea of ‘critique’. These disputed issues are further clarified.
Reflexive Dialogues
Authors: Abma Tineke A.
Published: July 2003

This article outlines a reflexive, dialogical approach to evaluation in which lived experiences, meanings and underlying values become the subject of reflexive dialogues among as many interested people as possible in order to heighten their understanding. Dialogue is considered as an open, divergent conversation. In contrast to a persuasive dialogue, this type of dialogue builds on reflection, the willingness to pause in a conversation, to spend time and to explore more deeply what seems to be essential to the participants themselves. Narrative (versus argumentative) rationality informs this kind of dialogue. A case example illustrates the approach. It concerns a formative evaluation of an injury-prevention programme in two performing-arts schools. The case shows how art students in particular experience the pressures of performance. Getting students, teachers and (para) medical experts to engage in reading stories of each other's experience also raises issues pertinent not only to their personal and mutual understanding but also to the culture of the institution.
The Non-profit Sector Meets the Performance-management Movement
Authors: Lindgren Lena
Published: July 2003

The increasing role of the non-profit sector in publicly funded programmes over the last two decades is not only a new way for governments to finance social policy and cut expenditure; there are idealistic reasons as well. Above all, non-profit organizations are believed to possess a string of democratic values. The problem though is that the extended role subjects non-profit organizations to accountability requirements such as the use of performance measures. Severe doubts have been expressed about the theory and practice of such measures, especially in contexts where the applied system of measures and the programme to be measured diverge in terms of inherent value systems. Although the critique has been reiterated many times in the evaluation literature, no one has yet come up with empirical evidence that demonstrates the consequences of applying performance measures in particular contexts. By testing some of the most common pitfalls with the help of a programme-theory approach, this article contributes to the filling of that gap.
An Impact Assessment of Policy Measures to Influence the Gender Division of Work
Authors: Willemsen Tineke M. , Jacobs Menno J. G. , Vossen Ad , Frinking Gerard A. B.
Published: July 2003

In this study, two different approaches, within one theoretical framework, were used to assess the impact of some public policy measures on the division of paid and unpaid work in the Netherlands. The first (macro-level) approach was based on the views of a panel of national experts; the second (micro-level) approach consisted of the analysis of information provided by members of households in a representative survey. In general, the results of the two studies indicate that the relevant policy measures have little, if any, impact on actual behaviour. In the survey study, the only variable that had a strong impact on both men's and women's behaviour was an attitude variable: egalitarianism. However, we conclude that the combination of methods, i.e. of the retrospective Delphi study with the cross-sectional survey, leads to better insight into the impact of the policy measures than each of the separate methods.
National Evaluations as Governing Instruments: How Do They Govern?
Authors: Segerholm Christina
Published: July 2003

The National Agency for Higher Education in Sweden carried out an evaluation, during 1995–1996, of all higher education programmes in care and nursing. The aim was to see if the programmes reached standards appropriate for higher education. Several care and nursing schools and programmes were found to be below the necessary standards, i.e. the criteria set by evaluators engaged in the national evaluation. According to those responsible for the programmes, the evaluation and its criteria were used at the local level to set out plans for development, even though the evaluation was criticized. Therefore in this article it is argued that national evaluations can work as national governing instruments, to support national policy. Two different theoretical frameworks are used to explain how actors at the local level are ‘governed’. Through this, it is believed that a more comprehensive understanding can be gained of how evaluation is related to governance.
The Comprehensive Approach: An Evaluation Model to Assess HIV/AIDS-related Behaviour Change in Developing Countries
Authors: Walden Vivien M. , Baxter David
Published: July 2003

It has been suggested that most evaluations only look at achievement of pre-determined goals. The Comprehensive Community-oriented Evaluation model discussed in this article attempts to broaden evaluation methodology making it more comprehensive. The model consists of three main components – design, process and impact. In order for results to be truly comprehensive, five evaluation strategy elements are necessary. These are: a mixed method, stakeholder involvement, feedback, audit and results consensus. The model was tested on an HIV/AIDS project in Zimbabwe, the conclusion being that the model is workable and has the potential to assist all stakeholders to produce more comprehensive evaluation results.
The Logic of Mainstreaming
Authors: Picciotto Robert
Published: July 2003

The rationale for evaluation mainstreaming is straightforward: evaluation creates value only when lessons are drawn and incentives encourage institutional learning. Accountability as well as organizational adaptation are facilitated by the incorporation of evaluation processes in policy formation and program administration. This article is about the `what, why and how' of evaluation mainstreaming; it does not dwell on the `whether'. First, mainstreaming is defined and its prominence in the policy-making discourse is explained. Second, a theory of mainstreaming is suggested and its relevance to the development process in poor countries is highlighted. Third, the process of evaluation mainstreaming within organizations is examined, using the World Bank as an example.
Evidence-based Policy: The Promise of `Realist Synthesis'
Authors: Pawson Ray
Published: July 2003

Evaluation research is tortured by time constraints. The policy cycle revolves more quickly than the research cycle, with the result that `real time' evaluations often have little influence on policy making. As a result, the quest for evidence-based policy (EBP) has turned increasingly to systematic reviews of the results of previous inquiries in the relevant policy domain. However, this shifting of the temporal frame for evaluation is in itself no guarantee of success. Evidence, whether new or old, never speaks for itself. Accordingly, there is debate about the best strategy of marshalling bygone research results into the policy process. In the first of this pair of articles (published in the previous issue of Evaluation) a critical review of the existing EBP strategies was conducted. This companion article considers the merits of a new methodology for systematic reviews, namely `realist synthesis'.
Evaluating Competitively Tendered Contracts
Authors: Wegener Alexander
Published: July 2003

‘New Public Management’ issues are currently challenging local governments throughout the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The quest for a reorientation towards results rather than inputs raises questions concerning the role of evaluation tools within the new governance mechanisms being created. Although local governments have some sectoral experiences with evaluation, management by results forces a broadening of knowledge about all services provided. Transparency of competition policies and their procedures is a key to evaluating competitively tendered contracts. However, local governments must accept and balance three different sets of criteria: first, the traditional professional perspective, second, customer-defined criterias, and third—which is least developed in all local governments included in the sample—political criteria. Integrated, coherent and consistent evaluation approaches are the key, not necessarily new evaluation tools.
Democratic Evaluation
Authors: Floc'hlay Beatrice , Plottu Eric
Published: July 2003

Citizens, due to a lack of participation in public decision-making, often exercise ‘counterpower’ when a decision is taken, which can result in delaying or abandoning public projects. This could have been prevented if power and counterpower had negotiated during the decision-making process. Democratic Evaluation brings such a simultaneous exercise of power and counterpower to public decision-making. The evaluation method that we are proposing must enable a democratic type of evaluation to be made operational. Our aim is to demonstrate that the implementation of Democratic Evaluation is only conceivable when Empowerment Evaluation, Participatory Evaluation and Multicriteria Evaluation are associated and considered as stages in the same evaluation process. This constitutes what we call a ‘ Model for the Operationalization of Democratic Evaluation’ (MODE).
Business Enterprise in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland
Authors: Begg Hugh M. , Tyler Peter , Warnock Colin , Watt John
Published: July 2003

The Finance For Business (FFB) programme operated by Highlands and Islands Enterprise through its network of local enterprise companies is a good example of a package of support designed to stimulate business enterprise, company investment and economic development in predominantly rural areas. During recent years governments in Western Europe and North America have devoted more resources to this type of policy and the need for evaluation of such programmes has increased. The European Commission has been particularly active in encouraging research and the dissemination of good practice. This article examines some of the important conceptual and measurement problems which are relevant to this area of evaluation and uses the FFB programme as a case study with which to illustrate how a cost benefit evaluation drawing on survey-based approaches can be undertaken. In so doing it demonstrates how it is possible to compare the costs and benefits of such programmes and provide Value For Money (VFM) performance indicators which allow meaningful comparison to be made across programmes. The article concludes by pointing to some of the strengths and weaknesses of existing evaluation approaches and makes recommendations as to where further research might usefully be undertaken.
Evaluating International Development Projects
Authors: Miles Derek W. J.
Published: July 2003

International financing and aid agencies involved in construction industry development expect their interventions to contribute to a broad technology transfer and skills development process, which may include courses and on-the-job training, but may also require ‘twinning’ and other linkages between institutions for a more substantial transfer of skills over a longer period. Evaluating achievement is difficult since projects are so diverse in their technical demands, as well as in the range of target groups and circumstances involved. The article is illustrated by case studies from national technical cooperation projects based in China, Egypt, Ghana, India, Lesotho, the South Pacific and Sri Lanka, as well as regional and global initiatives. The lessons from the evaluation of these projects confirm the diversity of project experience, but suggest some common factors which could be taken into account at the project design stage to increase the likelihood of a successful outcome.
Review: Promoting Realism in Evaluation
Authors: Julnes George , Mark Melvin M. , Henry Gary T.
Published: July 2003

Realism, as a foundational philosophy and as an applied approach to inquiry, is increasingly visible in social science. Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley have provided an important service to the field of evaluation by applying some of the basic concepts of realism to frame an approach that they refer to as ‘realistic evaluation’. As they note, their contribution largely involves taking concepts of realism that are attracting attention in many social sciences and making them accessible to evaluators. We applaud them for their efforts, and look forward to their continued development and promotion of a realism-based view of evaluation.
Evaluating Public Policy Experiments
Authors: Martin Steve , Sanderson Ian
Published: July 2003

The increasing use by central government in the UK of pilot programmes as a means of modernizing key public services marks a new style of policy formulation and implementation which in turn calls for a different kind of evaluation support. The ‘rational-objective’, ex post analyses favoured by ministers and officials over the last decade are no longer sufficient. Instead evidence from one of the earliest and most important of the new government's pilot initiatives (the national Best Value pilot programme) suggests that it will increasingly look to evaluators to act as change agents who are able to combine summative analysis of outputs and impacts with more formative approaches focused on developing a detailed understanding of processes. This presents important new challenges for both policy makers and evaluators.
Examining Fourth Generation Evaluation
Authors: Huebner Angela J. , Betts Sherry C.
Published: July 2003

The utility of Guba and Lincoln's (1989) Fourth Generation Evaluation (FGE) method has been a source of debate in the field of evaluation (e.g. Adelman, 1996; Greene, 1996; Laughlin and Broadbent, 1996). The majority of these debates tend to focus on hypothetical implementation issues. Few, if any, have attempted to examine FGE through direct application of the method to an actual evaluand of interest. The purpose of the present article is to examine the utility of incorporating the FGE methodology as one of the first steps in a community–university collaboration regarding youth. The strengths and limitations of the FGE methodology will be highlighted through a discussion of its application. Revealed strengths of FGE include the involvement of multiple stakeholder groups, exposure to multiple perspectives, and fostering early support for later programmatic developments. Limitations include difficulties in defining stakeholders, and providing evidence of education and empowerment. The information gained from this application has practical implications for others seeking to employ the FGE methodology.
The Evaluation of Local Policy Making in Europe
Authors: Saraceno Elena
Published: July 2003

Two recent evaluation studies undertaken for the European Commission, related to the LEADER Community Initiative implemented throughout the 1 990s, have provided the basis for the issues discussed in this article. This programme was set up to encourage pilot experiences in the promotion of rural development in the problem areas of Europe, by introducing a set of distinctive features emphasizing the method by which local development is implemented, rather than individual actions. The article argues that development policies with a territorial approach, locally defined objectives, strategies and actions, and involving the participation of several levels of government, have a different set of underlying assumptions and cannot be evaluated with the same tools and concepts that are commonly used in conventional evaluations. Four main methodological problems are discussed: how to define and assess the distinctive features of LEADER individually and as a whole; how to relate such features to development factors; how to ensure the comparison and aggregation of individual programmes at national and European level; and how to assess and produce relevant evaluation information for different governmental stakeholders. The conclusions stress the need to go beyond the accountability logic of conventional evaluations and argue in favour of providing more substantial feedback on the effectiveness of local policy making for the promotion of development, the types of contexts in which the distinctive features introduced by LEADER work best and the comparison of experiences and processes evaluated.
Disposability and Dispossession in the Twentieth Century
Authors: Lucas Gavin
Published: July 2003

This article addresses the issue of disposability in modern Anglo-American society, through a historical and archaeological perspective of late 19th- and 20th-century practices surrounding waste. Starting from what is identified as a dilemma in disposability, caught between two moral systems of the household - thrift and hygiene - this article discusses these systems in terms of waste and the activities surrounding it. Through examination of various practices and drawing on several examples and case studies, it is argued that the issue of disposability is intimately linked to consumption, specifically through the problem of inalienability and its effect on dispossession or the shedding off of domestic and personal objects.
The Implications of Scepticism
Authors: Lom Petr
Published: July 2003

Although seemingly a purely negative position without any implications, scepticism is more often seen to lead to two entirely different prescriptive political and moral conclusions, either liberal or illiberal. This article explains how such opposing conclusions derive from insufficient attention to: the instability of scepticism, its tendency to collapse into varieties of unquestioned belief; its underdetermined character, since it is always expressed as a variable mixture of doubt and beliefs, which are often neither acknowledged nor recognized; and insufficient clarity about the motivational power of social or political theory generally.
Simmel to Rokkan and Beyond
Authors: Diani Mario
Published: July 2003

This paper assesses the novelty of NSMs - or better, of any social and political movement in contemporary Western societies - in the light of their capacity to develop systems of relationships which cut across established social and political cleavages. It illustrates first the relational bases of Rokkan's concept of cleavage, and its contribution to the understanding of social movements; it then shows how Simmel's concept of the intersection of social circles and his distinction between concentric and crosscutting circles may be fruitfully applied to the analysis of political cleavages and their changing forms. In the conclusions, the elements of an approach to the study of the newness of social movements, based on the integration of Rokkan's and Simmel's principles, are introduced.
Creativity and Master Trends in Contemporary Sociological Theory
Authors: Domingues José Maurício
Published: July 2003

This article considers whether there exists today a movement of similar strength to the synthetic 'new theoretical movement' of the mid-1980s. The author argues that one main trend in sociological theory today is the notion of creativity and efforts to understand it conceptually. The contemporary growth of contingency, it is claimed, is closely related to this creative perspective. After examining Parsons's notion of 'double contingency', the article suggests that neither rationality nor normativity alone is able to dampen recognition of the vicissitudes attached to both personal destinies and social evolution. The author analyses the axis of structure and action, theories of history and evolution, together with the relationship between modernity and reflexivity, in order to substantiate the claim that creativity constitutes a trend today. This trend is then related to another, the cognitive approach, and the author proposes some ideas to bring them closer. Finally, a hypothesis to explain the current stress on creativity is suggested.
Wars of the Globalization Era
Authors: Bauman Zygmunt
Published: July 2003

As in Clausewitz's time, wars are the continuation of politics by other means - though in the globalizing world they acquire a new character of either `globalizing' or `globalization-induced' wars. The first are aimed at the abolition of state sovereignty or neutralizing its resistance potential, and shun territorial conquest and administrative responsibilities; the second are aimed at the establishment of viable local totalities in the void left by the collapse of past structures, and strive to reassert the lost meaning of space. The shift in aims changes the character of both categories of wars.
Interpreted Modernity
Authors: Reckling Falk
Published: July 2003

The writings of Weber and Taylor have some strong affinities. Both start from the anthropological idea that man evaluates his position in the world and constitutes the social world by values. Their analyses of values aim at an understanding of those intersubjective meanings that have constituted western modernity. But, at the same time, their anthropological starting point leads to different interpretations of modernity. Historically, both argue that rationalization (as instrumental rationality) is one of the most influential Kulturbedeutung of modernity. Weber's thesis of rationalization is, however, entangled in a paradox. Overemphasizing the rationalized elements of modernity, he fails scientifically to grasp certain counter-movements in modernity, such as individuation, subjectivity and new life forms. Taylor, investigating the moral sources of expressivism, shows that these life forms are an inherent part of modernity. Yet his method of articulating the sources of modernity is insufficient to transform it towards a causal explanation of behaviour in everyday life.
Toward an Epistemology of Blindness Why the New Forms of `Ceremonial Adequacy' neither Regulate nor Emancipate
Authors: de Sousa Santos Boaventura
Published: July 2003

My starting point in this paper is the artistic structures of the Renaissance. Resorting to what I call an epistemology of blindness, I set out to identify the limits of representation in modern science. This epistemology applies to different sciences in different degrees. I argue that the degree is particularly high in the case of mainstream economics. At the end of the paper I indicate some possible ways of advancing from an epistemology of blindness toward an epistemology of seeing.
Organized Complexity
Authors: Thévenot Laurent
Published: July 2003

This article introduces a framework which aims at capturing the complexity of economic organizations. The analysis of most legitimate conventions of coordination results in a new approach to the firm as a compromising device between several modes of coordination which engage different repertoires of evaluation. This contribution to the Économie des conventions offers an analytical tool to operate comparative research on firms, intermediate regulatory committees or public policies.
From Structuralism to Culturalism
Authors: Vandenberghe Frédéric
Published: July 2003

Investigating the neo-Kantian origins of structuralism and culturalism, this article analyses the development of Cassirer's thought by following his intellectual progression from knowledge to culture, and from culture to praxis. The article is in two parts. In the first part, the author presents an analysis of Cassirer's relational conception of knowledge. In the second part, the critique of knowledge is superseded by a critique of culture. The author analyses Cassirer's anthropological philosophy of symbolic forms and critically compares it to Simmel's vitalist theory of culture. The article ends with a plea for a practical sociology inspired by Cassirer's return to Kant's practical philosophy.
The World's Trader, the World's Lawyer
Authors: Therborn Göran
Published: July 2003

Europe's position in the world is analyzed in relation to a specification of globalization into five global processes, whereby Europe stands out as the central node of global flows of trade and capital and as the region of uniquely high transnational entanglements, as an area of transnational normativity. The historical background and inter-relation of foreign trade and trans-polity law within Europe, both in early modern social theory and in post-Second World War institution-building, are highlighted, as well as the spread of European law to other continents. The concepts of position, role, and identity should be distinguished. This historical and current position of Europe in the world is little expressed in the roles that contemporary European leaders want to play and in contemporary formulations of European heritage and identity. This is due partly to a nostalgic misjudgment by former great power politicians, but largely because of the delimited position of conventional trade and law in Europe, and of the actual but untheorized transformation of trading traditions into socially embedded trade and of the legal tradition into democratic international normativity. It is finally argued that these European practices of trade and law in fact correspond to many current critical views on global trade and global governance.
European Integration, European Identity and the Colonial Connection
Authors: Hansen Peo
Published: July 2003

The significance of colonialism and decolonization for the dawning of European integration and their subsequent bearing on notions of European identity still constitute a largely unexplored field within research. In seeking to problematize and amend this state of things, this article embarks on charting a set of historical developments which provide a case for arguing that theoretical and empirical studies on the nexus of European integration and European identity need to pay much closer attention to questions pertaining to colonialism and decolonization. As such, the article seeks to offer a glimpse of what it takes to be a critical background against which scholarly debates on contemporary notions of European identity need to be considered. Such an approach, it is suggested, should be of particular value for research trying to come to terms with Brussels' current endeavour to foster a collective sense of European identity in the Union. In expanding on this exact point, the article also broaches the question concerning all those `non-European' territories in Africa, South America and elsewhere that are incorporated into the present-day European Union, but which, nevertheless, hardly ever surface as such in studies on the EU and its politics of European identity.
Inescapability and Attainability in the Sociology of Modernity
Authors: Friese Heidrun , Wagner Peter
Published: July 2003

It is a background assumption of much of social science - here called modernist social science - that, in principle, there are neither questions that it cannot decline nor answers that cannot be found. Modernist social science does not accept the issues of inescapability and of attainability; they are names for adversaries that need to be fought against. In contrast to modernism in social theory, this article argues that social theory not only cannot succeed in suppressing the questions of the inescapable and the attainable but indeed needs to be reconceptualized such that an understanding of inescapability and attainability becomes one of its organizing elements. The argument is developed by discussing three central problematics of social theory - the continuity of self, the certainty of knowledge and the viability of the polity - and by showing that an irreducible pluralism of modes of social theorizing exists which includes positions that emphasize the questions of inescapability and attainability. The various perspectives on self, knowledge and polity can be related to each other by reasonings that link a philosophy of the social sciences to a historical sociology of modernity.
The Nation-state Meets the World
Authors: Hedetoft Ulf
Published: July 2003

Most theories of nationalism presume a causal link between 'culture' and 'identity' in the analysis of nationalism. This article argues for a more contingent linkage while drawing conclusions for the 'globalization of cultures-national identity' nexus in different theoretical domains. It goes on to review core assumptions about transnational identity formation, arguing that a distinctive phenomenon is a tendency to approach identities as strategic resources. This has significant impact on, for example, perceptions of boundaries and images of belonging. Finally, the article addresses central figurations between identity, globalization and European integration, in the context of the European Union viewed as an instrument for proactively handling transnational problems, and it proposes some salient differences between this 'Euronationalism' and nationalism in more traditional formats.
The Exotic Effect: Foucault and the Question of Cultural Alterity
Authors: Kurasawa Fuyuki
Published: July 2003

This paper examines the relationship between Foucault's general concerns and his neglected work on non-Western societies. It does so by examining two related questions. Firstly, what role does exoticism play in his theoretical imaginary? Secondly, how does his work on Japan, Iran and the non-Western world contribute to a different understanding of his thinking? As such, four general themes will be followed in order to underline the interplay of cultural difference with Foucault's broader projects: the limits of Western reason, genealogical schemes of history, power and resistance, and, finally, subjectification. Throughout, an attempt will be made to highlight the interdependence and mutual constitution of Foucault's thought and matters of cultural alterity.
Where is the Novelty in our Current `Age of Anxiety'?
Authors: Wilkinson Iain
Published: July 2003

This article critically investigates the presumption that we are living in a qualitatively new `age of anxiety'. It suggests that most sociologists who address this topic have so far failed to recognize the analytical complexity of the condition of anxiety itself. By examining the possibility of establishing sociological indicators of the prevalence and character of anxiety in contemporary societies, the author argues that the `sociological imagination' has yet to provide a sufficient account of the interrelationship between representations of social problems in the public sphere and the variety of anxieties which individuals may encounter in their `personal troubles of milieu'.
The Moral Consequentiality of Television
Authors: Tester Keith
Published: July 2003

A relatively under-analysed theme in the sociology of the media is the moral consequentiality for television viewers of representations and reports of the suffering of others. The theme has been broached by Michael Ignatieff, and this article uses an essay by him as an opportunity to develop the thesis that any consideration of the relationship between television and morality must centrally concern itself with the complex exchanges between television and its viewers. The article seeks to offer some initial themes and theses about the moral consequentiality of television.
National Borders on the World Wide Web
Authors: HALAVAIS ALEXANDER
Published: July 2003

The internet is often seen as a significant contributor to the globalization of culture and the economy. It is also seen as an inherently international medium, unimpeded by national borders and removed from the jurisdiction of the nation-state. This paper argues that although geographic borders may be removed from cyberspace, the social structures found in the `real' world are inscribed in online networks. By surveying 4000 web sites, it is determined that the organization of the world wide web conforms to some degree to traditional national borders. Web sites are, in most cases more likely to link to another site hosted in the same country than to cross national borders. When they do cross national borders, they are more likely to lead to pages hosted in the United States than to pages anywhere else in the world.
A Cultural Project Based on Multiple Temporary Consensus
Authors: FRAU-MEIGS DIVINA
Published: July 2003

Wired magazine is taken as a case-study of social engineering in action. The contributors all tried to elaborate a new consensus on the status of personal identity in relation to real and virtual communities of belonging. They did so through a conscious attempt at analysis of the means of production and reproduction in cyberspace. The position of the magazine, militantly activist and always optimistic, set the tone for the social acceptability of the so-called computer revolution. This optimism can be explained by the socio-economical origins of its founders and of the public that they sought. An analysis of their editorial agenda allows us to reconstruct the discourse held by these pioneers of digital interaction, and their attempts at legitimizing their utopia of a technological democracy into a reality yet-to-be-created.
Media Diversity and Cultural Identities
Authors: KERR APHRA
Published: July 2003

It is often suggested that new media may provide a new means to preserve the diversity of cultural identities in an increasingly global media environment. In order to address this suggestion, this article first analyses different conceptions of new media/multimedia and how the dominant discourses at a national and European level tend to focus on the economic and technological potential of multimedia rather than its wider social or cultural role. The article continues by analysing how these wider discourses and trends interact with more local factors to shape the form and content of multimedia artefacts produced in four organizations based in Ireland. These organizations were attempting to produce multimedia artefacts specifically designed for Irish, French and German users. The article explicates the processes by which global technologies are actively shaped within local production and consumption contexts and highlights a number of important political, economic and social factors which actively shape attempts by organizations to develop diverse forms of multimedia content.
Bridging the Differences between Social Theory and Technological Invention in Human-Computer Interface Design
Authors: BARNES SUSAN B.
Published: July 2003

A number of different theories have been proposed to explain the relationship between technological development and social change, including: technological determinism, symptomatic development and social constructionism. A popular and influential theory describing this relationship is technological determinism. An examination of the history of the computer's graphical user interface reveals that the original inventors of this technology were influenced by theorists associated with the determinist perspective. However, when creating their actual interfaces, early designers Douglas Engelbart and Alan Kay utilized methods that support a social constructionist view of technology development. Moreover, as new social interfaces emerge that incorporate software agents into the process of computer interaction, these new designs continue to support a constructionist approach. This article will describe the relationship between theories of technological determinism and the development of graphical user interfaces to argue that a social constructionist approach bridges the gap between theory and invention.
Telematics in the East End of London
Authors: Wessels Bridgette
Published: July 2003

A concept of the cultural form is used to analyse the development of community telematics services. The article is based on empirical research of the development of telematics in the East End of London. It is argued that the use and development of a technology expresses a social vision, creates a powerful symbol and engages us in a form of life. In the case of telematics this involves addressing a rethinking of citizenship along the lines of consumerism, and understanding how that interacts with the development of telematics in local contexts such as the East End. This grounds an understanding of the innovation of telematics in the material, social and cultural aspects of a cultural form, which in so doing helps to assess telematics' role and value in the contemporary public sphere.
Intra-Institutional Rivalry and Policy Entrepreneurship in the European Union
Authors: Simpson Seamus
Published: July 2003

The topic of information and communications technology (ICT) convergence is now of primary interest to policy makers in industry and government at the national and international level, as well as the academic community. In 1997, the European Commission published a Green Paper on the matter, and subsequently launched a consultation process which resulted in a series of re-regulatory proposals as part of the 1999 Communications Review. In recent years, there has been considerable evidence of Commission pro-activity and agenda setting in telecommunications and broadcasting. This article argues that ICT convergence policy is an interesting case of both policy entrepreneurship and intra-institutional rivalry within the Commission. Here, the ambitious initial proposals of interests in the Commission in favour of creating a uniform, light-touch regulatory ICT regime at EU level were significantly modified in the light of opposition from the Commission's own quarters, other EU institutions, the national political level and the broadcasting sector. As a result, it appears that in the immediate future there will be only limited, though still very significant, development of a convergent approach to ICT regulation, in the form of measures dealing with infrastructure and associated services.
Configuring the Digital City of Amsterdam
Authors: VAN LIESHOUT M. J.
Published: July 2003

Design and dispersion of new socio-technological configurations are studied by many varying sorts of scientific disciplines, ranging from communication studies to technology studies. In this article, the configuration and appropriation of new socio-technical constituencies are studied and subsequently interpreted in terms of a rather novel concept: social learning. On top of what is known about appropriation and configuration processes, social learning adds another point of view, elaborated from a perspective known as the social shaping of technology. It takes Beck and Giddens' reflexive modernization as starting point, and uses this to elaborate social learning into two dominant modes: the mode of experimentation and the mode of control. The Digital City of Amsterdam is used as exemplar to demonstrate configuration and appropriation processes and how these can be interpreted as elements of the mode of experimentation.
Democracy via Cyberspace
Authors: DAHLBERG LINCOLN
Published: July 2003

Electronic democracy rhetoric has proliferated with the growth of the internet as a popular communications medium. This rhetoric is largely dominated by liberal individualist assumptions. Communitarianism has provided a resource for an alternative vision of electronic democracy. A third model, deliberative democracy, has recently been employed by electronic democrats who want to move beyond the individualism/communitarianism opposition. In this article, I outline each of these visions, describing the democratic assumptions and electronic democracy practices that each embraces. In particular, I explore the ways in which each vision sees the internet as aiding its cause. I conclude by pointing to the relative lack of research into the possibility of the deliberative position being realized through cyberspace. I suggest that a more regorous analysis of the intersection between the internet and deliberative democracy would not only be sociologically fruitful but may provide interesting possibilities for enhancing contemporary democratic forms.
Challenges and Opportunities in Introducing Information and Communication Technologies to the Kelabit Community of North Central Borneo
Authors: HARRIS ROGER , BALA POLINE , SONGAN PETER , LIEN ELAINE KHOO GUAT , TRANG TINGANG
Published: July 2003

This article describes an action-research pilot project to provide opportunities for the remote Kelabit community in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for sustainable human development. The project aims to establish a telecentre as a place for the community to use ICTs. Although many in the community have heard about computers, they have not seen or used them. In Phase 1 of this project, a team of University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) researchers were involved in the collection of base-line data to provide a socio-economic profile of the community, to establish existing patterns of communication and computer awareness and finally to determine the current attitudes towards computers in Bario's secondary school (SMK Bario). Findings indicate that due to Bario's relative isolation, community members cited their relatives to be the main source of information and face-to-face communication as the major channel of communication, and that a majority of school teachers had a positive attitude towards using ICTs. Recommendations for future directions in promoting the utilization of ICTs to lead to the establishment of a telecentre are discussed.
A Theoretical Argumentation and Evaluation of South African Learners' Orientation towards and Perceptions of the Empowering Use of Information
Authors: POSTMA LOUISE
Published: July 2003

This article attempts to illustrate how African learners orient themselves towards information in a pre-computerized learning environment. The critical objective of the article is to show that the disempowering elements in learning might again be replicated in computer-mediated learning or communication. The article illustrates that young African learners are situationally and not critically empowered by information as presented in its current form by institutions of learning. We assume that the African learner's accommodation to the context and the forms of information transfer inhibits an authentic development of ways of learning and critical knowledge construction. The interaction with and orientation to the current contexts, which mediate and present information, might not be an empowering experience. The article hopes to contribute to the formulation of program design for computer-mediated communication. It conceptualizes a learning environment with a new culture, one based on the learning elements of social constructivist theory and the communal principles of Gemeinschaft [community] in a postmodern era. It is also intended to suggest to learning program designers how to facilitate conscientization and the empowerment of the African learners in their interaction with information.
Music in Electronic Markets
Authors: Kretschmer Martin , Klimis George Michael , Wallis Roger
Published: July 2003

Music plays an important, and sometimes overlooked part in the transformation of communication and distribution channels. With a global market volume exceeding US$40 billion, music is not only one of the primary entertainment goods in its own right. Since music is easily personalized and transmitted, it also permeates many other services across cultural borders, anticipating social and economic trends. This article presents one of the first detailed empirical studies on the impact of internet technologies on a specific industry. Drawing on more than 100 interviews conducted between 1996 and 2000 with multinational and independent music companies in 10 markets, strategies of the major players, current business models, future scenarios and regulatory responses to the online distribution of music files are identified and evaluated. The data suggest that changes in the music industry will indeed be far-reaching, but disintermediation is not the likely outcome.
Cyberstalking and the technologies of interpersonal terrorism
Authors: Spitzberg Brian H. , Hoobler Gregory
Published: July 2003

Despite extensive popular press coverage of the dark side of the internet, apparently no social scientific research has yet been published on the topic of cyberstalking. This report summarizes three pilot studies conducted in the process of developing a satisfactory factorially complex measure of cyberstalking victimization, and then investigates the incidence of such victimization, and its interrelationships to obsessive relational intrusion. Findings indicate that cyberstalking is experienced by a nontrivial proportion of the sample, and that there are small but generally consistent relationships between facets of cyberstalking and spatially based stalking. In addition, the results suggested that only interactional forms of coping were related consistently with forms of cyberstalking.