I don't know if a discussion forum like this will work or not. Note that you can ask the system to notify you of all new postings, effectively making it into a mailing list. What to do you guys think?

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2002

Answers

Hi, Alex, This looks very straightforward and tidy. I found the alert easily enough and like the notification options. Will we have to type in our name and email address all the time? Also, What about attachments? Some comments about this week's readings. They introduce the general notion of "frameworks." Some frameworks are dignified by calling them social theory. But I wish to call attention to framework as a lens and the importance of finding and discarding lenses on pragmatic (rather than Truth-based) grounds. Bijker gives us an analytic framework at the sociological level. What sorts of analyses does it support? What kinds of advice can designers, as individuals, working day-to-day on the ground, draw from him? Moscovici laments, bewails, and criticizes social theory for not taking the psychological into account. What difference would a psychological lens have brought to Bijker's account (assuming if it could be brought--I haven't thought that part through yet myself)? How doRobinson's and Shorr's frameworks attempt to unify the individual and the social? Are these satisfactory unifications? Who in our tiny group will start the discussions on these issues? In general, would all of you prefer to have one person start the discussion? If so, with a summary of the articles or with responses to a set of questions I propose? (In a couple of weeks, I would like to see you posing integrative questions yourselves.) I notice that in other classes, students prepare for class by writing a short paper that they hand in rather than a journal format. Would that work better for you? What do you think of using this forum? Of the class? Topics? Best, Linnda

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2002