Yesterday's day-long event on 'Social Computing and the Organisation' threw up plenty of provocative questions from Ted Nelson, Theodore Zeldin and others. I've never seen Zeldin speak before, nor known much about his thinking, and I found it seductive and somewhat appalling in equal measure, like an extremely high-brow version of OK magazine. Where OK offers us the chance to "Hear from Gaby Roslin about how she lost weight then found love for the fourth time, plus an exclusive glimpse inside her new waste disposal unit!", Zeldin demands a similar act of unmasking, in the interests of more authentic "conversations". Not very British, and I won't stand for it. More thoughts on this anon, perhaps.
In the meantime, here are my slides from yesterday (ppt)
Hmmm, aren't you an ethnographer? Don't you attempt to get inside people's heads and see how they work? How does doing that in conversational terms differ?
BTW: thanks for a chance to read the presentation - interesting perspective :)
Posted by: Paul Goodison | October 10, 2005 at 12:01 PM
nope, never knowingly conducted ethnography. Sociology is more my bag.
A few people (including me) asked Zeldin to comment on broader structural aspects of society, and whether political change might actually require us to develop better forms of public interaction, where intimacy may not be so helpful. He seemed to counter this with the suggestion that all change begins at the level of the emotions or the psyche, which I disagree with.
Posted by: Will Davies | October 11, 2005 at 08:59 AM
Quite a contrast between Nelson and Zeldin - frustrated and slightly cynical visionary versus intellectual idealist. Never knew they both 'hung out' in Oxford. Enjoyed your bit on social capital - I'm interested in 'capitals' other than financial - especially intellectual capital. Have also blogged the Templeton event .
Posted by: John Curran | October 11, 2005 at 05:42 PM
Sorry - linked to wrong blog!
Posted by: John Curran | October 11, 2005 at 05:43 PM