Background
This is a sociological project that seeks to understand the ways
in which the introduction of the Internet changes interpersonal
relationships in the process of knowledge production.
The origin of this project was pure luck. The Dutch government
funded a survey to understand the conditions of scientific work
in three countries. We did a study in 1994 of scientific communication
in Ghana, Kenya and Kerala, India. Only later did we realize that
we have the perfect baseline for the study of the effects of the
Internet on social relationships.
Participants
Wesley Shrum
(Baton Rouge, Louisiana--project director, 1992-present)
Paul Mbatia
(Nairobi Kenya, 2000-present)
Antony Palackal
(Trivandrum, Kerala, 2002-present)
Dan-Bright Dzorgbo
(Accra, Ghana, 2000-present)
R. Sooryamoorthy
(Durban, South Africa, 2000-2006)
Marcus Ynalvez
(Laredo, Texas--Phillipines coordinator, 2002-present)
Ricardo B. Duque
(Vienna, Austria - Chile, Costa Rica and Ghana coordinator, 2004-present)
Meredith Anderson
(Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 2004-present)
Paige Miller
(Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 2004-present)
Binu Palarayil
(Trissur, Kerala, 2006-present)
Journal
Hostel of Doom, a graduate student's true-life tale of captivity in the Nairobi YMCA. Summer 2002.
Ghana 2003, Field Note from Ghana.
Biographies
Wesley
Shrum
I am a Professor of Sociology
at LSU, where I have been since 1982 when I received my Ph.D. from
Princeton. My dissertation was on the topic of scientific
communication in the U.S., in the context of two 'technical systems':
radioactive waste management and solar photovoltaics. After
some years and scholarship, I switched my focus over to developing
areas, and have been working in Kenya, Ghana, and Kerala (India)
since 1992.
Paul
Mbatia is currently a Senior Lecturer and Chair, Department
of Sociology, University of Nairobi. He attained his first two degrees
(B.A. and M.A.) in 1985 and 1988 respectively at the University
of Nairobi. In 1996, he attained his Ph.D. in Sociology at Indiana
University, USA. He has been at the University of Nairobi at both
undergraduate and postgraduate level for over 13 years, pursuing
academic interests in the sociology of development, social change,
science & technology, research methods and the management of
health care by the State in developing countries. Besides teaching,
Dr. Mbatia has conducted many academic research projects and consultancies
for local and international organizations in Kenya.
Overall, in his teaching
and research engagements, Dr. Mbatia has sought to understand the
role of the African State in development. Currently, he is also
involved in the World Science Project that seeks to understand,
inter alia, how Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs)
have impacted on the lifestyles and productivity of scientists and
researchers in developing countries.
Antony Palackal
Currently teaching in the Post Graduate Department of Sociology
in Loyola College of Social Sciences, Kerala, India. I have been
the Director of the Project CHILDLINE Nodal agency, Trivandrum,
Kerala, India - a project of the Government of India, in partnership
with UNICEF and NGOs in 2000–2002. I have worked as the Coordinator,
Study Abroad Programme of Cleveland State University, Ohio, U.S.A
from 1999-2001. I have Coordinated the activities of Street Educators
Counselling Training Programme, a project of UNICEF and NISD (National
Institute for Social Welfare) New Delhi fro the Southern Region
in India, comprising four states. I have done my post graduation
in Sociology from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University and
obtained PhD from University of Kerala, India for the doctoral dissertation
in the area of Globalization and Culture. Besides having published
several research and popular articles, I have authored ‘Culture,
Resistance and Spirituality’ in the regional language (2000),
and co-authored ‘Managing Water and Water Users – Experience
from Kerala’ (2003). Areas of specialization include Sociology
of Development, Social Movements, Cultural Dynamics and Gender and
Society. I work as a consultant and trainer to several NGOs and
socio-political movements in Kerala.
I have been associating
with World Science Project in the capacity of India Coordinator
since 2002. In connection with the study, I have organised and supervised
quantitative surveys in Kerala with the help of a team of postgraduates,
guided and supervised the coding of the quantitative data and conducted
qualitative interviews with the scientists in Trivandrum, Kerala.
I have also guided and supervised the coding of qualitative interviews
from all the areas of the study in QSR Nvivo – software for
the coding of qualitative data. Collaborating with a committed team
of researchers with Prof. Wesley Shrum, a seasoned academician as
the team leader has been a true growth experience for me both academically
and personally. Having associated with a research programme that
studies professional collaboration, networking etc, offered me personally
enriching experience and valuable lessons in these areas.
Dan-Bright Dzorgbo
is Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Ghana, Legon. His
major research interests include Social and Economic Issues in Development,
Political Development, Governance and Democratization, the Social
and Economic and Behavioral Dimension of Health, and the Patterns
and Impact of Scientific Communication in Ghana and Africa. Address:
Sociology Department University of Ghana P. O. Box LG 65 Legon-Ghana;
telephone: 233 21 500312 Ext.6161/6084; cell phone: 233 20 8152665;
email: ddzorgbo@yahoo.co.uk
Marcus Ynalvez is instructor at the Louisiana State University Department of Sociology. He teaches statistics and research methods. Marcus’ research interest is at the intersection of science and technology studies, international development, and social networks. He is particularly interested in studying the sociology of techno-scientific systems and the sociology of technical disasters.
Since joining the department in 2001, Marcus has been working with Professor Wesley Shrum on the World Science Project, which examines the impact of new information and communication technologies on the nature and structure of knowledge production in developing countries (Chile, Ghana, India, Kenya, the Philippines, and South Africa). In this capacity, Marcus had the opportunity to manage and coordinate face-to-face surveys of 315 Filipino scientists in January to March 2005, and 300 Kenyan scientists in June-July 2005.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Marcus has been involved with the departments’ Displaced People Needs Assessment Study, wherein he was one of the analysts who conducted qualitative digital video interviews of evacuees in the Baton Rouge area. At present, He is also involved with the Department’s on-going New Orleans Levee Breach Study. The purpose of this project is to delve into the social aspects of the levee breach and connect these with the engineering and technical aspects.
Ricardo B. Duque. Rick is a professor in the Department of Social Studies of Science at the University of Vienna. After finishing his Ph.D. at Louisiana State University in 2007, he was a visiting professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana lecturing in Environmental Sociology, Sociology of Science, Global Social Change, and the Sociology of Disaster.
Rick has managed international survey projects and video-ethnographic productions in Africa and Latin America as well as in the United States. Most recently he helped produce and film documentaries on (1) political violence in Kenya and its impact on the research community there and (2) the social-technical aftermath of hurricane Katrina in South Louisiana.
For the past seven years he has assisted in a variety of capacities to organize annual conferences of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). Over the last three years, he has helped organize paper sessions that feature Science, Technology and Society (STS) scholarship originating within Latin America and about this under-served region. He is presently proposing an edited volume on the state of Latin American STS.
Meredith Anderson is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She is a qualitative methodologist whose research interests lie in the intersection of science, technology, gender and development. Meredith has been a member of the World Science Project since 2003, during which time she has focused on the manner in which the Internet has impacted the social and professional networks of female scientists in Kerala, India. Currently, Meredith is expanding her research to include digital video ethnography and the difficulties faced by a western woman studying gender stratification within the Indian social context. She plans to complete her Ph.D. in 2008 and eventually work in technological development initiatives for developing world women.
Paige Miller: I am a sociology graduate student in my third year at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. I received my master’s degree in the summer of 2005, and I am currently working towards my PhD. My bachelor’s degree in sociology was received from Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota, USA in 2003. Since joining the project in the spring of 2004, I have traveled to Kerala, India to assist in interviewer training for the third wave of the study. In the fall of 2005, I traveled to Tunisia to participate in the World Summit on the Information Society. Along with my colleagues, I organized an exhibition booth displayed at the main summit. I currently have one co-authored publication: “Gender Stratification and E-Science: The Case of Women Scientists in the Developing World.”
Binu Palarayil
completed has degrees in Sociology from Loyola College of Social
Science, Thiruvanthapuram and Rural Development from Indira Gandi
National Open University, New Dehli. He completed his MPhil from
M.K University (Madurai) and received a Senior Research Fellowship
from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, working as a Senior
Research Fellow for three years in Kerala Agricultural University
Thrissur. He has published three papers in international journals
and four papers in national journals. Since 2003 he has worked as
a Post Graduate Lecturer in Vimala College (Thrissur) and is also
a faculty member in Kerala Police Academy and Indira Gandhi National
Open University, Calicut University. His research areas include
Science and Society, Globalisation and Perspective Dynamics in Modern
Society. |