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howdy,
i am a political scientist and merely a consumer of the SOCNET
discussions, which i enjoy and learn from. over the past week, i was
struck by lack of response to barry wellman's post regarding the absence
of a discussion about the recent revelations concerning the NSA
("puzzling omissions," 6/14). indeed, this dearth was thrown into even
greater relief by the impressive buzz regarding attribution for
achievements in network analysis and the veracity of information on
wikipedia.
while most of us are rarely trained in the normative and ethical
implications of our pursuit of normal science, it seems to me that
pondering the social, political, and economic ethical implications of
the science we do is an important exercise, even if it is difficult and
often inconclusive. political science certainly has a long history (even
preceding its modern incarnation) rife with examples of theories not
used for "good", or well-intentioned efforts to implement theories for
the good that go awry. the post-WWII qualms of hard scientists wrestling
with the implications of their creations is also notable, and helped
motivate the field of peace science. yet, even peace science is cut
through with a normative tension: if one is a peace scientist, can one
do research demonstrating how to win wars that may in turn be used by
governments?
i simply wonder what scientists of social networks think about these
normative issues in their general form, rather than as an indictment of
a specific government policy, the NSA, and so forth. perhaps it is
simply better to address the negative implications of network analysis
in fora other than science (e.g., politics), to forge ahead confident
that when the chips fall where they may, good outcomes will exceed the bad?
regards,
andrew
On 6/14/2013 8:09 AM, Barry Wellman wrote:
> ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****
>
> I am flabbergasted that there has been no discussion on this list --
> or even announcement -- of the NSA's use of social network analysis to
> do massive surveillance of American and unAmerican populations.
>
> Nor any talk of the Turkish situation -- seems to fit Chuck Tilly's
> network-basis analyses of collective political behaviour.
>
> Barry Wellman
> _______________________________________________________________________
>
> S.D. Clark Professor FRSC NetLab Director
> Faculty of Information (iSchool) 611 Bissell Building
> 140 St. George St. University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 3G6
> http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman twitter: @barrywellman
>
> NETWORKED:The New Social Operating System. Lee Rainie & Barry Wellman
> MIT Press http://amzn.to/zXZg39 Print $22 Kindle $16
> Old/NewCyberTimes http://bit.ly/c8N9V8
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> _____________________________________________________________________
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