Notes on Computers, Work, and Class

Abstract

Whatever else sociology may be, it is a result of consistently asking: (1) What is the meaning of this — whatever we are examining — for our society as a whole, and what is this social world like? (2) What is the meaning of this for the types of men and women that prevail in this society? (3) How does this fit into the historical trend of our times, and in what direction does this main drift seem to be carrying us? No matter how small-scale what he is examining, the sociologist must ask such questions about it, or he has abdicated the classic sociological endeavour. (C. Wright Mills, 1967)

Notes

¹Cf. http://digicult.uib.no

² http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXFnCD72JpY, retrieved October 27, 2009.

³Cf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlmzwZXa-Ww, retrieved November 10, 2009.

⁴Both quotes in this paragraph are borrowed from Murdock (forthcoming).

⁵Martin made a fortune as a consultant and author of a large number of books that became bestsellers in the industry, a significant portion of which (US$100 million) he donated to the University of Oxford and the establishment there of the James Martin 21st Century School. The impressive range of the School's 15 research institutes testifies to the seriousness and durability of Martin's ethical and environmental engagement (cf. http://www.21school.ox.ac.uk/).

⁶To summarize Etzioni's biography in brief, taken from his website (http//www.amitaietzioni.org; retrieved November 10, 2009): “After receiving his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1958, Amitai Etzioni served as a Professor of Sociology at Columbia University for 20 years, part of that time as the Chairman of the department. He was a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in 1978 before serving as a Senior Advisor to the White House on domestic affairs from 1979–1980. In 1980, Etzioni was named the first University Professor at The George Washington University, where he is the Director of the Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies. From 1987–1989, he served as the Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation Professor at the Harvard Business School. Etzioni served as the president of the American Sociological Association in 1994–95, and in 1989–90 was the founding president of the international Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. In 1990, he founded the Communitarian Network, a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to shoring up the moral, social and political foundations of society. He was the editor of The Responsive Community: Rights and Responsibilities, the organization's quarterly journal, from 1991–2004. In 1991, the press began referring to Etzioni as the ‘guru’ of the communitarian movement.”