productivity, collaboration, the internet, and reagency in distant lands marcus ynalvez, ricardo...
TRANSCRIPT
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Productivity, Collaboration, the Internet, and Reagency
in Distant Lands
Marcus Ynalvez, Ricardo Duque & Wesley Shrum
Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University
Presented by Matt Bietz
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The Plan
• I am not Marcus, Ricardo, or Wes– They are in Africa (I am not)
• But I will pretend to be– But without the Elvis costume
• I will first present their paper as I understand it– Try to be faithful to the authors’ spirit &
meaning
• Then I will become a discussant– Respond and draw connections to other ideas
we’ve discussed
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Overview of the Paper
• Problematizing “Development”
• Introducing “Reagency”
• Results from study of ICT usage among scientists in Kenya, Ghana, and India
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Introduction
• Globalization of science– Intertwined with innovations in ICTs
• Must attend to what’s going on not only at the core of science, but also at the periphery
• How will new ICTs change the nature and structure of knowledge production in the developing world?
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3 Views of Internet & Development
1. Elixir• Free developing world from isolation
2. Affliction• Exacerbate global inequality
3. Teething• Problems at first, but can be
incorporated over time
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Our* View
• Internet can “reagentize” science in developing areas more effectively than prior development initiatives.• Comes from the ability to maintain
on-line interaction
• But link between Internet & productivity is problematic
*Our = Marcus, Ricardo & Wes
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Science in Developing World
• Traditional approaches treat developed world science as either• Standard model for how science should
work• Or, “exploitative, imperialistic residue that
should be rejected in favor of indigenous knowledge”
• Focus on publication, with little depth of understanding for collaboration– Data from co-authorship
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Development
• Initiatives... with consequences for actors in the developing world.
• One-way, top-down approach– Periphery will become developed
when it adopts the institutions, modes or organization, practices, cultures, and technologies of the core
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Problematizing Development
• Development framework does not capture emerging social realities
• Change and innovation can – Emanate from different places and identities– Travel through multi-way channels in
unpredictable directions
• “Development” forces us into dichotomy of “developed” and “developing”
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An Alternative: “Reagency”
• Bringing about a reaction– But not necessarily one that can be
controlled
• Allow us to understand the interaction of “agency” and the contexts of identity and place
• Better describes “what happens when organizational representatives from afar enter countries with agendas and initiatives.”
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Place & Identity
• Most development initiatives have ignored place and identity– Example: “ideal” technology transfer
• Exactly the same[process/product/datum]regardless of who or where
• But laboratories are important places characterized by strong identities– Identities (people) give the place meaning
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Reagency & the Internet
• Internet is reagentive– Opens pathways for interaction– Impacts not readily predicted– Trajectory conditioned by places and
identities
• Not simply elixir or affliction• Instead, an increasingly essential
technology in generating, producing, and disseminating scientific knowledge
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Reagency, Internet & Science
• Internet can aid scientists by providing– Links to colleagues, information, and
databases– Opportunities for sharing results– Opportunities for building personal
and organizational networks• Access to material and non-material
resources
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Reports from the Field
Ghana Kenya KeralaDevelopment (Scientific & Socioeconomic)
Low Medium High
Per capita gross national income
$270 $360 $480
Aid per capita $33 $15 $2
Illiteracy 26.2% 15.7% 41.2%
Internet users / 1000 people
1.9 16.0 6.8
PCs / 1000 people 3.3 5.6 5.8
Survey n (scientists, 2000-2002)
300 315 303
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Data & Method
• 1994 survey of ~300 scientists• 2000-2002 survey
– Based on 1994 survey with additional questions about ICTs
• Variety of research fields• Government research institutes &
university faculties• Mostly urban• Almost 200 questions
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Internet Adoption (1)
• Level of development & org. setting play a role
• Most PCs are shared (>7 scientists on average)– Usually not in personal offices
• 9/10 consider themselves “internet users”, only 6/10 report actual access
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Internet Adoption (2)
• Gender a factor (men have higher use)
• Education correlated to adoption– Especially if trained in US or Europe in
the past 10 years
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Internet & Productivity
• No consistent effect of the Internet on scientific productivity– Conditioned by both location and
organizational setting
• E.g. In African locations, academic scientists more productive than govt., but reverse is true in Indian locations
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Collaboration & Productivity
• At scientific core, collaboration associated with productivity (Lee & Bozeman 2005)
• No clear relationship for knowledge production sites at the periphery– “There is not one general model that can
adequately capture the essence of the relationship between place, identities, collaboration, and productivity.”
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Summary
• Internet is reagentive– Initiatives have unpredictable effects– Must place in context of locations and
identities
• Different outcomes for “core” and “periphery”– We can’t assume that science practice that
is successful in US/Europe will work in “developing” world
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Discussion of
Productivity, Collaboration, the Internet, and Reagency
in Distant LandsYnalvez, Duque & Shrum
Matt Bietz
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Things I Like
• Reframing from “development” to “reagency”
• Importance of place and identity• Recognition that what we know
about scientific core may not generalize to the periphery
• Mmmmm....... Data........!
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Connections
• IARC/HPP Case• What does it mean to be successful?• Potential to transform science
– But we can’t necessarily predict how
• Thinking about how these technologies change our access to social networks & resources
• Stakeholders and agency in initiatives
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Comments for the Authors
• Make language more accessible– May be too domain specific (e.g.
jargon) for audience of SOC book
• Show Me the Data!– Seems like great stuff there – I want
to see more
• Not always clear how data relate to reagency framework
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Bigger Questions
• Are we seeing “teething?”– E.g. Can we expect that ratio of PCs to
scientists will change?
• Are success measures different in developing countries?– If initiatives will play out differently, will
success also look different
• Is reagency specific to distant lands?– E.g. NSF & NEES