SOCIAL
FACTS
Clay
Shirky (clay.shirky@nyu.edu)
H79.2518
-- Tisch 406 -- Friday 12:30 - 3:00 p.m.
http://itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~cs97/social_facts/
Version
1.0 / August 21, 2005
OVERVIEW (Jump to Classes)
Social
Facts centers on two questions. The first is, how do groups get anything done?
As anyone who has ever run a business or even arranged a birthday party knows,
groups present significant coordination problems, problems that have to be
overcome even to do anything as simple as getting everyone in the same place at
the same time. These problems are worse, much worse, for groups who want to
have some effect on a world. Organizing birthday parties and book groups,
challenging as those things are, are simple compared to organizing political
parties or philanthropic groups, to say nothing of businesses, religions (at least
proselytizing ones), and armies. Getting a group to accomplish anything means
getting its members to set aside enough of their autonomy for the group to
function as a relatively cohesive unit.
The cohesion necessary for coordinated group
effort can be only be explained by reference to "social facts", those
things that are true because everyone agrees they are true. Though it is
tempting to regard such facts as weak or ephemeral, they are in fact both strong
and persistent. You can take a car or a bus to work, but the fact that you get
to drive your car but not the bus is a purely social phenomenon. Both the car
and the bus have gas, steering, and brakes, but buses are governed by an
elaborate, non-physical set of rules, ranging from the nature of property to
the wearing of uniforms, rules that add up to your not being allowed to drive
it.
An
enormous number of often unstated rules are similarly necessary precursors to
effective social effort. The concept of membership, for instance, is necessary
to identify who can and can't be expected to do the work even in informal
groups. Yet membership exists purely by social agreement; even in places where
membership is tied to some objective attribute, like being a second-year, that
membership creates certain requirements (Thesis) while forbidding others (you
can't take Applications again), which are socially enforced. Thus any attempt
to understand how groups get anything done has to take into account the
structures of governance and group alignment provided by these social facts,
and to understand how they get created or modified.
The
second, related question core to the class is, what effects does, can, or
should technology have on the way groups get things done? We are in the middle
of a revolution in the creation of group value. The ability to use new
technologies, especially communications technologies, are altering the way
groups form and function. We are seeing everything from stay-at-home moms
coordinating for social action using Meetup to the change in the strategy and
tactics of political campaigns, because of these technologies. And much of the
change is still to come; most technology, having been targeted for personal
use, has been under-examined and under-optimized for its effects on groups and
group dynamics.
The
question of technological effect is partly descriptive (What is happening with group use of technology now?), partly
predictive (What will happen?)
and partly normative (What should
happen?) Many of the changes created by new technology are double-edged -- our
communications tools have the effect of making it much easier to form groups,
for example, but harder to get them to take action. As tools like email and SMS
free the participants from needing to gather in the real world, the groups that
rely on these technologies have looser bonds and the members enjoy greater autonomy.
The goal of the class is to uncover interesting but as yet unachieved possibilities
in our increasingly mediated group life.
GOALS
The
course has three broad goals: at the end of the semester, a student should have
a general understanding of the attributes and dilemmas of coordinating group
effort; they should have an understanding of how technology, and particularly
communications technology, does and can affect both the attributes and dilemmas
of group action; and they should have experience making either predictions or
imagining improvements in the way technology can affect group action.
CONCEPTUAL
MODEL
The
course will progress through 3 phases, each taking roughly a third of the
course:
1.
Introduction to Group Dynamics and Dilemmas
What
is a group? What makes it special, and different from a mere aggregation of
individuals? What is a social fact, and how do social facts provide the
background for group cohesion and achievement? What dilemmas are particular to
groups? What are some ways we can characterize or analyze groups to answer
these questions.
2.
Technology
and Its Effect on Groups
The
explosion in communal media and tools is changing the landscape in which groups
set and pursue goals for themselves. What effects does technology have on the
ability of groups to organize, set tasks, gather and expend resources, and
govern themselves? What kinds of groups are we seeing form whose work would
have been difficult or impossible prior to the last decade? In what ways is
technology undermining our existing assumptions about group action, or making
it harder to organize groups along older patterns?
3.
The Shape of Things to Come?
There
is always a gap between the possible and the actual; in the case of group
activity, that gap is now quite large. What kinds of things are now possible
for group action that have not yet been widely realized? What form would those
changes take? New infrastructure, tools, techniques, social models? What
normative goals can be brought to bear? What should be made available to
groups, to advance larger social goals or benefits?
WORK
The
principal work of the class is in understanding and synthesizing your
observations from the readings, in-class exercises, and field observations. You
will demonstrate your understanding with your participation in class
discussions, in two short papers, and in a final project, which can either be a
larger paper or an attempt to study and document some aspect of mediated group
function.
GRADING
Class
participation 50%
Mid-term
Project 20%
Final
Project 30%
CLASSES
- SECTION ONE: Group Dynamics and Dilemmas
Week
1. Introduction to Group Dynamics
The
basic problem in considering the behavior of groups is that they have a dual
existence: both as an aggregation of the individual members, and as a whole
unit, to be analyzed on its own terms. What is special about groups? What
challenges does group effort create above and beyond individual effort? What
sorts of tensions can arise between individuals in a group? How does governance
affect a groups view of itself, and its ability to get things done?
Assigned
Readings:
"What
is a Social Fact"; Durkheim, Emil;
http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/Durkheim/SOCFACT.HTML
The
Construction of Social Reality (Handout); Searle, John; ISBN: 0684831791
The
Social Life of Information (Handout); Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid; ISBN:
0875847625
Week
2. Three is a Magic Number
More
is different; when you gather three or more people, the dynamics move from the
personal and psychological to include the social as well. What group dynamics
can't be explained by simply analyzing the behavior of individuals? What is a
social fact, and how does it create expectations that guide both individuals
and the group?
Assigned
Readings:
The
Evolution of Cooperation (Handout); Axelrod, Robert; ISBN: 0465021212
Paradoxes
of Group Life (Handout); Smith, Kenwyn and David Berg; ISBN: 078793948X
Small
Groups as Complex Systems (Handout); Arrow, Holly et al.; ISBN: 080397230X
Week
3. Dilemmas of Group Life I: Founding Dilemmas
The
moment of founding is an especially tricky one -- a mere aggregation of people
have to agree to set enough of their autonomy aside to join together in a group
that, by definition, doesn't exist yet. What are the possibilities and perils
that are presented to a potential or nascent group at the moment of its
founding? How do choices about founding affect the subsequent life of the
group?
Assigned
Readings:
Logic
of Collective Action (Handout); Olsen, Mancur; ISBN: 0674537513
Experiences
in Groups (Handout); Bion, Wilfred; ISBN: 0674537513
"The
Nature of the Firm"; Coase, Ronald;
http://people.bu.edu/vaguirre/courses/bu332/nature_firm.pdf
First
Paper Assigned: Observe and describe an existing group in terms of its founding
characteristics, and describe how the group is affected by the moment of its
founding. 750-1000 words.
Week
4. Dilemmas of Group Life II: Continuity Dilemmas
Once
started, the ongoing life of a group presents several opportunities and
dilemmas. How do groups balance the tension between group and individual goals?
How do groups handle, or even detect, members who are not pulling their weight?
How do groups take in new information, and make binding decisions based on that
information? How do groups decide to fundamentally alter their makeup, or even
to cease existence?
Assigned
Readings:
Bowling
Alone (Handout); Putnam, Robert; ISBN: 0743203046
"Social
Capital"; Smith, Mark K.; http://www.infed.org/biblio/social_capital.htm
"Social
Capital and Civil Society"; Fukayama, Francis;
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/seminar/1999/reforms/fukuyama.htm#I
First
Paper Due
SECTION TWO: Technology and Its Effect on Groups
Week
5. Social Capital and Social Networks
With
the previous work as background, we are now in a position to ask how
technology, and particularly communications technology, affects group life.
What is a social network? What is social capital? What effect can
communications tools for groups have on social capital, both good and bad?
Assigned
Readings:
"Internet
Paradox Revisited"; Kraut, Robert et al.; http://virtualcommunity.haifa.ac.il/papers/ParadoxRevisited.pdf
"Lessons
from Lucasfilm's Habitat"; Morningstar, Chip and Randall Farmer;
http://www.fudco.com/chip/lessons.html
"My
Fiendster Experience"; Terbo Ted;
http://www.somalit.com/Fiendster_Experience.html
MID-TERM I: Work with a group of your classmates to find and describe a
group whose communications are at least partially mediated.
Week
6. The Internet's Effect on Group Life
Group
dynamics are highly variable, even within controlled situations. The historical
recounting of participation in groups is equally variable. What observations
can be made about the nature of group life, based on first hand accounts? What
forces or effects are common to the variable experiences of mediated group
life?
Assigned
Readings:
Life
on the Screen (Handout); Turkle, Sherry; ISBN: 0684833484
The
Psychology of the Internet (Handout); Wallace, Patricia; ISBN: 0521797098
MID-TERM
II: Work with a group of your classmates to imagine ways the functioning the group
you have chosen could be altered, for better or worse, by technological
changes.
Present and discuss your observations in class.
Assigned Readings:
"Rape In Cyberspace"; Dibbell, Julian;
http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle.html
"Kaycee
Nicole (Swenson) FAQ"; Adam@Rootnode.org;
http://www.rootnode.org/article.php?sid=26
"Autistic
Social Software"; boyd, danah;
http://www.danah.org/papers/Supernova2004.html
MID-TERM
III: Write up your conclusions about the group you observed.
Week
8. Membership and Identity
The
paradox of groups is that there can be no group without members, but there can
also be no members without a group, because what would they be members of? This
problem is more acute online, because so many of our cues about identity are
truncated online. How is identity formed and managed online? How is membership
managed? To what does membership attach, in an environment where identity is
poorly defined?
Assigned
Readings:
"Slashdot
FAQ"; Malda, Robert et al.; http://slashdot.org/faq/com-mod.shtml
Republic.com
(Handout); Sunstein, Cass; ISBN: 0691095892
"The
Internet and Democratic Debate"; Pew Charitable Trusts;
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/141/report_display.asp
Week
9. Moderation and Debate
"Shut
up!" "No, you shut
up!" Because mediated conversation lacks the real-world cues and
scarcities we rely on to preserve decorum, such conversation tends towards the
uncivil. This especially matters in deliberative environments, where the
conversation helps groups come to a sense of shared purpose. What tools and
techniques exist for allowing groups to self-moderate?
Assigned
Readings:
"A
Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace"; Barlow, John; http://homes.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html
"The
Open Compact"; Greenfield, Adam;
http://www.v-2.org/displayArticle.php?article_num=339
SECTION
THREE: The Shape of Things To Come?
Week
10. Governance and Contracts
At
some point, deliberation and agreement has to be backed up by something
stronger, if a group is to take significant action. In place of moderation and
debate comes governance and contracts; rules for coming to binding decisions,
and specifying negative outcomes for not abiding by those decisions. How do or
can relatively ephemeral groups take on the structure necessary for governance
or contracting?
Assigned
Readings:
"Netz
Netz"; Monochrom Arts Collective;
http://www.monochrom.at/english/2005/08/netznetz.htm
"Come
Together, Right Now"; Teachout, Zephyr;
http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/152
"Exiting
Deanspace"; Shirky, Clay; http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2004/02/03/exiting_deanspace.php
FINAL
I: Write a short paper detailing an area of group dynamics you'd like to
explore.
Week
11. Money and Politics
Money
is the most flexible source of power we have; awesome in its fluidity, and a
required input for many other forms of group effort. Political institutions
have made better use of the fund-raising capabilities of the new technologies
than any other institutional form. What tools allow a group to collect money?
To disburse it? What issues does money create for group dynamics? How have
political campaigns used these tools? What alternate ways might exist for them
to gather or use fundraising to attain their goals?
Assigned
Readings TBA, related to the guest
Week
12. Guest Lecturer
Guest
lecturer from an organization working to make mediated groups more effective.
Assigned
Readings:
Federalist
Papers (#10- Handout); Madison, James; ISBN: 0140444955
"The
Accountable Net"; Johnson, David et al.;
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=529022
FINAL
II: Select the area of group dynamics you will explore, and detail how you will
approach the problem.
Week
13. Open Problems in Group Dynamics
We
are just getting started. Although mediated support for group interaction has
been around for a few decades, it has only become ubiquitous in the last
several years, and the generation of people who understand it well enough to
take it for granted are only now coming into positions of power. What
challenges are emerging for mediated groups? What will happen when individual groups begin to collaborate or compete?
FINAL
III: Write up your findings, and prepare a presentation to the class.
Week
14. IN-CLASS CRIT OF FINAL PROJECTS