conceptual framework

after reading the Ragin chapters, i would like you to use wednesday's blog post as an opportunity to think about how a conceptual framework would help you frame your project.

begin by stating the latest formulation of your research question. by now you should be able to pose a specific question that can be plausibly answered within the scope of our program. select one of the conceptual approaches presented by Jessica this quarter (or some other theoretical framing of your choosing) and provide some brief comments about how and/or why it helps you think about your particular social phenomenon/space/place/object of interest/etc.

we will draw on your individual posts for discussion material on wednesday--posts are due by 5:00pm before class. also, for most of you, this exercise will occur before your scheduled group meeting, so think of it as part of your meeting preparation.

2008 Honors in Amsterdam social gathering

Welcome 2008 cohort, alumni, and faculty. This Saturday Jessica and I would like to invite you to a social gathering in downtown Seattle. It will be a pot-luck bbq in my swanky condo lounge.

Saturday, May 10, 2008, 1-4pm

Pot-luck BBQ: bring something to share and/or grill

The Cosmopolitan Lounge
819 Virginia St. 9th Floor
Seattle, WA 98101
tel: (206) 356-7140 (Clifford's cell)

directions & map

bus: The 71, 72, 73 buses from UW are frequent (approx every 10 minutes). you can pick up the bus across the street from Solstice cafe on University Ave at 42nd St. Get off the bus at the downtown bus station, walk north to 9th & Virginia.

parking- there is street parking of the sort where you pay at a centralized meter and are provided a parking sticker. if you drive, i would recommend car-pooling.

scholarship

in his new book, The Emergence of Genetic Rationality, our guest on wednesday, Philip Thurtle, maps the ways in which genetic information has been organized over the years. he argues that modes of organization and processing of genetic information have shaped how we view ourselves. "In a very real sense, the social need and the technical capacity to articulate a concept of heredity reliant upon heritable traits emerged from the circuits of recordkeeping, clerical divisions of labor, data analysis, new forms of institutional memory, and rationalized communication and transportation practices of the era—what we today might call “information processing.” "

in the youtube video titled, "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us" Mike Wesch illustrates how we (users of the web) contribute to the organization of information on the web. both authors deal with the organization of information and how this organization shapes our view of reality. philip tells a story about how methods of scientific inquiry have shaped how we think about ourselves. mike tells a story about how users of the internet shape the organization of information about the world.

the blog assignment for tomorrow is to think about the medium each author uses to communicate their research. thurtle uses a print medium (a book) to articulate his ideas and wesch uses video (youtube). thinking in terms of your respective research projects, what are the affordances and limitations of these two modes of communication? who will benefit from the findings of your research and what is an effective way to reach your expected audience?