[liberationtech] Cyber-sceptics wanted!

[Peter Lindener]

It's interesting to note here, that if one manages to learn much at all here
regarding the the thresholds of change, strength of social relationships,
etc,  in relation to the modes of interpersonal communication involved...

  That such models are apt to rapidly go obsolete, as the Internet also
brings on line Social Decision systems ( democratic word processors, and
blog-a-spheric best idea distillation percolators ) that will likley to
bring significant coherence to the perception of there being some sense of a
well articulated public sentiment...

  -Peter



On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 2:48 AM, Giuseppe A. Veltri <ga.veltri at gmail.com>wrote:

> As much as I am sympathetic to those arguing for more attention to
> "extra-Net" variables, there is no need to rediscover the wheel. Literature
> and theories on social change are out there at least from the 17th century.
> There are plenty of complex models that includes all sort of variables to
> explain social change.
> However, people of this mailing list (I suppose) are focusing on specific
> research questions and this is not to say that all other variables are
> irrelevant. Nobody does or should elect ICT as the "primum mobile" of social
> change in the countries in questions.
> To determine the role(s) of these technologies in  social change is a
> legitimate question. It is because, even considering typical variables
> (unemployment, food scarcity, etc..),  individual dissatisfaction does not
> necessarily translate in collective demonstrations. As documented elsewhere
> [1], to assume a linear relationship between individual hardships and
> uprising  is dangerous. This is because an uprising is not a linear
> aggregation of individual dissatisfaction. Another important condition is
> that have actors that help organize a collective response and in that
> undeniably ICT plays a role . Thus, this might be the case for what happened
> in the countries mentioned in this thread.
>
> Thanks
>
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