Blogs in previous literature have been vaunted as the answer to the problem of uneven access to p... more Blogs in previous literature have been vaunted as the answer to the problem of uneven access to political information and media. Using a sociological framework based on cultural capital concepts within the context of a liberal democratic society, this essay dispels the optimistic notion that the blogosphere has succeeded in leveling access to political information rather than preserving traditional media’s distributive power dynamics. Due to the significance of social recognition in building readership, the dynamics of cultural capital within traditional media also act as the currency of legitimacy in the blogosphere. Researchers in the future should focus on the social processes of bottom-up news consumption, especially with the rise of multi-directional and conversational social blogging platforms that transcend one- directional production and consumption.
At the turn of the 20th century, London’s proliferating female ‘Clubland’ began challenging the d... more At the turn of the 20th century, London’s proliferating female ‘Clubland’ began challenging the default of domesticity available to Victorian women in the context of their social lives. This paper argues that at a time when women first entered public life, women used social capital within the upper and middle classes in order to form a supportive, institutionalized network as defensive measure against the exclusionary maleness of public culture. In adhering to cultural, class-bound practices of male clubbing, this social institution provided a safe space within the male-dominated public sphere where women could productively and safely participate in public life.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the engineer became a professional beacon of hope for ... more At the beginning of the twentieth century, the engineer became a professional beacon of hope for American society for certain social theorists. Frederick Winslow Taylor as one of these theorists not only saw engineers as executive leaders for the management of human labor, but also as a tool that would successfully bring about enduring prosperity for the American economy.1 However, this propitious vision of the engineer as a powerful managerial figure that structures factories for more efficient production and social prosperity came into question during the Cold War Era. As the United States became mired in a precarious conflict with the Soviet Union—a conflict to which engineers contributed with their technological expertise—the American public began to doubt the idea of the engineer as a symbol for social progress. Through an analysis on “how the Engineer was lost,”2 I argue that the deterioration of the engineer’s public image resulted from two fears associated with the Cold War, fears that led to both increased economic focus on the nuclear war effort and the conceptual coupling of the engineer with secretive government power. As a result, the American public during this period characterized the engineer as an individualistic professional figure whose fixation with the war industry resulted in a loss of dedication to social progress that had been more evident in the earlier years of the twentieth century.
In this paper, I examine nationalism on the Patriot Alliance Net, a popular bulletin board system... more In this paper, I examine nationalism on the Patriot Alliance Net, a popular bulletin board system for pro-China discussions among Chinese netizens at the time and a primary public space with which these Chinese Internet users expressed their anti-Japanese sentiments by initiating discussion threads with other users. I explain the anti-Japanese postings on the Patriot Alliance Net as a nationalistic backlash toward Japan’s UNSC bid and the Japanese Ministry of Education’s approval of the revised textbook. Furthermore, I argue that, on one hand, the PAN served as a safe virtual space with which nationalism among netizens could unfold that allowed the Chinese government to maintain discreet, indirect control over their activities and, on the other, as a potential site for citizen-organized, nationalist demonstrations off of this virtual landscape. The ramifications for this conceptualization of the electronic BBS as a bounded space used to organize mass movements are significant as the Chinese Communist Party continues to wrestle with the Internet and its potential to disrupt both domestic social stability and China’s image abroad that the Party strives to maintain.
Blogs in previous literature have been vaunted as the answer to the problem of uneven access to p... more Blogs in previous literature have been vaunted as the answer to the problem of uneven access to political information and media. Using a sociological framework based on cultural capital concepts within the context of a liberal democratic society, this essay dispels the optimistic notion that the blogosphere has succeeded in leveling access to political information rather than preserving traditional media’s distributive power dynamics. Due to the significance of social recognition in building readership, the dynamics of cultural capital within traditional media also act as the currency of legitimacy in the blogosphere. Researchers in the future should focus on the social processes of bottom-up news consumption, especially with the rise of multi-directional and conversational social blogging platforms that transcend one- directional production and consumption.
At the turn of the 20th century, London’s proliferating female ‘Clubland’ began challenging the d... more At the turn of the 20th century, London’s proliferating female ‘Clubland’ began challenging the default of domesticity available to Victorian women in the context of their social lives. This paper argues that at a time when women first entered public life, women used social capital within the upper and middle classes in order to form a supportive, institutionalized network as defensive measure against the exclusionary maleness of public culture. In adhering to cultural, class-bound practices of male clubbing, this social institution provided a safe space within the male-dominated public sphere where women could productively and safely participate in public life.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the engineer became a professional beacon of hope for ... more At the beginning of the twentieth century, the engineer became a professional beacon of hope for American society for certain social theorists. Frederick Winslow Taylor as one of these theorists not only saw engineers as executive leaders for the management of human labor, but also as a tool that would successfully bring about enduring prosperity for the American economy.1 However, this propitious vision of the engineer as a powerful managerial figure that structures factories for more efficient production and social prosperity came into question during the Cold War Era. As the United States became mired in a precarious conflict with the Soviet Union—a conflict to which engineers contributed with their technological expertise—the American public began to doubt the idea of the engineer as a symbol for social progress. Through an analysis on “how the Engineer was lost,”2 I argue that the deterioration of the engineer’s public image resulted from two fears associated with the Cold War, fears that led to both increased economic focus on the nuclear war effort and the conceptual coupling of the engineer with secretive government power. As a result, the American public during this period characterized the engineer as an individualistic professional figure whose fixation with the war industry resulted in a loss of dedication to social progress that had been more evident in the earlier years of the twentieth century.
In this paper, I examine nationalism on the Patriot Alliance Net, a popular bulletin board system... more In this paper, I examine nationalism on the Patriot Alliance Net, a popular bulletin board system for pro-China discussions among Chinese netizens at the time and a primary public space with which these Chinese Internet users expressed their anti-Japanese sentiments by initiating discussion threads with other users. I explain the anti-Japanese postings on the Patriot Alliance Net as a nationalistic backlash toward Japan’s UNSC bid and the Japanese Ministry of Education’s approval of the revised textbook. Furthermore, I argue that, on one hand, the PAN served as a safe virtual space with which nationalism among netizens could unfold that allowed the Chinese government to maintain discreet, indirect control over their activities and, on the other, as a potential site for citizen-organized, nationalist demonstrations off of this virtual landscape. The ramifications for this conceptualization of the electronic BBS as a bounded space used to organize mass movements are significant as the Chinese Communist Party continues to wrestle with the Internet and its potential to disrupt both domestic social stability and China’s image abroad that the Party strives to maintain.
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