Chicago 2006 CGSG Sponsored Sessions |
||
|
|
Actual places and imagined places blend into each other
in mediated representations. From the fantasy environments of computer
games to the online representations of Middle America to the notorious
and semi-mythical origins of spam, this session charts the blurry line
between place and virtual place. Michael W. Longan - Valparaiso University Communication and the Construction of Community Social movements, ethnic groups, and interest groups depend on various media for their formation and maintenance. This session explores how community-building activities have employed various types of communication to create a sense of solidarity and shared identity, as well as the closely related issue of privacy.
Michael R. Curry - University of California, Los Angeles
and Leah A Lievrouw - University of California, Los Angeles James Tedrick - University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Communication
Networks and Messages Kristof a.m. Van Assche - St. Cloud State University Geographies of Media I: Cinema Amy Siciliano - University of Toronto Geographies
of Media II: Media and Society Sarah F Ives - University of Washington Geographies of Media III: Media Spatialities James Craine - San Diego State University Jason Dittmer - Georgia Southern University Harald Bauder - University Of Guelph Ken Hillis - University Of North Carolina - Chapel
Hill M. Marian Mustoe, Ph.D. - Eastern Oregon University The Rise of the Network Security Society From Castells to Hardt and Negri, and from Latour to G.W. Bush, everyone is talking about "the Network." And "The Network" has become an indispensable framework for critical geographical understandings of the varied spatial interdependencies and technological linkages of contemporary social life. In many ways, The Network (taken literally or metaphorically) has come to embody a certain kind liberation (and democratization); of political and cultural expression, of economic exchange, of social reproduction and consumption. The Network promises to provide us with infinite choice, of entertainment, affiliations, consumables, and it ensures us that such choice is our right. But in recent years, rather than freedom it is Security--controlling who and what is allowed to access, compose, and circulate within The Network--that dominates popular, political, and economic concern. The landscapes and technological forms that allowed for the new-found freedoms of international personal banking, exotic food consumption, or transcontinental video conversations, now cast a shadow of suspicion, paranoia, and terror at the threat of infection, contamination, or worse, disintegration altogether. This session examines The Network, broadly cast, and particularly the maintenance of its security as a form of hegemonic power and seeks to understand the technologies, landscapes, and activities that underpin and resist it. This session seeks to critically examine the "Rise of the Network Security Society," its contradictions, power, and prospects. Carrie Breitbach - Chicago State University Matt Hidek – Syracuse University Clayton Rosati - University of Vermont Discussant: Scott Kirsch - University of North Carolina Postmodern Geographies of Experience
(Panel Discussion) • Methodology: how do we access experience in a social
context? Organizers Panelists Virtual learning communities in geographic higher education (Panel Discussion) Session Description: A virtual community is a group whose members share common interests in cyberspace rather than in physical space. Such communities can exist by means of discussion groups, chat rooms, listservs, and blogs, as well as function as clearinghouses for interest-based internet resources. The role of virtual "learning" communities in the future of higher education may be linked to their ability to straddle traditional research universities and the growing number of distance-learning projects. Geography is ideally suited to lead the charge in this arena (and should!) due to its interdisciplinary nature and tradition of innovative use of new technologies. Virtual communities have the capacity to create a sense of immediacy and intimate contact with the subject matter of interest. This can foster personal investment and collaboration in teaching and learning among individuals and groups in distant locations and different types of institutions. We envision online "places" where students, faculty/researchers, citizen stakeholders, and policy makers can "interact' and discuss common interests, collaborate, and access images and teaching materials both inside and outside of the strictly academic realm. As distance educators, we also feel virtual learning communities can expedite distance learning and cultivate cross-intuitional collaborative courses. This panel will address what makes a successful online community, how virtual learning environments might be used in both teaching and research, and geography's role in its innovation. Organizer
|
|
Updated March 17, 2006