Rob Kling In Search of One Good Theory

Rob Kling's legacy is a corpus of work that exemplifies the craft of inquiry and the social enterprise of science. This article examines his contribution to social informatics through an analysis of the multiple theories, methods, and sources of evidence he relied on to make his arguments about the social life of computing and the consequences of computerization. His citation identity demonstrates that he transcended disciplinary boundaries but grounded his analysis of the political and social order in interpretive theory and critique. Kling created a working vocabulary for theorizing about computerization and social life. His sustained inquiry and critique, a very public record of his work, enthusiasm, and charisma, contributed to the penetration of his ideas and the fostering of a world-wide community of interest for a domain of study called social informatics.     

Going Critical: Perspective and Proportion in the Epistemology of Rob Kling

One foundational element of Rob Kling's research and writing is his critical perspective on the nature, role, and dynamics of computerization. His main argument was that one should view as dubious any statements that are not grounded in empirical evidence or theoretical analysis. Rob's work was replete with critical refutation, in which he challenged assumptions or statements about computerization and provided alternative interpretations. Much of his work delivered indictments against hyperbolic statements that claimed either utopian or dystopian outcomes from computerization. However, some of his own writings on emerging technologies tended to be dismissive and marginalizing, revealing in his own work some of the weaknesses he pointed out in others' rhetoric and writing. This article identifies intellectual traps inherent in critical perspectives that can catch even the most acute practitioners. The objective is to help elucidate and stabilize the epistemological foundations for Rob's critical perspective on the role of computerization.     

Going Critical: Perspective and Proportion in the Epistemology of Rob Kling 1

One foundational element of Rob Kling's research and writing is his critical perspective on the nature, role, and dynamics of computerization. His main argument was that one should view as dubious any statements that are not grounded in empirical evidence or theoretical analysis. Rob's work was replete with critical refutation, in which he challenged assumptions or statements about computerization and provided alternative interpretations. Much of his work delivered indictments against hyperbolic statements that claimed either utopian or dystopian outcomes from computerization. However, some of his own writings on emerging technologies tended to be dismissive and marginalizing, revealing in his own work some of the weaknesses he pointed out in others' rhetoric and writing. This article identifies intellectual traps inherent in critical perspectives that can catch even the most acute practitioners. The objective is to help elucidate and stabilize the epistemological foundations for Rob's critical perspective on the role of computerization.     

Peers and Spheres of Influence: Situating Rob Kling

In this article we employ a number of bibliometric techniques to capture Rob Kling's intellectual impact and influences over the course of his varied career. We analyze his many publications in terms of type, topic, impact, and rate of co-authorship. We provide a detailed deconstruction of his citation identity (all those scholars whom he cited) and also his citation image makers (all those scholars who cited his work). In addition, we analyze acknowledgment data to gain deeper insights into the sociocognitive networks that sustained, and were sustained by Kling throughout his career.     

Peers and Spheres of Influence: Situating Rob Kling

In this article we employ a number of bibliometric techniques to capture Rob Kling's intellectual impact and influences over the course of his varied career. We analyze his many publications in terms of type, topic, impact, and rate of co-authorship. We provide a detailed deconstruction of his citation identity (all those scholars whom he cited) and also his citation image makers (all those scholars who cited his work). In addition, we analyze acknowledgment data to gain deeper insights into the sociocognitive networks that sustained, and were sustained by Kling throughout his career.     

Sociological Rob: How Rob Kling Brought Computing and Sociology Together

We examine practice theories concerned with knowledge sharing in complex organizations to distinguish common trends and variations in this complex body of work. We suggest that an analytical framework highlighting the relational thinking in practice theories can serve as a tool to sort through the literature on knowledge sharing. First, we delineate a relational framework consisting of seven attributes associated with a practice theory. Second, we use this framework to analyze a narrow set of practice theories represented by three seminal works on communities of practice. Third, we compare and contrast the relational dynamics found in the three seminal works in regard to how they conceptualize knowledge sharing within and across communal boundaries.     

Memorial: The Social Construction of Rob Kling

Abstract

This paper summarizes the concept of privacy, reviews some of its underlying tenets and axioms, illustrates the drift toward a national counterprivacy posture in terms of events involving the Social Security number (SSN), and discusses new faces in terms of three case histories: the California action to require SSNs on driver's licenses, the effort by telephone companies to introduce calling number identification, and the aggregation of public records into dossier databases. Remedial actions by government and legislators are suggested.     

情报学理论发展动力观的构想

情报学理论内在的矛盾和冲突,既是情报学学科生死存亡的转换枢纽,又是其发展动力的生发带。情报学体系化与问题化的冲突、情报学理论与情报实践的紧张、情报学化与非情报学化的危机这三对矛盾与情报学发展紧密缠结在一起,情报学理论发展的每个转向都与它们相关。情报学不同发展阶段对这些矛盾的解决方式、解决程度生动展示着这个时代情报学理论的主导精神和成熟水平。     

Rob Kling Remembered: The Early Beginnings of Social Analysis of Computing in the URBIS Project 1

This article challenges conventional policy development and evaluation approaches that emphasize the instrumental side of technology. There is a growing gap between conventional planning and evaluation approaches for rural broadband ICTs that seek to demonstrate a direct link between investments and results on the one hand, and on the other, with evidence that the contribution of ICTs to rural economic, social and cultural wellbeing is increasingly difficult to demonstrate beyond short-term measurable indicators. The article proposes an alternative paradigm based on sociotechnical systems, stakeholder engagement, an acknowledgment of the multiple dimensions at play, and the growing evidence of unpredictability of ICTs. The article emphasizes a perspective based on “contribution,” not attribution; policymaking that is both adaptive and inclusive of multiple perspectives; methodological testing of emerging evaluation methodologies; and projects as learning experiments. This alternative theoretical and policymaking paradigm is encapsulated in a metaphor based on the management of natural resources where stakeholders track their own indicators of impact by reading how the system responds to a project intervention.     

Revisiting Marx's Value Theory: Elements of a Critical Theory of Immaterial Labor in Informational Capitalism

Beginning with a reading of Marx proposed by the critical theory of value, the assumptions of Fuchs (2010) and Arvidsson and Colleoni (2012) in the debate on value creation in informational capitalism are analyzed. The theorization of immaterial labor proposed by these authors is limited in its capacity to articulate a radical critique of political economy. Since the immaterial labor theory is marked by the absence of a dialectical critique of knowledge forms constituted under capitalism, it cannot advance Marx's push for a critique of the categories of political economy. The dynamics of capitalism entail a process of alienation that is not limited to exploiting the work done immediately by the producers; they also generate an alienation of forms of knowledge: the alienation of the “general intellect” itself.     

基于扎根理论的创业机会开发研究梳理与未来展望

运用扎根理论的方法,通过对在创业领域有较高影响力的期刊所刊文献进行扎根分析,系统梳理目前创业机会开发研究呈现出的多元研究现状,此基础上提出创业机会开发研究的整合模型,分析和预测该领域未来需要重点关注的问题。     

论经济周期与信息周期理论

经济周期是指经济活动中的循环往复周期性的繁荣和萧条,经济周期超越经济体制和经济发展阶段,它普遍存在于世界范围内所有的经济现象中。经济周期的研究至今已有200多年的历史,其理论演变可以分为4个时期,分别是古典经济周期理论,新古典经济周期理论,凯恩斯经济周期理论和现代经济周期理论,其中信息周期理论是现代周期理论新兴理论。发现并掌握经济周期的规律是宏观经济学的一个主要内容,对国家宏观经济建设至关重要。     

关于增强士官学员政治理论课教学效果的思考

准确把握影响士官学员政治理论学习热情的思想问题,通过有针对性地实施教学改革：更新教育观念以形成师生良性互动,改革教学内容以提高教学针对性,改进教学方法以激发学习兴趣,改变考核方式以达到育人终极目的,切实增强士官学员政治理论课的教学效果。     

浅谈高校思想政治理论课教学的创新

高校思想政治理论课肩负着培养社会主义合格人才的神圣使命,而当前高校思想政治理论课教学存在脱离社会、脱离学生生活实际等现象,让教学面临困境。只有锐意改革,勇于创新,创新教学理念、创新教学方法、创新考核机制、创新教师队伍组成,才能丰富学生的知识、提升学生的思想道德修养、塑造学生健全的人格,完成好这门课程的教学目标。     

理论情报学的内涵认知

从理论情报学的科学地位出发,介绍了目前理论情报学发展过程中形成的一些主要观点和其所具备的特点,最后对理论情报学的基本内容进行了逻辑归纳。     

系统论视域下思想政治理论课实践教学模式的构建

近年来思想政治理论教育受到了越来越多人的重视,系统论能够很好地构建思想政治理论教学模式,这样就需要对系统论有很好的把握。本文从系统论在思想政治理论实践教学中存在的意义出发,找到符合系统论的思想政治理论课程,在此基础之上,构建出思想政治理论实践教学的基本模式。     

论比较情报学的理论体系

简述了比较情报学的产生背景,分析了这一领域的国内外研究状况。认为比较情报学是比较研究各时间或空间之间的情报理论与实践的状况、规律、发展趋势的矛盾性(差异性和统一性)的情报学分支学科。对比较情报学的研究范围、原则、方法论等问题进行了探讨。     

从社会信息学角度看信息能力的评价标准

From the viewpoint d social informatics, this article discusses the evaluation criteria of information litera-cy in 3 aspects. Social informatics is the theoretical basis on which the evaluation criteria of information literacy can be for-mulated. The development of social informatics widens the connotation of the evaluation criteria of information literacy.And the evaluation criteria d information literacy have a solid sociological foundation.