Richard Sennett, Sociology, and the Internet. (An idiots brief perspective)
May 1st, 2007 by Edward Pollard
Something that really caught my attention today was part one of a two part Ideas episode on Richard Sennett, Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Professor of the Humanities at New York University. Titled Flesh and Stone, it discusses Sennetts’ ideas on how culture influenced city planning and how city planning influenced culture. It was deeply interesting stuff, if only because Sennett is an extraordinarily charismatic and erudite speaker. I can listen to anything when that’s the case. You can download both parts if you subscribe to the podcast here - it’s in the archives.
Specifically, I got to thinking how Sennetts’ notion of the fall of public man relates to internet culture. In brief, in the 19th century society had many spaces where people would go to engage publicly, these places (pubs, coffee houses, etc) allowed individuals of many classes to mingle and communicate. Strict social disciplines, derived from theatric performance, regulated this interchange. Thus was created space, physically and intellectually, that allowed people to selectively express their feelings and emotions; that is to say that they created and displayed personas. This was normal behaviour and created a rich social tapestry.
In the modern era, we have gone out of our way to sterilize public space. Random communal exchange does not occur. We only go to coffee houses and pubs to meet people we already know. And deprived of a space to engage in displaying a persona to the word, we become excessive introverts who think World of Warcraft is actually a good time. Participation then becomes abstracted, the machine sitting between the involved parties, and my thought that this was unlike the social arenas of the pre-modern era accountability goes right out the window. How valid is participation without that accountability? How genuine is the social exchange? I only understand these ideas clumsily, but enough to spark some interest. I should ask Paul the M.Sc. Ph.D in Sociology student to explain it to me.
Juvenile brain says: I think this supports my idea that “strangers on the internet are stupid”.
Serious brain says: how can e-commerce transactions be supported by better understanding the human desire for participation, and for personas, in their digital society? That sounds like a neat question.
Hey,
I only just found your blog today, and I think you raise some interesting points. I too listened to that Sennett interview (I especially liked the parts about his relationship with Hannah Ardent, but that is for another day).
I think you are on the right track, for the most part. The thing is that SOME people are participating in digital culture, and choosing this participation over participation in the “Real World.” My question is whether these people would be participating in the offline if they didn’t have the online, assuming all other things constant? That is, with the rise of post-modern cities, and “globalization,” but without the ability to communicate with strangers online (in any form), would those people instead be meeting up with strangers at coffee shops and pubs?
My guess is that they wouldn’t. I was at the Penny coffee house this morning (I go there often, and know the owners and a few of the “Regulars”), and did not speak to one single person. I am fairly outgoing, and will continue a conversation when one is started, even striking up the odd conversation from time to time. Yet, this is entirely unrelated to my participation in a wide variety of online communities (mostly music and sociology related blogs and message boards).
There are many online arenas where the discourse is low, the user-base uneducated, easy to provoke, lots of flaming, etc. etc. Yet, there are also many well educated, well spoken areas of the web that challenge, provoke thought, and also help me (in finding the rare album I am looking for, or editing a paper or what have you).
My response is that there are lots of stupid people online, I just choose to avoid them (much like in my offline life).
I am working on a paper on this very topic, with a friend of mine who is a brilliant social theorist. I will send it along when it is finished (later this summer hopefully!). In the meantime, you really need to take my Sociology of Digital Culture class (this summer, or in the spring semester it is a night class that you are welcome to audit for free if you want).
Heh. You snuck your comment in on me Paul.
I hope to take you up on your offer but I regret we may need to wait until the spring as the summer schedule is much too hectic to allow it to fit in.
I find myself not having the time to properly indulge any of my thoughts on this matter anyway. Every time I have a notion or an idea I find I have no framework to properly nuture it, and it spins off into the ether unrealized.
I’ve been trying to gt my way through the Fall of Public Man but its slow going as time has not been on my side.