A Critical Examination of the History of Communication in Kingston: Technology’s role in Social Justice in the Kingston Community

“There is properly no history; only biography”-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nate Preston, Allan MacAulay, John El-KhazenOPIRG People’s History Project

OPIRG and the PHP

Collaborating with:-Ontario Public Interest Research Group Kingston-People’s History Project

•Records local histories•Archives are organized into a library of folders that focus on different local histories•Focuses on histories or movements which are not typically covered in the dominant discourse

History?

• “What is history, given that there is continually being produced within it a separation of true and false?... what historical knowledge is possible of a history that itself produces the true/false distinction on which such knowledge depends?”

(Foucault, 2000, p.233)

Dorris Lessing Prisons We Choose To Live Inside

• “There is no epoch in history that seems to us as it must have to the people who lived through it. What we live through, in any age, is the effect on us of mass emotions and of social conditions from which it is almost impossible to detach ourselves,”

(Lessing, 1986, p.13)

History…

• If history is enmeshed with power structures, then our project hopes to decentralize this power and bring a voice to those who are not represented by the dominant groups charged with producing and transmitting these truths.

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs)

Montjuic Communications Tower: Barcelona, Spain

What are ICTs?

-Telephones?-Email?-Hearing Aids?-Books?

What are ICTs?

“…I’d like to focus for a moment on the human consequences which are particularly evident in what are called communications technologies, and which I would like to call “non-communications” technologies because very often that word, “communication” is a misnomer. Whenever human activities incorporate machines or rigidly prescribed procedures, the modes of human interaction change.”

(Franklin, 1999, p42)

• Qualitative research in the form of interviews• Promote a space where local ontologies and epistemologies

can be heard• Promote Social Justice through cogenerative learning

(Greenwood and Levin, 2007, p.92)

Methods

Methods

• Maintain horizontal group structures by meeting regularly and actively promoting communication between group members and the PHP

• Must be actively aware of the transformative nature of transcriptions

(Kvale, 1996, p.163)

Professor Robert Lovelace

• Adjunct Professor in Development Studies, and a member of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation

• Has been incarcerated for 6 months and fined $25,000 for contempt of court (ie. "failing to acknowledge" that the Crown has the ability to supersede Algonquin law).

• Justice Douglas Cunningham’s decision to give Professor Lovelace the maximum possible sentence has been widely accused of being vastly unfair, and Amnesty International has condemned the sentence.

-Facebook group “Free Bob Lovelace”-Actively rallying support from Queen’s, Kingston, and other communities-5000+ Members

Percentage of Group Members Active on the Group ‘Wall’

Passive98%

Wall Posters2%

Active Wall Posters (3 or more posts)

0.44%

Wall Posters

Active Wall Posters(3 or more posts)

Passive

Can this be explained?

• “a consumer model of politics has overtaken the online world… power domination schemes felt by citizens in the offline world have transferred to the online world.”

(Dahlberg, Lincoln, and Siapera, 2007)

• Can Facebook break from dominant discourse?

What does the community think?

• Interviewed two leaders of “Free Bob Lovelace”

Their views:• Allows instantaneous communication,

over great distances• Connects different communities working

towards common goals -Interesting to note “communities” are

assumed to be grounded in offline world

What does the community think?

• Number of active members higher than my pie chart suggests

• Many come to events• Spreading the word is important:

members may not all be active but they can inform themselves

What does the community think?

• Complain of corporate influence on the internet

• Feel internet is a privilege, not everyone has access

• Less tact online, more confrontational

• What generational differences exist if any, regarding the use of the Internet as a tool for social justice?

Facebook and Social Justice

• Facebook is seen as a service• We cannot assume its role is inert• Lack of reciprocity• The ramifications of this ICT are a mixed

blessing

What are some definitions of Community?

• Paul Goodman: Speaks of the need for direct connection to the land and the people, a close relation to personal and productive environments and, a deeper connection between means of livelihood and ways of life.

• Every Community Plan involves:-Technology-Standards of Living-Political and Economic Decisions-Geography and History of a Place

(Goodman, 1960, p.7)

Community…

• Biology:

-”Any grouping of populations of different organisms that are found living together in a particular environment”

(Allaby, 1999, “community” A Dictionary of Zoology)

Community…

• Physics?

(Oxford Reference Library, 2008, A Dictionary of Physics)

(Oxford Reference Library, 2008, A Dictionary of Physics)

Physics

• Could not find a definition for community!

Engineers and Community

• Esteva and Prakash criticize “think global, act local”

(Esteva and Prakash, 1998, p.162)

• Legitimizes global paradigm

Fog Collection in El Tofo

• Fog collection works, but imports Western values

• Successful system abandoned for piped water system associated with Western conception of “success”

(Dale, 2003, IDRC Research Results)

So…

• How do engineers think local, and act local??! Can they?

• Do ICT’s require a dramatic change in our understanding of what it means to be local?

• Does local refer to geographic proximity only?

Bibliography

All photos,Flickr. “Creative Commons: Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License,” http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

"community"  A Dictionary of Zoology. Ed. Michael Allaby. Oxford University Press, 1999. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.  Queen's University.  3 March 2008  http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=

t8.e2010Dahlberg, L., & Siapera, E. (2007). Radical democracy and the internet : Interrogating theory and practice. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Dale, S. (2003). Collecting fog on el tofo (IDRC Reasearch Results. Ottawa, Ontario: IDRC. Emerson, R. W. (1983). Essays and lectures. New York: Literay Classics of the United States : distributed by The Viking Press.Esteva, G., & Prakash, M. S. (Sept-Oct 1994). From global to local thinking. The Ecologist, 24, n5. p.162(2). Retrieved April 05, 2008, from Expanded Academic ASAP via Gale:

http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=EAIM Facebook. (2008). Press room: About facebook. Retrieved March 30, 2008, 2008, from http://www.facebook.com.proxy.queensu.ca/press.php Foucault, M., Faubion, J. D., & Hurley, R. (2000). Power [Selections.] . New York: New Press.

Bibliography

Franklin, U. M. (1999). The real world of technology (Rev. ed.). Toronto, Ont.: Anansi.Goodman, P., & Goodman, P. (1960). Communitas; means of livelihood and ways of life (2d , rev. ed.). New York: Vintage Books. Greenwood, D. J., & Levin, M. (2007). Introduction to action research : Social research for social change (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA ; London: Sage Publications. Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews : An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. Lessing, D. M., CBC Enterprises, & Ideas. (1986). Prisons we choose to live inside.

Montreal: CBC Enterprises. Oxford Reference Library. “A Dictionary of Physics,” http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t8.e2010