Informal communication : developing a thesis

blogs | discussion lists | departmental offices | "invisible colleges"

Description: Throughout the research and publication cycles researchers communicate with each other about issues related to their work. Most of this communication is accessible only to colleagues engaged in the same research track around the country and the world, groups that comprise "invisible colleges" across institutions and countries, organized around specific areas of interest.

Types of informal communication

Blogs and discussion lists
Blogs (abbreviation for "WeB LOGs") are online diaries or journals, frequently documenting the day-to-day reflections of an individual. Many blogs are shared on-line journals where visitors can post entries about their personal experiences or professional interests. Discussion lists are Internet-based subscription forums in which any interested party can join an online conversation on topics of interest to the group. Discussion lists are typically not open but require subscription, while blogs tend to be open for submission by any interested parties. Both types of resources are typically organized around a particular activity or interest.

Departmental offices
Sociology faculty keep their office hours in campus buildings and use the space to perform tasks related to their teaching and to discuss ideas for future and ongoing research, as well as the research of others in their field. Students are advantaged by having opportunities to talk to their course instructors and other faculty with whom they may share common interests. Spending time in departmental offices allows interested newcomers a chance to listen in on conversations, attend colloquia or seminars, and engage active researchers about ideas. Spending time talking with a course instructor or teaching assistant is one of the most effective ways of coming to understand assignment prompts, fundamental concepts and theories within a discipline, and acquiring "inside" information about research processes.

"Invisible colleges"
"Invisible College" describes a community that shares an interest in a common subject or discipline and communicates informally about it. The "college" is made up of a relatively small group of individuals who function as the scholarly in-group within a given specialization; and most of the significant research within that specialization is usually produced by its members. This research is facilitated by the informal exchange of information through contacts within this social/professional network at conferences, by e-mail, during hallway conversations, and in other forums.

STRENGTHS———
  • Currency -- allowing you to "listen in" to hot topic debates and collect information on current issues and directions before they even reach the research arena, let alone the stage of formal publication.
  • May provide an opportunity to see how research really takes place, the progress of a project as it comes together, becomes formalized, and enters the mainstream of the disciplinary knowledge base.
  • Permits discovery of names and contact information of people with whom you may share a common interest within the field, or who may have collected otherwise inaccessible data useful to your work.
CONSIDERATIONS—
  • Phone calls, most personal e-mail, diaries, letters, conversations, and other ephemera are (and will likely remain) off-limits to any but their immediate audiences. Letters and diaries of noted individuals are occasionally published posthumously.
  • Blogs, Web discussion lists, listservs, bulletin boards, and even chat-based communication often have searchable archives but they are of variable quality. They may also be ephemeral in nature, and may disappear without warning.
  • A lack of formal vocabularies and a frequent focus on issues not yet fully articulated through formal research and writing may make searching for what you need an adventure and a discovery. It may require a high level of familiarity with disciplinary subject matter. It may also require considerable time spent in browsing for discovery until you've accumulated enough knowledge to ask good questions.
  • Also, in cyberspace, everyone has a tendency to appear an "expert." What do you know about the person whose work you read? This material sometimes places a premium on your ability to independently evaluate information sources and their creators and owners.
  • Many of these sources are largely inaccessible to anyone outside of the individuals who engage in them directly. While conversations and phone calls may be overheard by others, they are not authoritative "evidence" for research findings and can seldom be retrieved at a later date (except by law enforcement officials) for verification and use.

Examples of finding aids for informal Sociology communication

Google Groups
Google maintains a searchable archive of postings to thousands of discussion lists and group bulletin boards in a variety of disciplines. A search using the term "alt.sci.sociology," for example, turns up a reverse chronological list of postings to that list. If you don't know the name of a group, try searching a term along with the word "sociology."

World Systems Archive
"The purpose of this electronic archive is the promote the free exchange of information relevant to the study and understanding of the modern world-system and earlier intersocietal networks. The archive contains documents, books, data, biographical information, bibliographies, newsletters, and the archives of conversations that have taken place on WSN. The archive is also the main respository of the Journal of World-Systems Research."

Sociology Department offices
By making appointments with faculty in Sociology (or, indeed, even hanging out in the departmental office) one can be present when conversation and activity relevant to specific research is taking place. Some faculty are less inclined to discuss this information with students until it is formally concluded; but others will share freely with those who express a scholarly interest.
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