David Bell

Bio: David Bell is an academic researcher from University of Leeds. The author has contributed to research in topics: Tourism & Queer. The author has an hindex of 52, co-authored 214 publications receiving 14873 citations. Previous affiliations of David Bell include University of California, Los Angeles & Staffordshire University.

Webs as pegs

Abstract: The lengthy and often heated debate on “on-line community” is, as this essay argues, often an argument about either (a) the fate of community today, or (b) the effects of technology on social relations. While the arguments against virtual community tend to start from the “bowling alone” position (accepting that community in its “traditional” sense has disappeared, is disappearing, or is under the threat of disappearance in contemporary society), there is a need to move on from this in order to think more productively about the contemporary constitution of community, especially in relation to new communications technologies. To that end, this chapter has a number of springboards. The first is Bauman’s dismissal of many contemporary forms of something-like-community as “peg communities” – as coat pegs on which we choose to temporarily hang parts of our identities. The second is Miller’s formulation of “webs as traps” – an investigation of the ways in which the aesthetics of the web interface are used to capture the attention of passing surfers. The third is Bakardjieva’s discussion of “immobile socialization” in relation to how on-line community participants weave on-line and offline parts of their everyday lives (and everyday communities) together. Finally, the essay returns to Bauman but then applies some of Giddens’ ideas about intimacy, to suggest that “peg communities” could be recast as “pure communities,” and through that discussion, to move towards a call for a more useful, contextual, less polemical debate about (virtual) community.

Fucking Geography, Again

Abstract: The Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting in San Francisco, 1994 turned out, sometimes incongruously, to be a rather queer time and place. Though my recollections of it are patchy at best, I want to use this essay to reflect on that time and place, on the life of a paper from that meeting – my paper, which started life as ‘Fucking Geography’ – and the on-going trouble of talking about fucking in geography, a trouble that that paper sought to confront, but which it also fell foul of. Let me start with the story…Getting to go to the AAG in San Francisco was an amazing opportunity, and lots of UK geographers made the trip. The AAG is one of those astounding academic mega-events: held in swanky hotels, attracting hundreds upon hundreds of people, most of them presenting and listening to short papers in countless parallel streams for days on end. It’s overwhelming, giving a sense of the sheer bulk of the discipline and something of its diversity – or, at least, the version of diversity manifest in a US, mainstream academic context. It’s a fascinating occasion to ponder what geography looks like, and – or so it seemed to me and my contemporaries, all postgrads or very junior faculty – a golden opportunity to push at the boundaries of the discipline.

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

Abstract: The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Economics of Information

Abstract: The author systematically examines one of the important issues of information — establishing the market price. He introduces the concept of «search» — where a buyer wanting to get a better price, is forced to question sellers. The article deals with various aspects of finding the necessary information.

Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists

Abstract: The demarcation of science from other intellectual activities-long an analytic problem for philosophers and sociologists-is here examined as a practical problem for scientists. Construction of a boundary between science and varieties of non-science is useful for scientists' pursuit of professional goals: acquisition of intellectual authority and career opportunities; denial of these resources to "pseudoscientists"; and protection of the autonomy of scientific research from political interference. "Boundary-work" describes an ideological style found in scientists' attempts to create a public image for science by contrasting it favorably to non-scientific intellectual or technical activities. Alternative sets of characteristics available for ideological attribution to science reflect ambivalences or strains within the institution: science can be made to look empirical or theoretical, pure or applied. However, selection of one or another description depends on which characteristics best achieve the demarcation in a way that justifies scientists' claims to authority or resources. Thus, "science" is no single thing: its boundaries are drawn and redrawn inflexible, historically changing and sometimes ambiguous ways.