AEB_BEVAN@VAX.ACS.OPEN.AC.UK (Edis Bevan) (12/16/87)
From: Edis Bevan, Disabilities Studies Group, Gardiner Building,
The Open University, Milton Keynes, Great Britain
This is a request for information on research into information and empowerment.
I am carrying through a project in this university building up information on
organisations controlled by disabled people and the approaches taken by
disabled people to the world as designed for able-bodied living.
One theme we are following up is that of 'information disability' and the
question of whether increased access to communications channels actually leads
to increases in the power of people over their own lives.
General Information on the project.
This research is developing several themes, notably:
1.A comparison between the experiences of minority groups in gaining and
using information.
The thesis here is that people who are in the weak role in
power relationships are often rendered powerless by obstacles and restrictions
in access to information and by being forced to rely on other peoples'
interpretations of data crucial to those groups. This could apply to ethnic
minorities, women, third world villagers, or people with disabilities. We hope
to identify approaches to empowerment that work and that are relevant to the
particular situation of disabled people. The aim here will be to assist disabled
people themselves to set up information centres that identify, collect, store,
process and disseminate information as and when it is relevant for them. We hope
to build up a publicly available database of organisations and relevant
programs of action.
2. An attempt to derive a 'measure' for empowerment so that claims for
and against particular approaches can be evaluated.
The aim here is to take a critical look at the claimed benefits
of networking, conversing, and other communications approaches. This rather more
austere study will be a central part of my doctoral research. I am starting this
from a background in Systems Thinking and work outside academia in
management consultancy. I would greatly appreciate therefore some pointers to
the current literature within communications theory, and contact with anyone
interested in this approach.
3. An examination of the impact of the growth of computer mediated
communications on the efforts of disabled people to gain control over decisions
relating to their own lives. This ties in closely with various themes discussed
in the computers and Society Digest in recent issues.
This theme specifically looks beyond the uses of information
technology for special devices for disabled people, or databases of appliances
for disabled people. We want to look at how new social structures may be
stimulated by communications technologies and how this world is designed for
able-bodied living, or made accessible to a wide range of people.
I would very much welcome comments on some questions of methodology.
Firstly, to what extent is it possible to capture and disseminate tacit
information via a computerised network? A lot of grassroots information is tacit
and the danger is that this will be submerged by prestigious communications
methods which give precedence to easily manipulated forms of data. Could there
be links between methods for dealing with this fugitive information and the
methods used for the analysis of literary texts?
Secondly, I would very much appreciate references to literature on the idea of
communication profiles. It is suggested that if we could build up a profile of
the communication pattern of a group before that group undergoes an allegedly
"empowering" process we should be able to identify what changes in the profile
are conductive to empowerment. Has this method been used in existing studies?
Edis Bevandenning@src.dec.com (Dorothy Denning) (12/18/87)
Edith Bevan requested information on research into information and empowerment. I recently took a course where power was defined as the rate at which intentions are turned into results. I like this definition, because it takes the focus off of "control" and "roles" and places it in the realm of accomplishment, of achieving what is important to us in our lives. After all, it really doesn't matter who is in charge and what our role is if we get the results we want. The work of Martin Luther King is a good example. He empowered all of us, including blacks, by helping us reach a common goal of a better world for people of different races and nationalities. He empowered us, though few of us were in direct control over the specific actions that came out of his work. The definition is also useful because it is measurable. When one shifts the focus from control to results, the role of communication becomes vital because it is at the heart of action, of getting things done. Thus, I really like Edith's emphasis on ommunication systems. Communications systems not only can provide access to knowledge that is useful for getting things done, but can provide stuctures for action. Terry Winograd & Fernando Flores have done some work on designing mail systems that provide structures for action as well as simple exchange of knowledge. A good starting reference is Winograd, "A Language/Action Perspective on the Design of Cooperative Work", Stanford Report No. STAN-CS-87-1158, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA 94305. The paper describes communication patterns for groups as well as a PC-based product called the Coordinator that implements the ideas. Dorothy Denning