Christine Hine is a sociologist of science and technology who has a particular focus on the role played by new technologies in the knowledge construction process. She has a major interest in the development of ethnography in technical settings and in "virtual methods" (the use of the Internet in social research). In particular, she has developed mobile and connective approaches to ethnography that combine online and offline social contexts. In common with many scholars in Science and Technology Studies, Christine has a scientific and technical background herself. She studied Botany (BA, Oxon) and Biological Computation (MSc, York) and completed her DPhil in the Biology Department at York before making a transition to Sociology of Science and Technology.
The subscription rates (2016) for access to the electronic journal is 40 euros for individual sub... more The subscription rates (2016) for access to the electronic journal is 40 euros for individual subscribers and 100 euros for institutional subscribers. Copyright
This paper focuses on a case study exploring moves within the biological discipline of systematic... more This paper focuses on a case study exploring moves within the biological discipline of systematics to make the tools and the products of research accessible online to the wider community. The case study will focus on the drivers for accessibility and the constraints on realishing them for this community, drawing out concerns that making material accessible raises and formulations of the audience for accessibility. The presentation will highlight some elements of good practice, and some caveats about the extent to which open access should be pursued as a goal in itself. The paper calls for attention to the specificities of accessibility for each community, as it develops a situated response to broader calls for open access.
Este articulo presenta una descripcion general de los desafios que enfrentan los etnografos que d... more Este articulo presenta una descripcion general de los desafios que enfrentan los etnografos que desean comprender las actividades que involucran Internet explorando los principios metodologicos y las estrategias practicas para llegar a un acuerdo con la definicion de sitios de campo, las conexiones entre online y offline y la naturaleza cambiante de la experiencia incorporada. Los ejemplos se extraen de una amplia gama de entornos, que incluyen etnografias de instituciones cientificas, television, redes sociales y redes locales de obsequios.
There has been considerable debate around the ethical issues raised by data-driven technologies s... more There has been considerable debate around the ethical issues raised by data-driven technologies such as artificial intelligence. Ethical principles for the field have focused on the need to ensure that such technologies are used for good rather than harm, that they enshrine principles of social justice and fairness, that they protect privacy, respect human autonomy and are open to scrutiny. While development of such principles is well advanced, there is as yet little consensus on the mechanisms appropriate for ethical governance in this field. This paper examines the prospects for the university ethics committee to undertake effective review of research conducted on data-driven technologies in the university context. Challenges identified include: the relatively narrow focus of university-based ethical review on the human subjects research process and lack of capacity to anticipate downstream impacts; the difficulties of accommodating the complex interplay of academic and commercial...
Smart technologies in the home promise efficiency and control, but this simplistic story obscures... more Smart technologies in the home promise efficiency and control, but this simplistic story obscures their potential to reconfigure relationships and introduce new tensions into domestic contexts. This article explores ethnography as a method to facilitate sociological analysis of smart technologies in the home and develop a grounded understanding of their role in lived experience. The article assembles insights from ethnography of silence, ethnography of infrastructure and autoethnography. While much sociological commentary stresses the dataveillance capacities of such technologies, for ethnographers it is important to remember that our role is to do justice to members’ understandings whether they relate to dataveillance or not. Ethnographers need to address the common tendency for facilitating technologies of this kind to become unspoken aspects of everyday life. Autoethnography offers a route into exploring the nuanced meaning of the silences that the use of smart technologies entai...
Many local online platforms for people to give away or sell items have arisen in recent years. Wh... more Many local online platforms for people to give away or sell items have arisen in recent years. While some research has analysed modes of consumption emerging in such sites, there has been little exploration of the nature of the contact between local residents that these sites occasion and their implications for local sense of community. This article analyses interviews with users of local online platforms for giving and selling items within one town in south-east England, identifying judgments that users make about one another and exploring the connections that are made between online and offline. Imagining other users and projecting social norms onto them emerges as important in making transactions meaningful. Users also often imagine social difference and make judgments that reproduce socio-economic stereotypes. Usage is portrayed as a positive experience enhancing users’ views of local community in a general sense, but shows limited tendencies to overcome existing social divisions.
Abstract The use of information and communication technology in scientific research has been hail... more Abstract The use of information and communication technology in scientific research has been hailed as the means to a new larger-scale, more efficient, and cost-effective science. But although scientists increasingly use computers in their work and institutions have ...
The subscription rates (2016) for access to the electronic journal is 40 euros for individual sub... more The subscription rates (2016) for access to the electronic journal is 40 euros for individual subscribers and 100 euros for institutional subscribers. Copyright
This paper focuses on a case study exploring moves within the biological discipline of systematic... more This paper focuses on a case study exploring moves within the biological discipline of systematics to make the tools and the products of research accessible online to the wider community. The case study will focus on the drivers for accessibility and the constraints on realishing them for this community, drawing out concerns that making material accessible raises and formulations of the audience for accessibility. The presentation will highlight some elements of good practice, and some caveats about the extent to which open access should be pursued as a goal in itself. The paper calls for attention to the specificities of accessibility for each community, as it develops a situated response to broader calls for open access.
Este articulo presenta una descripcion general de los desafios que enfrentan los etnografos que d... more Este articulo presenta una descripcion general de los desafios que enfrentan los etnografos que desean comprender las actividades que involucran Internet explorando los principios metodologicos y las estrategias practicas para llegar a un acuerdo con la definicion de sitios de campo, las conexiones entre online y offline y la naturaleza cambiante de la experiencia incorporada. Los ejemplos se extraen de una amplia gama de entornos, que incluyen etnografias de instituciones cientificas, television, redes sociales y redes locales de obsequios.
There has been considerable debate around the ethical issues raised by data-driven technologies s... more There has been considerable debate around the ethical issues raised by data-driven technologies such as artificial intelligence. Ethical principles for the field have focused on the need to ensure that such technologies are used for good rather than harm, that they enshrine principles of social justice and fairness, that they protect privacy, respect human autonomy and are open to scrutiny. While development of such principles is well advanced, there is as yet little consensus on the mechanisms appropriate for ethical governance in this field. This paper examines the prospects for the university ethics committee to undertake effective review of research conducted on data-driven technologies in the university context. Challenges identified include: the relatively narrow focus of university-based ethical review on the human subjects research process and lack of capacity to anticipate downstream impacts; the difficulties of accommodating the complex interplay of academic and commercial...
Smart technologies in the home promise efficiency and control, but this simplistic story obscures... more Smart technologies in the home promise efficiency and control, but this simplistic story obscures their potential to reconfigure relationships and introduce new tensions into domestic contexts. This article explores ethnography as a method to facilitate sociological analysis of smart technologies in the home and develop a grounded understanding of their role in lived experience. The article assembles insights from ethnography of silence, ethnography of infrastructure and autoethnography. While much sociological commentary stresses the dataveillance capacities of such technologies, for ethnographers it is important to remember that our role is to do justice to members’ understandings whether they relate to dataveillance or not. Ethnographers need to address the common tendency for facilitating technologies of this kind to become unspoken aspects of everyday life. Autoethnography offers a route into exploring the nuanced meaning of the silences that the use of smart technologies entai...
Many local online platforms for people to give away or sell items have arisen in recent years. Wh... more Many local online platforms for people to give away or sell items have arisen in recent years. While some research has analysed modes of consumption emerging in such sites, there has been little exploration of the nature of the contact between local residents that these sites occasion and their implications for local sense of community. This article analyses interviews with users of local online platforms for giving and selling items within one town in south-east England, identifying judgments that users make about one another and exploring the connections that are made between online and offline. Imagining other users and projecting social norms onto them emerges as important in making transactions meaningful. Users also often imagine social difference and make judgments that reproduce socio-economic stereotypes. Usage is portrayed as a positive experience enhancing users’ views of local community in a general sense, but shows limited tendencies to overcome existing social divisions.
Abstract The use of information and communication technology in scientific research has been hail... more Abstract The use of information and communication technology in scientific research has been hailed as the means to a new larger-scale, more efficient, and cost-effective science. But although scientists increasingly use computers in their work and institutions have ...
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Papers by Christine Hine