Social Science Research Council

February 2-4, 2006

Over the past decade, digital convergence has produced a partial research convergence in the form of efforts to build better-integrated, more-fluid models of engagement across social and technical disciplinary boundaries. Although no unified field or dominant paradigm has emerged, distinctive approaches and models of research have been created within (and between) a large number of fields and disciplines, including communications and media studies, information studies, computer science, law, the humanities, and the core social sciences. Some of these new configurations have proven stable and replicable; some have failed; and some remain isolated experiments.

The SSRC joined with the Oxford Internet Institute in sponsoring a two-day workshop to understand these institutional developments, and how they enable better understanding of the new conditions of public life. The workshop brought together leading research innovators in this area with advocates, technologists, and other stakeholders.