Thesis
Locating four pathways to internet scholarship
Southern Cross University, School of Environmental Science and Management
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
2007
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Abstract
This thesis locates pathways to internet scholarship by analyzing and interpreting the processes academics undergo as they navigate between 'new knowledge' derived from emergent fields of study, such as internet studies and research, and their previous disciplinary backgrounds. This process is informed in two ways, first, through considering the various models for academic knowledge production, particularly in instances where academics construct their own epistemological frameworks. There is a second developmental process similar to the German idealist notion of Bi/dung, or personal and professional development, which is identified here as the process of scholarly engagement.
This thesis comprises a case study with three main research goals. First, the thesis reviews how internet studies and research, as an emergent field of study, locates the internet as an 'object of study' or as a locus/focus of scholarly investigation. The second concern revolves around how to 'discipline' internet studies and research. Disciplinary mechanisms that inform hybridized disciplinary frameworks (anti-cross-inter-multi-post-trans-etc.), are explored to potentially link disciplinarity with internet protocols to form operational guidelines for academic knowledge production. The third consideration is how to identify internet scholars, particularly, how they proceed to frame their studies amidst the shifting content areas and disciplinary bases that comprise internet studies and research. Four academic biographical narratives of internet scholars are analyzed and interpreted to reveal how the scholars negotiate pathways between their personal histories with the internet, their previous or on-going projects in established fields of study, and the demands of their academic careers.
Much of the current literature presents internet studies and research through the lens of locating appropriate research methodologies for the emergent field, including the difficulties of collecting internet data within the university requirements for the ethical treatment of online persons and entities in data collection and interpretation. This thesis however, moves beyond methodological issues in internet studies and research to look at the scholarly processes that link established knowledge bases and the internet.
Finally, this thesis concludes that successful practitioners in new knowledge areas locate pathways along which they can navigate. These pathways indicate how scholars can negotiate between their study of the internet, the requirements of academic careers, and accidental or purposeful life choices. "Making the trip" along this pathway allows internet scholars to construct their study of the internet epistemologically as well as to progress along their academic career track, through the scholarly activities of teaching, research, and publication.
As stated in Chapter 2, the thesis presents an extended reflection on locating pathways to internet scholarship where scholarly processes are found in the interstitial spaces that link the internet, the Academy, and the possibilities contained within an academic life.
Details
- Title
- Locating four pathways to internet scholarship
- Creators
- Denise N Rall
- Contributors
- Bill Edgar Boyd (Supervisor) - Southern Cross University
- Awarding Institution
- Southern Cross University; Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Theses
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
- Publisher
- Southern Cross University, School of Environmental Science and Management
- Number of pages
- xiii, 261
- Identifiers
- 991012947400102368
- Copyright
- © Denise N Rall 2007
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering
- Resource Type
- Thesis