SI2: Social Informatics and Symbolic Interactionism: A Conceptual Exploration

Abstract

This is a submission to the 3rd Annual Social Informatics SIG Research Symposium: The Social Web, Social Computing and the Social Analysis of Computing. This conceptual essay explores how symbolic interactionism can inform social informatics, particularly in the study of socially constructed concepts such as privacy. Examining how physical and virtual objects are defined and constructed can be, and often is, a significant component of social informatics investigations (Kling, 2000; Kling, Rosenbaum, & Sawyer, 2005). Perhaps this is particularly important in domains were those constructions are still emerging, or are in the process of changing, as in Web 2.0. Thus, this essay suggests that social informatics can use symbolic interactionism as a theoretical underpinning to analyzing various aspects of Web 2.0. In the following sections, I review symbolic interactionism, demonstrate how it complements social informatics perspectives, and illustrate how it could inform social informatics research by examining privacy in the context of Web 2.0.