Brian Alleyne

Radicals against race : black activism and cultural politics

This book interrogates the ideas and practices of the New Beacon Circles activists as relatively stable elements in the fast-changing scene of contemporary radical politics. Highlighting how biography and self representation have important cultural, theoretical and political implications, Alleyne succeeds in making an original contribution to a growing literature on autobiography as a rich resource for understanding social and political theory. He also provides an engaging account of a neglected area of British Activism. This book will be of interest to social anthropologists, sociologists, and anyone interested in the history of British activism or race and ethnic studies.

Introduction: Framing difference: racial and ethnic studies in twentyfirst-century Britain

The events in Britain since the beginning of the new millennium starkly and dramatically reflect the continued salience of racial and ethnic difference. In media, political and academic discourse, the struggles over nationhood and multiculturalism, the duties of citizenship and the right to cultural expression, similarity and difference have been played out against global and national backdrops, and across many local stages. The articles in this volume aim to explore the contours of this changing terrain, and suggest new avenues for research and theorization. They are primarily an engagement with British debates and events, but seek to place these within a broader global and diasporic context. The aim of this introductory article is to sketch the background to the events that surround the production of these articles, to outline a broad conceptual overview of the current academic debates and to explore the links between each contribution.

Narrative Networks: Storied Approaches in a Digital Age

Narrative is a fundamental means whereby we make sense of our own lives and of the world around us. The stories we tell, and are being told, shape our identities, relationships and world-views. In a rapidly changing digital society where blogging and social networking have become fundamental communication channels, the platforms for the creation and exchange of all kinds of narratives have greatly expanded. This book responds to the dynamic production and consumption of stories of all kinds in popular and academic cultures. It offers a comprehensive discussion of the underlying philosophical and methodological issues of narrative and personal narrative research as well as applying these to the current digital landscape. The book provides practical guidance on data management and use of software for the narrative researcher. Illustrated with examples from a range of fields and disciplines as well as the author’s own work on hacking cultures and cultural activism, this title is a must for anyone wanting to learn about narrative approaches in social research and how to conduct successful narrative research in a digital age.

Challenging Code: A Sociological Reading of the KDE Free Software Project

Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) challenges the norms and relations of the capitalist software industry that is at the core of network society. Many people involved in FLOSS see themselves as activists in a new social movement. The article discusses the KDE (Kool Desktop Environment) project as a FLOSS case study. KDE is one of several projects intended to bring ease of use of a graphical user interface (GUI) to various free operating systems. (The operating system is the underlying software on top of which sit applications we use directly such as web browsers or word processors.) The article considers the KDE project from three broad perspectives — ‘cosmological’, technical, and organizational — in order to examine the expressed world-view and technical organization of the project through an established sociological approach to activism and social movements.

Combining Online Research and Participant Observation in a Study of Free Software

This case study is based on ethnographic work I carried out on a free and open source software project. My observation and participation as a user of the software informed the work that was central to the case, as did my online observation. I also analyzed a series of interviews of software developers that had been conducted by a member of the software project, which were published on the projects website. My work combined online ethnography with traditional participant observation. There is a great deal written on the methodologies of both online ethnography and participant observation: what is distinctive about this case study is that it shows how to use both approaches. The case study stresses specific steps, ranging from formulating research questions, through data gathering online and in person, and analysis and writing up. The case study offers advice on software tools that are helpful for mixed-mode online/in-person ethnography.