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The (Wo)man on the Net: Exploring the New Social Distribution of Knowledge

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Abstract

In his essay “The Well Informed Citizen” Schütz (1964), introduces three ideal social types distinguished on the basis of their relation to knowledge: the man on the street, the expert and the well-informed citizen. Schütz argues that: “Knowledge is socially distributed and the mechanism of this distribution can be made the subject matter of a sociological discipline.” This paper takes up this challenge and sets out to investigate the mechanisms of the social distribution of knowledge in the age of the Internet. An extensive set of data obtained through qualitative interviews in Canadian households using the Internet is analyzed from this perspective. The “man (woman) on the net” is introduced as a new social type that represents a dynamic and complex relation to knowledge characterized by expanding zones of relevance and constant tension between common-sense recipes and expertise.

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social distribution of knowledgeinternet

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