This week, Noshir Contractor presented a talk at the Institute for Analytical Sociology International Roundtable on Computational Social Science. The title of his talk is People Analytics: Understanding & Enabling the Future of Work on Earth — and in Space.

If you missed the talk, watch a recording of it here: https://lnkd.in/ezp2uvQ

Today Noshir Contractor presented a talk on Metatheoretical perspectives on satellite television and development in India: What we learned – and did not learn – from SITE to inform digital media in contemporary India at the Vikram Sarabhai Birth Centenary Tribute.

Abstract:
In 1988, along with Arvind Singhal and Ev Rogers, I co-authored an article titled Metatheoretical perspectives on satellite television and development in India in the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. In that article, we analyzed the role and impact of satellite television from four metatheoretical viewpoints: the utopian view that technology is intrinsically good for humankind, the dystopian view that technology is an unmitigated curse, the neutral view that technology per se has no intrinsic effects on society, and the contingency view that the potentially desirable and undesirable impacts of technology are differentially determined by the context in which the technology is introduced at a particular time.

Despite ending last week, the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2021 Annual Meeting, the scientific discussions during the meeting have a more lasting impact. Check out a recap of Professor Contractor’s talk on team problem-solving in space that’s featured in Northwestern Now. Click here to read more.

Last Thursday (02/11), Professors Noshir Contractor, Dorothy Carter, and Alexandra Whitmire presented at the 2021 AAAS Annual Meeting Scientific Session during the Understanding and Enabling Human Travel to the Moon and Mars panel organized and moderated by Professor Leslie DeChurch. Apart from the presentation, there was a Q&A during the session, with experts from the field, including Suzanne Bell from DePaul University, Jack Stuster from Ancapa Sciences, and Nick Kansas from the University of California, San Francisco.

If you miss the presentation, feel free to check the recording of the session in our videos gallery or by clicking here.