Out of touch sociologists = comedy gold!

Posted By Daniel W. Drezner Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 8:34 PM Share

As the end of my last post might have suggested, I'm in a bit of a cranky online mood this week. However, this Eszter Hargittai post gave me a good laugh, and does point out that even within the expertsphere, there are experts and there are experts:

I was at a reception the other day and was graciously introduced by a famous senior sociologist to a visiting senior sociologist as an “[insert some very kind words] scholar who studies the social aspects of Internet use”. The visitor laughed. No one else laughed though so quickly, smile wiped from his face, he said: “oh, you’re serious.”

In poli sci, the arc of reaction to studying blogs moved very quickly from, "tee hee, you're taking this seriously," to "you might be onto something by looking into blogs" to "gee, your blog essay seems to get cited a lot" was pretty quick, actually -- at least by academic standards.

EXPLORE:ACADEMIA, THE BLOG PAPER, THE BLOGOSPHERE

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ROB

12:52 AM ET

September 17, 2008

Maybe this will help your

Maybe this will help your mood. I'm now willing to concede that you may have been right about the modern system proving to be a powerful block for Russia's imperial ambitions.

The FT is reporting the Russian stock market crashed again today, which would put Russia's losses, just from its market, at around one trillion dollars, by my rough calculation over the past few months. This is surely not what Putin planned when he launched the invasion. If the Kremlin is at all rational, this should prove a powerful disincentive for further strikes.

So, this anonymous internet poster is willing to concede that you may have been right and I may have been wrong. Cheers!