Sociodynamic Effect

[Adam Blatner]

Dear Tom & Grouptalk,

     Tom's response was helpful to me in thinking about this vast phenomenon. It connects 
also with the philosophical approach of Jurgen Habermas, in Frankfurt: Among his many 
rather dense writings he proposed, if not the "answer," or the "truth," at least a better 
way to approach truth: Generate a context in which all participants have a voice, where 
there are no status or other barriers that interfere with the sharing of this voice, no 
fear of retaliation or exclusion for daring to express a contrary or different opinion.
       I would add to this the power of the double technique in helping those who are less 
articulate, less able to find the words to express their needs.

    My concern is that of more specifically envisioning situations in which principles or 
methods of sociometry may be applied. I am skeptical of the unspoken idea that 
generalities and abstractions in fact work. I think the hidden belief is that if the 
details could be worked out, these general ideals would work, but I question that: It is 
precisely in the articulation of the details and the challenges encountered that raise the 
question as to whether the generalities are in fact valid or useful.
    There is a category of generality that is intuitively true, but so general as to be 
relatively useless. Such generalities are called "platitudes," such as the Beatle's song, 
"All you need is Love."        --Warmly, Adam Blatner

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "T.Treadwell" <ttreadwe at grouptalkweb.org>
To: <list at grouptalkweb.org>
Cc: "Adam Blatner" <adam at blatner.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 11:44 AM
Subject: Re: sociodynamic law?--Sociodynamic Effect


Sociodynamic effect - and applying it to the grouptalk membership is
stretching the definition of how the sociodynamic effect applies to an
electronic group.  Moreno never discussed this type of a collective.

Thus, in my opinion, the sociodynamic law does not apply to a electronic
collective - simply because there is absolutely no official heirarchy.
THe heirarchy that emerges in electronic groups are the number of postings
grouptalk members post - that is the major criterion for leadership (in
the traditional sense).

Since a electonic group does not have appointed leaders - the possibility
of shared leadership or collaborative leadership emerges.  (Moreno did
talk about rearranging the sociometry of groups - and when that can happen
then the possiblilty of a more equal distributions of choices to group
members can be achieved).  However - he didn't a chance to test this
hypothesis out. However he did state:

At times loosening the structure . the volume of choices begins to spread
to new foci, to new individuals, or subgroups, which had previously been
neglected.  This can be called collaborative or distributed leadership
within a group environment.

When the volume of social emotions begins to get a wider dispersion and
under the impetus of this new manner in distributing power then a larger
number of members of the group begin to share in the process.  It becomes
collaborative.

THis is what Moreno was looking for, in my opinion.

tom


Thomas Treadwell         CompSoc - GraphPlot               Computerized
Dept. of Psychology             \ /                         Sociometry
West Chester Univ.            __/ \__                  Phone-610-436-2723
West Chester, Pa.    ttreadwe at grouptalkweb.org         FAX-610-436-2846
                         Grouptalk Listserv
                       http://grouptalkweb.org

      A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one
      part of his body - the wishbone.  ~~Robert Frost


On Thu, 2 Nov 2006, Ann Hale wrote:

> The sociodynamic effect as it is related to choice-making for individuals: many choices 
> are directed toward a very few people, and the few remaining choices are spread over a 
> large number of people. For example: many people have to read emails from a very few 
> people, and a large number of people have to wade through it all to read something from 
> the few remaining people still tuning in who have not sent messages to "unsubscribe".
>
> Or, one country uses a very large portion of the earth's resources, and the remaining 
> resources have to be spread out over a large number of countries and populations.
>
> To turn this around, Moreno advocated "consciousness raising"  by having groups become 
> aware of their choice-making and the overall impact on the survival of all people who 
> need connection. AND,  to make changes in these patterns using our own sociometric 
> position and choices.
>