Reconfiguring Access to Information and Expertise in the Social Sciences: The Social Shaping and Implications of Cyberinfrastructure

e-Social Science will transform not only how social researchers do their work, but also what they will discover, with whom they will collaborate, how they will share work, how they will report their findings, and what know-how they will require. Emerging technologies, such as the Grid and advanced Internet and Web developments, will reshape not only how researchers do what they do, but also the outcomes of their work as a consequence of ‘reconfigured access’ to networks of information and expertise at local and global scales. This paper will develop the concept of how communication and information technologies like the Grid can reconfigure access, and how this shapes the strategic choices of users and developers. In focusing on the centrality of these digital choices about the use or non-use of eSocial Science tools and datasets, the paper will then discuss the many constraints on the choices of different actors. Discussion of the e-social sciences is dominated by a focus on the technical development of e-research tools tied to the Grid and advanced applications of the Internet. Less attention is directed at its potential to transform the social sciences. There is a more or less explicit assumption underpinning the promotion of e-social science that it will enable social scientists to do what they do faster, and better. However, this productivity focus might understate the transformative potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the social sciences. ∗ Submitted to the Third International Conference on E-Social Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, 7-9 October