Kenneth Macdonald: Annual Report 1999-2000

Kenneth Macdonald (Faculty Fellow) has returned to work on the replicable/particular goods distinction, and found it both richer in implication and more intractable than he had supposed, though he remains optimistic. Another return to an earlier concern, the social organisation of information, produced an attempt to think through the interconnections between space and information and move beyond 'virtual space' metaphors when estimating the consequences of information technology. In more quantitative vein, he has been working with Dr Frazer, New College, reanalysing data on political knowledge, and in particular attempting to disaggregate and account for the consistently observed gender gap in knowledge levels. A by-product of this has been critical commentary on the concept and measurement of 'political knowledge'.

Publication

'Use and Valuation: Information in the City', Urban Studies, 37, 2000.