The enterprise that is amateur radio is a technical activity engaged in by individuals within social groups. The social dimensions of amateur radio are mostly ignored by hobbyists in favor of a technical dialogue favoring the engineering aspects of the hobby’s content. Yet, much of the activity by the various actors in the ham radio community is social rather than technical in nature. Amateur radio is not unlike other past times and voluntary activities which also have commercial and governmental aspects to them.
But how do the social activities function? All too often, key actors in the amateur radio community just take for granted that we understand how people and organizations work — or don’t work — together as “common sense.” But common sense is not at all that common! Just read the websites with Forum discussions or listen to certain ham bands where discussions take place. The sensibilities displayed there clearly illustrate that often, very little is held in common.
Social science can tell us a lot about this pattern of social organization and the interpersonal interactions, and social networks of activities that are within it. In fact, what links these parts together in a general sense are the nature of the actors, how they are organized together, and what interactions fuel those relations. These are called social circuits to illustrate what social science and data tell us about group activity and the dynamics therein. Although not directly analogous to an electronic circuit, this phrase simply emphasizes that the past time of amateur radio is fundamentally a social activity.
This column, called Social Circuits, offers a deeper understanding of the group activity that we know as the amateur radio community. Each one will contain one or more concepts comprising a social circuit and likely include empirical data illustrating them. The reader may well disagree with my conclusions. As an old saying goes, the truth may set you free but first it will…well, make you mad. But don’t get mad. Think!