Faculty Research Seminar - Cancelling Disputes: How Social Capital affects the Arbitration of Disputes on Wikipedia

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the role assumed by the Arbitration Committee in the resolution of disputes on English Wikipedia. Based on quantitative and qualitative data, the paper contends that the Arbitration Committee does not simply decide or arbitrate disputes but seeks to attenuate their impact on Wikipedia’s social fabric. The Arbitration Committee not only examines the merits of the claims made by the disputants, but also and more crucially considers the position of each disputant within the community of editors in its decision-making process. The data presented in this paper allows us to revisit sociological debates on the role of social capital, by suggesting that well-connected individuals use it strategically in order to obfuscate their non-compliance with norms, thus leading to what I call “dispute cancellation.” These observations also bring new light on existing scholarship concerning the strategies used by dispute settlers in order to legitimize their judicial action.