Talk:Richard Swedberg

date of birth

The date of birth is standard component of any normal biography, hence from Wikipedia's perspective it should normally be in the article as long as it is based on reputable source. However for (lesser known) living people exceptions due to privacy concerns may be possible (see WP:BLP). However this cannot be done simply because some IP claiming to be Richard Swedberg and without a convincing reason.

The proper way to request that to contact the Wikipedia:Volunteer Response Team (via email), they will ensure the authentication and proper reasoning of the request and if it is deemed appropriate they will remove the (exact) date with a reference to received request.

In addition I'd like to point out that the exact date of birth is currently printed in several scholarly publication (one authored Swedberg himself). As a general rule it does not look convincing to request a removal while having the date published elsewhere. However the publications elsewhere might have occurred erroneously, it that case a removal might still be considered as appropriate, but again all that needs to be handled via a request to the Wikipedia Response Team and not through anonymous edits of the article.--Kmhkmh (talk) 13:23, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

Publications of the date elsewhere:

• http://books.google.de/books?id=OREgBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA702
• http://books.google.de/books?id=HHmfM_98fv8C&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9
• http://www.economyandsociety.org/people/richard-swedberg/ provides a link to http://www.economyandsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Swedberg_CV_AUG04.pdf (which contains the date).

Personally I have to say as long as Swedberg provides the exact date on his own webpage (albeit a bit hidden), he has hardly any grounds to ask for a removal in Wikipedia.--Kmhkmh (talk) 13:34, 5 December 2014 (UTC)

I can confirm that User:67.246.68.70 is Richard Swedberg. I wrote him an e-mail to his offical e-mail-account and got the conformation from him. I told him to visit this talkpage for discussion. --KurtR (talk) 19:10, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

I am Richard Swedberg. I have looked at my webpage again, and as far as I can see my vitae does not contain my birthdate. Neither does any of my writings. The refs that are mentioned are translations and the date has been added by the translator, Andrea Maurer. In the case of Cornell's Economy and Society I couldn't see the date at all. Again, that is nota webpage I have put up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.236.140.184 (talk) 19:48, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you are looking at, but the cv linked above clearly contains your date of birth, directly at op top under "birth and civil status". I'm still not seeing any reason, why the date shouldn't be given. I simple "I don't want it", while it is still on one of your official web pages, is certainly not sufficient. However personally I'm not particular hung up on the exact date, from perspective just giving the birth year is fine (if that resolves the issue). But having the approximate age of person (+/-1 year) is imho an important biograhpical information and I see no reason for WP to forego that unless there is very good/convincing reason. WP biographies usually compile all publicly available information on a person, that is correct and relevant. They do not have to please the article's subject nor are they meant to.--Kmhkmh (talk) 21:08, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Typical example of Streisand effect: The more someone wants to hide, remove or censor an information, the more publicized it gets (as an unintended consequence). --Voyager (talk) 20:35, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Please take a look at the PDF file with your CV, dated August 2004, already linked above. It is available on your page at the CSES web site via the download button below the picture. This document looks quite similar to the PDF file with your CV on your faculty page at Cornell University. Indeed both documents were originally created in 2002 by Caleb Southworth on September 15, 2002. Obviously this document from 2002 has been updated since and published by you from time to time, though maybe one of your students technically did the writing and publishing on your behalf. From whom, if not from you, would an assistant or colleague or secretary get the information about your birth date? Andrea Maurer, who also wrote the article about "Grundlagen der Wirtschaftssoziologie" containing your birth date in the "Lexikon der soziologischen Werke", actually specified precisely when and where you gave her an interview which she published, translated into German, in "Grundlagen der Wirtschaftssoziologie", 2009, on page 319: April 29, 2008, at Cornell University, and you told her in the first sentence of your first answer that you were born in 1948 in Stockholm. Thus Maurer, and we, are entitled to use and republish this information as you were when you republished in "Economics and Sociology: Redefining Their Boundaries" in 1990 the birth dates and places of Gary Becker, James Coleman, Harrison White, Mark Granovetter, Oliver Williamson, Kenneth Arrow, Albert Hirschman, Mancur Olson, Amartya Sen, Robert Solow, Arthur Stinchcombe, Aage Sorensen and others, which couldn't be undone, whatever they might have wanted afterwards. --84.130.151.40 (talk) 21:51, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Can you give me any reason, as to why the birth date should not be published here, when it is published elsewhere? Surely, for a professor of sociology at Cornell, this is not an issue of employment barrier (which might be true for less known and less qualified people). In dating, age may play as well a role, but will be checked early on as well. Insurance companies will require your birth date. So, from a utilitarian perspective, I find it difficult to come up with a good reason. But maybe my sociological imagination is just not creative enough. Kängurutatze (talk) 13:28, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

There are good reasons, like privacy and whatnot. When a DOB is not particularly central or of historical importance to a biography we have no problem removing it. §FreeRangeFrog^croak 01:39, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

privacy is a policy, not a reason. BTW, it does not apply here. Mr. Swedberg made his birth date public via a number of sources. He himself BTW wrote a biography of another person, Joseph Schumpeter, and had no problems to mention his birth year right on the first page of the actual biography. And, like it or not, DOB is a central fact of anybody's biography. Kängurutatze (talk) 09:14, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

The date is certainly not "unsourced". In addition to the sources given above the year has been published in 1987 (p. 431), 1991 (p. 289), 2003, 2004 (p. 1662), 2006 and numerous book trade and library files, e.g. LCCN, which is btw already linked in the article. We would not disclose the date if it were not widely available. --84.130.139.184 (talk) 09:32, 10 December 2014 (UTC)