CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland

Agency, Differences and New Technologies

Organisers: Päivi Eriksson ja Marja Vehviläinen

Agency, Differences and New Technologies -- Everyday Practices

Eriksson, Päivi and Moisander, Johanna (Helsinki School of Economics, Finland) NARRATING THE USE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
Our paper focuses on the digitally mediated everyday life of the consumers. By looking at how people represent the use of one specific mobile device - the 'Communicator' ­ we will explore the narrative constitution of (gendered) agency in the context of the information society and its core businesses. In more detail, our paper investigates the cultural systems of representation in which various subject positions are discursively produced in relation to new information and communication technologies. Gender is of particular interest to us as one expression of difference intertwined with other social categories (e.g. age, profession). Furthermore, gender in relation to other differences and technologies takes historically and culturally specific forms, some of which we aim to analyse.

Lehtimäki, Hanna (LifeWorks Consulting, Finland) and Suoranta, Juha (University of Lapland, Finland) SIX FINDINGS IN INFORMATION SOCIETY PRACTICE: A CHILD'S VIEW
This paper deals with the views of children pretaining to their use of IT. According to Manuel Castells and Pekka Himanen, Finland has succeeded in connecting welfare state structures with the New Economy. But, what does that mean from children's point of view? As part of a three year research program we wanted to know the views of children in regards to their media-mediated everyday life. Thus, we conducted a national school survey among 8-10 year old Finnish children (N=945), and wrote a book Children as Actors in the Information Society (in Finnish) based on various children's responses. In this paper we would like to present six findings that characterize a child's media use and his or her everyday experiences in the information society. The findings are as follows: entertainment, negotiation, informal learning, media culture versus school culture, privacy, and the loss of social capital.

Tuuva, Sari (University of Joensuu, Finland) INFORMATION SOCIETY AND EVERYDAY LIFE: INFORMATION SOCIETY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN NORTH KARELIA
The presentation explores how IT intertwines with everyday life in the context of North Karelian information society development projects. I will focus on the expectations, experiences and interpretations that women have on information technology and information society. I have interviewed women who have participated in information society development projects in North Karelia, the easternmost part of Finland, and followed the process for three years: the first interviews were made in autumn 1998, the next round in autumn 1999 and the last interviews were made in spring 2000. What happens during that time? How IT intertwines with everyday life? Does the development projects support the process? How the projects construct gender and IT? I will concentrate on how women define their life in information society, in what kind of information society they are living in and what kind of frame the information society development projects construct to their interpretation.

Juntti-Henriksson, Ann-Kristin ( ) TECHNOLOGY IN NARRATIVES OF THREE-GENERATION WOMEN
A three-generational study consisting of interviews with a sample of Swedish girls, their mothers and grandmothers will be presented. By using the women's narratives the study focus on upbringing, parental identification and representation of gender in young women's process of technologically mediated modernization to explore how new technology and innovations have impacted their lives. The study involves a historical perspective in the transition from rural to urban life and from full-time housewife (oldest generation) to paid employment (youngest generation). These generational chains are analysed through the cultural processes involved in technological modernization. There is a cultural difference in growing up in the city compared to growing up in the countryside and this intertwines with differences in e.g. social class and family culture.

Agency, Differences and New Technologies -- Reflecting Networks of Agency

Oksa, Jukka (University of Joensuu, Finland) LOCAL LEARNING AND TRANSFER OF A SUCCESSFUL MODEL: RURAL COMMUNITY NETWORKS IN FINNISH PERIPHERY
The model of "learning district" is relying on social innovations and on mobilising unused human and social capital. The practical model of action was created in the Learning Upper Karelia project, which was implemented in a remote rural area of about 20,000 people. In two years' time this project created a local network with 25 percent of the population as registered users. Later the network was enlarged into three additional municipalities, and today the idea is being transferred to eight other places in Finland. I shall discuss the difficulties of enlargement and transferring the success story of the first place into other localities. The presentation is based on the materials of the evaluation studies of the project and its enlargement.

Abdul Hamid, Ishak (University Putra Malaysia) and Shaik, Abdul Rahman (University Putra Malaysia) A CASE STUDY OF INNOVATION ACCEPTANCE AMONG MEDICAL STAFFS IN THE FIRST MALAYSIAN ELECTRONIC HOSPITA
The paper discusses the findings from a study conducted at Selayang Hospital, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to determine the attributes that led to the acceptance of an innovative information system known as Total Hospital Information System (THIS). Being the first paperless and filmless hospital in the country with an allocation of USD 140 million by the Malaysian Government, the acceptance of the new technology by medical staffs is crucial in determining the success of adoption and efficient use of the system. Data collected from a total of 48 respondents from the medical staff in the hospital secondary care discipline, revealed that innovation attributes and information technology skill do explain their behaviors on the different levels of acceptance of the innovation. The study also indicates that the attributes to the acceptance of this in the electronic hospital can be the predictors for the success of future adoption of similar technology.

Holvikivi, Jaana (Espoo-Vantaa Institute of Technology) INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION - WHERE DO THEY LOCATE THEMSELVES?
The advancement of international programs conducted in English in higher education in Finland has radically changed the composition of student body in information technology classrooms. Where the majority of students used to be young Finnish males, we now have an increasing number of students from all continents with a diversity of educational and cultural backgrounds, as well as a better gender balance. The curricula and methods, nevertheless, have mostly remained the same based on the implicit assumption that information technology is neutral, independent of culture.This paper aims at analyzing whether first-year students identify themselves with this globally distributed non-gendered information technology culture. Where do they locate themselves and how do they want others to perceive them: as expatriates from their particular cultural background, as neutral IT professionals, or as individuals with a distinct profile? The paper also investigates how much the attitudes differ from one nationality group to another.

Vehviläinen, Marja (Technical University of Luleå, Sweden) ON AGENCY, DIFFERENCES AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
The paper starts from the empirical cases presented in the session -- the regional and local information society process in North Karelia, everyday practices within ICT mediated society, cultural production of gendered subject positions within mobile device use, multicultural class rooms and their relation to "neutral and objective" ICT training, and a Malaysian electronic hospital - and aims to discuss of the cultural studies of technology approaches which are sensitive both to the problematic of agency and the intertwining social differences. The globally used technical artefacts are introduced to everyday practices in the processes in which various actors interpret and shape both practices and technologies in particular contexts and situations. Interpreting and shaping connect to a number of(interpretation, policy, activity) frames, which are built among the (technically mediated) communities, in a dialogue with media and policy texts and global industries.