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

(New)Technologies -(New) Methodologies? ICT Consumption and Everyday Practice

Organiser: Sarianne Romppainen

Lampinen, Minttu (University of Tampere, Finland) CONSUMER EXPERIENCE AND PERCEIVED PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS. CASE: COMMUNICATOR GENERATIONS
The perceived innovation characteristics are supposed to provide the framework how potential adopters perceive an innovation. On the other hand, consumer expertise is an important factor in the product evaluation. The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship between the consumer experience and the perceived product characteristics. The product generations studied in this research are the three generations of Nokia communicators. This qualitative case study consists of group interviews done in United Kingdom. The calendar time period chosen for this study is four years (1995-1999) and there is one, individual study for each communicator generation. The results of this study suggest that the relative importance of product characteristics changes over time in successive product generations. The research can contribute in providing an approach to study innovative product category over time, because the research offers some concrete tools to identify and analyse the most important product characteristics.

Kennedy, Helen (University of East London, United Kingdom) TECHNOBIOGRAPHY: RESEARCHING EXPERIENCES OF ICTs
I am a multimedia teacher, researcher and practitioner; I am a meaning-making member of multimedia communities. My experiences, therefore, are rich data for researching experiences of ICTs. As a multimedia practitioner, I am one of those technological elites who Jones (1999) argues need to be 'studied' in order to enhance understandings of the place of ICTs in society. Additionally, biographical, personalised approaches are advocated by researchers concerned with methodologies for studying ICTs like the Internet ­ Hakken describes his research as 'the personal telling of cyberstories' (Hakken 1999: 14); Hine's virtual ethnography draws on her own autobiographical experiences (Hine 2000). Therefore, in this paper, I propose that 'technobiography' (autobiography of technology), used infrequently to date, is a fruitful methodology for researching ICTs and everyday practice. I outline what technobiography contributes to understandings of techno-social relations, as well as identifying some of the dangers and fears that arise when working with autobiography.

Karl, Irmi (University of Brighton, United Kingdom) RE-THINKING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENDER, SEXUALITY AND TECHNOLOGY - AN EXPLORATION OF ETHNOGRAPHIC AVENUES
This paper aims to address and critically evaluate ethnographic approaches to the study of (new) Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Based on empirical research into 'all-female' households in Brighton, England, particular emphasis is placed on the question of developing and negotiating a set of methodological tools, which allows for an holistic enquiry into the relationship between gender and sexual identities and the processes of 'gendering' in regard to ICTs. Ethnographic approaches towards the study of media audiences and consumption of ICTs vary greatly in their use of interviewing and observational techniques in 'familiar' or 'foreign' cultural environments. One of the strengths of ethnography is that it offers various and multiple method choices ­ which calls for a particular kind of inventiveness on the part of the researcher(s). Arguably, the focus on 'all-female' households and their (gendered) uses of ICTs generates a set of methodological challenges and questions, which deserve consideration in any 'qualitative'/cultural enquiry into the uses of ICTs as well as ICT cultures. In this light, the paper sets out to not only to critically re-think questions regarding 'reflexive ethnography' (for example the importance of gender ­ as an analytical category as well as a practice performed by researchers and research participants alike). Furthermore, in order to illustrate the cultural complexities within which and interaction with ICTs is embedded, the boundaries between the 'familiar' and 'foreign', public and private have to be conceptually and methodologically challenged and transgressed. Finally, as technologies and everyday cultures become increasingly mobile, and communities are simultaneously (re)constituted in on and off-line environments, ethnographic approaches need to be re-thought and developed in this light.

Ribak, Rivka and Rosenthal, Michele (University of Haifa, Israel) "MEMBERS ARE REQUIRED TO SHORTEN THEIR CONVERSATIONS": THE INTRODUCTION OF THE TELEPHONE TO THE KIBBUTZ
Traditionally, in the history of communication technologies, the machine (often designated as an invention) determined the way in which the narrative unfolded. The user, the specific social and cultural contexts were largely ignored, while the machine (and sometimes its producer) acted as the causal agent(s). In more recent efforts, scholars, such as Carolyn Marvin and Lynn Spigel, have increasingly placed emphasis upon the complicated, intertwined relationship between the cultural production of technology and the cultural production of meanings associated with that technology. In the case of ideologically-defined communities, like the kibbutz, decisions concerning the reception and use of new media are usually self-conscious and importantly for scholars, documented. Because these communities are not as culturally incoherent as general society (that is to say, that they make an explicit effort to be coherent by definition), they offer an opportunity to clearly view the decision making process that individuals, families, businesses go through as they decide to adopt and use a new technology. Using the late introduction of the telephone to Kibbutz Y as a case study, we examine how ideology shapes everyday practices.

Romppainen, Sarianne (Goldsmiths College, United Kingdom) MOULDING TECHNOLOGY: TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE PERIPHERY
What does technological 'progress' look like in everyday life? Terms like 'information society', 'network' or 'lifelong learning' have become ubiquitous in the everyday language of today. With various projects, structural funds and strategies a new kind of 'information citizen' is to be nurtured, and new industry, jobs and innovation created even in areas outside the technological centres. This paper, based on a year- long participant observation of new information and communication technology use in a community in Northern Finland, questions the most optimistic expectations of the opportunities new technologies create in peripheral areas, and examines technological development from the perspective of rural everyday life. How do people actually go about adopting and adapting new technologies to their own uses? What kinds of difficulties do 'technological progress' and various development projects face in grassroots level? What specific problems does a geographically peripheral community face in its technological development? This paper also addresses the methodological difficulties of (new) technology research, and looks at the specific problems that can arise in long-term ethnographic fieldwork. It also asks, what ethnographic data on technology use can add to our understanding of new technologies, and how we can relate the field data to more general theories of technological development.