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.
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