HCI -> Informatics -> Rhetoric
Iacono, S., & Kling, R. (2001). Computerization Movements: The Rise of the Internet and Distant Forms of Work. In J. A. Yates & J. V. Maanen (Eds.), Information Technology and Organizational Transformation: History, Rhetoric and Practice (pp. 93-136): Sage Publications.
Abstract (excerpt): "In this chapter we argue that the meaning of the Internet is being built up or "framed" in macro-level discourses such as those of the government, the media and scientific disciplines. The spread of these frames across many layers of public discourse mobilizes large-scale support and suggests specific lines of action within micro-social contexts such as organizations restructuring themselves in order to implement and effectively use internetworking technologies in their routine activities. We call these processes computerization movements and suggest that they are similar to other social movements such as the labor movement or the women's movement in the ways that they reject dominant cultural codes and package alternative beliefs, values and language for new, preferred forms of social life.
In the next section, we present the traditional conceptions of the social processes that have driven the rapid growth of the Internet over the past thirty years, and suggest an alternative social process based on computerization movements (CMs). Then, we describe the ways in which these movements draw on existing ideational metrials to frame the key meanings of new technologies and mobilize societal support for them. Framing is a critical part of these processes because it allows ordinary people to gain deeper understanding about how new technologies are used in situations that may be foreign to them. Next, we illustrate computerization movements by focusing on historical shifts in the meaning of a specific movement, computer-based work, and the current set of discourses that have emerged around "new" distant forms of work. Since computerization movements advocate systematic changes in existing organizational arrangements, we should expect that some discourses and activists would emerge to oppose certain modes of computerization, forming a counter-computerization movement. We discuss counter-computerization discourses that have played key roles in defining and altering the meaning of internetworking and computer-based work. Finally, we conclude and suggest ways to incorporate a computerization movement perspective in further study.
Summary of main points:
Although the citation above may be misleading, the original paper was actually written in 1998 and the points in it must be understood from this temporal instance. The major reason for this allowance has to do with the rapid development of the Internet in terms of its functionality as well as the exponential rate of adoption of the technology in the population and in business communities. Nevertheless, there are points in this article that remain stunningly relevant 7 years later.
Authors start out by giving several examples of framing and then define the meaning of the word movement as follows: social movements are socially constructed through the ideational and cultural materials currently available to societal members. Essentially, the paper focuses on the development of meaning around the emergent technologies. The analysis then focuses on a process of societal mobilization with three primary elements:
1. Technological action frames - conceptual or analytic lenses that are built up within and between social groups as they struggle over the meaning of a technology and constitute it in their discourses. Collective action frames serve to punctuate and attribute meaning. At specific points in time, a particular frame can become dominant. In the development and diffusion of new technologies, dominant frames can stabilize the meaning of technologies for indefinite periods (until contested). The very act of framing does not so much introduce restrictions as it opens up new possibilities. Framing serves to enhance action, not dampen it.
2. Public discourses - essential to the spread of computerization movements. Technological action frames circulate in public discourses and act as a form of currency whose structre and meaning remain relatively constant across a variety of discursive practices. Social agents borrow the technological action frames that they find in public discourse, use them in their own contexts and discourses and, in so doing, often embellish or extend them. Authors uncover four layers of public discourse:
a. government discourses
b. discourses of scientific disciplines
c. media discourses
d. organizational and professional discourses
3. Organizational practices - authors explore various coputerization movements that, over time, found support in organizational practices. They touch on work and office automation, telecommuting, work collaboration and distribute interaction.
Authors conclude that while computerization movements can generate rhetoric of societal transformation as a result of adoption of internetworking, evidence (in 1998) does not point to the actual transformations happening as intended. In fact, although actual transformations do occur (or fail to occur), they inevitably occur in situated practices and, often, can not be generalized outside of these practices. In the end, the come to a somewhat troubling conclusion that "in their most likely form, computerization movements of the late 1990s will constitute a conservatice transformation reinforcing patterns of an elite-dominated, stratified society."
Probably the most interesting part of the paper however, are the five recurring beliefs that authors have found inform the master frame around internetworking - "New transnational communities will be forged and institutional power based in geographic centrality and control will be reduced; decentralized social action and perfect information sharing will prevail."
So...
Fice Beliefs about Internetworking
1. Internetworking is central to a new world order
2. Improved internetworking can further revolutionalize the world order
3. Internetworking pushes the conceptual limits of time, space and the known world
4. No one looses from internetworking
5. Irrational resistance is the only obstacle to success
Relevance: Cohort and keywords project
Related work: consider Bronislaw Malinowski's writings on concepts
Reference leads (other things to look up):
Source: Publication draft
Abstract (excerpt): "In this chapter we argue that the meaning of the Internet is being built up or "framed" in macro-level discourses such as those of the government, the media and scientific disciplines. The spread of these frames across many layers of public discourse mobilizes large-scale support and suggests specific lines of action within micro-social contexts such as organizations restructuring themselves in order to implement and effectively use internetworking technologies in their routine activities. We call these processes computerization movements and suggest that they are similar to other social movements such as the labor movement or the women's movement in the ways that they reject dominant cultural codes and package alternative beliefs, values and language for new, preferred forms of social life.
In the next section, we present the traditional conceptions of the social processes that have driven the rapid growth of the Internet over the past thirty years, and suggest an alternative social process based on computerization movements (CMs). Then, we describe the ways in which these movements draw on existing ideational metrials to frame the key meanings of new technologies and mobilize societal support for them. Framing is a critical part of these processes because it allows ordinary people to gain deeper understanding about how new technologies are used in situations that may be foreign to them. Next, we illustrate computerization movements by focusing on historical shifts in the meaning of a specific movement, computer-based work, and the current set of discourses that have emerged around "new" distant forms of work. Since computerization movements advocate systematic changes in existing organizational arrangements, we should expect that some discourses and activists would emerge to oppose certain modes of computerization, forming a counter-computerization movement. We discuss counter-computerization discourses that have played key roles in defining and altering the meaning of internetworking and computer-based work. Finally, we conclude and suggest ways to incorporate a computerization movement perspective in further study.
Summary of main points:
Although the citation above may be misleading, the original paper was actually written in 1998 and the points in it must be understood from this temporal instance. The major reason for this allowance has to do with the rapid development of the Internet in terms of its functionality as well as the exponential rate of adoption of the technology in the population and in business communities. Nevertheless, there are points in this article that remain stunningly relevant 7 years later.
Authors start out by giving several examples of framing and then define the meaning of the word movement as follows: social movements are socially constructed through the ideational and cultural materials currently available to societal members. Essentially, the paper focuses on the development of meaning around the emergent technologies. The analysis then focuses on a process of societal mobilization with three primary elements:
1. Technological action frames - conceptual or analytic lenses that are built up within and between social groups as they struggle over the meaning of a technology and constitute it in their discourses. Collective action frames serve to punctuate and attribute meaning. At specific points in time, a particular frame can become dominant. In the development and diffusion of new technologies, dominant frames can stabilize the meaning of technologies for indefinite periods (until contested). The very act of framing does not so much introduce restrictions as it opens up new possibilities. Framing serves to enhance action, not dampen it.
2. Public discourses - essential to the spread of computerization movements. Technological action frames circulate in public discourses and act as a form of currency whose structre and meaning remain relatively constant across a variety of discursive practices. Social agents borrow the technological action frames that they find in public discourse, use them in their own contexts and discourses and, in so doing, often embellish or extend them. Authors uncover four layers of public discourse:
a. government discourses
b. discourses of scientific disciplines
c. media discourses
d. organizational and professional discourses
3. Organizational practices - authors explore various coputerization movements that, over time, found support in organizational practices. They touch on work and office automation, telecommuting, work collaboration and distribute interaction.
Authors conclude that while computerization movements can generate rhetoric of societal transformation as a result of adoption of internetworking, evidence (in 1998) does not point to the actual transformations happening as intended. In fact, although actual transformations do occur (or fail to occur), they inevitably occur in situated practices and, often, can not be generalized outside of these practices. In the end, the come to a somewhat troubling conclusion that "in their most likely form, computerization movements of the late 1990s will constitute a conservatice transformation reinforcing patterns of an elite-dominated, stratified society."
Probably the most interesting part of the paper however, are the five recurring beliefs that authors have found inform the master frame around internetworking - "New transnational communities will be forged and institutional power based in geographic centrality and control will be reduced; decentralized social action and perfect information sharing will prevail."
So...
Fice Beliefs about Internetworking
1. Internetworking is central to a new world order
2. Improved internetworking can further revolutionalize the world order
3. Internetworking pushes the conceptual limits of time, space and the known world
4. No one looses from internetworking
5. Irrational resistance is the only obstacle to success
Relevance: Cohort and keywords project
Related work: consider Bronislaw Malinowski's writings on concepts
Reference leads (other things to look up):
posted by Q at 01:19
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