New Technologies at Work: People, Screens and Social Virtuality

Description

Information and communication technologies have completely revolutionized our working practices. Career patterns, professional identities, speed of communication, time management, and mobility have been irrevocably changed in an amazingly short period. Drawing on worldwide case studies, this fascinating book explores these transformations and looks to what developments are in store for us in the future. Flexible hours, email, virtual meetings rooms, and working from home are all relatively new additions to our professional lives. The effects of these technological advances have been dramatic and far-reaching. Not only have they helped to connect organizations and institutions in developing countries to the rest of the world, but they also allow people to maintain extensive geographical networks with friends, families, and colleagues. The use of virtual reality and multimedia has had a huge impact on careers ranging from investment banking to molecular biology, and has brought fundamental changes to education and training, the generation of new ideas, and problem solving. This book investigates both the impact of information technology on working practices and, more complexly, how I.T. is bound up in social, political, and economic issues. How are power relations established and maintained through transnational networking? Can the Internet be used as a political tool to manipulate the 'masses'? In what ways has digital technology changed the aesthetics and practices of the Euro-American dance world? What initiatives have been undertaken to ensure people aren't excluded from the digital world and have they succeeded? Through answering these and many more questions, this groundbreaking book is an essential guide to the modern day world.

Christina Garsten is Senior Lecturer at Stockholm University. Helena Wulff is Senior Lecturer at Stockholm University.

'The volume provides a welcome contribution to scholarship at the cross-section of science and technology, organizational, and cultural studies.' Melissa Cefkin, Anthropology of Work Review 'The volume nicely indexes many recent anthropological concerns, both theoretical -- the de-centering of the nation -- and methodological -- trans-siting research. Its strength lies in the ability of the authors to connect technologized work practices to more general disciplinary concerns.' David Hakken, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (Vol 10, No 4, December 2004)