The Games People Play

2015 ◽  
pp. 67-91
Author(s):  
Shefali Virkar
Keyword(s):  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Environmental Context ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
The Social ◽  
Software Platforms ◽  
Development Literature ◽  
Ict For Development ◽  
General Inability

Much has been written about e-government within a growing stream of literature on ICT for development, generating countervailing perspectives where optimistic, technocratic approaches are countered by far more sceptical standpoints on technological innovation. This chapter seeks to, through the use of a case study, unravel the social dynamics shaping e-government projects used to reform public sector institutions. In particular, the research analyzes actor behaviour, motivations, and interactions surrounding the conception and maintenance of software platforms facilitating these transformations. The value of such an approach is based on a review of existing ICT and software development literature, which tends to be overly systems-rational in its approach and, as a consequence, often fails to recognise the degree to which project failure (viz. the general inability of the project design to meet stated goals and resolve both predicted and emerging problems) is symptomatic of a broader, much more complex set of interrelated inequalities, unresolved problems, and lopsided power-relationships both within the adopting organisation and in the surrounding environmental context.

scholarly journals Extending Geodemographics Using Data Primitives: A Review and a Methodological Proposal

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 386
Author(s):  
Jennie Gray ◽  
Lisa Buckner ◽  
Alexis Comber
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Feature Space ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Current State ◽  
Cluster Label ◽  
Static Data ◽  
The Social ◽  
Using Data

This paper reviews geodemographic classifications and developments in contemporary classifications. It develops a critique of current approaches and identifiea a number of key limitations. These include the problems associated with the geodemographic cluster label (few cluster members are typical or have the same properties as the cluster centre) and the failure of the static label to describe anything about the underlying neighbourhood processes and dynamics. To address these limitations, this paper proposed a data primitives approach. Data primitives are the fundamental dimensions or measurements that capture the processes of interest. They can be used to describe the current state of an area in a multivariate feature space, and states can be compared over multiple time periods for which data are available, through for example a change vector approach. In this way, emergent social processes, which may be too weak to result in a change in a cluster label, but are nonetheless important signals, can be captured. As states are updated (for example, as new data become available), inferences about different social processes can be made, as well as classification updates if required. State changes can also be used to determine neighbourhood trajectories and to predict or infer future states. A list of data primitives was suggested from a review of the mechanisms driving a number of neighbourhood-level social processes, with the aim of improving the wider understanding of the interaction of complex neighbourhood processes and their effects. A small case study was provided to illustrate the approach. In this way, the methods outlined in this paper suggest a more nuanced approach to geodemographic research, away from a focus on classifications and static data, towards approaches that capture the social dynamics experienced by neighbourhoods.

Exploring the Social Dynamics of Implementing Self-Managed Web-Based Wellness Tools

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 13-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rennie Naidoo
Keyword(s):  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
Service Encounters ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Social ◽  
Healthcare Insurance

According to proponents of consumer-driven healthcare, the Web continues to offer huge opportunities to empower consumers to take individual ownership over their healthcare. Consequently many healthcare insurance service providers are integrating elements of Wellness into their product and service design and are making these available through Web-based portals. Based on a longitudinal case study of an e-Wellness implementation at a multinational consumer-driven healthcare insurance firm, key concepts from structuration theory are used to explore and analyse the social dynamics involved in the implementation of these contemporary forms of healthcare service encounters. This case study reports that in this particular context, face-to-face consultations continue to prevail over the use of virtual diagnosis and treatment by a computer-meditated virtual stress therapist and dietician practitioner. The author proposes the use of social frameworks to analyse and better understand the intricacies involved in implementing Wellness innovations.

The Quest for “Magnalux”

2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 435-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Gross
Keyword(s):  
Technological Innovation ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Social Study ◽  
Electronics Industry ◽  
Research Staff ◽  
The Social ◽  
Fundamental Research ◽  
Light Amplifier ◽  
Radio Corporation Of America

In September 1951, Radio Corporation of America chairman David Sarnoff celebrated his 45th year in the electronics industry by publicly challenging his research staff to develop three new technologies in time for his golden anniversary dinner 5 years later. This article considers the fate of one of these items, the “Magnalux” light amplifier, to explore how scientists, manufacturing personnel, and managers viewed the significance of fundamental research to technological innovation. Following a discussion of the content and context of Sarnoff’s request, the article focuses on the creation of two prototype light amplifiers to emphasize the contingency of technological success and failure and the centrality of commercial considerations in defining those categories. This case study reaffirms the value of historical methodologies to the social study of corporate science.

scholarly journals The impacts of Meta Data Management on Social Dynamics: A Research Case Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Torrance Mayberry
Keyword(s):  
Data Management ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Complex Phenomenon ◽  
Critical Importance ◽  
Meta Data ◽  
Cognitive Ethnography ◽  
The Social ◽  
Emerging Themes

<p>Meta data management practices often overlook the role social dynamics play in harnessing the value of an organisation’s unique business language and the behaviours it creates. Using evidence from literature, interviews and cognitive ethnography, this research case sets out to explain the impacts of meta data management on social dynamics. The emerging themes (that is, newness, continual adaption, engagement tension, production tension, inefficiency and unreliability) represent salient factors by which organisations can be constrained in exploiting the worth of their meta data. This research emphasises the critical importance of organisations having a deeper understanding of the purpose and meaning of information. This understanding is a strength for creating value and for exploiting the worth arising in networks and in the social dynamics created within those networks. This strength contributes to organisations’ economic growth and is interdependent with their ability to manage complex phenomenon in a growing interconnected society.</p>

Community Participation in the Design of the Seattle Public Schools' Budget Builder Web Site

2011 ◽  
pp. 516-538
Author(s):  
Chris Halaska
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Community Participation ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Final Version ◽  
User Input ◽  
The Social ◽  
Technical Issues ◽  
Community Access

This chapter provides a case study of the development of an Internet-based budgeting tool for the Seattle Public Schools, known as the Budget Builder. In particular, I describe the ways in which community participation affected the design and final outcome of the system. The Budget Builder project was unusual for a technical project because of its major focus on community participation. Although participation was stymied to some extent, the project can be seen as a success for community access. In the case study, I summarize the use of the Budget Builder over its first two years; describe the community participation and user input present in the design process; examine the social structure surrounding the Budget Builder, especially the division of power among the three main groups working on the project, and how those power relationships affected the final version of the project; and discuss some technical issues that appeared during the course of the project.

Common Ground

Prejudice ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 114-134
Author(s):  
Endre Begby
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Epistemic Responsibility ◽  
Remedial Action ◽  
Social Scripts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Minority Candidate

This chapter outlines a way to study the social dynamics of prejudice even in the absence of “prejudiced believers.” Stereotypes often serve to provide us with “social scripts.” We often comply with these scripts even though we don’t endorse their content, simply because we have reason to believe that others endorse them, and because they are typically backed up by sanctions. But others may be in the same situation. Accordingly, we could find ourselves in situations where nobody endorses the stereotypes encoded in our social scripts, even as these scripts continue to govern our mutual interactions. Reverting to notions of “collective” or “shared” epistemic responsibility provides no real traction on these kinds of situations, nor any novel perspectives on remedial action. As a case study, this chapter offers the paradox of “perceived electability,” where voters fail to support a preferred minority candidate because they believe others will not vote for her.

Mobile phone appropriation in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana de Souza e Silva ◽  
Daniel M. Sutko ◽  
Fernando A. Salis ◽  
Claudio de Souza e Silva
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Cell Phones ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This qualitative case study describes the social appropriation of mobile phones among low-income communities in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) by asking how favela (slum) residents appropriate cell phones. Findings highlight the difficulty these populations encounter in acquiring and using cell phones due to social and economic factors, and the consequent subversive or illegal tactics used to gain access to such technology. Moreover, these tactics are embedded in and exemplars of the cyclic power relationships between high-and low-income populations that constitute the unique use of mobile technologies in these Brazilian slums. The article concludes by suggesting that future research on technology in low-income communities focus instead on the relationship of people to technology rather than a dichotomization of their access or lack thereof.

scholarly journals A Case Study: Rome's Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio and the Social Function of Music

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2(2)) ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Milena Gammaitoni
Keyword(s):  
Collective Memory ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Sociology Of Music ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Intercultural Integration

The research presented here is based on studies of the sociology of music, as well as on analyses of the dynamics of immigration. This explored some of the social dynamics and actions of a multi-ethnic orchestra founded and operating in Rome. The purpose of the study was to examine this orchestra as an example of good practice regarding intercultural integration and was the criterion by which we chose to analyse the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, founded in 2002 by Mario Tronco in one of Rome’s central multi-ethnic districts, the Esquiline. The question posed here is whether the creation of a multi-ethnic orchestra can act as an alternative model which, by means of the socialisation process, redefines and rediscovers the age-old relational and integrating functions of music, availing of the collective memory, identity, heritage and varieties of music, without forfeiting its own identity.

scholarly journals Why Should I? Cybersecurity, the Security of the State and the Insecurity of the Citizen

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lizzie Coles-Kemp ◽  
Debi Ashenden ◽  
Kieron O'Hara
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Security Controls ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Local Case ◽  
The Social ◽  
Subsequent Literature

Assumptions are made by government and technology providers about the power relationships that shape the use of technological security controls and the norms under which technology usage occurs. We present a case study carried out in the North East of England that examined how a community might work together using a digital information sharing platform to respond to the pressures of welfare policy change. We describe an inductive consideration of this highly local case study before reviewing it in the light of broader security theory. By taking this approach we problematise the tendency of the state to focus on the security of technology at the expense of the security of the citizen. From insights gained from the case study and the subsequent literature review, we conclude that there are three main absences not addressed by the current designs of cybersecurity architectures. These are absences of: consensus as to whose security is being addressed, evidence of equivalence between the mechanisms that control behaviour, and two-way legibility. We argue that by addressing these absences the foundations of trust and collaboration can be built which are necessary for effective cybersecurity. Our consideration of the case study within the context of sovereignty indicates that the design of the cybersecurity architecture and its concomitant service design has a significant bearing on the social contract between citizen and state. By taking this novel perspective new directions emerge for the understanding of the effectiveness of cybersecurity technologies.

Transient international groups (TIGs): exploring the group and development dimension of ELF

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Luise Pitzl
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Diachronic Analysis ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Clusters

AbstractIn the past years, it has become generally accepted that the social dynamics of ELF cannot be captured by the notion of a speech community. Instead, the concept Community of Practice (CoP) has gained widespread currency in ELF research. While applications of the CoP framework have given rise to valuable insights, even ELF scholars who work with the concept often acknowledge its limitations. Since factors like situationality and ad hoc negotiation are seen as particularly important in ELF interactions, many ELF researchers have recently emphasized the transient and dynamic nature of the social clusters in which ELF communication typically takes place, especially in light of the multilingualism and language contact. This paper offers a first sketch of how the social dimension of ELF might on many occasions be conceptualized as involving Transient International Groups (TIGs) rather than more stable CoPs. Building on the idea that the Individual Multilingual Repertoires (IMRs) of ELF speakers make up a Multilingual Resource Pool (MRP) in each ELF interaction, the paper argues that ELF theory-building and descriptive work would benefit from exploring the group and the development dimension of ELF more thoroughly than has been done so far. In support, the paper provides a qualitative case study of a TIG in the leisure domain of VOICE. This case study illustrates how an in-depth micro-diachronic analysis of multilingual practices and instances of explicit reference to languages, countries, places, etc., can make visible the group’s development of shared translingual and transcultural territory.

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