The Sociotechnical Nature of Mobile Computing Work

2007 ◽  
pp. 152-171
Author(s):  
Steve Sawyer ◽  
Andrea Tapia
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Mobile Computing ◽  
The United States ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Social Informatics ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Social Shaping Of Technology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Shaping

In this paper we discuss the sociotechnical nature of mobile computing as used by three policing agencies within the United States. Mobile devices, access and service was provided via a third generation wireless network to a focal application, Pennsylvania’s Justice NETwork (JNET), a secure web-based portal connecting authorized users to a set of 23 federated criminal justice and law enforcement databases via a query-based interface. In this study we conceptualize mobility and policing as a sociotechnical ensemble that builds on the social-shaping of technology perspective and the tradition of sociotechncial theorizing focusing on the co-design of work practices and technologies to support work. Drawing from the social informatics tradition, we turn a critical, empirical, and contextual lens on the practices of mobility and work. Our analysis of the data leads us to find that the social and the technical are still separate in this mobile work context. This simple view of social and technical as related, but distinct, often leads to problems with collecting and interpreting evidence of ICT-based system’s design and use. We further note this over-simplification of sociotechnical action is likely to continue unless more viable analytic approaches are developed and the assumptions of the current techno-determinist approaches challenged more explicitly.

The Sociotechnical Nature of Mobile Computing Work

2009 ◽  
pp. 2079-2091
Author(s):  
Steve Sawyer ◽  
Andrea Tapia
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mobile Computing ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
The United States ◽  
Third Generation ◽  
Social Informatics ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Social Shaping Of Technology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Shaping

In this article we discuss the sociotechnical nature of mobile computing as used by three policing agencies within the United States. Mobile devices, access, and service was provided via a third-generation wireless network to a focal application, Pennsylvania’s Justice NETwork (JNET), a secure Web-based portal connecting authorized users to a set of 23 federated criminal justice and law enforcement databases via a query-based interface. In this study we conceptualize mobility and policing as a sociotechnical ensemble that builds on the social-shaping of technology perspective and the tradition of sociotechnical theorizing, focusing on the co-design of work practices and technologies to support work. Drawing from the social informatics tradition, we turn a critical, empirical, and contextual lens on the practices of mobility and work. Our analysis of the data leads us to observing that the social and the technical are still considered separately in the context of mobile work. This simple view of social and technical as related, but distinct, often leads to problems with collecting and interpreting evidence of ICT-based systems’ design and use. We further note that this over-simplification of sociotechnical action is likely to continue unless more viable analytic approaches are developed and the assumptions of the current techno-determinist approaches are challenged more explicitly.

scholarly journals Amnesty or Abolition?

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Lytle Hernández
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Control Systems ◽  
Undocumented Immigrants ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigration Control ◽  
The Social

Convicts and undocumented immigrants are similarly excluded from full social and political membership in the United States. Disfranchised, denied core protections of the social welfare state and subject to forced removal from their homes, families, and communities, convicts and undocumented immigrants, together, occupy the caste of outsiders living within the United States. This essay explores the rise of the criminal justice and immigration control systems that frame the caste of outsiders. Reaching back to the forgotten origins of immigration control during the era of black emancipation, this essay highlights the deep and allied inequities rooted in the rise of immigration control and mass incarceration.

State Speech vs. Hate Speech

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Michael Weinman ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Do So ◽  
New View

This is, indeed, another work on the subject of hate speech regulation in the United States. And yet, it is not just another such work. For my goal here is not to settle the jurisprudential arguments regarding the possibility of any specific hate speech regulation, either extant or yet to be conceived, withstanding a Constitutional test. Nor is it my intention to demonstrate, on the basis of a comparative study of existing legislation, that such regulation either is or is not effective in addressing or redressing the social ills of hatred, discrimination, and inequality. Rather, I will achieve greater analytical clarity about just what the harms of hate speech are. I do so in order to reinvigorate the question about regulation with a new view of what exactly the object needing attention is, by demonstrating that though there are real harms here, the state cannot provide a regulatory remedy (at least qua criminal justice). Thus, in my conclusion I will assert that the question of what we might do differently in response to hate speech can only be answered —however provisionally—insofar as we first confront how we need to think differently about it. Specifically, I will argue that we need to replace the emphasis on redressing harms once they have occurred with a new emphasis on addressing, and ultimately eliminating, the conditions which make those harms possible in the first place.

scholarly journals Direct Broadcast Satellites and the Social Shaping of Technology: Comparing South Korea and Canada

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen D. McDowell ◽  
Chunil Park
Keyword(s):  
Population Density ◽  
New Media ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Shaping Of Technology ◽  
Nouvelles Technologies ◽  
Satellite Broadcasting ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Shaping

Abstract: Questions about the social shaping of technology are explored by comparing direct broadcasting satellite policy in two very different countries. Canada has a vast geography, low population density, extreme ethnic and linguistic diversity, and close proximity and long-time cooperation with its neighbour, the United States. South Korea is centralized around Seoul, has a high population density, is relatively homogenous culturally and ethnically, and has a history of conflict with the country sharing a common border. The specific goals set for satellite broadcasting arising from these differing national contexts are explored. The paper also compares services and audiences in South Korea and Canada, and it asks what these cases can illustrate about the relationship between industry, policy, audiences, and the shaping of a new media technology. Résumé : Nous explorons la formation sociale de nouvelles technologies en comparant les politiques sur les satellites de radiodiffusion directe dans deux pays très différents. Le Canada a une vaste géographie, une population à faible densité et une très grande diversité ethnique et linguistique et il collabore depuis longtemps avec son voisin très proche, les États-Unis. La Corée du Sud, en revanche, est fortement centralisée autour de Séoul, densément peuplée et homogène tant du point de vue culturel qu’ethnique et elle partage une histoire de conflits avec son voisin du nord. Nous explorons les objectifs spécifiques pour les satellites de radiodiffusion directe fixés dans ces contextes nationaux si différents. Nous comparons aussi services et publics en Corée du Sud et au Canada, et nous demandons comment ces cas peuvent illustrer le rapport entre industrie, politique, public et la formation d’une nouvelle technologie de communication.

scholarly journals An Attack on the Separation of Powers? Strategic Climate Litigation in the Eyes of U.S. Judges

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8335
Author(s):  
Jasmina Nedevska
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Climate Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Domestic Courts ◽  
Research Plan

Climate change litigation has emerged as a powerful tool as societies steer towards sustainable development. Although the litigation mainly takes place in domestic courts, the implications can be seen as global as specific climate rulings influence courts across national borders. However, while the phenomenon of judicialization is well-known in the social sciences, relatively few have studied issues of legitimacy that arise as climate politics move into courts. A comparatively large part of climate cases have appeared in the United States. This article presents a research plan for a study of judges’ opinions and dissents in the United States, regarding the justiciability of strategic climate cases. The purpose is to empirically study how judges navigate a perceived normative conflict—between the litigation and an overarching ideal of separation of powers—in a system marked by checks and balances.

scholarly journals Mercy towards decarceration: Examining the legal constraints on early release from prison

Incarceration ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 263266632097780
Author(s):  
Alexandra Cox ◽  
Dwayne Betts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Release ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
Release From Prison

There are close to seven million people under correctional supervision in the United States, both in prison and in the community. The US criminal justice system is widely regarded as an inherently unmerciful institution by scholars and policymakers but also by people who have spent time in prison and their family members; it is deeply punitive, racist, expansive and damaging in its reach. In this article, we probe the meanings of mercy for the institution of parole.

Shame and blame: Secondary stigma among families of convicted sex offenders

2021 ◽  
pp. 174889582110173
Author(s):  
Douglas Evans ◽  
Adam Trahan ◽  
Kaleigh Laird
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Sex Offender Registry

The detriment of incarceration experienced by the formerly incarcerated has been increasingly explored in the literature on reentry. A tangential but equally concerning issue that has recently received more research attention is the effect on family members of the incarcerated. The stigma of a criminal conviction is most apparent among families of convicted sex offenders, who experience consequences parallel to those of their convicted relative. Drawing from interviews with 30 individuals with a family member incarcerated for a sex offence in the United States, this study explores manifestations of stigma due to familial association. The findings suggest that families face negative treatment from social networks and criminal justice officials, engage in self-blame and that the media’s control over the narrative exacerbates family members’ experiences. Given the pervasiveness of criminal justice system contact, the rapid growth of the sex offender registry in the United States, and the millions of family members peripherally affected by one or both, justice system reforms are needed to ensure that family members are shielded from the harms of incarceration and registration.

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