From Collaborative Habituation to Everyday Togetherness: A Long-Term Study of Use of the Messaging Kettle

We present a long-term study of use of the Messaging Kettle, an Internet of Things (IOT) research prototype that augments an everyday kettle with both sensing and messaging capability and a beautiful light display in order to investigate connecting geographically distant loved ones to their family through the routine of boiling the kettle. Connection at a distance has been of sustained interest to the CHI community, and the social connection of older people is of increasing importance in recognition of ageing populations globally. However, very few novel designs in this domain have been investigated in situ or over the long term to examine whether their use sustains, and if so, how they impact communication in a relationship. The Messaging Kettle was trialled with four pairs of dispersed older mothers and adult daughters over timeframes that lasted between two months to more than two years. We observed the phenomenon of collaborative habituation wherein each party creatively made the technology work for them both through a combination of the gradual transformation of their everyday practices, arrangements, and living. Through developing these joint practices over time, participants expressed feelings of everyday togetherness that nurture their relationship at a distance. Three of the four couples continued to use the prototype for years, beyond the initial trial. We reflect on the artful integration of features of the Messaging Kettle and the way in which these features supported collaborative habituation . We also reflect on lessons and implications for the design of such relational technologies.

Latin American Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: A Historical Perspective

This special issue seeks to appreciate the long-term study of SMEs as key players in the Latin American economies, with contributions on six countries: Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile. This is a representative sample of the Latin American subcontinent’s diversity when it comes to economy size, population, and inequality index. The articles presented spot key topics in the study of Latin American SMEs. This introduction focus on three central issues that arise from those articles: the role of public policies in SME emergence and development, the strategies pursued by these firms to adapt to environment changes, and the links between informality and SME creation.

Crossover Effects of Education on Health within Married Couples

Although empirical work has shown that personal and spousal education are both related to health, the nature of these associations has been harder to establish. People select into marriages on the basis of observed and hard-to-observe characteristics, complicating the job of the researcher who wishes to make causal inferences. In this article, we implement a within-sibling-pair design that exploits variation within pairs in spousal education to generate estimates of spousal crossover effects. Results—based on a long-term study of siblings and their spouses—suggest that spousal education is positively related to health, but to a greater degree for women than men. Sensitivity analyses show that these patterns are unlikely to derive from measured differences between individuals or unmeasured characteristics that sort them into unions. These results are consistent with network-based theories of social capital, which view education as a resource that can be mobilized by network ties to enhance health.

Experiential Learning by Business Students on Short Term Study Tours

This study incorporates a qualitative, case study based approach to analyze the impact of a short domestic study tour on business students of a Mumbai based college. The methods for data collection were structured questionnaires, feedback forms, interviews, focus groups, and work diaries. Short and economical study tours within the country have succeeded tremendously in their objective and have provided a very high level of learning experiences. There is strong evidence of experiential learning which seem to produce a significant, almost magical, impact on students.