Creative London? Investigating New Modalities of Work in the Cultural Industries

This chapter considers the emergence of the discourse of creativity in contemporary economic, political, and social life, and the characteristics of emerging labour markets in the cultural industries. In particular it is concerned with analysing the working experiences of a number of individuals working in the cultural industries in London. Using a critical theoretical framework of understanding, it examines the importance of cultural capital, subjectivisation, governmentality, network sociality, and individualization as key concepts for understanding the experience of labour in the creative economy. This chapter considers how creative individuals negotiate the precarious, largely freelance, deregulated and de-unionised terrain of contemporary work. As the economic becomes increasingly inflected by the cultural in contemporary social life, the terrain of experience of individuals working in these expanding sectors has been neglected in cultural studies. This chapter seeks to critically intervene in this area, arguing that the “creative” turn in contemporary discourse can be seen to mask emergent inequalities and exploitative practices in the post-industrial employment landscape.

Visualizing ICT Change in the Academy

This chapter introduces complexity theory as a theoretical framework for analyzing the influences of information and computer technologies (ICTs) on the structures, cultures, economies (reward systems), and pedagogical praxes within the Academy. An argument is made that the strategic adaptation of the academy’s structures, cultures, economies, and pedagogical praxes to the knowledge economy can help build a future where Academy-based distributed learning networks will transmit ICT-mediated learning opportunities around the world, thus providing flexible access for a wide range of learners to fully participate in the global learning society. The author posits attunements to policies and practices to support institution-wide involvement in ICT initiatives.

The Paleolithic Stone Age Effect? Gender Differences Performing Specific Computer-Generated Spatial Tasks

Most computer applications feature visual user interfaces that assume that all users have equivalent propensities to perceive, interpret, and understand the multidimensional spatial properties and relationships of the objects presented. However, the hunter-gatherer theory (Silverman & Eals, 1992) suggests that there are modern-day differences between the genders in spatial and cognitive abilities that stem from differentiated prehistoric sex roles. If true, there may be discrepancies in how males and females differentially utilize particular spatial visual cues and interface features. We report three experiments in which participants engage in visual spatial tasks using 2D and 3D virtual worlds: (1) matching object shapes; (2) positioning objects; and (3) resizing objects. Female subjects under-perform male subjects in the matching and positioning experiments, but they outperform male subjects in the resizing experiment. Moreover, male subjects make more use of motion cues. Implications for the design of gender-effective user interfaces and virtual environments are considered.

Trusting Computers Through Trusting Humans

This article considers the question of how we may trust automatically generated program code. The code walkthroughs and inspections of software engineering mimic the ways that mathematicians go about assuring themselves that a mathematical proof is true. Mathematicians have difficulty accepting a computer generated proof because they cannot go through the social processes of trusting its construction. Similarly, those involved in accepting a proof of a computer system or computer generated code cannot go through their traditional processes of trust. The process of software verification is bound up in software quality assurance procedures, which are themselves subject to commercial pressures. Quality standards, including military standards, have procedures for human trust designed into them. An action research case study of an avionics system within a military aircraft company illustrates these points, where the software quality assurance (SQA) procedures were incommensurable with the use of automatically generated code.

Emotional Digitalization as Technology of the Postmodern

This article introduces emotional digitalization as a phenomenon of future information systems. It argues that emotional digitalization is a progress that will lessen the gap between technology and humanity, as well as between computer and man. The author develops and verifies his assumption besides theoretical references arising from his experiences with the information technology within the BrandLand Autostadt.

A Comparative Analysis of Online and Traditional Undergraduate Business Law Classes

The trend in academia to online learning has gained momentum in the past decade, due in part to the cost of higher education, a changing student profile, lack of traditional classroom space and the recognition that distance learning has created a new paradigm of instruction. Universities wishing to maintain or expand enrollments need to be able to respond effectively to the educational needs of working adults, students in the military and residents of rural communities as well as of other countries. Online (Internet-based) course offerings constitute a creative and increasingly popular response to these challenges. As more and more institutions of higher learning offer online courses, the question arises whether they are, or can be, as effective as courses offered in the traditional classroom format. Answering the question has been the focus of several studies. Our study compared students enrolled in both online and traditional classroom versions of one business law course where all elements were the same except for the instruction format. The study found no significant difference between the two formats with regard to student satisfaction and student learning. The findings support earlier comparisons of online and traditional instruction modes

MNE Knowledge Management Across Borders and ICT

Firms are consumers, producers, managers, and distributors of information (Egelhoff, 1991; Casson, 1996) and as such a repository of productive knowledge (Winter, 1988). Consequently the ability to generate, access, and utilize relevant knowledge is an essential organizational activity in order both to reduce uncertainty about the firm’s external environment and improve the efficiency of its internal operations.

Directing Equal Pay in the UK ICT Labour Market

The UK labour market is dramatically changing, with rapid technological innovations alongside globalisation where organisations are required to place a premium on human and intellectual capital. The demand for labour is outstripping supply, and businesses are increasingly dependent on their ability to attract, invest in and develop their workforce (Kingsmill, 2003). However, a recent comparative report of the information technology (IT) workforce in Holland, Germany and the UK indicates that women are haemorrhaging out of the IT sector (Platman & Taylor, 2004). Given that presently there is an IT specialist’s skills shortage of 18.4% (IER/IFF, 2003), and female IT managers represent a mere 15% of ICT managers, 30% of IT operations technicians and 11% of IT strategy planning professionals (EOC, 2004a), this suggests that the ICT industry is not equipped for equality and diversity at work. Despite many years of egalitarian rhetoric and 3 decades after the UK Equal Pay Act (1970) was introduced, women still receive on average 18% less than that of their male counterparts working full-time and 41% less than men when working part-time hours. The ESF-funded DEPICT project seeks to identify pay discrimination experienced by women in ICT at a national level throughout England. An important aim is to highlight the impact of pay and reward discrimination has on the underrepresentation of women in the ICT labour market. From this study, we hope to more clearly understand the reasons for the gender pay gap, particularly in the ICT sector; and the impact this has on women’s entry and retention to occupations where they are already severely underrepresented. Equal pay is an issue for all; it’s unjust, unlawful and impacts on social justice, equality and economic performance (EOC, 2001b). Pay is a major factor affecting relationships at work; distribution and levels of pay and benefits affect efficiency of organisations, workforce morale and productivity. It is vital for organisations to develop pay systems that reward workers fairly for the work they perform (ACAS, 2005).

IT Training as a Strategy for Business Productivity in Developing Countries

Most existing studies on technology training address the operational issues of training process (e.g., training needs assessment, learning, delivery methods, etc.). The strategic concerns of IT training for enhancing business productivity largely are not addressed by the current literature. In this article, we explore the strategic concerns of IT training in hierarchical organizations, which are typically prevalent in developing countries. We synthesize various ideas in the literature on change management, training needs analysis, and IT adoption in order to evolve a strategic IT training framework for hierarchical organizations. The proposed framework recognizes the differences in IT training requirements for different levels of employees and suggests a differentiated training content for different segments of employees. The training framework provides an actionable and comprehensive tool that can be used for systematically planning IT training for enhancing productivity of organizations.

Training Sequences and ther Effects on Task Performance and User Outcomes

This article introduces the concept of IT training sequences and examines how sequencing of conceptual and procedural training impact IT task performance, user satisfaction, and users’ self-efficacy. Using assimilation theory, we develop four hypotheses related to training sequences. These hypotheses were then tested in a database design context using a quasi-experimental study involving student subjects. Empirical results demonstrate improved far transfer and near transfer task performance and higher self-efficacy for subjects trained in the conceptual-procedural sequence versus the reverse sequence, though user satisfaction was not significantly different between the two sequences. Implications for IT training research are discussed.