This chapter summarizes how private-sector research differs from academic research, and provides ... more This chapter summarizes how private-sector research differs from academic research, and provides key guidelines for managing the research project. The author argues that applied social science research is needed in industry, now more than ever, but that academics can adapt their established methods for better impact.
"We stand at the cusp of a major shift in how we organize and understand time. Technological chan... more "We stand at the cusp of a major shift in how we organize and understand time. Technological change profoundly affects time reckoning (Heidegger, 1954) and new ways to reckon time are often harbingers of new ways to order social life (Thompson, 1967). This paper will explore how contemporary web-based technologies affect calendaring and time reckoning in general. Like many other social phenomena, time reckoning is rapidly becoming a “digital” phenomenon. Time is a very fundamental “typification” of social life (Berger & Luckman, 1966, p. 27), yet we have very little theoretical work on the socio-cultural significance of calendaring (Postill, 2002). Millions of people use Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar. These very common web-based tools represent time in significantly different ways than traditional analogue calendars in that they make appointments digital. Digital artifacts can be ordered, and re-ordered at will, and easily “mashed up” with other artifacts. In this paper, I trace three significant trends in calendaring. First, I will outline how the calendar, like the clock before it, has become increasingly a “personal” artifact. This shift has brought with it significant contestation and constructed the personal calendar into a symbol of "upward mobility." Second, I sketch out the four ways in which the digital calendars differ from analogue ones: their apparent "bottomlessness," their networked nature, the ease with which they are altered, and their low-fidelity, impersonal appearance. And finally, I will show how the digitization and personalization of calendaring are intersecting in the rise of personal mobile calendars on smartphones. I will then discuss the implications of these mobile, personal, digital calendars. I argue that the digital calendar is a paradoxical technology, which gives the impression of making “good use of time,” while at the same time masking its character as a labour-demanding device.
In this presentation, I summarized a paper, co-authored with Catherine Middleton, on the impact s... more In this presentation, I summarized a paper, co-authored with Catherine Middleton, on the impact smartphone calendars are having on everyday life. I detail how smartphones are rapidly becoming a ubiquitous technology in Canada, yet despite this, we know little about time-reckoning technology in general, and almost nothing about digital calendars in particular. I then detail some of the findings from our study: the smartphone (and its calendar) are a "framework to operate in," according to one participant. Yet the calendar is often "invisible" to its users. Its "disappearance" signals its structuring force is largely escaping consciousness, yet it may play a role in our sense of "time poverty."
This article examines how mobile technology use affects the division between private and work tim... more This article examines how mobile technology use affects the division between private and work time among workers in interactive advertising agencies. These workers are frequent users of both personal and company-issued mobile technology. This article investigates the strategies workers use to restrict workplace access during their private time. Relying on the social construction of technology as a point of departure, this article investigates the impact of mobile technologies, as well as the organizational context in which they are used. Using a mixed-method approach, this article demonstrates that the use of mobile technologies does indeed render the home/work division more permeable, but it is not their use alone that determines this effect. Rather, it is the underlying social relations of workplaces that affect how individuals negotiate the use of these technologies in non-work time and space.
This chapter aims to improve the rigor and legitimacy of Web-traffic measurement as a social rese... more This chapter aims to improve the rigor and legitimacy of Web-traffic measurement as a social research method. I compare two dominant forms of Web-traffic measurement and discuss the implicit and largely unexamined ontological and epistemological claims of both methods. Like all research methods, Web- traffic measurement has implicit ontological and epistemological assumptions embedded within it. An ontology determines what a researcher is able to discover, irrespective of method, because it provides a frame within which phenomena can be rendered intelligible. I argue that Web-traffic measurement employs an ostensibly quantitative, positivistic ontology and epistemology in hopes of cementing the “scientific” legitimacy they engender. But these claims to “scientific” method are unsubstantiated, thereby limiting the efficacy and adoption rates of log-file analysis in general. I offer recommendations for improving these measurement tools, including more reflexivity and an explicit rejection of truth claims based on positivistic science.
This article investigates the postindustrial temporal land- scape, or ‘timescape’, through a c... more This article investigates the postindustrial temporal land- scape, or ‘timescape’, through a case study industry: Internet advertis- ing. The theoretical portion of this article finds that the expansion of digital information communication technologies (ICTs) has radically transformed time keeping into ‘calculation’ in many of today’s work- places. Additionally, globalized production has also rendered many locally constructed symbols of time less relevant. The author con- trasts these events to the domestic time, which is constructed through contextual events and symbols, thereby making the postindustrial timescape further estranged from the domestic than even the Fordist timescape. The empirical portion of this article summarizes qualita- tive findings of time reckoning among Internet advertising workers. Time is not constructed out of local, material experiences but through digital means. This estranges domestic time even further, which has unintended but differential gendered effects. The implications of these findings include the emergence of a new sense of precarity, one based on ‘productivity’ of time spend on work. Additionally, a potentially new ‘glass ceiling’ could be emerging, based on the increased levels of home-based paid work. Women’s domestic responsibilities may make it relatively more difficult for them to advance when home- based paid work is expected.
This chapter summarizes how private-sector research differs from academic research, and provides ... more This chapter summarizes how private-sector research differs from academic research, and provides key guidelines for managing the research project. The author argues that applied social science research is needed in industry, now more than ever, but that academics can adapt their established methods for better impact.
"We stand at the cusp of a major shift in how we organize and understand time. Technological chan... more "We stand at the cusp of a major shift in how we organize and understand time. Technological change profoundly affects time reckoning (Heidegger, 1954) and new ways to reckon time are often harbingers of new ways to order social life (Thompson, 1967). This paper will explore how contemporary web-based technologies affect calendaring and time reckoning in general. Like many other social phenomena, time reckoning is rapidly becoming a “digital” phenomenon. Time is a very fundamental “typification” of social life (Berger & Luckman, 1966, p. 27), yet we have very little theoretical work on the socio-cultural significance of calendaring (Postill, 2002). Millions of people use Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar. These very common web-based tools represent time in significantly different ways than traditional analogue calendars in that they make appointments digital. Digital artifacts can be ordered, and re-ordered at will, and easily “mashed up” with other artifacts. In this paper, I trace three significant trends in calendaring. First, I will outline how the calendar, like the clock before it, has become increasingly a “personal” artifact. This shift has brought with it significant contestation and constructed the personal calendar into a symbol of "upward mobility." Second, I sketch out the four ways in which the digital calendars differ from analogue ones: their apparent "bottomlessness," their networked nature, the ease with which they are altered, and their low-fidelity, impersonal appearance. And finally, I will show how the digitization and personalization of calendaring are intersecting in the rise of personal mobile calendars on smartphones. I will then discuss the implications of these mobile, personal, digital calendars. I argue that the digital calendar is a paradoxical technology, which gives the impression of making “good use of time,” while at the same time masking its character as a labour-demanding device.
In this presentation, I summarized a paper, co-authored with Catherine Middleton, on the impact s... more In this presentation, I summarized a paper, co-authored with Catherine Middleton, on the impact smartphone calendars are having on everyday life. I detail how smartphones are rapidly becoming a ubiquitous technology in Canada, yet despite this, we know little about time-reckoning technology in general, and almost nothing about digital calendars in particular. I then detail some of the findings from our study: the smartphone (and its calendar) are a "framework to operate in," according to one participant. Yet the calendar is often "invisible" to its users. Its "disappearance" signals its structuring force is largely escaping consciousness, yet it may play a role in our sense of "time poverty."
This article examines how mobile technology use affects the division between private and work tim... more This article examines how mobile technology use affects the division between private and work time among workers in interactive advertising agencies. These workers are frequent users of both personal and company-issued mobile technology. This article investigates the strategies workers use to restrict workplace access during their private time. Relying on the social construction of technology as a point of departure, this article investigates the impact of mobile technologies, as well as the organizational context in which they are used. Using a mixed-method approach, this article demonstrates that the use of mobile technologies does indeed render the home/work division more permeable, but it is not their use alone that determines this effect. Rather, it is the underlying social relations of workplaces that affect how individuals negotiate the use of these technologies in non-work time and space.
This chapter aims to improve the rigor and legitimacy of Web-traffic measurement as a social rese... more This chapter aims to improve the rigor and legitimacy of Web-traffic measurement as a social research method. I compare two dominant forms of Web-traffic measurement and discuss the implicit and largely unexamined ontological and epistemological claims of both methods. Like all research methods, Web- traffic measurement has implicit ontological and epistemological assumptions embedded within it. An ontology determines what a researcher is able to discover, irrespective of method, because it provides a frame within which phenomena can be rendered intelligible. I argue that Web-traffic measurement employs an ostensibly quantitative, positivistic ontology and epistemology in hopes of cementing the “scientific” legitimacy they engender. But these claims to “scientific” method are unsubstantiated, thereby limiting the efficacy and adoption rates of log-file analysis in general. I offer recommendations for improving these measurement tools, including more reflexivity and an explicit rejection of truth claims based on positivistic science.
This article investigates the postindustrial temporal land- scape, or ‘timescape’, through a c... more This article investigates the postindustrial temporal land- scape, or ‘timescape’, through a case study industry: Internet advertis- ing. The theoretical portion of this article finds that the expansion of digital information communication technologies (ICTs) has radically transformed time keeping into ‘calculation’ in many of today’s work- places. Additionally, globalized production has also rendered many locally constructed symbols of time less relevant. The author con- trasts these events to the domestic time, which is constructed through contextual events and symbols, thereby making the postindustrial timescape further estranged from the domestic than even the Fordist timescape. The empirical portion of this article summarizes qualita- tive findings of time reckoning among Internet advertising workers. Time is not constructed out of local, material experiences but through digital means. This estranges domestic time even further, which has unintended but differential gendered effects. The implications of these findings include the emergence of a new sense of precarity, one based on ‘productivity’ of time spend on work. Additionally, a potentially new ‘glass ceiling’ could be emerging, based on the increased levels of home-based paid work. Women’s domestic responsibilities may make it relatively more difficult for them to advance when home- based paid work is expected.
Uploads
"
"