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result(s) for
"Tjora, Aksel"
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Situational Domestication and the Origin of the Cafe Worker Species
Given the pervasiveness of free Wi-Fi zones in cafes, use of laptops, tablets and smart phones supports the transformation of cafes from social spaces to work spaces for many customers. In this article we analyse, on the basis of an ethnographic study of individuals’ laptop work in urban cafes in Norway and the UK, (1) what it is about cafes that makes people visit them for working purposes, and (2) how individual laptop work changes the social life of such venues. By linking our analysis to theories of communal processes and the domestication of technologies, we put forward the concept of ‘situational domestication’, encompassing the aspects of socially embedded individual working. Consequently, the close study of how cafe spaces are being used for work offers insights into how progressively technologised work and work habits influence not only work itself, but also public space at a broader level.
Journal Article
The Constitutive Practices of Public Smartphone Use
The smartphone has become the most ubiquitous piece of personal technology, giving it significant social importance and sociological relevance. In this article, we explore how the smartphone interacts with and impacts social interaction in the setting of the urban café. Through analyzing 52 spontaneous in-depth interviews related to social interaction in cafés, we identify three categories of smartphone use in social settings: interaction suspension, deliberately shielding interaction, and accessing shareables. These categories comprise the constitutive smartphone practices that define the social order of public smartphone use within an interactionist sociological framework.
Journal Article
Shameful Technological Impertinence: Consumer Ambivalence among iPad Early-Buyers
This article is motivated by the excessive success of Apple’s iPad, introduced in 2010, questioning the motives for acquiring the product at the time of launch. The purpose is to understand the decision to buy an expensive product that had a fairly undefined use. On the basis of in-depth interviews of ‘early-buyers’ (‘early adopters’) of the iPad, we examine, in this article, justifications for the acquisition of such an ‘open technology’ use. Using theories of consumer society (Veblen, Bauman, Debord), Protestant ethics (Weber), impression management (Goffman, Leary) and group identity (Maffesoli), we develop, in the analysis, the concept of shameful technological impertinence concerning the ambiguity between frugality as value and consumer-based identity related to the latest technology. A reflection on this concept contributes to an understanding of how excessive technology consumption, on the one hand is followed by an unashamed desire to show off new ‘gadgets’ and on the other hand, a more shameful self-presentation defending the purchase. Today, just over ten years after the launch of the iPad and our interviews, the iPad is taken for granted as a central platform for a number of applications, for everything from personal entertainment to work- and school-related use. In light of this, we conclude with a reflection on how shameful technological impertinence as a more generic concept will be relevant in some phases rather than others, as new innovations are brought into use. The project is limited to the first iPad and its users, and further research could investigate a larger array of consumer electronics and how attitudes towards buying could be increasingly influenced by a growing concern about the abuse of natural resources.
Journal Article
The social rhythm of the rock music festival
On the basis of observational studies in a number of rock music festivals during the period 2004–2012, I ask the following question in this paper: how does the music festival community arise and how is it maintained? With the help of perspectives from interactionist sociology and organisational studies I develop an analysis of how rock music festival ‘skills’ are collectively produced. A communally acknowledged competence is negotiated and made explicit by means, among other things, of the synchronisation of a daily rhythm that becomes common to many festivals. The present analysis will employ a close description of this rhythm's phases, and how transitions between them are interactively negotiated. While rock music festivals certainly celebrate fandom, this paper draws attention to processes that build strong senses of community between participants while joining together in the camping site, outside stage areas. The social rhythm, as it is interactively and artfully produced between participants, makes the festival recognisable as a festival, and attractive as a social event. A profound sense of connectedness between participants is to be found between the tents in the festival camp.
Journal Article
VIDEOCARE: Decentralised psychiatric emergency care through videoconferencing
Background
Today the availability of specialists is limited for psychiatric patients in rural areas, especially during psychiatric emergencies. To overcome this challenge, the University Hospital of North Norway has implemented a new decentralised on-call system in psychiatric emergencies, by which psychiatrists are accessible by videoconference 24/7. In September 2011, the new on-call system was established in clinical practice for patients and health staff at three regional psychiatric centres in Northern Norway. Although a wide variety of therapies have been successfully delivered by videoconference, there is limited research on the use of videoconferenced consultations with patients in psychiatric emergencies. The aim of this study is to explore the use of videoconference in psychiatric emergencies based on the implementation of this first Norwegian tele-psychiatric service in emergency care.
Methods/design
The research project is an exploratory case study of a new videoconference service in operation. By applying in-depth interviews with patients, specialists and local health-care staff, we will identify factors that facilitate and hinder use of videoconferencing in psychiatric emergencies, and explore how videoconferenced consultations matter for patients, professional practice and cooperation between levels in psychiatric care. By using an on-going project as the site of research, the case is especially well-suited for generating reliable and valid empirical data.
Discussion
Results from the study will be of importance for understanding of how videoconferencing may support proper treatment and high-quality health care services in rural areas for patients in psychiatric emergencies.
Journal Article
The groove in the box: a technologically mediated inspiration in electronic dance music
Even though electronic and computer-based technologies are commonly used in music composition, performance and recording, this field of technology use has, with a few exceptions, remained fairly unexplored within social studies of technology. In this article, the role of technology in music production is investigated by applying the notion of script (Akrich 1992) to an empirical study of users of the Roland MC303 Groovebox, a self-contained instrument for making techno, rap, jungle, hip-hop, acid and other styles of electronic (dance) music. The study focuses especially on individual differences between users' perceptions of the musical-stylistic directedness of the Groovebox and how they construct different user scripts and more advanced needs as they become more familiar with the instrument. The latter observation highlights the relevance of a user trajectory, the notion that enthusiast technology users may keep on using a specific technological artefact through various usage modes or scripts over time.
Journal Article
Beyond the EPR: Complementary roles of the hospital-wide electronic health record and clinical departmental systems
Background
Many hospital departments have implemented small clinical departmental systems (CDSs) to collect and use patient data for documentation as well as for other department-specific purposes. As hospitals are implementing institution-wide electronic patient records (EPRs), the EPR is thought to be integrated with, and gradually substitute the smaller systems. Many EPR systems however fail to support important clinical workflows. Also, successful integration of systems has proven hard to achieve. As a result, CDSs are still in widespread use. This study was conducted to see which tasks are supported by CDSs and to compare this to the support offered by the EPR.
Methods
Semi-structured interviews with users of 16 clinicians using 15 different clinical departmental systems (CDS) at a Medium-sized University hospital in Norway. Inductive analysis of transcriptions from the audio taped interviews.
Results
The roles of CDSs were complementary to those of the hospital-wide EPR system. The use of structured patient data was a characteristic feature. This facilitated quality development and supervision, tasks that were poorly supported by the EPR system. The structuring of the data also improved filtering of information to better support clinical decision-making. Because of the high value of the structured patient data, the users put much effort in maintaining their integrity and representativeness. Employees from the departments were also engaged in the funding, development, implementation and maintenance of the systems.
Conclusion
Clinical departmental systems are vital to the activities of a clinical hospital department. The development, implementation and clinical use of such systems can be seen as bottom-up, user-driven innovations.
Journal Article
