14 research outputs found

    Smartphones as steady companions: device use in everyday life and the economics of attention

    Get PDF
    This thesis investigates smartphone use in naturally occurring contexts with a dataset comprising 200 hours of audio-visual first-person recordings from wearable cameras, and self-confrontation interview video footage (N = 41 users). The situated context in which smartphone use takes place has often been overlooked because of the technical difficulty of capturing context of use, actual action of users, and their subjective experience simultaneously. This research project contributes to filling this gap, with a detailed, mixed-methods analysis of over a thousand individual phone engagement behaviours (EB). We observe that (a) the smartphone is a key structuring element in the flow of daily activities. Participants report complex strategies on how they manage engaging with or avoiding their devices. (b) Unexpectedly, we find that the majority of EB (89%) are initiated by users, not devices; users engage with the phone roughly every five minutes regardless of the context they are in. (c) A large portion of EB seems to stem from contextual cues and an unconscious urge to pick up the device, even when there is no clear reason to do so. d) Participants are surprised about, and often unhappy with how frequently they mindlessly reach for the phone. Our in-depth analysis unveils several overlapping layers of motivations and triggers driving EB. Monitoring incoming notifications, managing time use, responding to social pressures, actually completing a task with the phone, design factors, unconscious urges, as well as the accessibility of the device, and most importantly its affordance for distraction all contribute to picking up the phone. This user drive for EB is used by providers to feed the attention economy. So far, keeping the smartphone outside of the visual field and immediate reach has appeared as the only efficient strategy to prevent overuse

    Praxitopia : How shopping makes a street vibrant

    Get PDF
    During recent decades, shopping’s geographical manifestations have altered radically and the presumed ‘death’ of town centre retailing has become a public concern. The social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of this decentralisation of retail and its effects on city life have been studied comprehensively. However, to date, few studies have examined the changing dynamics of non-mainstream shopping geographies, particularly local shopping streets. How shopping is enacted in such places, and shopping’s part in shaping them, has been largely overlooked. Aspiring to fulfil this knowledge gap, this dissertation examines shopping activities on Södergatan, a local shopping street in a stigmatized ‘super-diverse’ district of Helsingborg, Sweden known as Söder, and contributes to the literature on shopping geographies by drawing on a sociocultural perspective.The study draws on practice theory and focuses on shopping as the main unit. The analysis is built on a sensitivity to the interrelationships existing between social practices and place, emerging from the epistemic positioning resulting from the identification of 'modes of practices'. In order to grasp the enmeshed character of shopping, which is complicated by cultural, spatial, temporal, material, and sensorial layers, video ethnography was employed as the primary research collection method, in combination with go-along interviews, observation and mental-mapping.The research reveals five major modes of shopping practice which jointly represent a typology for understanding shopping in terms of being enacted in the street; i.e. convenience shopping, social shopping, on-the-side shopping, alternative shopping, and budget shopping. This thesis also shows that the bundling of these modes of shopping shapes the street into a vibrant part of the city by interrelating with the shopping street’s sensomaterial and spatiotemporal dimensions in complex and multifaceted directions. Consequently, the local shopping street is conceptualized as a praxitopia, a place co-constituted through social practices

    Employees on social media: A multi-spokespeople model of CSR communication

    Get PDF
    Increasing societal and stakeholder expectations, along with easy access to information through social media, means corporations are asked for more information. The traditional approach to CSR communication, with corporations controlling what and how much to share with stakeholders has been restructured by social media, with stakeholders taking control. As legitimacy on social media is created through the positive and negative judgements of stakeholders, corporations must plan how to meet stakeholder demands for information effectively and legitimately, and this includes choosing appropriate spokespeople. Corporations in India have now turned towards their employees as CSR spokespeople. By encouraging employee activity on social media, these corporations are attempting to meet stakeholder demands and generate legitimacy through spokespeople whom stakeholders perceive as equals. This article examines that strategy and discusses its viability of using employees as spokespeople for CSR communication and engagement with stakeholder

    Harnessing the power of the general public for crowdsourced business intelligence: a survey

    Get PDF
    International audienceCrowdsourced business intelligence (CrowdBI), which leverages the crowdsourced user-generated data to extract useful knowledge about business and create marketing intelligence to excel in the business environment, has become a surging research topic in recent years. Compared with the traditional business intelligence that is based on the firm-owned data and survey data, CrowdBI faces numerous unique issues, such as customer behavior analysis, brand tracking, and product improvement, demand forecasting and trend analysis, competitive intelligence, business popularity analysis and site recommendation, and urban commercial analysis. This paper first characterizes the concept model and unique features and presents a generic framework for CrowdBI. It also investigates novel application areas as well as the key challenges and techniques of CrowdBI. Furthermore, we make discussions about the future research directions of CrowdBI

    Sandra Helps You Learn: The More You Walk, The More Battery Your Phone Drains

    Get PDF
    Emerging continuous sensing apps introduce new major factors governing phones' overall battery consumption behaviors: (1) added nontrivial persistent battery drain, and more importantly (2) different battery drain rate depending on the user's different mobility condition. In this paper, we address the new battery impacting factors significant enough to outdate users' existing battery model in real life. We explore an initial approach to help users understand the cause and effect between their physical activity and phones' battery life. To this end, we present Sandra, a novel mobility-aware smartphone battery information advisor, and study its potential to help users redevelop their battery model. We perform an extensive explorative study and deployment for 30 days with 24 users. Our findings reveal what they essentially learned, and in which situations they found Sandra very helpful. We share the lessons learned to help in the design of future mobility-aware battery advisors.1

    Governmentality and exclusion in post-disaster spaces : conducting the conduct of the survivors of Typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines

    Get PDF
    Lorsque les alĂ©as naturels se dĂ©roulent en catastrophes, les rĂ©ponses des religieux, de l’Etat, et d’autres acteurs puissants dans une sociĂ©tĂ© rĂ©vĂšlent Ă  la fois les relations complexes entre ces parties et leur pouvoir dans la production des espaces auxquelles les survivants accĂšdent. La rĂ©ponse en cas de catastrophe comprend la crĂ©ation d’espaces post-catastrophes, tels que des centres d’évacuation, des logements de transition et des sites de rĂ©installation permanente, qui ciblent spĂ©cifiquement un sous-ensemble particulier de survivants, et visent Ă  les aider Ă  survivre, Ă  faire face, et Ă  se remettre de la catastrophe. Les acteurs puissants dans une sociĂ©tĂ© dirigent les processus de secours, de rĂ©cupĂ©ration et de reconstruction sont des acteurs puissants qui cherchent Ă  problĂ©matiser et Ă  rendre un problĂšme technique dans des termes qu’ils sont idĂ©alement placĂ©s pour aborder Ă  travers une variĂ©tĂ© d'interventions. Ce projet de recherche vise Ă  rĂ©pondre Ă  la question: oĂč les survivants d'une catastrophe reconstruisent-ils leurs vies et leurs moyens de subsistance? Il enquĂȘte sur un cas spĂ©cifique de la migration environnementale dans laquelle des dizaines de milliers d'habitants ont Ă©tĂ© dĂ©placĂ©s de façon permanente et temporaire de leurs rĂ©sidences habituelles aprĂšs le typhon Sendong Ă  Cagayan de Oro, Philippines en 2011. La recherche est basĂ©e sur des entretiens avec les acteurs puissants et les survivants, des vidĂ©os participatives rĂ©alisĂ©es par des survivants pauvres urbains, et des activitĂ©s de cartographie. L’étude se fonde sur la thĂ©orie fĂ©ministe, les Ă©tudes de migration, les Ă©tudes dans la gouvernementalitĂ©, la recherche sur les changements de l’environnement planĂ©taire, et les Ă©tudes rĂ©gionales afin de situer les diverses expĂ©riences de la migration dans un contexte gĂ©ographique et historique. Cette thĂšse propose une topographie critique dans laquelle les processus et les pratiques de production d’espaces post-catastrophe sont exposĂ©s. Parce que l’espace est nĂ©cessairement mallĂ©able, fluide, et relationnelle en raison de l'Ă©volution constante des activitĂ©s, des conflits, et des expĂ©riences qui se dĂ©roulent dans le paysage, une analyse de l'espace doit ĂȘtre formulĂ©e en termes de relations sociales qui se produisent dans et au-delĂ  de ses frontiĂšres poreuses. En consĂ©quence, cette Ă©tude explore comment les relations sociales entre les survivants et les acteurs puissants sont liĂ©es Ă  l’exclusion, la gouvernementalitĂ©, la mobilitĂ©, et la production des espaces, des lieux et des territoires. Il constate que, si les trajectoires de migration de la plupart des survivants ont Ă©tĂ© confinĂ©s Ă  l'intĂ©rieur des limites de la ville, les expĂ©riences de ces survivants et leur utilisation des espaces urbains sont trĂšs diffĂ©rentes. Ces diffĂ©rences peuvent ĂȘtre expliquĂ©es par des structures politiques, Ă©conomiques, et sociales, et par les diffĂ©rences religieuses, Ă©conomiques, et de genre. En outre, il fait valoir que les espaces post-catastrophe doivent ĂȘtre considĂ©rĂ©s comme des «espaces d’exclusion» oĂč les fiduciaires exercent une rationalitĂ© gouvernementale. C’est-Ă -dire, les espaces post-catastrophe prĂ©tendument inclusives servent Ă  marginaliser davantage les populations vulnĂ©rables. Ces espaces offrent aussi des occasions pour les acteurs puissants dans la sociĂ©tĂ© philippine d'effectuer des interventions gouvernementales dans lesquelles certaines personnes et les paysages sont simplifiĂ©es, rendues lisibles, et amĂ©liorĂ©s.When natural hazards unfold into disasters, the responses of religious, state, and other trustees reveal both the complex relationships among these parties and their power in producing the spaces accessed by the survivors. The disaster response includes the creation of post-disaster spaces, such as evacuation centres, transitional housing, and permanent resettlement sites, that specifically target or appeal to a particular subset of survivors, and aim to help them to survive, to cope with, and to recover from the disaster. The trustees directing the processes of disaster relief, recovery, and rebuilding are powerful actors who seek to problematise and render technical an issue in terms that they are ideally placed to address through a variety of interventions. This research project sets out to answer the question: where do the survivors of a disaster rebuild their lives and livelihoods? It investigates a specific case of environmental migration in which tens of thousands of residents were permanently and temporarily displaced from their usual places of residence after Typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro, Philippines in 2011. The research is based on interviews with trustees and survivors, participatory videos made by urban poor survivors, and mapping activities. The study draws on feminist theory, migration studies, studies in governmentality, global environmental change literature, and regional studies to situate diverse experiences of migration within a geographical and historical context. This dissertation offers a critical topography in which the processes and practices of producing post-disaster spaces are exposed. Because space is necessarily malleable, fluid, and relational due to the ever-changing activities, conflict, and experiences unfolding in the landscape, any analysis of space must be formulated in terms of the social relations occurring within and beyond its porous boundaries. Accordingly, this study explores how the social relations among survivors and trustees are linked to exclusion, governmentality, mobility, and space- and place-making. It finds that although the migration trajectories of most survivors were confined within the city limits, the experiences of these survivors and their use of urban spaces were vastly different. These differences can be explained by political, economic, and social structures, and by religious, economic, and gender differences. Furthermore, it argues that post-disaster spaces are best understood as “spaces of exclusion” where trustees exercise a governmental rationality. That is, purportedly inclusive post-disaster spaces serve to further marginalise vulnerable populations. These spaces also open opportunities for trustees to carry out governmental interventions in which certain people and landscapes are simplified, rendered legible, and improved

    The Regional Exchange: From Main Street to Shopping Mall to App Market

    Get PDF
    The heart of our existence lies within regions. Loosely defined, these territories are defined by what we do, not by what we call them. It is where we live, work, shop and socialize, characterized by an infinite multitude of interactions with other people and environments. The concept of “regionalism” is best described as a set of overlapping factors that together characterize the shared interests and dynamics of its people and environment, whether social, cultural, ecological or something else. This dynamic, constantly-changing overlap is most apparent at the center of the region, and least so at its edges. Regionalism is especially relevant to the application of architecture, the discipline of designing built environments. Architectural theorist, Keller Easterling proposes the theory of “Organization Space,” a framework of architecture and spatial expression which focuses not on form or geometry, but on the interrelationships, temporal components, and active parts that define a spatial system. This framework can be used to respond to complex systems and problems opportunistically in a way that conventional modes cannot. When the concept of “regionalism” is merged with the architectural qualities and potentials of Easterling’s “Organization Space,” the concept of the “Regional Exchange” is formed. The regional exchange provides a framework for current regional architectural nodes to evolve more responsively to lifestyle and culture. It is a built environment that organizes a region and is integral to its “interests and dynamics.” How can architects influence regional exchanges effectively? Although Regional Exchanges are constantly evolving and changing, the results of this change can be guided and controlled via what Easterling defines as “switches.” Switches are common development protocols or everyday tools, often overlooked, that influence interactivity and linkages and, if recognized and engaged, can be used opportunistically to reorganize regions. When you apply a switch to a regional exchange, a radical restructuring will result in a completely new exchange. At the heart of small-town America, the concept of Main Street as a corridor of social activity framed by commercial buildings was arguably the first major regional exchange that defined social and commercial dynamics within the United States. The later introduction of the automobile to mainstream America served as a turning point as the car quickly became adopted and loved by the America people. Architects generally did not embrace this switch, and had little design influence as it shifted the key interests and dynamics of Main Street to the regional shopping center. This new center was essentially derived from the same elements, yet with a different organizing force. The current switch that has now made the shopping center model vulnerable to yet another evolution is the smartphone, which, since its introduction has become an essential component to American lifestyle even more quickly than the car, changing the way in which people engage in both social and commercial activity. Unlike their response to the automobile switch, if architects can recognize and accept the smartphone as a evolutionary tool, then they can take a center role in designing the next major regional exchange. This new social and commercial regional spatial organizer is still desired to be a physical place, however it would be reorganized around the role of the smartphone in this place. It would accept the recent movement of people back to urban cores, maximize a desire for not just physical mobility but also access to information, and balance regional diversity with global demands. It would consist of a range of specialized programs and functions, or “Apps,” integrated with mobile devices, that assist, enhance and adapt to everyday social and commercial activities at multiple scales. If the automobile was able to evolve the organization of Main Street into the Shopping Mall, then the smartphone can evolve the Shopping Mall into the Regional App Market
    corecore