Digital technology, work extension and acceleration society

This essay is based on a keynote speech given at the Organizational Working Time Regimes conference on 30 March 2017 at the University of Graz, Austria. It challenged the widespread assumption that digital technologies are radically altering our perception of time: as if we are mere hostages to the accelerating drive of machines. Digital devices are sold to us as time-saving tools that promote a busy, exciting action-packed lifestyle. But all technologies are inherently social: they bear the imprint of the people and social context from which they emerge. Time is lived at the intersection of an array of social differences in which some people’s time and labour is valued more highly than others’, and where some groups gain speed and efficiency at the expense of others. Overall, then, the talk argued that while there is no temporal logic inherent in technologies, artefacts do play a central role in the constitution of time regimes. The design of technologies matters for how we work, live and communicate, which in turn sets the tempo and texture of social time. So, it is striking that the people who design our technology and decide what is made are unrepresentative of society. The most powerful companies in the world today are basically engineering companies and employ few women, minorities and people over 40. To control our time, we must not only contest the imperative of speed and workaholism, but also democratise the making of engineering. Only then can we harness our inventiveness to fashion an alternative politics of time

Anyone can edit, not everyone does: Wikipedia and the gender gap

Feminist STS has long established that science’s provenance as a male domain continues to define what counts as knowledge and expertise. Wikipedia, arguably one of the most powerful sources of information today, was initially lauded as providing the opportunity to rebuild knowledge institutions by providing greater representation of multiple groups. However, less than ten percent of Wikipedia editors are women. At one level, this imbalance in contributions and therefore content is yet another case of the masculine culture of technoscience. This is an important argument and, in this article, we examine the empirical research that highlights these issues. Our main objective, however, is to extend current accounts by demonstrating that Wikipedia’s infrastructure introduces new and less visible sources of gender disparity. In sum, our aim here is to present a consolidated analysis of the gendering of Wikipedia

Have mobile devices changed working patterns in the 21st Century? A time-diary analysis of work extension in the UK

It is commonly claimed that ubiquitous connectivity erodes the boundaries that once separated work from other aspects of life. Mobile devices in particular enable people to perform work-related activities anytime anywhere. Surprisingly, however, we know little about how people nationwide organise their daily working time over a period that has witnessed rapid technological change. Using the United Kingdom Time Use Surveys 2000 and 2015, covering this period of technological change, we studied work extension practices, and the links between work extension, total work hours and subjective time pressure. We found a significant, though small, increase in work extension, and evidence that it was significantly associated with time pressure in 2015, but not in 2000. Additionally, work extension increased total work hours, which was concentrated entirely in time working with a mobile device. We discuss our results in light of some taken-for-granted narratives about mobile devices allowing work to colonise life

Automation: is it really different this time?

This review examines several recent books that deal with the impact of automation and robotics on the future of jobs. Most books in this genre predict that the current phase of digital technology will create massive job loss in an unprecedented way, that is, that this wave of automation is different from previous waves. Uniquely digital technology is said to automate professional occupations for the first time. This review critically examines these claims, puncturing some of the hyperbole about automation, robotics and Artificial Intelligence. The review argues for a more nuanced analysis of the politics of technology and provides some critical distance on Silicon Valley's futurist discourse. Only by insisting that futures are always social can public bodies, rather than autonomous markets and endogenous technologies, become central to disentangling, debating and delivering those futures

How Silicon Valley sets time

Digital calendars are logistical media, part of the infrastructure that configures arrangements among people and things. Calendars increasingly play a fundamental role in establishing our everyday rhythms, shaping our consciousness of temporality. Drawing on interviews with several Silicon Valley calendar designers, this article explores how the conceptualization and production of scheduling applications codify contemporary ideals about efficient time management. I argue that these ideals reflect the driving cultural imperative for accelerated time handling in order to optimize productivity and minimize time wasting. Such mechanistic approaches treat time as a quantitative, individualistic resource, obscuring the politics of time embedded in what can and cannot be graphically represented on the grid interface. I conclude that electronic calendars are emblematic of a longstanding but mistaken belief, hegemonic in Silicon Valley, that automation will deliver us more time

The digital architecture of time management

This article explores how the shift from print to electronic calendars materializes and exacerbates a distinctively quantitative, “spreadsheet” orientation to time. Drawing on interviews with engineers, I argue that calendaring systems are emblematic of a larger design rationale in Silicon Valley to mechanize human thought and action in order to make them more efficient and reliable. The belief that technology can be profitably employed to control and manage time has a long history and continues to animate contemporary sociotechnical imaginaries of what automation will deliver. In the current moment we live in the age of the algorithm and machine learning, so it is no wonder, then, that the contemporary design of digital calendars is driven by a vision of intelligent time management. As I go on to show in the second part of the article, this vision is increasingly realized in the form of intelligent digital assistants whose tracking capacities and behavioral algorithms aim to solve life’s existential problem—how best to organize the time of our lives. This article contributes to STS scholarship on the role of technological artifacts in generating new temporalities that shape people’s perception of time, how they act in the world, and how they understand themselves

Women are less comfortable expressing opinions online than men and report heightened fears for safety: Surveying gender differences in experiences of online harms

Online harms, such as hate speech, trolling and self-harm promotion, continue to be widespread. While some work suggests women are disproportionately affected, other studies find mixed evidence for gender differences in experiences with content of this kind. Using a nationally representative survey of UK adults (N=1992), we examine exposure to a variety of harms, fears surrounding being targeted, the psychological impact of online experiences, the use of safety tools to protect against harm, and comfort with various forms of online participation across men and women. We find that while men and women see harmful content online to a roughly similar extent, women are more at risk than men of being targeted by harms including online misogyny, cyberstalking and cyberflashing. Women are significantly more fearful of being targeted by harms overall, and report greater negative psychological impact as a result of particular experiences. Perhaps in an attempt to mitigate risk, women report higher use of a range of safety tools and less comfort with several forms of online participation, with just 23% of women comfortable expressing political views online compared to 40% of men. We also find direct associations between fears surrounding harms and comfort with online behaviours. For example, fear of being trolled significantly decreases comfort expressing opinions, and fear of being targeted by misogyny significantly decreases comfort sharing photos. Our results are important because with much public discourse happening online, we must ensure all members of society feel safe and able to participate in online spaces

College Students, Technology, and Time

Our research explores CUNY students’ lived experiences using digital technology in and out of class, on and off campus. Beyond checking grades or emailing a professor, students use digital technology to create space and time for their schoolwork. However, technology can also impede students’ opportunities for making space and time. Understanding how students use digital technology is crucial for colleges and universities to better support students in their academic work

Technology and feminism : a strange couple

The "gender digital divide" constitutes a prolific research program that compares the differences between women and men in access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Nevertheless, those using feminist socio-constructivist perspectives argue for the need to pay attention, not only to "access," but also to "design," in addition to considering social relations as something that is coded within technological artifacts. From this perspective, gender constitutes an integral part of technological production. This paper explores the co-constitution of gender and technology, considering a specific action-research experience. It is argued that the re-signification of gendered and technological codes drifts through: a) the opening of gendered and technological codes; b) the production of new cultural imaginaries that question hegemonic representations of gender; and c) the production of new subjectivities through the reorganization of socio-technical practices to develop performative acts that transform patriarchal relationsLa "brecha digital de género" constituye un prolífico programa de investigación que compara las diferencias entre mujeres y hombres en el acceso a las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación. Las perspectivas socio-constructivistas feministas, sin embargo, abogan por la necesidad de prestar atención no sólo al "acceso", sino también al "diseño", y consideran las relaciones sociales como elementos codificados en el interior los artefactos tecnológicos. Desde esta perspectiva, el género constituye una parte integral de la producción tecnológica. Este trabajo explora la constitución conjunta de género y tecnología a partir de una experiencia de investigación-acción específica. Se argumenta que la resignificación de los códigos de género y tecnológicos se desplaza a través de: a) la apertura de los códigos de género y tecnológicos; b) la producción de nuevos imaginarios culturales que cuestionan las representaciones hegemónicas de género; y c) la producción de nuevas subjetividades a través de la reorganización de las prácticas socio-técnicas para el desarrollo de actos performativos que transforman las relaciones patriarcales