Networked Individualism of Urban Residents: Discovering the Communicative Ecology in Inner-City Apartment Buildings

Certain patterns of interaction between people point to networks as an adequate conceptual model to characterise some aspects of social relationships mediated or facilitated by information and communication technology. Wellman proposes a shift from groups to networks and describes the ambivalent nature inherent in an ego-centric yet still well-connected portfolio of sociability with the term ‘networked individualism’. In this paper we use qualitative data from an action research study of social networks of residents in three inner-city apartment buildings in Australia to provide empirical grounding for the theoretical concept of networked individualism. However, this model focuses on network interaction rather than collective interaction. We propose ‘communicative ecology’ as a concept which integrates the three dimensions of "online and offline", "global and local" as well as "collective and networked". We present our research on three layers of interpretation (technical, social and discursive) to deliver a rich description of the communicative ecology we found, that is, the way residents negotiate membership, trust, privacy, reciprocity, permeability and social roles in person-to-person mediated and direct relationships. We find that residents seamlessly traverse between online and offline communication; local communication and interaction maintains a more prominent position than global or geographically dispersed communication; and residents follow a dual approach which allows them to switch between collective and networked interaction depending on purpose and context

Communicative ecologies: Editorial preface

The term 'ecology' has a lot to offer communication research. This biological analogy opens up research into time and space dynamics, population growth and lifecycles, networks, clusters, niches, and even power relationships between pray and predators. The research perspective may be at either holistic (macro) or individual (micro) levels of analysis. In McLuhan and Postman's tradition of media ecology the concept takes a media-centric view referring to the way in which media structure our lives and how they influence society. The focus of this special issue, the concept of 'communicative ecology', is different insofar as we put an increased emphasis on the meaning that can be derived from the socio-cultural framing and analysis of the local context which communication occurs in. We define a communicative ecology as a milieu of agents who are connected in various ways by various exchanges of mediated and unmediated forms of communication (Tacchi et al., 2003 ). From a communicative ecology perspective each instance of media use is considered at both individual and community level as part of a complex media environment that is socially and culturally framed. We do not limit the scope of analysis to traditional print, broadcast and telecommunication media but include social networking applications for peer to peer modes of communication, transport infrastructure that enable face to face interaction, as well as public and private places where people meet, chat, gossip. We conceive of a communicative ecology as having three layers (Foth & Hearn, 2007). A technological layer which consists of the devices and connecting media that enable communication and interaction. A social layer which consists of people and social modes of organising those people - which might include, for example, everything from friendship groups to more formal community organizations, as well as companies or legal entities. And finally, a discursive layer which is the content of communication - that is, the ideas or themes that constitute the known social universe that the ecology operates in. Using an ecological metaphor opens up a number of interesting possibilities for analyzing place-based communication (e.g., in neighbourhoods, apartment buildings, or - on a larger scale - suburbs and cities). It can help us to better understand the ways social activities are organized, the ways people define and experience their environments, and the implications for social order and organization. For example, in analyzing an apartment complex, an ecological metaphor might suggest first examining the features of the population in the apartment and mapping the patterns of engagement within that population. In addition we could ask how people relate to different places within the apartment, and how this interaction is mediated by the use of technology. Do different groups form around a coffee shop? Do email or cell phone connections define other ecologies? Then we might also be able to study transactions between different ecologies. The ecological metaphor focuses on whole of system interactions. It also enables us to define boundaries of any given ecology, and to examine how the coherence of that boundary and the stability of each ecology is maintained. What topics of conversation define insiders and outsiders in the ecology? Finally, it also opens up the question of the social sustainability of a communicative ecology. Similar sorts of questions have been asked by the contributors to this special issue who research human communication phenomena in various place-based contexts. The first article "Comparing the Communication Ecologies of Geo-ethnic Communities: How People Stay on Top of Their Community" by Wilkin et al. highlight the benefits to be gained from a communicative ecology approach by presenting a communication map to help communicate with ethnically diverse populations. Shepherd et al. follow with their contribution "The Material Ecologies of Domestic ICTs" which examines the socio-cultural context of the media and communication environments we create in our homes. The next article "Primary Attention Groups: A Conceptual Aproach to the Communicative Ecology of Individual Community in the Information Age" by Allison applies the layer model described above to analyse individual social groupings. Peeples and Mitchell also found the layer model useful in exploring the 1999 WTO protests in "No Mobs - No Confusions - No Tumult: Organizing Civil Disobedience". Powell's article "An Ecology of Public Internet Access: Exploring contextual internet access in an urban community" concludes this special issue by offering a detailed account of the role public internet access plays in the communicative ecology of inner-city residents. We thank our colleagues for their help and assistance in providing an extraordinary high quality of peer review for this special issue of EJC: Corey Anton, Grand Valley State University; Elija Cassidy, Queensland University of Technology; Christy Collis, Queensland University of Technology; Victor Gonzalez, University of Manchester; Phil Graham, Queensland University of Technology; Joshua Green, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Deborah Jones, Victoria University of Wellington; Jesper Kjeldskov, Aalborg University; Mark Latonero, California State University, Fullerton; Graham Longford, University of Toronto; Harvey May, Queensland University of Technology; Lucy Montgomery, University of Westminster; Tanya Notley, Queensland University of Technology; Christine Satchell, University of Melbourne; Larry Stillman, Monash University; Jo Tacchi, Queensland University of Technology; Wallace Taylor, Cape Peninsula University of Technology; Tommaso Venturini, University of Milano - Bicocca. Our work is supported under the Australian Research Council's Discovery funding scheme (project number DP0663854) and Dr Marcus Foth is the recipient of an ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship. Foth, M., & Hearn, G. (2007, forthcoming). Networked individualism of urban residents: Discovering the communicative ecology in inner-city apartment complexes. Information, Communication & Society, 10(5). Tacchi, J., Slater, D., & Hearn, G. (2003). Ethnographic action research handbook. New Delhi, India: UNESCO

The Zone of Entanglement: Change, Non-Change and the New Managerial Ideology of Ephemera

We argue that change management has become ideological and that by selective use of complexity research has used the imperative for change to further political and economic agendas. We seek to redress this situation by developing a critical perspective on change and a new metaphor, the zone of entanglement, to assist critical analysis of change. Central to our argument is that a dynamic of change is non-change. In this vein, we show that there are deep, robust and persistent structures that dampen change and which, if recognized, may help in achieving organic change, resulting in positive social transformations

Action research and new media: Concepts, methods and cases

Action research is now a well-documented and well-accepted research methodology. Moreover, it is especially appropriate in new media research, where innovation and change are continual, and where processes and outcomes are usually not predictable and often involve fuzzy and subjective human elements. This book offers a systematic, in-depth academic overview of the application of action research methods to the field of new media. In this space, it is the first publication of its kind in what is a new but rapidly growing field. This book is divided into three sections. Introducing the two key concepts, namely, new media and action research, the first section describes the underlying principles, processes, questions, methods and tools that are relevant to an action research approach to new media inquiry. This is followed by a deeper exploration of three advanced, innovative approaches to action research and new media: ethnographic, network, and anticipatory action research. The third and final section presents four case studies and their individual applications of action research in different new media contexts

A Little Waltz : in C Major

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/1217/thumbnail.jp

Hungry 24/7? HCI Design for Sustainable Food Culture: Proceedings of the Workshop held in conjunction with OZCHI 2009

This workshop proposes to explore new approaches to cultivate and support sustainable food culture in urban environments via human computer interaction design and ubiquitous technologies. Food is a challenging issue in urban contexts: while food consumption decisions are made many times a day, most food interaction for urbanites occurs based on convenience and habitual practices. This situation is contrasting to the fact that food is at the centre of global environment, health, and social issues that are becoming increasingly immanent and imminent. As such, it is timely and crucial to ask: what are feasible, effective, and innovative ways to improve human-food-interaction through human-computer-interaction in order to contribute to environmental, health, and social sustainability in urban environments? This workshop brings together insights across disciplines to discuss this question, and plan and promote individual, local, and global change for sustainable food culture

Creative graduate pathways within and beyond the creative industries

This special issue explores the nuances of graduate creative work, the kinds of value that creative graduates add through work of various types, graduate employability issues for creative graduates, emerging and developing creative career identities and the implications for educators who are tasked with developing a capable creative workforce. Extent literature tends to characterise creative careers as either ‘precarious’ and insecure, or as the engine room of the creative economy. However, in actuality, the creative workforce is far more heterogeneous than either of these positions suggest, and creative careers are far more complex and diverse than previously thought. The task of creative educators is also much more challenging than previously supposed. In this introductory article, we commence by providing a brief overview of the creative labour debates, and the evidence for each position. We present the latest literature in this area that starts to speak to how diverse and complex the landscape of creative work actually is. We then introduce each of the articles in this special issue and indicate how they contribute to a more multi-faceted picture of creative activity, and the lives and career trajectories of graduates from creative degrees

Patient-centered medical education: A proposed definition

Multiple papers have been presented to define patient-centered care, with regulatory bodies such as the General Medical Council mapping this in their professional standards. Educational institutions clearly value instilling appreciation of patient-centredness in medical training, and attempts have been made to make medical education more patient-centered in practice. Such attempts are often limited to expert patients sharing personal stories, and public involvement in teaching. Despite the drive towards patient-centered care and medical education, there has been no attempt to formally define what patient-centered medical education is and what it means to medical educators globally. This paper proposes a definition of patient-centered medical education that is about the patients, with the patients, and for the patients, to ensure current and future doctors remain sensitive to all of the needs of the people they care for. This should be considered at both the micro and macro community levels

Accretion Shocks in Clusters of Galaxies and their SZ Signature from Cosmological Simulations

Cold dark matter (CDM) hierarchical structure formation models predict the existence of large-scale accretion shocks between the virial and turnaround radii of clusters of galaxies. Kocsis et al. (2005) suggest that the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) signal associated with such shocks might be observable with the next generation radio interferometer, ALMA. We study the three--dimensional distribution of accretion shocks around individual clusters of galaxies drawn from adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of LCDM (dark energy dominated CDM) models. In relaxed clusters, we find two distinct sets of shocks. One set ("virial shocks"), with Mach numbers of 2.5-4, is located at radii 0.9-1.3 Rvir, where Rvir is the spherical infall estimate of the virial radius, covering about 40-50% of the total surface area around clusters at these radii. Another set of stronger shocks ("external shocks") is located farther out, at about 3 Rvir, with large Mach numbers (~100), covering about 40-60% of the surface area. We simulate SZ surface brightness maps of relaxed massive galaxy clusters drawn from high resolution AMR runs, and conclude that ALMA should be capable of detecting the virial shocks in massive clusters of galaxies. More simulations are needed to improve estimates of astrophysical noise and to determine optimal observational strategies.Comment: 41 pages including 11 figures and 2 tables; ApJ, in pres