This thesis examines how a new media technology becomes entrenched into the
fabric of society – in particular how the mobile phone was incorporated into the
existing communications landscape of a local voluntary community group: an Irish
sports club. In the past, face-to-face interaction formed the basis of all social
relations and strong local collectives were seen to provide a positive and supportive
social environment, generating strong social capital. Today’s mediated
communication enables the ‘networked individual’ who can choose when, where
and with whom they share their lives. This has implications for the persistence and
strength of local associations. Writers like Putnam (2000) have expressed concerns
about the attenuation of local communities. However, others propose that
communications technologies can provide new additional ways for individuals to
link with each other in a ‘glocalised’ society (Hampton and Wellman, 2003) and this
has the potential to overcome some of the limitations of the communicators not
being in the same physical space. This thesis critically examines the applicability of
these partly competing theses in the period in which mobile telephony became
widely embedded in Irish society.
Through 21 detailed interviews and a survey of 57 players, administrators and
supporters, the study examines the choices made by club members in adopting and
using the mobile phone. It further explores the changes they have made in their
communication patterns and considers the implications of these for the cohesion
and persistence of the community group as an entity and also the social capital it
engenders. The study draws upon existing theories of human-technology
interaction, in particular the Social Shaping of Technology perspective (Williams
and Edge, 1996), to examine how club members weave their phone use into their
everyday practices. Silverstone and Haddon’s (1996) Domestication approach, with
its steps of appropriation, objectification and incorporation provide the detailed
framework in mapping out this process.
The study findings reveal that community members have all adopted the mobile
phone and are heavy users of both text and voice calls. Membership of the sports
club has eased the adoption process by providing examples of the artefact in use
and a supporting environment when problems arise. Although use is now universal
and intensive, there was a differential appropriation of the phone, with male club
members being the first purchasers and females often being brought into the circle
of users through a gifted or handed-down model. Users have devised strategies to
manage their multiple overlapping sets of social relationship. They report that their
use of technology has enabled a widening of their social circle while also bringing it
closer, literally at the touch of a button. Contrary to the expectations of those
analysts and policymakers who have foreseen technology causing local engagement
to diminish, the clubs in my study have endured and are thriving; the social capital
of their members is still strong and growing. This informs a critical reappraisal of
such theories of community attenuation and the policies they have engendered