1st Edition
Information Society and the Workplace Spaces, Boundaries and Agency
Much has been written on the grand prospects for "Information Society"; much less on what this might mean in everyday terms. So what do we find when we look at what is happening in a society, Finland, that is one of closest to an information society? Bringing together studies of everyday local practices in workplaces within information society, this book has a special focus on social space and the agency of actors. It includes both theoretical reviews and detailed qualitative research. It also highlights the political challenges of the information society, challenges which are likely to become subjects of international concern.
Part 1: Introduction 1. Spaces, Places and Communities of Practice Part 2: The Creation of Spaces 2. Bounded or Empowered by Technology?: Information System Specialists' Views on People's Freedom within Technology 3. Gendered Local Agency: The Development of Regional Information Society 4. Empty Spaces without Knowledge and Management Part 3: Working and Living in Spaces 5. The Dynamics of Control and Commitment in High-Tech IT Firms 6. Virtualizing the Office: Micro-Level Impacts and Driving Forces of Increased ICT Use 7. Women and Technological Pleasure at Work? 8. Fulfillment or Slavery?: The Changing Sense of Self at Work 9. In Search of Boundaries: Changing Boundaries in and through Teleworking Part 4: Concluding Discussion 10. Information Society, Agency and Identity Positions
Biography
Tuula Heiskanen is Research Director of the Work Research Centre, a unit of multidisciplinary working life studies in the Research Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland. She has studied professional and industrial work, work organizations in both public and private sectors, and both male- and female-dominated organizations. She is co-editor of Gendered Practices in Working life (1997).
Jeff Hearn is Research Professor in Sociology at the University of Huddersfield, UK, and Academy Fellow and Professor at the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki, Finland. His interest in information society comes particularly from research on gender, sexuality, violence and ICTs. He is co-author of Gender, Sexuality and Violence in Organizations (2001).
