Academy of Social Sciences in Australia
Introduction
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Prepared by Dr John Beaton and
Professor Judy Wajcman with contributors.
September 2004
This Discussion Paper has its origins in a January 2004 meeting between representatives of the Social Research Subcommittee of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) and the secretariat staff at the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA). That discussion was initiated by AMTA, who suggested that too little is known about the impact of the mobile telephone on the people and institutions of Australia and would ASSA, through its links to the social science community, be interested in facilitating the development of a research agenda to assess the impact of the mobile phone on Australian society and institutions? That meeting was followed by three others in March, April and May. These talks led quickly to an agreement that AMTA would fund ASSA to convene a workshop of social science scholars to prepare a Discussion Paper. Two Study Directors, Professors Judy Wajcman and Stuart Cunningham were appointed. Dr John Beaton, Executive Director of ASSA, provided the social engineering and a working group was convened on 16-17 May attracting twenty two contributors from twelve universities, four AMTA contributors and two participants from the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA).
ASSA, through the work of its Fellows, has a long and distinguished history of contributing to national debates on virtually all aspects of Australian society. But the mobile phone is far too much of a newborn creature to have a storied history, or even much of a reputation in social science research. Its advent and rapid evolution have bypassed most researchers who are deeply engaged in their own research pursuits, but few if any social scientists would fail to recognize the impact this technology has had on all of us and on aspects of our behavior. Similarly, the little phone has outpaced the capacity of businesses and whole industries to fully accommodate it and to exploit its capacities. For both private concerns and public ones, there have been a few notable growing pains, some due perhaps to the inability of society and industry to read each other correctly. We hear the tales of the crashed teenage parties, the misused phones etc., but for each of these we hear of rescues, tragedies averted and lives enhanced, all of this driven not necessarily by design, but by circumstance and the capacity of technology to provide utility, rather than the voice of society to identify its needs and demand them.
Each of us has anecdotes and opinions about the mobile phone, but few of us can boast a truly informed view, much less a database upon which to think, or act, about the best use of mobile phone technology. We recognize the incapacity of the elderly to embrace the utility of mobile phone technology, we have some feel for our individual limitations and we must all be stunned at how we middle aged adults lag frustratingly behind our children who manipulate the phones as if they were born with them. How do they do it? Should we control it? How can we make this technology work best for them (and us) and how can we contribute to a future where this profoundly useful technology maximizes social and economic good for all the citizens and institutions in Australia? This Discussion Paper begins that ambitious dialogue guided by a few important principles. These are:
- The mobile telecommunications industry will be enhanced in utility and advantaged economically if the needs of individuals, social groupings and institutions are considered with equal weight to that given to technology and its ability to provide capacities.
- To be efficient, social science based research should contribute along several fronts where complementary and even integrated research agendas make use of data collection strategies that are both unifying and have cross-utility to a wide range of researchers within and outside of the social sciences.
- To be effective social science based research should proceed in such a way as to keep pace with the evolving innovations and uptake of the technology. Thus we advocate a research strategy that promotes a longitudinal component to research, one that can respond to changes and anticipates emerging and future social and technological developments.
Importantly, this Discussion Paper specifically avoids concerns such as health and safety issues, and industry regulation matters, recognizing that these are being considered widely and elsewhere. The ASSA working group also recognizes that the issues with which it now concerns itself are part of an international debate that is in its infancy. We think this provides Australia and its commitment to the Knowledge Economy with an opportunity to become world leaders in understanding how to make this truly remarkable technology serve the multiplicity of needs in a pluralistic society, and to ensure that its providers have a sustainable and bright future.
It is salutary to reflect on that great industrial-age phenomenon, the electric light, the now-mundane appliance that is so integral to all of our lives. In its own infancy it transformed the human condition profoundly, changing sleeping habits, patterns of work and leisure, transportation, communication, family interactions, public proceedings and countless other significant aspects of life. We can see how the mobile telephone has provided us with new abilities to be more mobile, and sometimes not to have to be mobile. This has unarguably changed our lives and will continue to do so, perhaps increasingly so for our children. We join AMTA in recognizing our responsibility to understand how this is, and how it will be. This Discussion Paper may be a key to building our understanding.
In the pages that follow, the contributors have sought to frame the issues while being cognizant that their boundaries are permeable, and that the skeletal structure of the corpus of issues is not yet fully articulated. Thus, you will see several sets of Research Questions, grouped thematically into four sections. The sections are titled:
- The Structure of Social Groups and the Impact of the Mobile Phone
- Work, Home and Leisure
- Social Innovations in Digital Context
- Patterns of Use of the Mobile Phone
We ask the reader to appreciate that the contributors clearly understand the overlap in some of the sections and indeed in the questions (note our calling for an integrated research program) and that the questions as they are posed contain many sub-questions and linkages that cannot be developed in this document. These questions and the text that accompanies them are the product of several hundred person hours of discussion between scholars representing the broadest collection of social scientists and humanists that the Project Directors could muster.
These questions, then, are the bare essentials leading to what we consider should be the next step: a call for formal research proposals that address issues of import, relevance and complementarity that can be pursued in a structured but fore-seeing plan that provides a platform for a major research agenda. That agenda will address academic and industry interests in understanding the mobile phone and its impacts.
It is to a degree ground-breaking in Australia that an industry body engaged in the communications industry has sought a direct partnership with independent social scientists to help understand how their product penetrates and transforms the lives of their customers. We think this is a refreshing, encouraging and timely contribution to the much heralded but seldom effected collaboration across disciplinary boundaries. If sectors within industry ask "what could we learn from social scientists" then we will answer "let us find out". Equally, social scientists will gain useful insights from what they learn about how this industry goes about its mission, and we hope that as the mobile phone changes society, society will have its say in altering the design, capacity and contribution of the mobile phone.
The contributors are unified in expressing their great appreciation to AMTA for its generous support and encouragement. We welcome the opportunity to join with AMTA and each other in advancing our understanding of this most compelling new technology and its impact on Australian life.
Prepared by Dr John Beaton and
Professor Judy Wajcman with contributors.
September 2004
Last modified: 2 November 2009.