Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

This exploratory paper examines the various challenges that women working in information and communications technology (ICT) in England face in relation to their age, their life stage, and their career stage, with these three aspects being at least partially related. We first examine the literature currently available in relation to women, age and ICT work, arguing that age tends to be the forgotten variable in research on women in ICT. Using eight case studies of individual female ICT professionals in their twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties, we explore the nuances of experience these women have in relation to their career and their caring responsibilities. We consider the possibility that women in ICT may have heterogeneous experiences of working in what are often “masculinized” environments related to, but not determined by, their age. Based on our interpretations of our empirical data, we adapt Super’s career-stage theory to better frame our subsequent theoretical assertions. To conclude, we suggest that exploring age, life stage, and/or career stage in relation to female ICT professionals’ circumstances and experiences means that we can better theorize gender in the field of information systems, and hence develop more relevant gender inclusion strategies.

This paper discusses the domestication of ICTs in the UK, using a critical lens to focus in on ICT use by families and households drawing on a 5 year longitudinal study. Analysis concentrates on how ICTs are embedded into gendered households, how issues of gendered technologies are manifested in the everyday experiences of women, enmeshing ICT use for work, study, and leisure into domestic family life. The social, political, economic, and historical context is that of versions of inclusion in the so-called information society—a debate that wavers between a somber and shining vision.

With the digital revolution narrated as the means for social cohesion in the globally competitive national economy, policy and corporate moves are afoot to increase the inclusion of women into the ICT arena, particularly those who have traditionally remained on the fringes of societal inclusion such as lone women parents. By equipping them with ICT skills, such as network engineering, and utilizing their “soft” relational expertise, greater employ ability and opportunity is seen as the route toward inclusion. Yet a tension emerges between policy and practice, where such women are finding it hard to gain work, for the ICT industry, renown for its long hours culture, is slow to implement government recommendations for greater work flexibility and their soft skills remain unrecognized. This paper positions this tension within a wider labor market background that focuses on part-time work, for a general lack of full-time flexibility means women with care responsibilities have a limited range of employment choice. Part-time employment is frequently reflective of dead-end jobs and a catalog of inequalities, where occupational segregation and discrimination point to the feminization of low-level ICT skills. This gendered relation to the labor market is hidden by the narrative of inclusion through ICT skills acquisition. Furthermore, the relational association reduces women and men to normative gendered identities and roles which will do little to challenge existing stereotypes of technical expertise. The paper concludes that rather than inclusion, the possible result is further gendered inequalities and exclusion.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are at the heart of government social inclusion policy. However, the “digital divide” remains and social inclusion and technology are closely linked: Not having access to technology is often seen both as part of the inclusion/exclusion problem and part of the solution by enabling access to information resources through different channels. Yet, we argue that by using technology to address an inclusion/exclusion problem, it will also result in moving the problem from one area to another. The arguments in this paper have been informed by two empirical studies around a ubiquitous technology, the mobile phone. One study is primarily based on the 18 to 25 year old age groups; the other mostly on retired people. The studies show clear differences between age groups and gender in adoption and use of the mobile telephone.

Social inclusion is multifaceted; it is not an either/or measure and many attributes are subjective and depend on context. Social inclusion for mobile access is also closely linked to deeply embedded structures within society, such as those traditionally associated with gender. Technology may be changing these structures; indeed, age may be the new gender. The family or social unit may also be a useful entity to consider in the exclusion debate. Technology is being used to address social exclusion; however, we suggest that while some leveling may result, there may also be different social exclusion fronts emerging.

The focus of this paper is Web accessibility for disabled people. Much of the Web remains inaccessible or difficult to access by people across a spectrum of disabilities and this may have serious implications for the potential use of the Web for increasing social inclusion. The topic of disabled Web access is introduced through a consideration of four discourses: digital divide, social construction of disability, legal, and Web accessibility. The lack of dialogue between these permits a passive liberal approach toward disability discrimination to prevail and this political position has become inscribed in widely used automatic software tools resulting in a reinforcement of the view that Web site accessibility approval may, in many cases, be deemed an empty shell.

This paper critiques the notion of responsible management of information systems by pointing out the intrinsic contradiction inherent in the idea of managing morality and ethics in information systems. The paper, being part of the tradition of critical research in IS, uses the example of managing digital divides to argue that a traditional view of management (here called heroic management) leads to conceptual problems. It will develop two basic arguments that undermine the possibility of responsible heroic management of digital divides: (1) Normative issues related to digital divides cannot be managed because management is part of the construction of the problem and therefore lacks the detached and objective viewpoint required for rational management. (2) The very concept of responsibility, if taken seriously and applied responsibly (here called reflective responsibility) requires a participative approach that contradicts the traditional top-down approach of heroic management. The paper will conclude with a discussion of what form management of IS needs to take if it wants to be responsible.

This paper analyzes the ethical perspectives associated with the introduction and use of information and communication technologies in contemporary firms. It presents a three-dimensional ethical model that introduces the transparency concern, and its related impact on the digital divide question, as the new ethical perspective of contemporary business organizations.

Open source software (OSS) creates the potential for the inclusion of large and diverse communities in every aspect of the software development and consumption life cycle. However, despite 6 years of effort by an ever growing research community, we still don’t know exactly what we do and don’t know about OSS, nor do we have a clear idea about the basis for our knowledge. This paper presents an analysis of 155 research artefacts in the area of open source software. The purpose of the study is to identify the kinds of open source project communities that have been researched, the kinds of research questions that have been asked, and the methodologies used by researchers. Emerging from the study is a clearer understanding of what we do and don’t know about open source software, and recommendations for future research efforts

This paper describes a conscious attempt to use metaphor to both promote and reinterpret ideas and values from the global free and open source software movement in the context of South Africa. A case study is given of an initiative launched by the South African Council for Industrial and Scientific Research to stimulate awareness and promote the use of free and open source software in South Africa and the region. The new Open Source Center made use of an African language metaphor to relate the concept of shared intellectual property in software to traditional communal land management. Whereas Western metaphors are commonly used in the field of organizational studies and Information Systems to facilitate meaning, the deliberate use of an African language metaphor to describe software systems is less common (even in Africa). This paper provides a background as to why such a metaphor was chosen as well as some reflection on its effectiveness.

This paper centers on the emergent phenomenon of weblogging. Even though the total number of weblogs is increasing at an exponential rate, little formal study has been done on this phenomenon. This paper provides two main contributions. First, it describes the phenomenon of weblogging and conceptualizes it, discussing significant attributes of weblogs that set it apart from traditional communication means. Second, it establishes a framework grounded in the theory of communities of practice that provides a lens to study the potential role of weblogging in organizational communication. The research approach is qualitative and analysis is done by interpreting the content of a weblog through a hermeneutic approach. Weblogging can be seen to foster social inclusion based on its characteristics and nature. Our study shows that by its features of interaction and informality, weblogging cultivates social inclusion, particularly that of employees working in a corporation. The paper concludes by reflecting on the potential of weblogging for enabling informal means of communication in organizations.