Abstract
This paper considers the historical, social, economic, and political context of information and communication technologies (ICTs) used in our everyday lives. Under the pretext of engaging with a supposedly transforming new economy, society, or epoch, we are urged to be on-line everywhere and anywhere signifying new ways of living, loving, being governed, and educated. This paper critiques these perspectives through an investigation of the domestication of ICTs in families and households in the United Kingdom and draws on an empirical study of gender and home e-shopping as an illustration of the gendered consumption of ICTs in UK households. Studies of the domestication of technologies have developed from those concerning technologies of household maintenance to considerations of technologies for leisure in the home. In the so-called global knowledge economy, however, the domestication of ICTs and how they are embedded into the family and households today is a neglected area of research and one that is often rooted in flawed views of technological determinism and gender neutrality. This paper calls for analysis of the domestication of ICTs in the global knowledge economy to be placed in context rather than falling into faddish hype or unwarranted dystopia.
Recommended Citation
Richardson, Helen, "Making the Links: Domestication of ICTs in the Global Knowledge Economy" (2005). ICIS 2005 Proceedings. 36.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2005/36