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Understanding the Mobile Telephony Usage Patterns

Mitrea, Oana Stefana (2006)
Understanding the Mobile Telephony Usage Patterns.
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Ph.D. Thesis, Primary publication

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Item Type: Ph.D. Thesis
Type of entry: Primary publication
Title: Understanding the Mobile Telephony Usage Patterns
Language: English
Referees: Schmiede, Prof. Dr. Rudi ; Hard, Prof. Dr. Mikael
Advisors: Schmiede, Prof. Dr. Rudi
Date: 3 February 2006
Place of Publication: Darmstadt
Date of oral examination: 10 February 2005
Abstract:

The thesis focuses on the interlaced re-building of communication, movement, and information due to the integration of the wireless telephony in the daily life. The core of the theoretical part of the dissertation consists in the construction of a dispositif model that explains wireless telephony constitution, usage, and impact. The model outlines technology, subjects, usage, perception, representation, and socio-cultural frames. The reciprocal interactions between the mobile telephony apparatus, human subjects (as designers and users), and various usage programs (mobile communication, information and orientation, personal assistant, supervising, and entertainment) lead to the rebuilding of communication, information, entertainment, and supervising “arrangements”. Further, in a historical chapter dealing with the constitution of the dispositif, avatars of communication and mobility structures are presented in connection with the underlying transformations from science to technical implementation and diffusion. It is argued that the current mobile telephony represents a mature and functional phase of a manifold dispositif, which has historically constituted through redefinition and creative rebuilding of programs and structures belonging to earlier avatars and competing dispositives. The empirical part of the dissertation examines the results of the quantitative online study conducted to validate and correct the theoretical model and to identify the formative effects of the dispositif. Findings indicate that the usage of wireless telephony creates a specific communication structure featuring particular purposes, content, situations, actions and partners, which is mainly oriented toward spatial and temporal coordination of communicators. The analysis also concentrates on the relation between mobile communication (verbal and written) and other communication forms enabled by face-to-face contacts or technical dispositives. Two positioning analyses of the existing communication forms in the situational and affective field (conducted through Multidimensional Scaling), show that the usage and perception of mobile telephony and SMS are subjects of interaction with the usage and perception of face-to-face communication, fixed telephony, and e-mail. Thus, concurrent and complementary dispositives continuously influence each other by ingeniously manipulating their programs for competitive purposes. Concerning the constitution of communicative mobility, the effect of technology usage on movement is reinforced mainly at the attitudinal/representational level. Particular localization patterns and chronotypes structured by technology usage are revealed. Other results relate to the images and attitudes towards technology and its users and to several social effects of mobile telephony usage, such as the strengthening of close family relations and the extension of the network of acquaintances.

Alternative Abstract:
Alternative AbstractLanguage

Die Dissertation schlägt eine Analyse zur Entstehung und Anwendung mobiler Telefonie und ihrer strukturellen Konsequenzen vor. Die Mobiltelefonie wird als materielles Dispositiv betrachtet, in dem die technischen, subjektiv-perzeptiven und soziokulturellen Elemente und Rahmenbedingungen, zwecks Erzeugung von kommunikativen, informativen und Verhaltens – Anordnungen zusammenwirken. Die Analyse der Dispositiventstehung setzt die Umwandlungen in den Apparaten mit denjenigen in den sozialen, kulturellen Rahmenbedingungen, Mentalitäten, Attitüden und Kommunikations- und Informationsmuster der menschlichen Subjekte in Verbindung. Zur explorativen Beantwortung der Forschungsfragen wurde eine vollstrukturierte Online-Befragung durchgeführt. Die folgenden Aspekten werden in der Studie untersucht: Zuerst wird der Mobilkommunikationsstruktur nachgespürt: die ursprünglichen Paradigmen, Partner, Orte, Situationen und affektive Reaktionen. Dann werden mögliche Interaktionen dieser Struktur mit anderen Elementen und Anordnungen exploriert. Letztlich wird die Konstituierung kommunikativer Mobilität als Kombination von Kommunikations- und Mobilitätsanordnungen untersucht.

German
Uncontrolled Keywords: communicative mobility, disposition, social construction of technology
Alternative keywords:
Alternative keywordsLanguage
communicative mobility, disposition, social construction of technologyEnglish
URN: urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-6512
Classification DDC: 300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology, anthropology
Divisions: 02 Department of History and Social Science
Date Deposited: 17 Oct 2008 09:22
Last Modified: 08 Jul 2020 22:54
URI: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/651
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