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COST269 WORKING GROUP
MOBILITY Definition
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The current theme of this group is mobility
in everyday life and its relevance for the experience of ICTs.
The workgroup may well consider other topics at a later stage
but from the time being is known as the 'mobility workgroup'.
Why
mobility?
A good deal of recent research on the everyday life and ICTs has
focused on the home. But obviously there are other sites where ICTs
are experienced or used, and this is becoming all the clearer with
the emergence of mobile ICTs and services. In fact the predecessor
of this current workgroup in the old Cost248 focused specifically
on the mobile phone so it a clear progression to stand back from
the technology so consider the social processes related to mobility
itself. In practice the workgroup is considering not only actual
travel behaviour but all the activities related to that travel and
also the experience of being in different sites outside the home.
Work
to date
A plenum session of Cost269 allowed a first exploration of the
area, considering some of the writings on mobility and different
national empirical studies. This session and the related workgroup
meeting provoked some brainstorming of dimensions we might consider.
Subsequently the workgroup has continued to discuss the contribution
of relevant studies. It has received the results of a very recent
qualitative study from the EURESCOM P-903 research, in which some
of the workgroup members participated. The workgroup as started
to assemble bibliographies of research on mobile ICTs and on mobility.
Finally, a draft document has been produced which explains in more
detail the relevance of mobility to the study of ICTs and begins
to chart some of the dimensions which need to be considered.
Work
planned
Although the detail of this is the subject of on-going negotiation
within the workgroup, a broad aim is to be able to define issues,
to develop at least some sense of what has been researched and where
there are absences and to generate suggestions for future research.
Agenda
An Agenda for ‘Mobility in Everyday
Life’
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