A case study is presented of the multi-method and multi-discipline approach to anticipating the social and policy implications of new communication and information technologies (C&IT) being adopted by the Communication Centre at the Queensland University of Technology. This work draws on frameworks which include action research, structurational approaches to technology, coevolutionary systems theory, information economics, feminist and poststructuralist theories, and civilisational and critical approaches to futures studies. The main theoretical perspectives and methodologies we draw on are outlined, together with some of our research findings. Some future scenarios for communication in Australia, beyond the technological optimism of the information superhighway rhetoric, are presented. The often paradoxical relationship between technological change and social change is recognised. We argue that rather than being driven by the entertainment or commercially-oriented applications of the ‘information superhighway’, we need alternative future scenarios and designs for C&IT which facilitate cooperation, gender equity, inclusion of the Other and social justice.
The approaches we have adopted all recognise the complex interrelationship between society and culture, while avoiding positions which draw on grand narratives such as liberalism and Marxism.
M. Tehranian, ‘Communication and theories of social change: A communitarian perspective’, Asian Journal of Communication, 2, 1, 1991, pp. 1–30.
We argue that while poststructuralism provides a useful means of deconstructing social and cultural practices, it rarely offers strategies for change.
For a useful discussion of action learning see G. Morgan, and R. Ramirez, ‘Action learning: a holographic metaphor for guiding social change’, Human Relations, 37, 1, 1983, pp. 1–28.
For example, see T. Stevenson, and J. Lennie, ‘Anticipating applications for digital video communications: Two scenarios for Australia’, Technology Studies, in press 2, 1, 1996; D. Anthony, T. Mandeville, G. Hearn, and L. Holman, Demand for Broadband Services for Telecommuting. Report to the Broadband Services Expert Group, Department of Communications and the Arts, Brisbane: The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology, 1994.
Relevant work in this area we have drawn on includes P. Allen, ‘Why the future is not what it was’, Futures, 22, 6, July/August 1990, pp. 555–570; K.J. Arrow, The Limits of Organisation, New York, Norton, 1974; N. Clark, ‘Some new approaches to evolutionary economies’, Journal of Economic Issues, 23, 2, 1988, pp. 511–531; G. Dosi, C. Freeman, R. Nelson, G. Silverberg, and L. Soete (eds.), Technical Change and Economic Theory, London, Pinter, 1988; C. Freeman, and C. Perez, ‘Structural crises of adjustment, business cycles and investment behaviour’, in G. Dosi, et al., op.cit.; S. Inayatullah, ‘Beyond development and towards prama’, Development. 4, 1994a, pp. 24–26; M. Mannermaa, S. Inayatullah, and R. Slaughter (eds). Coherence and Chaos in Our Uncommon Futures - Visions, Means, Actions, Selections from the XIII World Conference of the World Futures Studies Federation, Turku, Finland, August 23–27, 1993, Turku, Finland Futures Research Centre, June 1994; I. Prigogine and I. Stengers, Order Out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue with Nature, London, William Heineman, 1984.
Centre papers which draw on these theories include J. Lennie, ‘Global cooperation and social change: the role of women and communication technologies’, in H. Borland (ed.), Communication and Identity, Local, Regional, Global. Selected Papers from the 1993 National Conference of the Australian Communication Association. Canberra: Australian and New Zealand Communication Association, 1994a, pp. 165–181; J. Lennie, Empowering Women in Assessing an Interactive Community-based Planning System: Towards an Action-Oriented Feminist Framework for Theory, Research and Analysis. Unpublished Master of Business (Communication Management) Dissertation, Faculty of Business, Queensland University of Technology, December 1994b; J. Lennie, Involving women in the design of an interactive planning system: Towards a feminist framework for theory, research and action. In A. Adam, and J. Owen, (eds), Proceedings of the 5th IFIP International Conference on Women, Work and Computerization, ‘Breaking Old Boundaries: Building New Forms, Manchester, England: UMIST, July 2–5, 1994c, pp. 501–510; D. Anthony and T. Mandeville, The Co-Evolution Of The Consumer Economy And Communication Technology: A Post-Modern And Institutional Analysis, Paper presented at the Tenth International Conference, International Telecommunications Society, Sydney, July 3–6, 1994; G. Hearn, D. Anthony, L. Holman, and J. Dunleavy, The Information Superhighway and Consumers, Research Report No. 1. Brisbane, The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology, 1994.
See G. Hearn and T. Mandeville, ‘The electronic superhighway - increased commodification or the democratisation of leisure?’, Media Information Australia, 75, February, 1995, pp. 92–101.
For examples of this research see H.S. Kim, and G. Hearn, Culture And The Appropriation Of New Communication Technologies: Contrasting Korea And Australia, Paper presented at the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Conference, Perth, Western Australia, July 5–7, 1995; S. Towers, and G. Hearn, Videoconferencing: Towards Explaining Implementation Failure, Paper presented at the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Conference, Perth, Western Australia, July 5–7, 1995.
A. Giddens, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1984.
See for example S. Inayatullah, ‘Life, emergence and the universe’, Futures, 26, 6, 1994b, pp. 683–696; S. Inayatullah, ‘Islamic responses to emerging scientific, technological and epistemological transformations’. Islamic Thought and Scientific Creativity, 6, 2, 1995a, pp. 47–68 and S. Inayatullah, ‘Beyond the postmodern: Any futures possible? Islamic Periodica, 5, 1, 1995b, pp. 2–3.
Z. Sardar, Information and the Muslim World. A Strategy for the Twenty-First Century, London, Mansell Publishing, 1988.
G. Hearn, L. Simpson, L. Holman et al., Anticipating Social and Policy Implications of Intelligent Networks: Complexity, Choice and Participation, Final Report to the Telecom Fund for Social and Policy Research in Telecommunications, Brisbane, The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology, 1993.
Morgan and Ramirez, op. cit.
See for example, T. Mandeville, D. Anthony, G. Hearn, and L. Holman, ‘Modelling institutional and organisational influences on telecommunications demand’, Communications Research Forum 1994 Papers, 1, Canberra, Bureau of Transport and Communication Economics, 1995, pp. 51–62.
Anthony, Mandeville, Hearn and Holman 1994a, op. cit.; D. Anthony, T. Mandeville, G. Hearn, and L. Holman, Demand for Broadband Services in the Health Sector. Report to the Broadband Services Expert Group, Department of Communications and the Arts. Brisbane: The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology, 1994b and T. Mandeville, Demand For and Benefits of ISDN-like Services in Regional and Remote Queensland, Research Report No. 3, Brisbane, The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology, 1995.
See for example, S. Ihsan, S. Inayatullah, and L. Obijiofor, ‘The future of communication’, Futures, 27, 8, 1995, pp. 897–903; T. Stevenson, ‘Telecommunications development in Asia-Pacific: the case for a new Australian role’, Telecommunications Policy, 15, 6, December, 1991, pp. 485–490; T. Stevenson, ‘Communicating in the Pacific: Some issues for Australia’, in T. Stevenson, and J. Lennie, (eds) Australia's Communication Futures, Brisbane, The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology, 1992; T. Stevenson, I. Burkett, and S. Myint, ‘Interconnecting local communities globally: An Australian perspective’, Proceedings of the International Seminar, Renewing Community as Sustainable Village, Goshiki-cho, Awaji-shima, Japan, 16–19 August, 1993, Nagoya, 1994; S. Inayatullah, ‘Linking the present with the future: The politics of futures research in judicial bureaucracies’, Futures Research Quarterly, Spring 1994 (Guest Editor); and Inayatullah, 1994a, 1994b, 1995a and 1995b, op. cit.
R. Slaughter, Future Concepts and Powerful Ideas, Melbourne, Australia, Futures Study Centre, 1991.
S. Inayatullah, ‘Deconstructing and reconstructing the future: Predictive, cultural and critical epistemologies’, Futures, 22, 2, March 1990, pp. 115–141.
F. Polak, The Image of the Future, Amsterdam, Elsevier Scientific, 1973.
Stevenson and Lennie, in press, op. cit.
Allen, op. cit.
L. Free, T. Stevenson, T. Mandeville, G. Hearn, and A. McKenzie, Australian Service Industries: Public Policy Issues and Service Industries Opportunities for Australia in Digital Video Communications, Canberra, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1992.
T. Mandeville, Information, Innovation and the Patent System, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of Economics, University of Queensland, 1986.
I. Lowe, ‘Social impact analysis of information technologies’, in T. Stevenson, and J. Lennie, (eds) Australia's Communication Futures, Brisbane, The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology, 1992.
Sardar, op. cit.
The following analysis is based on H. S. Kim, Cultural Differences in People's Appropriation of New Communication Technologies: A Study of People in Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines and New Zealand, PhD Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, in preparation.
D. MacKenzie, and J. Wajcman, (eds) The Social Shaping of Technology, Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1985; J. Wajcman, Feminism Confronts Technology. Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991; U. Narula, ‘The cultural challenge of communication technology’, American Behavioral Scientist, 32, 2, November/December 1988, pp. 194–207.
R. Silverstone, and E. Hirsh, Consuming Technologies: Media and Communication in Domestic Spaces, London, Routledge, 1992; S. Turkle, ‘Computational reticence: why women fear the intimate machine’, in C. Kramarae, (ed.) Technology and Women's Voices, New York, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988, pp. 41–61; J. Wajcman, Feminism Confronts Technology, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991; L. Van Zoonen, ‘Feminist theory and information technology’, Media, Culture and Society, 14, 1992, pp. 9–29.
R. Daft, and R. Lengel, ‘Information richness: A new approach to managerial behaviour and organisation design’, in B. Star and L. Cummings (eds), Research in Organisational Behaviour, 6, Greenwich, CT, JAI, 1984.
S. Turkle, op. cit.
J. Lennie, G. Hearn, T. Stevenson, and D. Schoorl, ‘Interactive public information centres for the Queensland Department of Primary Industries: Design and implementation needs and issues’, Proceedings, International Interactive Multimedia Symposium, Promaco Conventions, Perth, Western Australia, January 27–31, 1992, pp. 463–478.
A. Bordow and E. More, Managing Organisational Communication, Melbourne, Longman Cheshire, 1991; R. E. Rice, ‘Media appropriateness: using social presence theory to compare traditional and new organizational media’, Human Communication Research, 19, 4, June, 1993, pp. 451–484.
For discussions of the inter-relationship between culture and technology see Giddens, op. cit.; J. Van Dijk, ‘Communication networks and modernization’, Communication Research, 20, 3, June 1993, pp. 384–40; W. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologising of the Word, New York, Methuen, 1982; H. Innis, The Bias of Communication, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1951; M. McLuhan, Understanding Media, New York, Signet, 1964.
See S. Turkle, The Second self: Computers and the Human Spirit, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1984.
See A. Giddens, op. cit. Our research also examines how our genetic evolution is being transformed by technology. Instead of only focusing on the technological and social interface, we seek to understand how stable historical evolution is itself under threat.
J. L. Abu-Lughod, ‘Communication and the metropolis: Spatial drift and the reconstitution of control’, Asian Journal of Communication, 2, 3, 1992, pp. 12–30.
H. Mackay and G. Gillespie, ‘Extending the social shaping of technology: Ideology and appropriation’, Social Studies of Science, 22, 1992, pp. 685–716; MacKenzie and Wajcman op.cit; and Wajcman, op.cit.
Lennie, 1994a and 1994b, op. cit.
Wajcman, op. cit., p. 162.
Mackay and Gillespie, op. cit. p. 691.
F. Wilson, ‘Language, technology, gender, and power’, Human Relations, 45, 9, 1992, pp. 883–904; B. Wright, ‘Introduction’ in B. Wright, M. Ferree, G. Mellow et al. (eds), Women, Work and Technology. Transformations, Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 1987; J. Wajcman, Feminism Confronts Technology, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1991.
A. Moyal, Women and the Telephone in Australia, A Study Prepared for Telecom Australia, 1989.
See for example, V. Frissen, ‘Trapped in electronic cages? Gender and new information technologies in the public and private domain: an overview of research’, Media, Culture and Society. 14, 1992, pp. 31–49; J. Morgall, Technology Assessment. A Feminist Perspective. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993; L. Van Zoonen, op. cit.; and Wajcman, op. cit.
Lennie, 1994a, op. cit.
See Lennie 1994a, 1994b and 1994c, op. cit and T. Stevenson, and J. Lennie, ‘Emerging designs for work, living and learning in the Communicative Age’, Futures Research Quarterly, 11, 3, 1995, pp. 5–26.
See, for example, M. Bruce, and A. Adam, ‘Expert systems and women's lives: A technology assessment’, Futures, 21, 5, 1989, pp. 480–497, and L. Collins-Jarvis, ‘Gender representation in an electronic city hall: Female adoption of Santa Monica's PEN system’, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 37, 1, 1993, pp. 49–65.
S. Hekman, Gender and Knowledge. Elements of a Postmodern Feminism, Oxford, Polity Press, 1990.
Lennie, 1994b, op. cit.
A useful outline of the strenghts and limitations of the ethic of care perspective is found in R. Jacques, ‘Critique and theory building. Producing knowledge “from the kitchen’”, Academy of Management Review, 17, 3, 1992, pp. 582–606.
J. Lennie, Gender and Power in Sustainable Development Planning: Towards a Feminist Poststructuralist Framework of Participation, Unpublished Master of Business (Communication Management) Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 1995.
Giddens, op. cit.
S. Towers, Diffusing the Effective, Wider Use of Videoconferencing in Government Administration and Service Delivery, PhD Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, in preparation.
Kim, op. cit.
T. Stevenson, ‘Communicating in a shrinking workd: Local.global networking’, Paper presented at the Plenary Session ‘Communicating in a Shrinking World: Reaching Out Across Cultures”, Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Centre (AMIC) Annual Conference, Communications, Convergence and Development, June 22–25, 1994a.
Stevenson and Lennie, in press, op. cit.
T. Stevenson, ‘The future of communication’, paper presented at the Workshop on Futures Vision for Southeast Asia Penang, September, 1994b.
R. Carson, Silent Spring, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1965; B. Commoner, The Closing Circle. London, Cape, 1972.
Abu-Lughod, op. cit. p. 12.
Stevenson and Lennie, 1995, op. cit.
Stevenson and Lennie (eds), 1992, op. cit.
See for example, Anthony and Mandeville, op. cit.; Anthony, Mandeville, Hearn, and Holman, 1994a, op. cit.; J. Chapman and L. Holman, The Future of Communication in Australia During the 2000 Olympics, and Beyond, Report to CITEC on the Futures Visioning Workshop for the 2000 Olympic Games, Brisbane, The Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology, 1994; J. Chapman and J. Lennie, ‘Developing a community-based interactive planning system for ecologically sustainable development’, Proceedings, International Interactive Multimedia Symposium, Perth, Promaco Conventions, Western Australia, 23–28 January, 1994, pp. 71–80; J. Dunleavy, G. Hearn, and I. Burkett, ‘Anticipating changes to communication infrastructure and the likely impacts on the consumer economy’, in Borland op. cit., pp. 182–195; Free, Stevenson, Mandeville, Hearn, and McKenzie, op. cit.; G. Hearn, ‘The human impact of convergence in communication technologies: Social change, entertainmentisation and saturation’, Proceedings of the Pacific Telecommunications Council Fifteenth Annual Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, January 17–20, 1993, pp. 805–812; Hearn, Anthony, Holman, and Dunleavy, op. cit.; Hearn, Simpson and Holman, et al, op. cit.; J. Lennie, Digital video communications in Australia, Media Information Australia, 67, 1993, pp. 17–27; Lennie, 1994a, op. cit.; L. Simpson, J. Lennie, T. Stevenson, and H. Parker, ‘Future scenarios for delivery of distance education and training in Australia’, Proceedings, Information Technology for Training and Education International Forum and Conference, Brisbane, September 29 - October 2, 1992, pp. 516–528; Stevenson and Lennie, 1995, op. cit.; Stevenson and Lennie, in press, op. cit. and R. Wood, J. McLean, A. Donker, L. Free, T. Stevenson, L. Holman, and S. McIllwane, Multimedia: The Issues and their Impact on Government. Brisbane: Media and Information Service, Administrative Services Department (Queensland) and the Communication Centre, Queensland University of Technology, December 1993.
Stevenson and Lennie (eds), op. cit.
Free et al., op. cit.
Stevenson and Lennie, in press, op. cit.
Hearn, op. cit.
Hearn, Anthony, Holman and Dunleavy, op. cit.
Simpson, Lennie, Stevenson, and Parker, op. cit.
Chapman and Holman, op. cit.
Stevenson and Lennie, 1995, op. cit.
See Lennie, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c, op. cit. and Stevenson and Lennie, 1995, op. cit.
See Anthony and Mandeville, op. cit., and Anthony, Mandeville, Hearn and Holman, 1994a, op. cit.