Perpetual Contact: Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance

by Edited by James E. Katz , Mark Aakhus

• ISBN13: 9780521002660
• ISBN10: 0521002664
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The spread of mobile communication, most obtrusively as cell phones but increasingly in other wireless devices, is affecting people's lives and relationships to a previously unthought-of extent. Mobile phones, which are fast becoming ubiquitous, affect either directly or indirectly every aspect of our personal and professional lives. They have transformed social practices and changed the way we do business, yet surprisingly little serious academic work has been done on them. This book, with contributions from the foremost researchers in the field, will be the first study of the impact of the mobile phone on contemporary society from a social scientific perspective. Providing a comprehensive overview of mobile phones and social interaction, it comprises an introduction covering the key issues, a series of unique national studies and a final section examining specific issues.

Table of Contents

List of figures	ix
List of tables	x
Notes on the contributors	xii
Preface and acknowledgments	xx
Introduction: framing the issues	1	(14)
James E. Katz
Mark A. Aakhus
PART I Mobile communication: national and comparative perspectives	15	(122)
Finland: a mobile culture	19	(11)
Jukka-Pekka Puro
Israel: chutzpah and chatter in the Holy Land	30	(12)
Amit Schejter
Akiba Cohen
Italy: stereotypes, true and false	42	(21)
Leopoldina Fortunati
Korea: personal meanings	63	(17)
Shin Dong Kim
United States: popular, pragmatic and problematic	80	(14)
Kathleen A. Robbins
Martha A. Turner
France: preserving the image	94	(16)
Christian Licoppe
Jean-Philippe Heurtin
The Netherlands and the USA compared	110	(16)
Enid Mante
Bulgaria: mobile phones as post-communist cultural icons	126	(11)
Valentin Varbanov
PART II Private talk: interpersonal relations and micro-behavior	137	(86)
Hyper-coordination via mobile phones in Norway	139	(31)
Richard Ling
Birgitte Yttri
Mobile culture of children and teenagers in Finland	170	(23)
Eija-Liisa Kasesniemi
Pirjo Rautiainen
Pretense of intimacy in France	193	(13)
Chantal De Gournay
Mobile phone consumption and concepts of personhood	206	(17)
Dawn Nafus
Karina Tracey
PART III Public performance: social groups and structures	223	(163)
The challenge of absent presence	227	(15)
Kenneth J. Gergen
From mass society to perpetual contact: models of communication technologies in social context	242	(13)
James B. Rule
Mobiles and the Norwegian teen: identity, gender and class	255	(19)
Berit Skog
The telephone comes to a Filipino village	274	(10)
Georg Strom
Beginnings in the telephone	284	(17)
Emanuel A. Schegloff
Conclusion: making meaning of mobiles -- a theory of Apparatgeist	301	(85)
James E. Katz
Mark A. Aakhus
Appendixes
A On ``Opening sequencing'': a framing statement	321	(5)
Emanuel A. Schegloff
B Opening sequencing	326	(60)
Emanuel A. Schegloff
Index	386