In this paper we examine the spatial practices of mobile workers—how mobile workers manage their use of technology and place. Data from interviews with highly mobile workers and ‘hot-deskers’ are used to explore the reciprocal relationship between practice and place: how places change work, but also how work changes places. Mobile workers often need to configure their activities to take account of the different places in which they find themselves. This can involve considerable ‘juggling’ of their plans, humble office equipment, and their coworkers. In turn mobile workers change places, as they appropriate different sites for their work. Specifically, technology allows for the limited reappropriation of travel and leisure sites as places for work (such as trains and cafés). Time is also an important practical concern for mobile workers. Although mobile work may be seen as relatively flexible, fixed temporal structures allow mobile workers to ‘accomplish synchronicity’ with others. Although this paper focuses on the specific practices of mobile workers, it also explores how ‘grand social theory’ can help us understand the practical details of mobile work, yet how practice cannot be simply reduced to theory.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BallE, 1987, “The great sideshow of the Situationist International”Yale French Studiesnumber 73, 21–37
2.
BeckerFSteeleF, 1995Workplace by Design: Mapping the High-performance Workscape (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA)
3.
BodenD, 1995The Business of Talk: Organizations in Action (Blackwell, Oxford)
4.
BordenI, 2001Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Body (Berg, New York)
5.
BowkerGStarS L, 1999Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
6.
BrownBPerryM, 2000, “Why don't telephones have off switches? Understanding the use of everyday technologies”Interacting with Computers12623–634
7.
BrownBPerryM, 2002, “Of maps and guidebooks: designing geographical technologies”, in Proceedings of Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2002 (ACM Press, London)
8.
BrownBGreenNHarperR (Eds), 2001Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age (Springer, London)
9.
ButtonG, 1993, “The curious case of the vanishing technology”, in Technology in Working Order Ed. ButtonG (Routledge, London) pp 10–28
10.
CastellsM, 1996The Rise of the Network Society, Volume 1. The Information Age (Blackwell, Oxford)
11.
ChurchillEWakefordN, 2001, “Framing mobile collaboration and mobile technologies”, in Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age Eds BrownBGreenNHarperR (Springer, London) pp 154–177
12.
CooperG, 2001, “The mutable mobile: social theory in the wireless world”, in Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age Eds BrownBGreenNHarperR (Springer, London) pp 19–31
13.
De CerteauM, 1984The Practice of Everyday Life (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
14.
DepickereA, 1999, “Managing virtual working: between commitment and control?”, in Virtual Working: Social and Organisational Dynamics Ed. JacksonP (Routledge, London) pp 99–120
15.
DuffyF, 1997The New Office (Conran Octopus, London)
16.
EldridgeMLammingN, 2000, “Studies of mobile document work and their contributions to the satchel project”Personal Technologies4105–115
17.
FullerS, 1997Science (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
18.
GalpinSSimsD, 1999, “Narratives and identity in flexible working and teleworking organisations”, in Virtual Working: Social and Organisational Dynamics Ed. JacksonP (Routledge, London) pp 76–94
19.
GiddensA, 1984The Constitution of Society (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
20.
GrahamS, 1999, “Geographies of surveillant simulation”, in Virtual Geographies Eds CrangMCrangPMayJ (Routledge, London) pp 131–148
21.
GrahamSMarvinS, 1996Telecommunications and the City: Electronic Spaces, Urban Places (Routledge, London)
GregsonN, 1989, “On the(ir)relevance of structuration theory to empirical research”, in Social Theories of Modern Societies: Anthony Giddens and his Critics Eds HeldDThompsonJ B (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp 235–249
24.
GrintK, 1991The Sociology of Work: An Introduction (Polity, Oxford)
25.
HarawayD, 1990, “A manifesto for cyborgs: science technology and socialist feminism”, in Feminism/Postmodernism Ed. NicholsonL (Routledge, London) pp 190–233
26.
HarrisLColesA MDicksonKMcLoughlinI, 1999, “Building collaborative networks: new product development across organisational boundaries”, in Virtual Working: Social and Organisational Dynamics Ed. JacksonP (Routledge, London) pp 32–45
27.
HarveyD, 1990The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change (Blackwell, Oxford)
28.
Hayes-RothBHayes-RothF, 1979, “A cognitive model of planning”Cognitive Science3275–310
29.
HeathCLuffP, 2000Technology in Action (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
30.
HeathCKnoblauchHLuffP, 2000, “Technology and social interaction: the emergence of ‘workplace studies’”British Journal of Sociology51299–320
31.
JacksonP (Ed.), 1999Virtual Working: Social and Organisational Dynamics (Routledge, London)
32.
LaurierEPhiloC, 2003, “The region in the boot: mobilising lone subjects and multiple objects”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space2185–106
33.
LaveJ, 1999, “Everyday life, interdisciplinary committee on organisational studies seminar series(ICOS)”, presentation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, http://www.si.umich.edu/ICOS/Presentations/041699/
34.
LefebvreH, 1974The Production of Space (Blackwell, Oxford)
35.
LuffPHeathC, 1998, “Mobility in collaboration”, in Proceedings of CSCW 1998 Eds PoltrockSGrudinJ (ACM Press, Seattle, WA) pp 305–314
36.
LuffPHeathCHindmarshJ (Eds), 2001Workplace Studies: Recovering Work Practice and Informing System Design (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
37.
LynchM, 1993Scientific Practice and Ordinary Action: Ethnomethodology and Social Studies of Science (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
38.
MartinC, 1988When Old Technologies Were New (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
39.
MayJThriftN (Eds), 2001Timescapes: Geographies of Temporality (Routledge, London)
40.
MerrifieldA, 1993, “Place and space: a Lefebvrian reconciliation”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series18516–531
41.
MurtaghG, 2001, “Seeing the ‘rules’: preliminary observations on action, interaction and mobile phone use”, in Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age Eds BrownBGreenNHarperR (Springer, London) pp 9–91
42.
NandhakumarJ, 1999, “Virtual teams and lost proximity: consequences on trust relationships”, in Virtual Working: Social and Organisational Dynamics Ed. JacksonP (Routledge, London) pp 46–56
43.
NinA, 1994Cities of the Interior (Peter Owen, London)
44.
O'HaraKSellenA, 1997, “A comparison of reading paper and online documents”, in Proceedings of CHI′97, Atlanta, GA (ACM Press, Seattle, WA) pp 35–42
45.
O'HaraKPerryMSellenABrownB A T, 2001, “Managing information on the move: a study of the information needs of mobile professionals”, in Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age Eds BrownBGreenNHarperR (Springer, London) pp 80–194
46.
OrrJ E, 1996Talking About Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job (ILR Press, Ithaca, NY)
47.
PerryMO'HaraKSellenABrownBHarperR, 2001, “Dealing with mobility: understanding access anytime, anywhere”ACM Transactions on Computer–Human Interaction8323–347
48.
PleasantsN, 2000Wittgenstein and the Idea of a Critical Social Theory (Routledge, London)
49.
PorterT M, 1993, “Information, power and the view from nowhere”, in Information Acumen: The Understanding and Use of Knowledge in Modern Business Ed. Bud-FriemanL (Routledge, London) pp 217–230
50.
SellenAHarperR, 2001The Myth of the Paperless Office (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)
51.
ThriftN, 1996, “New urban eras and old technological fears: reconfiguring the goodwill of electronic things”Urban Studies331463–1493
52.
UnwinT, 2000, “A waste of space? Towards a critique of the social production of space”Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series2511–29
53.
UrryJ, 2000Sociology Beyond Societies: Mobilities for the Twenty-first Century (Routledge, London)
54.
VilhelmsonBThulinE, 2001, “Is regular work at fixed places fading away? The development of ICT-based and travel-based modes of work in Sweden”Environment and Planning A331015–1029
55.
WibergMLjungbergF, 1999, “Exploring the vision of anytime, anywhere in the context of mobile work”, in Knowledge Management and Virtual Organizations Ed. MalhotraY (Idea Group Publishing, Hersheg, PA)
56.
ZuboffS, 1988In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power (Basic Books, New York)
