[Sigiii-l] Taking part in Global Information Village Plaza activities

[Gianluca Miscione]

Hi,
I'm Gianluca Miscione, PhD student  in Information Systems and Organisations
at the Sociology Dept. of Trento University (Italy). I'm writing because I'm
interested in taking part in Global Information Village Plaza activities

The position statement I send you is an abstract of my PhD research
proposal.

Thanks for your attention

Regards

Gianluca Miscione



Position statement



A theme that is becoming practically and theoretically relevant because of
the world-wide spreading of information technologies is the encounter of
different cultures mediated by information technologies. While most
information technologies are global and standardized, their applications are
continuously adapted to local circumstances; the adaptation of global
technology to local requirements is a socio-technical process that have been
relegated to the background. Distinctions between proximity and remoteness
remain pertinent, but the distances becomes cultural rather than
geographical. Therefore, giving attention to these evolutions does not mean
to disregard innovation: even when there is no explicit theorizing, there
are innovation and learning in practice.

It is not my intention to criticize a supposed spreading cultural
homogeneity defending cultural purity neither to disapprove social and
cultural autonomy supporting cultural change and creolization; my aim is to
describe these processes and to understand more about their dynamics, paying
attention to the possibility that innovation could find paths different from
the expected ones.



As innovation have demonstrated not to be linear, this is a topic of general
interest for development-related issues. In the studies about information
and communication it is usual to refer to individuals and to put main
attention on contents, cognition and/or imaginary. Instead, my interest is
to study other elements that a culture can convey of itself through I.T.,
such as practices, manners to solve problems, ways and images of
organization, roles, strategies, kinds of social relations.

Main attention is given to how relations are affected by the introduction of
information technologies and the culture they reify or imply, and vice
versa.



Interesting situations are planned or ongoing interventions in developing
countries. Telemedicine is a good example of my focus: at least, it takes to
diverse social environments different practices of health care, it segments
social processes differently and it affects health concepts, social balances
and organization, and linked power relations.