NCSU Department of Communication

COM477-001::Mobile Technologies and Cultures
Instructor: Dr. Adriana de Souza e Silva

 

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There will be weekly readings. This is a reading-intensive course in which you will be asked to deal with material that is often quite challenging in its language and theoretical positions. You should expect to read about 60 pages a week, and write a brief summary/comment on each text you read. You are excused from writing your comment if you are presenting to the class. You are responsible for not only reading all the material assigned to you, but engaging with it before class in a way that prepares you to participate in class discussion. In order to do this, you will need to take careful reading notes and review your notes before each class. The readings shall be used not only for class discussion, but also to support your arguments on the mid-term exams, presentations, and final paper.

Unless otherwise noted, all texts --except for the textbook -- are available online as PDF documents, through this Web site and the NCSU library online reserves. However, you should not rely on Internet connection.

Warning: Download/print all texts at the beggining of the semester so you can have them with you ahead of time. I won't accept late blog posts due to internet problems.

Note: All students must regurlary check e-mails, as well as the class Website, for messages and readings from this course.

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Textbook:

Required:
MCS: Castells, M., Fernandez-Ardevol, M., Qiu, J. L., & Sey, A. (2007). The mobile communication society: A global perspective. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press (USD 19.77). Also available online at http://arnic.info/WirelessWorkshop/MCS.pdf (this is the pre-publication version of the book). Retrieved June 06, 2009.

Recomended:
DC: de Souza e Silva, A., & Sutko, D. M. (Eds.) (2009). Digital Cityscapes: Merging digital and urban playspaces. New York: Peter Lang (USD 28.71).

 

Required Readings:

Abrahamson, E. (2003). Hear me now: Competition, regulation and innovation in mobile telephony in the United States: 1945-1983. Von Gremp Workshop in Economic and Entrepreneurial History. University of California, Los Angeles.

Bell, G. (2005). The age of the thumb: A cultural reading of mobile technologies from Asia. In P. Glotz, S. Bertschi, & C. Locke (Eds.), Thumb culture: The meaning of mobile phones for society (pp. 67-87). New Brunswick, London: Transaction Publishers.

Brewer, J., & Dourish, P. (2008). Storied spaces: Cultural accounts of mobility, technology, and environmental knowing. International Journal of Human Computer Studies, doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2008.03.003.

Cohen, A. A., & Lemish, D. (2005). When the bombs go off the mobiles ring: The aftermath of terrorist attacks. In K. Nyíri (Ed.), A sense of place: The global and the local in mobile communication (pp. 117-128). Vienna: Passagen Verlag.

de Souza e Silva, A, & Frith, J. Locative mobile social networks: Merging communication, location, and urban spaces.

de Souza e Silva, A., Sutko, D. M., Salis, F., & de Souza e Silva, C. (submitted). Cell phone appropriation and social mobile use in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Delacruz, G., Chung, G. K. W. K., & Baker, E. (2009). Findind a place: Developments of location-based mobile gaming in learning and assessment environments. In A. de Souza e Silva, & D. M. Sutko (Eds.), Digital Cityscapes: Merging digital and urban playspaces (pp. 251-268). New York: Peter Lang.

Donner, J. (2008). Research approaches to mobile use in the developing world: A review of the literature. The Information Society, 24 (3), 140-159.

Farley, T. (2005). Mobile telephone history. Telektronikk, 3 (4), 22-34.

Fortunati, L., & Cianchi, A. (2006). Fashion and technology in the presentation of self. In J. Höflich, & M. Hartmann (Eds.), Mobile communication in everyday life: Ethnographic views, observations and reflections (pp. 203-226). Berlin: Frank & Timme.

Gordon, E. (2009). Redefining the local: The distinction between located information and local knowledge in location-based games. In A. de Souza e Silva, & D. M. Sutko (Eds.), Digital Cityscapes: Merging digital and urban playspaces (pp. 21-36). New York: Peter Lang.

Gordon, J. (2007). The mobile phone and the public sphere: Mobile phone usage in three critical situations. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 13 (3), 307-319.

Greenfield, A. (2006). Section I: What is everyware? [part 1] [part 2] in Everyware: The dawning age of ubiquitous computing (pp. 9-34). Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

Greenfield, A. (2006). Section II: How is everyware different from what we're used to? in Everyware: The dawning age of ubiquitous computing (pp. 35-88). Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

Hjorth, L. (2009). The politics of being mobile: A case study of a different model for conceptualizing mobility, gaming, and play. In In A. de Souza e Silva, & D. M. Sutko (Eds.), Digital Cityscapes: Merging digital and urban playspaces (pp. 83-99). New York: Peter Lang.

James, J, & Verteeg, M. (2007). Mobile phones in Africa: How much do we really know? Social Indicators Research, 84 (1), 117-126.

Javaid, U., Rasheed, T., Meddour, D. E., Ahmed, T., & Prasad, N. R. (2008). A novel dimension of cooperation in 4G. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 27 (1), 29-40.

Kato, H. (2005). Japanese youth and the imagining of keitai. In Ito, M., Okabe, D., & Matsuda, M. (Eds.), Personal, portable, pedestrian: Mobile phones and the japanese life (p.. 103-119). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Katz, J. (2006). Mobile phones in educational settings. In Magic in the air: Mobile communication and the transformation of social life (pp. 87-101). New Brunswick, London: Transaction Publishers.

McLelland, M. (2008). Socio-cultural aspects of mobile communciation technologies in Asia and the Pacific: A discussion of the recent literature. In G. Goggin (Ed.), Mobile phone cultures (pp. 124-134). London, New York: Routledge.

Meyrowitz, J. (2005). The rise of glocality: New senses of place and identity in the global village. In K. Nyíri (Ed.), A sense of place: The global and the local in mobile communication (pp. 21-30). Vienna: Passagen Verlag. Also available online at: Proceedings of the Conference on the Global and the Local in Mobile Communication: Places, Images, People, Connections, 1-12. Budapest, June 10-12. Retrieved June 06, 2009, from http://www.fil.hu/mobil/2004/meyrowitz_webversion.doc

Perusco, L., & Michael, K. (2007). Control, trust, privacy, and security: Evaluating location-based services. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 26 (1), 4-16.

Wilson, J. (2006). 3G to Web 2.0? Can mobile telephony become an architecture of participation? Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 12 (2), 229–242.