Information Society and the Workplace Spaces, Boundaries and Agency [Paperback]

Much has been written on the grand prospects for Information Society ; much less on what this might mean in everyday terms. So what do we find when we look at what is happening in a society, Finland, that is one of closest to an information society? Bringing together studies of everyday local practices in workplaces within information society, this book has a special focus on social space and the agency of actors. It includes both theoretical reviews and detailed qualitative research. It also highlights the political challenges of the information society, challenges which are likely to become subjects of international concern.

Part 1: Introduction  1. Spaces, Places and Communities of Practice  Part 2: The Creation of Spaces  2. Bounded or Empowered by Technology?: Information System Specialists' Views on People's Freedom within Technology  3. Gendered Local Agency: The Development of Regional Information Society  4. Empty Spaces without Knowledge and Management  Part 3: Working and Living in Spaces  5. The Dynamics of Control and Commitment in High-Tech IT Firms  6. Virtualizing the Office: Micro-Level Impacts and Driving Forces of Increased ICT Use  7. Women and Technological Pleasure at Work?  8. Fulfillment or Slavery?: The Changing Sense of Self at Work  9. In Search of Boundaries: Changing Boundaries in and through Teleworking  Part 4: Concluding Discussion  10. Information Society, Agency and Identity Positions

Tuula Heiskanenis Research Director of the Work Research Centre, a unit of multidisciplinary working life studies in the Research Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland. She has studied professional and industrial work, work organizations in both public and private sectors, and bothlÃV