Brenda's P3 Review

Brenda Kane
Personal, Portable, Pedestrian Review
Digital Research Methods
October 7, 2009

The Domestication of Keitai as Technocultural Phenomenon and
Research Topic Explored in Personal, Portable, Pedestrian

While the impetus for Personal, Portable, Pedestrian (P3) is keitai, a geographically specific technosocial artifact contextualized within Japan, the themes that emerge from this collection offer insights significant to internet scholarship on a broader scale. Several of the themes explored include: 1) the cultural specificity of technology, in terms of the ways in which it is perceived and integrated into society, 2) mobile communication technology and its negotiation of space (public, private, online, and offline), and 3) the potential for new technologies to either transcend or reinscribe societal norms. The chapter entitled “The Gendered Use of Keitai in Domestic Contexts” encompasses all three themes, particularly the third, in that it is a study of the cultural integration of technology into a private space and the resulting social dynamics. It recontextualizes keitai within the domestic sphere and critically engages interviews with Japanese housewives about their use of keitai. This chapter exemplifies cutting-edge internet scholarship, both in terms of its theoretical framing and also, its methodological approach. To better understand this study’s contribution to internet scholarship, it is important to first examine the ways in which it draws upon P3’s aforementioned themes.

The discussion of keitai in P3 as a sociocultural object and techosocial phenomenon demonstrates the theoretical and methodological flexibility necessary to holistically research communication technology within a specific cultural context. The strategic approach of this collection is that of “sustained engagement with one national context.” (Ito, 2006, p. 4) At the same time, the essays, compiled by primarily Japanese intellectuals, draw upon interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks – historical, technological, scientific, cultural, sociological, etc. – to form a multifaceted exploration of the evolution of mobile media in Japan and the ensuing societal ramifications. While initially a social disruption, keitai has become assimilated into everyday life in Japan, and is now synonymous with modern Japanese culture; more than just a tool, it is now a way of being. Beyond the collection’s overriding theme of keitai as ubiquitous technology that simultaneously produces and is produced by Japanese culture, P3 also brings to light important subthemes relevant to internet scholarship, which are also highlighted in Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method in its discussion of quality internet research design.

One important theme that arises from both P3 and Internet Inquiry is the cultural specificity of technology. The essays demonstrate the ways in which technology is not deterministic, but rather, contingent upon cultural context. The development of technology is highlighted as a social process with flexible interpretation, in which “social dynamics are at the heart of new technologies.” (Hine, 2009, p. 3) Even as the focus of P3 remains situated upon Japan, it also considers the multiple lenses through which non-Japanese cultures view keitai, the cultural politics of “techno-orientalism,” and the mixed global sentiments of technophilia and technophobia. (Ito, 2006, p. 3) On one hand, Japanese technoculture on the global stage has been seen as the future of mobile technology, something that should be emulated, but on the other hand, it is also feared for its foreignness, its disruption of the public space, and the ways in which it challenges the East/West or ancient/modern paradigm. (Ito, 2006)

Another significant theme in P3 that is also addressed in Internet Inquiry is the mobility of communication technology and its negotiation of different spaces: online, offline, public and private. Keitai use exemplifies the simultaneity of online and offline culture and, in turn, the fusion of online and offline internet scholarship, which is becoming increasingly prevalent. (Hine, 2009) In a sense, keitai embodies both online and offline culture in that it is quintessentially a pedestrian technology. P3 editor Mizuko Ito says that, in relationship to keitai, the term pedestrian “plays on both the meaning of ‘while walking,’ as well as the meaning of ‘ordinary and everyday.’” (Matteo, 2009) In this way, keitai has become so embedded within Japanese culture that it navigates through a multitude of spaces: physical, virtual, public, and private. While P3’s scholarship also makes connections to stationary PC Internet, it recognizes the disparities involved in researching the two domains – mobile versus stationary. P3 exerts the different theoretical and methodological approaches the study of these two virtual spaces demand, including analysis of their foundational sociocultural dynamics. Unlike PC Internet, for example, which was developed primarily by a privileged group of educated, white males, mobile technology has been embraced and promoted by diverse subcultures. (Ito, 2006) Perhaps that is why the following study of a peripheral group is well suited for understanding keitai as a mobile communication technology.

The third and final theme gleaned from P3 and best understood from the framework of Internet Inquiry is the power of new technologies to either transcend or reinscribe societal norms. This theme is explored in depth in Shingo’s Dobashi’s essay, “The Gendered Use of Keitai in Domestic Contexts,” which demonstrates apt internet research design, with a combination of sound research questions, phenomenon, and method. (Markham, 2009) Dobashi approaches the study of Japanese housewives, a group that has received little scholarly attention, and their use of keitai from the framework of actor network theory. This theoretical stance views society as not strictly social, but also, inherently composed of technological elements. Dobashi asserts that this perspective is “an appropriate lens for viewing communications technologies like keitai and their increasingly central role in mediating our relationships and activities.” (Dobashi, 2006, p. 233) Dobashi views technology and society as interdependent, with neither functioning in isolation, and each one constructing the other. Furthermore, just as keitai demonstrates the cultural contingency of technology, so too does Japanese housewives’ use of keitai demonstrate that this technocultural artifact “takes on different characteristics for users in different social positions.” (Dobashi, 2006, p. 234) That is, the meaning behind Japanese housewives’ use of keitai and its implications are not the same as those of another population, such as Japanese youth.

Dobashi poses several questions relevant to the subjectivity of keitai usage in Japan, specifically as it relates to women and the domestic sphere: “How are keitai used and perceived within the home? How, if at all, does this domesticated technology contribute to the creation and preservation of the home?” (Dobashi, 2006, p. 221) These questions emerged from her viewpoint that the home is more than merely a physical space, but rather, a cultural space in which values, norms, and power are negotiated. The use of keitai within the domestic sphere as a private space, then, can be contrasted to more public uses of keitai, and it can be used to understand the ways in which the meaning of technology in the public realm is redefined once it is established within the home. Dobashi utilizes several methods for this study, including drawing upon similar studies that investigate the domestication of technology, making an historical account of the ways in which housewives’ use of new technology has transformed its production and distribution, and, most importantly, engaging in conversations with Japanese housewives about their use of keitai. By conducting a series of interviews within twenty households on how communication devices were used in the home, Dobashi found that keitai ultimately reproduces traditional gender roles. While keitai adds new dimensionality to the lives of Japanese housewives, such as increased contact with husbands and children, and also integration with housework due to increased mobility, it ultimately reinscribes social roles and reproduces the domestic gender order. (Dobashi, 2006) While this study is a microcosm of keitai culture overall, it speaks to important overriding themes, and also, problematizes the often utopian “techno-imaginings” associated with Japan. (Ito, 2006, p. 3)

P3 demonstrates well the ways in which researchers have developed methods and theoretical frameworks for studying technocultural phenomena. As new technologies emerge, so too do new methodologies for understanding them. By limiting its scope to one national context, P3 ultimately demonstrates the subjective quality of technology, which was once thought to be independent of social and cultural influence. (Hine, 2009) This collection brings to the forefront the shifting nature of space, culture, and technology, using keitai as its compass. Essays such as Dobashi's give voice to individual experiences surrounding culture and technology, bring theory to life, and culturally locate these emerging topics in internet scholarship.

Works Cited:

1. Baym, Nancy K. and Markham, Annette N. Introduction to Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method, edited by Annette N. Markham and Nancy K. Baym, vii-xix. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc., 2009.

2. Bittanti, Matteo. “Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Critical Studies in New Media.” http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu/44/196 (accessed September 29, 2009).

3. Dobashi, Shingo. “The Gendered Use of Keitai in Domestic Contexts.” In Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life, edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Misa Matsuda, 219-236. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.

4. Hine, Christine. “How Can Qualitative Internet Researchers Define the Boundaries of Their Projects?” In Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method, edited by Annette N. Markham and Nancy K. Baym, 1-25. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc., 2009.

5. Ito, Mizuko. Introduction to Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life, edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Misa Matsuda, 1-16. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2006.