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A ‘smart house’ is not a home: The domestication of ICTs

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Abstract

This paper discusses the domestication of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), particularly their use, in UK households reporting on research undertaken between 1998 and 2004. Issues raised are linked to the dominant discourse of the ‘digital divide’, which in the UK means engaging with ICTs in a ‘meaningful’ way to ensure the economic and social well-being of UK plc (public limited company—in the UK this refers to companies whose shares can be sold to the public. The acronym is used here ironically to indicate the motivation of the government to brand and promote the UK as a whole.). Utilising a framework of understanding digital inequality and the ‘deepening divide’, domestication theory is applied to discuss motivational, material and physical, skills and usage access in the gendered household, critically contrasting this approach to ‘smart house’ research. This qualitative enquiry contributes to the neglected area of domestication studies in Information Systems research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Centre for People, Work and Organization, Salford Business School, University of Salford, Salford, M5 4WT, UK

    Helen J. Richardson

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  1. Helen J. Richardson
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Correspondence to Helen J. Richardson.

Additional information

Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Michael D. Williams and Viswanath Venkatesh were the guest editors accepting the article as part of the special issue on Adoption and Use of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in the Residential/Household Context (see Dwivedi et al. 2008 for editorial).

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Richardson, H.J. A ‘smart house’ is not a home: The domestication of ICTs. Inf Syst Front 11, 599–608 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-008-9137-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-008-9137-9

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