Seminar Series1: Gender, transport and information communication in the developed world.
Week 3: Gender, transport and flexible scheduling: new options provided through information communication technologies.
This seminar will explore the extent to which new information communication technologies can be used to substitute for travel, to better coordinate travel and to more efficiently share tasks between household members. The seminar explores the consequences new information communication technologies can have for gender equity.
The key readings are:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/7756/28394/01269136.pdf?tp=&arnumber=1269136&isnumber=28394
The first reading provides us with some interesting information on the "household" and gendered use of the mobile phone in the United States:
The second reading provides us with information on the state of the art personal mobile information communication technology. It provides us with information on how refined realtime scheduling and coordination can become within a geographically dispersed household. The advent of such technologies can help reduce the pressure for the advanced organisation of fixed time, fixed point rendezvous between household members.
The third reading provides us with a summary of the state of the field on gender and ICTs as viewed by BRIDGE at the University of Sussex. They wisely caution against techno-optimism: the notion that technology of itself will produce gender equities. The availability of a technology with equity affording competences does not mean that equity will result: there is a requirement for explicit policy on gender, transport and ICTs and a policy monitoring of the situation on the ground as it emerges and transforms.
Further reading:
http://www.telenor.no/fou/program/nomadiske/articles/rich/(2001)Mobile.pdf
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