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Telecommunications
... They may impose certain "scripts," which make it difficult for users to practice "de-inscription" or impose an "anti-program" (Akrich & Latour, 1992). To put it in comparative terms, a one-dimensional discussion of the effects of the telephone on interpersonal relations might discuss the different phases in the technology's evolution (Balbi, 2013), accounting for the way in which associated institutions progressively "cornered" their users into a dominant, preferred use. Agency, in short, deserves careful historical consideration. ...
This article makes the case for a comparative approach to communication technologies throughout history, arguing that various types of comparisons could enrich both historical research and technology theorization. The article proposes a critical typology of five categories of comparison: The deterministic category compares the supposedly direct effects of major changes in communication technology; the all-encompassing category integrates technologies into wider evolving complexes where various technologies interact; the discursive category examines the utopian and dystopian discourses accompanying technological changes, and their power to shape technology; the deconstructing categpry contrasts distinct phases in the history of a supposedly singular technology; and the one-dimensional category focusses on a single social domain to see how it has been transformed by different technological changes.
... Telecommunications networks have three main features (Balbi 2013a). The first of these features concerns users. ...
This chapter surveys the history of telecommunications from a global perspective and highlights three influential interpretative traditions. It has two parts. The first part defines " telecommunications " and sketches the main dimensions of four telecommunications networks over a two-hundred-year period – the optical telegraph, the electric telegraph, the landline telephone, and the mobile telephone (and its predecessor, the wireless telegraph). The second part shows how historical scholarship on topics in the history of telecommunications has been shaped by three intellectual traditions: the Large Technical Systems (LTS) approach; political economy; and the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT).
This century has been marked by the rapid and divergent uptake of mobile telephony throughout the world. The mobile phone has become a poignant symbol for postmodernity and the attendant modes of global mobility and immobility. Most notably, the icon of the mobile phone is most palpable in the Asia-Pacific in which a diversity of innovation and consumer practices - reflecting gender and locality - can be found. Through the lens of gendered mobile media, Mobile Media in the Asia Pacific provides insight into this phenomenon by focusing on case studies in Japan, South Korea, China and Australia. Despite the ubiquity and multi-layered nature of mobile media in the region, the patterns of female consumption have received little attention in the growing literature on mobile communication globally. Utilising ethnographic research conducted in the Asia-Pacific over a six-year period, this book investigates the relationship between gender, technology and various forms of mobility and immobility in the region. This book outlines the emerging modes of gender performativity that makes the Asia-Pacific region so distinct to other regions globally. Mobile Media in the Asia Pacific is a fascinating read for students and scholars interested in new media and gender in the Asia-Pacific region.
Providing the first comprehensive, accessible, and international introduction to cell phone culture and theory, this book is and clear and sophisticated overview of mobile telecommunications, putting the technology in historical and technical context.
From 1810, when the cabildo of Buenos Aires declared itself free from Spain, through the civil and parochial wars of the post independence period Argentina struggled for constitutional order and political unity. The tyranny of Rosas, the promulgation of the Federal Constitution in 1853, and its ultimate acceptance by the Province of Buenos Aires in 1862 highlighted the drama. Hampered by vast distances, primitive transportation facilities, and the presence of nomadic hostile Indians, the drive for national unity seemed to have reached a significant milestone in 1880. That year saw the creation of the Federal District on the heels of the suppression of a serious revolt against the national government by the Province of Buenos Aires. When the port city of Buenos Aires became the capital of the Republic, and the government of the province moved to the new city of La Plata, it must have appeared to casual observers that Argentina had arrived as a modern nation-state.
