Book Chapters by Justine Humphry
The Routledge Companion to Urban Media and Communication, 2020
An examination of the smart home in urban spaces, looking at the roles of automation, command, me... more An examination of the smart home in urban spaces, looking at the roles of automation, command, mediated exteriorities and play.
Reimagining Home in the 21st Century, 2017
Work is a central feature of everyday life, but what do we actually mean by 'work'? On the surfac... more Work is a central feature of everyday life, but what do we actually mean by 'work'? On the surface work seems to be a straightforward idea: we all have to do it to earn a living; it takes up a lot of time and eats up our 'leisure'. Yet work does not mean the same thing to all people, across all cultures and throughout all times. In fact, work—its meaning, organisation and practice—is going through an intense period of transformation right now in all parts of the world. Where work is carried out, who performs it, how it is conceived and organised are all changing, in part because of the increasingly central role digital technology plays in carrying out everyday life. Just imagine how hard it would be to find employment without being able to search for a job on the internet. Think about how you would keep in contact with your friends, family and colleagues without a mobile phone. Changes to work are also due to the expansion of global capitalism and rise of new modes of production (how people organise themselves to produce goods and services), premised on the ideal of fast-moving and flexible knowledge-based economies. It would be tempting to emphasise the globalising tendency of these changes, but in actuality these are highly uneven in and across national borders and are not driven or determined solely by one all-powerful homogenising force. In this chapter we probe changes in contemporary work and the links between work, technology and identity. What is the place of work in our everyday lives today? What is the role of digital technology in complicating traditional divisions between 'work' and 'leisure', 'production' and 'consumption', 'public and 'private'? What are the other factors besides technology that contribute to these changes? Work is less secure and stable today than it has been in the past, and some have described these new conditions of work as 'precarious work' (Fudge & Owens 2006). Who is most affected by these changes? When addressing these questions, we are concerned not only with common experiences, but also with variations within societies and cultures that lead to distinct expressions of work, organisation and identity. After reading this chapter, you should be able to: ~ Understand that work has different meanings and histories ~ Provide some explanation for why and how work is changing, with particular attention to the role of digital technology ~ Understand how changes to work impact on the relationship between 'work and 'life', on 'production' and 'consumption', and on identity processes ~ Understand the impacts that these changes have on a range of social groups, such as youth and the aged. C h a p t e r
The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media, Gerard Goggin and Larissa Hjorth, editors, Routledge
Journal articles by Justine Humphry
Information, Communication & Society, 2019
As smart technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation and Internet of Things (Io... more As smart technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation and Internet of Things (IoT) are increasingly embedded into commercial and government services, we are faced with new challenges in digital inclusion to ensure that existing inequalities are not reinforced and new gaps that are created can be addressed. Digital exclusion is often compounded by existing social disadvantage, and new systems run the risk of creating new barriers and harms. Adopting a case study approach, this paper examines the exclusionary practices embedded in the design and implementation of social welfare services in Australia. We examined Centrelink’s automated Online Compliance Intervention system (‘Robodebt’) and the National Disability Insurance Agency’s intelligent avatar interface ‘Nadia’. The two cases show how the introduction of automated systems can reinforce the punitive policies of an existing service regime at the design stage and how innovative AI systems that have the potential to enhance user participation and inclusion can be hindered at implementation so that digital benefits are left unrealised.
Mobile apps for antiracism have become valuable pedagogical and activist tools for their real-tim... more Mobile apps for antiracism have become valuable pedagogical and activist tools for their real-time and mapping capabilities, their portability and intimate bodily presence, which enables a reaction exactly when an act of racism occurs. In this article, five mobile apps aimed at producing antiracism education or intervention outcomes from the United Kingdom, Australia and France are the focus of an interrogation of the ways in which racism and antiracism are framed and the strengths and weaknesses of these initiatives for countering dominant forms of everyday racism. We identify a number of different approaches to racism and antiracism in our inquiry, which lead to particular sets of aims, features and uses: the app as a tool for capturing, reporting and responding to racist acts; as a way of reinforcing a wider sense of community identity and solidarity; to demonstrate racism, especially Islamophobia, and make its forms visible, and as a means for challenging racism through raising awareness and encouraging bystanders to oppose it. We argue that while these apps are well disposed to exposing and manifesting isolated incidents of racism in everyday life, we question their potential for transformative societal outcomes beyond the level of unilateral action in the context of events experienced as unique incidents.
This article explore the rise of anti-gambling apps in the context of the massive expansion of ga... more This article explore the rise of anti-gambling apps in the context of the massive expansion of gambling in new spheres of life (online and offline) and an acceleration in strategies of anticipatory and individualised management of harm caused by gambling. These apps, and the techniques and forms of labour they demand, are examples of and a mechanism through which a mode of governance premised on ‘self-care’ and ‘self-control’ is articulated and put into practice.
Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, Vol 2, No 3, Oct 2014
This paper presents findings from a research project on mobile phones and the Internet in the liv... more This paper presents findings from a research project on mobile phones and the Internet in the lives of people experiencing homelessness. It is based on a study of 95 adults, families and young people experiencing homelessness which was carried out in Sydney and Melbourne in early 2014.
Parity, Volume 26 Issue 10 (Nov 2013)
Mobile phones play a significant part in young people's lives for creating and maintaining social... more Mobile phones play a significant part in young people's lives for creating and maintaining social networks, coordinating daily activities and accessing services. The mobile also provides a sense of parity among peers. Yet, the very same technology exposes young people and sometimes their families to a new set of problems and risks. Phone debt, 'bill shock', disconnections, lost and damaged phones; are just some of the issues affecting the ability to stay in touch.
SCAN Journal of Media Arts Culture
Most of us have had the experience of dealing with problems, errors and failures of code in one o... more Most of us have had the experience of dealing with problems, errors and failures of code in one or more of the vast array of digital devices, applications, online systems, cables, plugs, cards and other media we consume on a daily basis. This 'platform work', a concept that builds on Bogost and Montfort's (2009) definition of a media platform, is a new kind of labour that arises from the highly mediated environments in which we live, work and play. Rather than assessing these errors and failures simply as aberrations, a nuisance and waste of time, this article takes up Parikka and Sampson's (2009) argument that accidents are expressive of the experience of use. Just as importantly, they shape the spaces and times in which we work, live and play.
Journal of Media, Culture and Society, Special Issue: Mediated Mobilities
Journal of Collaborative Computing and Work Practices (CSCW), Special Issue: Work Practices, Nomadicity and the Mediational Role of Technology
Today's mobile knowledge professionals use a diversity of digital technologies to perform their w... more Today's mobile knowledge professionals use a diversity of digital technologies to perform their work. Much of this daily technology consumption involves a variety of activities of articulation, negotiation and repair to support their work as well as their nomadic practices. This article argues that these activities mediate and structure social relations, going beyond the usual attention given to this work as a support requirement of cooperative and mobile work. Drawing on cultural approaches to technology consumption, the article introduces the concept of 'officing' and its three main categories of connecting, configuring and synchronizing, to show how these activities shape and are shaped by the relationship that workers have with their time and sense of professional self. This argument is made through research of professionals at a municipal council in Sydney and at a global telecommunications firm with regional headquarters in Melbourne, trialling a smartphone prototype. This research found that while officing fuels a sense of persistent time pressure and collapse of work and life boundaries, it also supports new temporal and spatial senses and opportunities for maintaining professional identities.
M/C Journal, Jan 1, 2011
Cultural Studies has tended to prioritise the domain of leisure and consumption over work as an a... more Cultural Studies has tended to prioritise the domain of leisure and consumption over work as an area for meaning making, in many ways defining everyday life in opposition to work. Greg Noble, a cultural researcher who examined work in the context of the early computerisation of Australian universities made the point that "discussions of everyday life often make the mistake of assuming that everyday life equates with home and family life, or leisure" (87). This article argues for the need within Cultural Studies to focus on work and media as a research area of everyday life. With the growth of flexible and creative labour and the widespread uptake of an array of new media technologies used for work, traditional ways to identify and measure the space and time of work have become increasingly flawed, with implications for how we account for work and negotiate its boundaries. New approaches are needed to address the complex media environments and technological practices that are an increasing part of contemporary working life.
Reports by Justine Humphry
Conference Presentations by Justine Humphry
Mobile apps for antiracism have become valuable pedagogical and activist tools for their real tim... more Mobile apps for antiracism have become valuable pedagogical and activist tools for their real time and mapping capabilities, their portability and intimate bodily presence, which enables a reaction exactly when an act of racism occurs. In this paper, five mobile apps from the United Kingdom, Australia and France aimed at producing antiracism education or intervention outcomes are the focus of an interrogation of the ways in which racism and antiracism are framed and the strengths and weaknesses of these app initiatives for countering dominant forms of everyday racism. We identify a number of different approaches to racism and antiracism in our inquiry, which lead to particular sets of aims, features and uses: the app as a tool for capturing, reporting and responding to racist acts; as a way of reinforcing a wider sense of community identity and solidarity; to demonstrate racism, especially Islamophobia, and make its forms visible, and as a means for challenging racism through raising awareness and encouraging individuals/bystanders (who are themselves not usually the subject of racist attacks and harassment) to oppose it. We argue that while these apps are well disposed to exposing and manifesting isolated incidents of racism in everyday life, we question their potential for transformative societal outcomes beyond the level of unilateral action in the context of events experienced as unique incidents.
Digital initiatives in emergency management such as the Facebook Safety Check feature, the New So... more Digital initiatives in emergency management such as the Facebook Safety Check feature, the New South Wales Rural Fire Service ‘Fires Near Me’ app and the Australian government's ‘Emergency +’ app represent the extension of a paradigm of self-managed care and emergency preparedness instituted through networked, and increasingly mobile, ‘infrastructures of survival’. While much of the rhetoric behind digital service reform emphasises the potential to empower users, the interactions and engagement resulting from this process are oftentimes highly controlled and costly. Drawing on research on homelessness and mobile/internet use as well as a collaboration on anti-pokie apps, I examine how infrastructures of survival interrupt and re-configure everyday spaces and institute new kinds of subject-state relations, bringing about new dynamics and experiences of inclusion and exclusion.
Uploads
Book Chapters by Justine Humphry
Journal articles by Justine Humphry
Reports by Justine Humphry
Conference Presentations by Justine Humphry