It is hard to find any human activity these
days that does not draw upon aspects of digital technology in some way. The
digital economy is made up of the production of this digital technology and its
consumption or use. However, what does this production and use actually look
like? How does the digital economy actually get brought about through specific
human practices in specific situations? What makes these practices tick? And,
if we understood these practices properly, what might that tell us for the further
development of digital technology? After all, experience tells us that
technology design is always more effective when it is grounded in an
appreciation of what people actually do in real situations of use.
However, despite there being widespread recognition
of this need to situate technology design against actual practice, efforts to
investigate people’s use of and production of digital technology have so far
been piecemeal and subject to the constraints of specific topics in specific
projects. In the Mapping the Digital
Economy project highly
experienced researchers who are used to studying human practices in a design
context will, for the first time, be setting about systematically mapping these practices across numerous
different domains in an effort to chart how people bring about the digital
economy as a whole. The research will involve numerous focused observational
studies of human action in a wide variety of different settings, wherever and
whenever digital technology is being conceived of and brought to bear. The
findings of this research will then be used to underpin further innovation
within both Horizon and its partners, meshing together rigorous understandings
of the human elements of the digital economy and the production of future
digital technology.
For further information please contact
Dr Peter Tolmie peter.tolmie@gmail.com