Eleanor Lockley

Communication practices of the Karen in Sheffield: seeking to navigate their three zones of displacement

This study investigates communication practices of a newly arrived Karen refugee community in the UK who, as well as establishing themselves in a strange country, seek to keep in touch, campaign politically and maintain identity collectively through communication and contact with their global diaspora. We look at the technologies, motivations and inhibiting factors applying to the communication by adult members of this community and construct the idea of three zones of displacement which help to model the particular contexts, challenges and methods of their communication. We find that, overall, they are using a wide range of internet-based technologies, with the aim to ‘keep-in-touch’ (personal contacts) and to ‘spread the word’ (political communication). This also includes archaic, traditional and hybrid methods to achieve extended communication with contacts in other ‘zones’. We also identify the importance of the notion of ‘village’ as metaphor and entity in their conceptualisation of diasporic and local community cohesion. We identify the key inhibitors to their communication as cost, education, literacy and age. Finally, we speculate on the uncertain outcomes of their approach to digital media in achieving their political aims.

Digital Media Use: Differences and Inequalities in Relation to Class and Age

This paper takes a national perspective on issues of digital media use. The paper draws upon the OfCom Media Literacy 2013 survey to explore how digital media use varies in regard to two major social variables – class and age. Both class and age feature predominantly in UK policy on digital access and use. Class and age are invoked as either things that create barriers to access or as issues to be addressed and managed through using digital media. Despite the large body of work on the ‘digital divide’ there is a more limited literature that explicitly addresses class. The paper seeks to act as an empirical reference point for the development of further debate around the links between class and digital media use. The paper presents a factor analysis of the OfCom data that identifies five main areas of digital media use. These five factors are then subjected to a multiple analysis of variance to explore the effects across, between and within age and class categories. A cluster analysis based on the factors identifies seven main ‘User Types’ that are again compared across class and age. The paper finds that class and age act relatively independently as predicators of digital media use and neither compound nor mitigate each others effects. Importantly the paper notes that the greatest levels and breadth of Internet use can be found in NRS social class groups AB and to an extent C1. In contrast the greatest levels of non-use and limited use can be found in NRS social class groups DE. In conclusion the paper notes that age still acts as the major explanatory variable for overall use and some specific types of use, but that class also independently acts to explain patterns of digital media use. As a result any simplistic policy expectations that digital access and use issues will become less relevant as age demographics change have to be questioned.

Understanding the situational awareness in cybercrimes: case studies

Abstract Situational understanding and attack attribution of cybercrimes is one of the key problems defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2009) for cyber security research. In particular, situational understanding is critical for a number of reasons: improved systems security; improved defense against future attacks; attack attribution; identification of potential threats; improved situational awareness. This paper shows that a clearer understanding of the motivations and intentions behind cybercrimes/cyber terrorism can lead to clearer situational understanding and awareness. Five pertinent real-life scenarios are considered and a taxonomy which focuses on the motivations and intent of the cybercrimes is outlined. The development of the taxonomy highlights a clear need to create an agreed set of definitions and understandings for improved cyber security defense. The very fact that the hacking is happening across times zones and jurisdictions means that it is easier for hackers, hacktivists, and cyber criminals, etc., to continue their attacks. There is a need for clear communication strategies and intelligence about the attacks to be shared between not only by affected countries/governments, but also networks across the globe to strengthen security networks against future attacks and risks. A knowledge repository of cybercrime, which makes use of this simple taxonomy design, could help toward strengthening the plight against cybercrime.

Introduction: Strategy Formation in a Globalized and Networked Age—A Review of the Concept and its Definition

Abstract: Threats to nations and their citizens—be they human made or natural—are often moments of crisis and can have a huge impact on individuals, communities, businesses, and societies. Preventing, mitigating, or supporting resilience in the face of such crises remains a major role for nation states. Yet we inhabit a world where nations may be replaced by networks and where threats are global in reach. How do the governmental and policy functions of nation states address such changes? How can they develop strategies to deal with threats to themselves and/or their neighbors? Importantly, how can the technologies that have created this globalized and networked world—information and communication technologies (ICT) as well as global travel and trade—provide tools to support such strategies? Or are these networks opening us up to new threats and dangers? In this volume we are concerned with the links between ICT and national security strategies. Overall the concern is with “national security”; however, that may be conceptualized. This volume addresses contemporary understandings of national security and threats to national security, predominantly from those tasked with providing this security or those providing academic and research support to these practitioners. It also addresses issues of technological development and design, information, and communication technology use, and the threats that such new technologies bring to nation states.

Usability evaluation of OpenWeb transcoding

This paper describes collaborative work between industry and academia aimed at supporting the design and assessment of a transcoding service to support mobile phone internet browsing. The work demonstrates how research informed by user based assessment can be effectively and efficiently employed to inform and support industry. The paper describes a series of small scale, relatively rapid, evaluation studies that have focused on the comparative assessment of alternative transcoding approaches. These studies have: informed the design of OpenWeb transcoding; developed a number of easily efficient empirical assessment methods for mobile browsing; and provided a basis for focusing future user experience studies.

From Work to Life and back again: Examining the digitally-mediated work/life practices of a group of knowledge workers

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study exploring the technologically-mediated practices of work/life balancing, blurring and boundary-setting of a cohort of professionals in knowledge-intensive roles in Sheffield, a regional city in Northern England. It contributes to a growing body of CSCW research on the complex interweaving of work and non-work tasks, demands and on the boundaries that can be supported or hindered by digital technologies. In the paper, we detail how a cohort of 26 professionals in knowledge-intensive roles devise diverse strategies for handling work and non-work in light of a set of interconnected forces, and we argue that boundary dissolving and work-life blurring, and not just boundary setting and “balancing”, are essential resources within such strategies. We also show how boundary sculpting pertains not only to work pervading personal spheres of life, but also the opposite, and that establishing, softening and dissolving boundaries are practiced to handle situations when the personal seeps into professional life.

Social media and social class

Background:This article explores the relationship between social class and social media use and draws on the work of Pierre Bourdieu in examining class in terms of social, economic, and cultural capital. The article starts from a prior finding that those who predominantly only use social media formed a higher proportion of Internet users from lower socioeconomic groups. Data: The article draws on data from two nationally representative U.K. surveys, the OfCom (Office of Communications) Media Literacy Survey (n ≈ 1,800 per annum) and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s Taking Part Survey (n ≈ 10,000 per annum). Methods: Following Yates, Kirby, and Lockley, five types of Internet behavior and eight types of Internet user are identified utilizing principal components analysis and k-means clustering. These Internet user types are then examined against measures of social, economic, and cultural capital. Data on forms of cultural consumption and digital media use are examined using multiple correspondence analysis. Findings: The article concludes that forms of digital media use are in correspondence with other social, cultural, and economic aspects of social class status and contemporary social systems of distinction.