"More and more plugged" Social Representations of the New Economy

Diplomarbeit von Alexandra Steinberg

Abstract:

This study set out to explore representations of the new economy amongst business professionals in Internet enabled business. Going beyond the new economy-‘hype’, the study was aimed at understanding the ways that business professionals make sense of the contemporary economy. In doing so, a social psychological perspective was taken, allowing multiple realities to emerge.

Behavioural economists’ and economic psychologists’ conceptualisations of economic life are challenged. They hinge on the presumption that individuals act independently from their social environment and deviate as cognitive misers from a single legitimate economic rationality. By contrast, this study drew on a social constructionist framework. More specifically, it employed social representations theory (Moscovici, 1961/76; Moscovici, 1984), which rehabilitated common sense as a legitimate form of knowledge. The theory of social representations as a theory of knowledge proved as a sensitive and more sophisticated tool to analyse contemporary economy in its manifestations in professionals’ common sense. It is suggested to view the notion of common sense independently of role constellations.

Given this framework, this study took a ‘snapshot’ of the contemporary representational field of the new economy amongst business professionals. Particularly, the study was focused on exploring the ‘taken-for-granted’ and beliefs underpinning discourses and symbols.

Data from semi-structured interviews and an in-depth analysis of Web-sites highlighted new findings: Business professionals have constructed symbolic meaning centring around the notion of interaction. Economic and social beliefs were not separated: Interaction is the new economy. The new and seemingly unlimited digital connectivity was perceived as a challenge and triggered a symbolic creation of a new space - the faceless space of interaction. Meanings around the faceless space of interaction are constructed in strong contrast to physical proximity and shared experience in communities: the face-to-face space. From numerous interlocking discourses and images a core set of values emerged at the heart of the representational field, deeply embedded in professionals’ common sense. Representations of new technology, of business professionals’ skills and roles in the new economy, of space and time were informed by symbolic coping with the challenges posed by the faceless space. This was evident in situative tensions due to multi-modal interactivity and interaction with the ‘other’ through a network of unlimited information exchange and reciprocity. Results suggested an early stage of maturity of representations. Anticipative accounts by interviewees suggested a further familiarisation process with interaction in the new context of faceless space.

A social constructionist framework has shed light on the very way business professionals think and feel about the new economy, and how they actively shape a common understanding of interaction, demonstrating their agency in symbolically integrating new forms of interaction into common sense. Economic beliefs are part and parcel of this common sense as a form of knowledge inherent to the fabric of daily contemporary life; thereby this study highlights the contribution that social psychology can make to an understanding of the economy.

Table of Contents:

1.	Introduction	7
1.1	The new economy-'hype'	8
1.2	Professionals in the new economy: the social sphere of Internet enabled business	13
1.3	The contemporary context	14
2.	Conceptual framework	16
2.1	A critique of behavioural economics and economic psychology	16
2.2	A social representational perspective on social knowledge	20
2.3	Social Representations and the common sense of business professionals	23
2.4	An exploration of the 'taken-for-granted'	27
3.	Research Questions	29
4.	Research Methodology	30
4.1	Research Design	30
4.2	The data corpora	32
4.2.1	Interviewees	34
4.2.2	Web-sites	35
4.2.3	Images	36
4.3	Design of the interview schedule and conduct of interviews	38
4.4	Design and conduct of the analysis	40
5.	Results and interpretation	43
5.1	Constructing the new economy: The faceless space of interaction	45
5.1.1	'More and more plugged'	47
5.1.2	Online and offline worlds	48
5.1.3	New choices in a split world of interaction	52
5.1.4	Email-neurosis	54
5.1.5	Network of strangers versus shared experience	56
5.2	ICTs - technology for interaction	58
5.2.1	Chicken and egg	60
5.2.2	The connected 'freedom'	61
5.3	Knowledge workers	62
5.4	From workplaces to work- and living spaces	64
5.5	Speed	67
5.6	Once the rhetoric has subsided: convergent economy?	68
6.	Discussion	71
7.	Conclusion	75
8.	References	76
9.	List of tables	84
10.	List of photographs, images and figures	84
11.	Glossary	85
12.	Appendices	88
12.1	Appendix 1: Management Summary issued to participants (via Web-page)	89
12.2	Appendix 2: Web-site for participant information (screen-shots)	91
12.3	Appendix 3: Example of correspondence for access to interviewees	95
12.4	Appendix 4: Characteristics of participants in individual semi-structured interviews	96
12.5	Appendix 5: Characteristics of data from interviewees' web-sites	98
12.6	Appendix 6: Interview Schedule	101
12.7	Appendix 7: Transcription symbols used	102
12.8	Appendix 8: Two samples of verbatim interview transcripts	103
12.9	Appendix 9: Two examples of Web-site data	115
12.10	Appendix 10: Tables of thematic clusters from analysis	118