Domestication theory

Last updated

Domestication theory is an approach in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and media studies that describe the processes by which technology is 'tamed' or appropriated by its users. The theory was originally created by Roger Silverstone, who described four steps that technology goes through when being adapted into peoples' lives:

  1. First, technologies are integrated into everyday life and adapted to daily practices.
  2. Secondly, the user and its environment change and adapt accordingly.
  3. Thirdly, these adaptations feedback into innovation processes in industry, shaping the next generation of technologies and services.
  4. Fourthly, conversion, signalling what extent and how the technology has the status of reflecting the cultures of a household.

The theory was initially developed to help understand the adoption and use of new media technologies by households (Silverstone et al. 1992), but has since been expanded in the innovation literature as a tool to understand technologies and innovations entering any consuming unit (workplace, country etc. e.g. Lie et al., Habib, Punie, Sørensen) that can be analysed economically, culturally and sociologically. The domestication approach considers both the practical and the symbolic aspects of the adoption and use of technologies, showing how these two elements- the meanings of things, and their materiality, are equally important understanding how technologies become part of everyday life. It is a foremost a social theory as it highlights the negotiations, challenges to power and control, rule-making and breaking that accompany the introduction of technologies into any social setting.

One variant of domestication theory identified three stages of technology being adapted by users. According to Nancy K. Baym, these three stages are (1) initially marvelous and strange, (2) then become capable of creating greatness and horror and (3) and are then so ordinary as to be invisible (Baym, 2015). This can also be thought of as (1) euphoria, (2) moral panic, and (3) domestication. An example of this is the introduction of video games into society. Initially, there was a euphoric response to video games as it had the potential to improve hand, eye, and brain coordination. Then, moral panic set in and there was a fear of violence, addiction, and obesity. Lastly, there was a domestication of video games with acceptance of the technology as an ordinary part of society.

The Domestication approach has roots in cultural studies of media use, but is informed by Science and technology studies, gender studies of household technology, sociology of everyday life, consumption studies and innovation studies, and has been most widely used in studying the mass adoption of computers, the internet and mobile phones.

As a strand of the Social shaping of technology approach to understanding how technology is created, Domestication theory highlights the role of users in innovation - the work done by individuals and communities in order to make a technology from the outside do practical work, and make sense within that community. This strand of work links to the role of end users, lead users etc. in long term innovation processes (Williams et al. 2004).

Domestication studies are generally done using qualitative methods, such as long interviews and ethnography to explore the emerging meanings of technologies, and the changing routines, and conflicts that would not normally be accessible to quantitative methods.

The Domestication approach uses a number of different concepts to distinguish various aspects of the process. For example: Appropriation is the process of bringing a technology into a household, or another local cultural context; Conversion is the remaking of the meanings, or values and norms associated with the technology and the transfer of these back to the 'outside' world.

The principal criticism of the domestication approach is its reliance on detailed case studies, and its rather descriptive approach which is difficult to turn into prescriptive lessons of the type required by business and policy makers. However, this rich-descriptive approach is also its strength: it enables processes and the complex interplay of artifacts and cultural values to be explored in much more depth than individualistic, quantitative methods.

The Domestication approach, describing the integration of technologies into social relationships and structures using evidence obtained using qualitative methods, stands in sharp contrast to individualistic and quantitative approaches (such as Technology acceptance model) of North-American marketing and IS research, that draw on primarily psychological models.

Related Research Articles

Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to traditional mass media, such as printed material or audio recordings, which features little to no interaction between users. Popular examples of multimedia include video podcasts, audio slideshows and animated videos. Multimedia also contains the principles and application of effective interactive communication such as the building blocks of software, hardware, and other technologies. The five main building blocks of multimedia are text, image, audio, video, and animation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Innovation</span> Practical implementation of improvements

Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity realizing or redistributing value". Others have different definitions; a common element in the definitions is a focus on newness, improvement, and spread of ideas or technologies.

Diffusion is the process by which a new idea or new product is accepted by the market. The rate of diffusion is the speed with which the new idea spreads from one consumer to the next. Adoption is similar to diffusion except that it deals with the psychological processes an individual goes through, rather than an aggregate market process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qualitative research</span> Form of research

Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation. This type of research typically involves in-depth interviews, focus groups, or observations in order to collect data that is rich in detail and context. Qualitative research is often used to explore complex phenomena or to gain insight into people's experiences and perspectives on a particular topic. It is particularly useful when researchers want to understand the meaning that people attach to their experiences or when they want to uncover the underlying reasons for people's behavior. Qualitative methods include ethnography, grounded theory, discourse analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis. Qualitative research methods have been used in sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, social work, folklore, educational research and software engineering research.

Activity theory is an umbrella term for a line of eclectic social-sciences theories and research with its roots in the Soviet psychological activity theory pioneered by Sergei Rubinstein in the 1930s. It was later advocated for and popularized by Alexei Leont'ev. Some of the traces of the theory in its inception can also be found in a few works of Lev Vygotsky. These scholars sought to understand human activities as systemic and socially situated phenomena and to go beyond paradigms of reflexology and classical conditioning, psychoanalysis and behaviorism. It became one of the major psychological approaches in the former USSR, being widely used in both theoretical and applied psychology, and in education, professional training, ergonomics, social psychology and work psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diffusion of innovations</span> Theory on how and why new ideas spread

Diffusion of innovations is a theory that seeks to explain how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. The theory was popularized by Everett Rogers in his book Diffusion of Innovations, first published in 1962. Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time among the participants in a social system. The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines.

Theories of technological change and innovation attempt to explain the factors that shape technological innovation as well as the impact of technology on society and culture. Some of the most contemporary theories of technological change reject two of the previous views: the linear model of technological innovation and other, the technological determinism. To challenge the linear model, some of today's theories of technological change and innovation point to the history of technology, where they find evidence that technological innovation often gives rise to new scientific fields, and emphasizes the important role that social networks and cultural values play in creating and shaping technological artifacts. To challenge the so-called "technological determinism", today's theories of technological change emphasize the scope of the need of technical choice, which they find to be greater than most laypeople can realize; as scientists in philosophy of science, and further science and technology often like to say about this "It could have been different." For this reason, theorists who take these positions often argue that a greater public involvement in technological decision-making is desired.

User innovation refers to innovation by intermediate users or consumer users, rather than by suppliers. This is a concept closely aligned to co-design and co-creation, and has been proven to result in more innovative solutions than traditional consultation methodologies.

Phased adoption is a strategy of implementing an innovation in an organization in a phased way, so that different parts of the organization are implemented in different subsequent time slots. Other concepts that are used are: phased implementation, phased conversion, phased approach, phased strategy, phased introduction and staged conversion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valerie Frissen</span>

Valerie Frissen holds the extraordinary professorship in ‘ICT and Social Change’ at the Faculty of Philosophy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam where she belongs to the group of Professor Dr. Jos de Mul. The chair is sponsored by the Dutch governmental research organization TNO, where Valerie Frissen is also head of the ICT & Policy department of TNO Information and Communication Technology. She is also a member of the board of Het Expertise Centrum (HEC) in The Hague.

Behavioural change theories are attempts to explain why human behaviours change. These theories cite environmental, personal, and behavioural characteristics as the major factors in behavioural determination. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the application of these theories in the areas of health, education, criminology, energy and international development with the hope that understanding behavioural change will improve the services offered in these areas. Some scholars have recently introduced a distinction between models of behavior and theories of change. Whereas models of behavior are more diagnostic and geared towards understanding the psychological factors that explain or predict a specific behavior, theories of change are more process-oriented and generally aimed at changing a given behavior. Thus, from this perspective, understanding and changing behavior are two separate but complementary lines of scientific investigation.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to marketing:

Normalization process theory (NPT) is a sociological theory, generally used in the fields of science and technology studies (STS), Implementation Science, and healthcare system research. The theory deals with the adoption of technological and organizational innovations into systems, recent studies have utilized this theory in evaluating new practices in social care and education settings. It was developed out of the normalization process model.

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is a technology acceptance model formulated by Venkatesh and others in "User acceptance of information technology: Toward a unified view". The UTAUT aims to explain user intentions to use an information system and subsequent usage behavior. The theory holds that there are four key constructs: 1) performance expectancy, 2) effort expectancy, 3) social influence, and 4) enabling conditions.

Innovation management is a combination of the management of innovation processes, and change management. It refers to product, business process, marketing and organizational innovation. Innovation management is the subject of ISO 56000 series standards being developed by ISO TC 279.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Innovations for Poverty Action</span>

Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is a global research and policy nonprofit that generates evidence from rigorous research and shares it with policymakers to improve the lives of people living in poverty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human–computer interaction</span> Academic discipline studying the relationship between computer systems and their users

Human–computer interaction (HCI) is research in the design and the use of computer technology, which focuses on the interfaces between people (users) and computers. HCI researchers observe the ways humans interact with computers and design technologies that allow humans to interact with computers in novel ways. A device that allows interaction between human being and a computer is known as a "Human-computer Interface (HCI)".

Consumer adoption of technological innovations is the process consumers use to determine whether or not to adopt an innovation. This process is influenced by consumer characteristics, such as personality traits and demographic or socioeconomic factors, the characteristics of the new product, such as its relative advantage and complexity, and social influences, such as opinion leaders.

Culture and social cognition is the relationship between human culture and human cognitive capabilities. Cultural cognitive evolution proposes that humans’ unique cognitive capacities are not solely due to biological inheritance, but are in fact due in large part to cultural transmission and evolution. Modern humans and great apes are separated evolutionarily by about six million years. Proponents of cultural evolution argue that this would not have been enough time for humans to develop the advanced cognitive capabilities required to create tools, language, and build societies through biological evolution. Biological evolution could not have individually produced each of these cognitive capabilities within that period of time. Instead, humans must have evolved the capacity to learn through cultural transmission. This provides a more plausible explanation that would fit within the given time frame. Instead of having to biologically account for each cognitive mechanism that distinguishes modern humans from previous relatives, one would only have to account for one significant biological adaptation for cultural learning. According to this view, the ability to learn through cultural transmission is what distinguishes humans from other primates. Cultural learning allows humans to build on existing knowledge and make collective advancements, also known as the “ratchet effect”. The ratchet effect simply refers to the way in which humans continuously add on to existing knowledge through modifications and improvements. This unique ability distinguishes humans from related primates, who do not seem to build collaborative knowledge over time. Instead, primates seem to build individual knowledge, in which the expertise of one animal is not built on by others, and does not progress across time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Behavioural design</span> Field of design concerned with the influence of design on behavior

Behavioural design is a sub-category of design, which is concerned with how design can shape, or be used to influence human behaviour. All approaches of design for behaviour change acknowledge that artifacts have an important influence on human behaviour and/or behavioural decisions. They strongly draw on theories of behavioural change, including the division into personal, behavioural, and environmental characteristics as drivers for behaviour change. Areas in which design for behaviour change has been most commonly applied include health and wellbeing, sustainability, safety and social context, as well as crime prevention.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.