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Spaces of (New) Media - University Utrecht
SNM1Number1
New Working and Business
-----------------------------------New Working & Business in a Network Society and the changing relations with space
Workspace as a culturally produced hybrid space
When technology comes to the aid!
Big ocean, small fish
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Colophon
SNM1 is a publication of the University Utrecht. With a
circulation of 5 printed editions, SNM1 is the biggest journal
in the Netherlands specialised in New Working and
Business
Editorial staff
Matthijs van Dijk - Editor
Sanne Botterblom - Author
Max van der Pluijm - Author | Designer
Karen Siemers - Author
SNM1 is being printed forJSTOR, Routledge, MIT Press, Chicago University Press,
London SAGE Publishers, University of Toronto Press,
Harvard University Press, Edward Elger Publishing.
Spaces of (New) Media - University Utrecht
SNM1New Working and Business
With the rise of the Internet there also seems to be a rise of
a changing perspective on working and business. How can
this shift in working be understood from an overarching
view? What does a new way of working mean for our
approach to space? What has really changed in doing
business from an archaeological perspective? And what do
the changing relations with space mean for legislation with
its traditional jurisdictions?
By examining the various aspects within this possible shift
by answering those questions, the strong implications
between new media and space will get clearly visible. All the
contributors on this journal share the same knowledge fromtheir Master in New Media and Digital Culture at Utrecht
University. Within the introduction of this journal the content
of the publication will be explained.
Editorial office
SNM1
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!
ContentsNew Working & Business in a
Network Society and the
changing relations with spaceA detailed editorial introduction to the field
and the journal
Written by Matthijs van Dijk
Pages 4-7
Workspace as a culturally
produced hybrid space
An analysis of the new way of working can
complement the way media scholars think
about hybrid spaces
Written by Sanne Botterblom
Pages 8-13
When technology comes to theaid!A research where the archaeological value
in line with outsourcing is explained through
the means of customer services
Written by Max van der Pluijm
Pages 14-19
Big ocean, small fish
An analysis of the ongoing struggle
between the established entertainment
industry and 'online' pirates
Written by Karen Siemers
Pages 20-26
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New Working & Business
in a Network Society and the
changing relations with space
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Introduction
Written by Matthijs van Dijk
With the rise of the Internet within
private and professional life, there
seems to be a shift in the relation
between this networks users and space,
especially under the influence of
mediated communication that hasgrown explosively in the last two
decades. Information and
communication technologies (ICTs) and
especially mobile technologies, in
combination with a connection to the
Internet, became increasingly
ubiquitous in our daily personal and
professional life for the last years. [1]
Also the popular and academic debate
around these entanglements and the
social, technological and economical
implications seem to be continues. Theconcept of the network society is an
often-used notion within the academic
debate to interpret these entanglements
and implications, sometimes in the
broadest sense with loss of nuance. Also
within the popular debate around
working and business in recent years,
this notion takes extensive and often
utopian or hyped forms. This popular
rhetoric can often be recognized by
changes in working under the definition
of Employee 2.0 [2] in a New World
of Work (Vaas). Or by the
consequences for doing business in a
so-called Society 3.0 where everything
...revolves around you as a world
citizen and your role in Society
3.0 (Hoff, van den).
Although we must be strongly
critical about this rhetoric within the
popular debate, it cant be denied that
the realm of working and business is
changing, partly under the influence of
ICTs. This journal will shed a light on
the implications of ICTs on working
and business from the viewpoint of
spaces and new media. This is a realm
wherein our understanding of place
and time is changing because of the
ubiquitous connections made possible
in a so-called network society. But
focusing on these technologies alone
would be a misplaced approach. Thisjournal will show, from an academic
perspective, that changes in work and
business arent just technological,
theres a strong interposal with social
life that makes this shift complex. Of
course this notion is extensively debated
already [3], but this journal will
emphasize the perception and
awareness of space within this mediated
world based on actual cases within the
realm of working and business. This
introductory article will show on anormative level how this shift in
working and business can be generally
understood. This will be done by a
disquisition of the notion of the network
society as an overarching theory for this
journal and the implications of space in
a mediated world. To empower this
disquisition it first will be embedded in
the rhetoric about new working and
business within the popular discourse.
This is important because this rhetoric
within working and business can often
be characterized by commercial
motives, a phenomenon of which media
and cultural studies should be very
critical because working and business
seems to become a growing part of
social life as this journal will show.
Therefore we should not let this
entanglement be purely defined by
commercial ends.
The entanglements of
space and ICTsThe so-called new world of work isbooming business for software
companies like Microsoft. With the
implementation of the newest intranets
and communication systems,
employees are expected to be more
productive and time efficient: At
Microsoft, we believe that the key to
helping businesses become more agile
and productive in the global economy
is to empower individual workers --
giving them tools that improve
efficiency and enable them to focus onthe highest-value work (Gates).
Although it cant be denied that ICTs
enable people to manage work in a
different way than in earlier days, this
kind of statements are mainly software
focused and often form a binary idea of
what it truly entangles.
In this journal these entanglements
of space and ICTs will be the main
focus. Especially the article of Sanne
Botterblom will show what changes in
work when it becomes more and more
mediated. Using the case of the
Rabobank she shows what this can
entail in a big corporation that isintroducing a new way of working.
There is also a big shift in doing
business as a company in an ICT
mediated world. Max van der Pluijm
will show from an archaeological
perspective, how space may have
changed for businesses because of ICTs.
He will especially focus on the
international expansion of customer
services. This global business also has
an impact on legislation and vice versa,
mainly because legislation isintertwined with the ins and outs of
doing business. As Karen Siemers will
point out in this journal, especially the
media industry is struggling with major
legal changes because the national
borders are becoming problematic due
to online file sharing in the current post-
industrial society. This has
consequences for the private and social
life of Internet users because websites
are getting blocked and specific Internet
Service Providers are prosecuted.
Siemers will show in this journal how,
in this way, different perceptions of
Our understanding of
place and time is
changing because of the
ubiquitous connections
made possible in a so-
called network society
Matthijs van DijkMaster-student New Media and Digital Culture.Extensive knowledge of networks and spacesand trying to look cool on this photo in the
jungle-space.
The popular discourses
cant give a fundamental
explanation of the notion
of the new
MA
TTHIJSVANDIJK5
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MATTHIJSVANDIJK6 space are clashing within a connected
society.
These examples of implications of
new media and space will show the
complexity of the working and business
realm mediated by ICTs. Its hard to
deny that this realm is changing and so
there seems to be a good foundation for
labeling this realm as something new.
But the popular discourses (like theMicrosoft example) cant give a
fundamental explanation of this notion
of the new. In the next section the
notion of a network society will be used
to grasp this changing in working and
business. Besides that there will be
argued that the notion of new media and
space isnt that simple as sometimes
argued in the popular discourse, they
form a dynamic relation of processes.
A dynamic relation of
processesThe notion of the network society is
an often-used concept within the realm
of new media, so for this journal,
wherein the concept of the network
society is overarching, it is important to
set out a definition as a foundation for
the main articles in this journal. But
before defining the concept it is
valuable to view this form of society
from a short archaeological perspective
as argued by Jan van Dijk to understand
the possible newness. Mainly because
this will especially underline the
perception of space and the use of
networks through human history. In his
book The Network Society, Van Dijk
portrays the worlds societal history as a
succession of five worldwide webs
(Dijk, van 21-23). The first two
worldwide webs were dominated by
people spreading around the world in
the form of tribes and eventually the
forming of cities from where the first
civilizations arose. The following thirdweb was dominated by the fusion of
civilizations that causes the rise of large
empires and where transport and
communication improved because of
better roads, bigger ships and alphabetic
writing. The fourth web that arose from
around 1450 brought the different
continental civilizations in contact via
oceanic connections. People moved to
cities and became enrolled in larger
social networks that resulted in a faster
and cheaper circulation of informationthan ever before (21-22). Finally the last
network as a global network arose in
the last 160 years whereby the human
web was thickening instead of
widening and the volume and the
number of new means of transport (i.e.
cars and trains) and communication
(i.e. telephone, TV and finally
computers and networks) exploded
(23).
So this disquisition shows that for
thousands of years there was some
kind of networked society whereindifferent geographical spaces where
connected in different ways. Just the
last couple of decades this society
transformed in a global network. It
seems that this global network is often
called the network society or, as
Siemers will show, an information
society in the post-industrial age. To
grasp the concept of the network society
more tightly it is fruitful to use Manuel
Castells notion of the network society,
mainly because he was one of the firstacademics to seriously and thoroughly
introduce this concept (Castells).
Besides that, he clearly focuses on the
global connections made possible by the
Internet. Castells states that under three
conditions the Internet became the lever
for the transition to a new form of
society, in the last quarter of the
twentieth century, with a social
structure based on networks. The first
condition is from an economic
perspective, where there is the need for
management flexibility and the
globalization of capital, production and
trade. Second there is the social
perspective from where the demand of
society in which the values of
individual freedom and open
communication became paramount.
And finally from a technological
perspective Castells states that the
extraordinary advances in computing
and telecommunications where an
important condition for the shift to the
so-called network society (2).
So it seems, according to Castells
notion, that the Internet levers the new
form of society with the creation of
digital connections via the Internet. But
it is important to note that this doesnt
go beyond physical or geographical
space in some cyberspacial or virtual
world. Castells underlines this by
stating that with the network society
there emerged a space of flows. This
space is not placeless because it links
places by telecommunicated computernetworks whereby it doesnt cancel
geography (Castells 207). The
anthropologist Brigitte Jordan calls this
the blurring between the real and the
virtual where a growing number of
people live in a hybrid world. This
world exists around a global flow of
information, which is formed by the
Internet as Castells also shows.
According to Jordan, what we once
called virtual has become all too real
and a part of the real world has been
overlaid with characteristics we thought
of as belonging to the virtual (Jordan
181-182). So much the more this shows
that there isnt some default equilibriumwithin this network society which does
make it a complex whole. This
complexity will be exposed in the
articles within this journal and is
definitely more complex then
sometimes stated in the popular
discourse about new working and
business. The book Society 3.0 by
Ronald van den Hoff makes a good
example, he conceptualises a changing
society with the popular term Society
3.0 (Hoff, van den). Although it isntbad to give a phenomenon a name (as
happens with the phenomenon of the
network society) it always needs
thorough consideration before theres
any value derived from it. A quote from
the book Society 3.0 shows some fierce
(marketing) name-dropping and
apocalyptic metaphors:
A digital tsunami is heading our way,
which will make sure that our
intelligence and our information merges
and gets entangled. Unaware, we all
become part of The Global Brain, also
known as Web 4.0. If we want this isnt
the question. How we want it, thats
something we can still exert some
influence on[4] (Hoff, van den 287).
This kind of rhetoric seems to emerge
increasingly within the popular realm of
working and business. This quote
suggests as if every Internet user
becomes an inevitable part of some all-
determining global brain. From anacademic perspective these notions
within the realm of working and
business should be watched carefully
There is an important
role for academics to
unravel the complex
relations of new media
and space
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MATTHIJSVANDIJK7and specially from a media and cultural
studies perspective instead of a mere
business studies perspective. This is
mainly the case because, as Stuart Elden
suggests on the basis of a notion by
Lefebvre, capitalism has greatly
expanded its control over private life
often through an organisation of space
(Elden 4). An example is the time and
place independent ways of working, asBotterblom will discuss, where the
boundary between private and working
life blurs, often because of ICTs.
Another example of where business
enters private life and organises space is
the so-called online-piracy. This issue
evolves around the media industry and
the online behaviour of millions of
Internet users worldwide, a notion on
which Siemers will zoom in. It must be
understood that this isnt just a
technology and business focusedmanner as these examples, and
especially the vision of Van den Hoff,
might show at first sight.
It is important to note that the different
perspectives on new media and space
must not be seen as a pre-existing given
(or, likewise, as an inevitable tsunami
that is heading our way according to
Van den Hoff). As Mark Nunes states,
based on the notion of the production of
space by the French sociologist Henri
Lefebvre, it is a dynamic relation of
processes. Nunes advocates for the
analysis of networked social space as an
event, by using Lefebvres notion as a
theoretical grounding (Nunes 25).
According to Lefebvre, space can be
analysed on how it is produced and
experienced as respectively a social
formation and a mental construction.
This analysis can be executed by
approaching it from his triadic model
where he focuses on space as a unity
that consists of the following entities:
first, the way space is perceived in a
concrete and physical way and second,
the way it is conceived in an abstract
and mental way. These two entities
form a unity with the third entity that
constitutes the way space is lived as
realised abstraction of space by social
actors or groups (Elden 9-11). Although
this model wont be applied one-on-one
in this journal, the following articles
will clearly show how this combination
forms the way that different socialactors are living space in relation to new
media in a rather complex and
ambiguous way. Scott Kirsch, as cited
by Elden, also points at the importance
of involving technology: "In addition to
its significance to production in space,
technology also plays a mediating role
in the production of space". As Kirsch
states, we should not approach this
mediating role in a simple way like the
(often used) shrinking world metaphor,
because this risks loosing sight of: the
complex relation between capital,technology and space (Elden 7). So,
although the theory of Lefebvre goes
back to the midst of the twentieth
century, this perspective seems useful
nowadays because of the ubiquitous use
of computer-mediated communication.
It seems that there is an important role
for academics to unravel the complex
relations of new media and space that
must go beyond the limited perspectives
that emerge very often within the
popular debate. This journal forms thisrequired critical and fundamental view
on new media and space by uncovering
the complexity with the focus on new
working and business in a network
society. With the use ofthree different
cases, those articles will unravel that
complexity in an insightful and
academic way.
Endnotes
1. International TelecommunicationUnion. 11 April 2012 .
2. Werknemer 2.0 - Alles over Het
Nieuwe Werken | Werken20.nl. 26
March 2012 .
3. Already in 1998 Nancy Baym,
professor in communication studies,
talked about a fusion between offline
and online in her research on online
communities. She shows through the
notion of the omnipresence of offline
context in online interactions and the
movement of online relations to
offline (Baym).
4. Loosely translated from Dutch
by the author of this article.
Bibliography
Baym, Nancy. "The Emergence of
Online Community." CyberSociety 2.0:
Revisiting Computer-mediated
Communication and Community
(1998).
Castells, Manuel. The Internet
galaxy: reflections on the Internet,business, and society. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2002.
Dijk, van, Jan. The network
society: social aspects of new media.
London: Sage, 2006.
Elden, Stuart. "There is a Politics
of Space because Space is Political:
Henri Lefebvre and the Production of
Space." Gradnet. 16 April 2012 .
Gates, Bill. The New World of
Work. 19 May 2005. 12 March 2012
.
Hoff, van den, Ronald. Society 3.0.
Stichting Society3.0, 2011.
Jordan, Brigitte. "BlurringBoundaries: The "Real" and the
"Virtual" in Hybrid Spaces." Human
Organization 2009: 181-193.
Nunes, Mark. "Chapter 1."
Cyberspaces of Everyday Life.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press, 2006.
Vaas, Fietje. The New World of
Work - Het Nieuwe Werken Blog -
Verruimt uw inzicht in Het Nieuwe
Werken. 11 April 2012 .
http://www.werken20.nl/werknemer-20/http://www.werken20.nl/werknemer-20/http://www.werken20.nl/werknemer-20/http://www.werken20.nl/werknemer-20/http://www.werken20.nl/werknemer-20/http://www.werken20.nl/werknemer-20/http://www.werken20.nl/werknemer-20/http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/7/28/2019 Journal Spaces of New Media - Max van der Pluijm
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Workspace as a culturally
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Introduction
Written by Sanne Botterblom
Information and communication
technologies (ICTs) provide companies
a way to adapt to a business world that
is growing in flexibility. The Internet
for example makes sure that
information can be found faster, whichleads to faster innovations in a company
(Traxler et al 284). We can see
companies digitalizing their work
processes in order to deal with their
clients needs for flexibility (ibidem).
This new way of working leads to a
new way of thinking about digital and
physical workspace, which should be
researched in order to understand this
new way of doing business.
This article will show how an
analysis of the new way of working cancomplement the way media scholars
think about hybrid spaces. A discourse
analysis on scientific articles will show
how hybrid spaces are seen by several
scholars. The analysis of documents
regarding the introduction of new
working at the Rabobank will illustrate
this new and complex hybrid space.
The main argument of this article
will be that the notion of hybrid space
isnt fully acknowledged in the way
media scholars and organisations think
about working. And when hybrid space
is mentioned it goes hand in hand with
the assumption that hybrid space leads
to physical space independency. But it
will be argued that this is not the case
for two main reasons. 1: Physical space
does still matter, because physical space
influences the way we interact with the
virtual element of hybrid space. 2:
Dominant cultures make sure that
individuals behave according to certain
standards, which lead to a sort of space
dependency.
Even though we can certainly
speak of a hybrid space in workspaces,
this article will show how this hybrid
space becomes more complex when we
look at the role of physical space and
the influence of culture. To clarify this
point, the Rabobank will be used as a
case to show how hybrid spaces areseen in practice. This will lead to a
better understanding of the complexity
of the construction of hybrid spaces.
The Rabobank introduced a new
way of working in 2009.[1] The
Rabobank is witnessing the shift to a
networked society, a concept that is
defined in the introduction article.[2] In
order to deal with this network society,
the Rabobank introduced a new way of
working. The Rabobank needs to
maintain their clients in this rougheconomic climate. To do so, they have
to meet the clients wishes as much as
possible. Clients have become more
demanding towards the service they
receive. This means that clients of the
Rabobank want to be served in a
fashionable way, wherever and
whenever they want to. Employees that
are working with clients with high
demands must be able to meet these
demands and become more flexible in
the way that they are able to work late
hours in places that are not the office.[2]
In order to arrange this flexible
kind of service, the Rabobank thinks it
is useful to also treat their employees
with this kind of flexibility, so that the
employees are also capable of providing
flexible services to their clients.[2]
Rabobank unplugged has therefore been
introduced and it provides employees
the freedom to work where they want,
whenever they want. As long as they
provide good work results, the
Rabobank thinks it does not matter
where and when they want to work.[2]
RaboUnplugged consists of three
internal environments, the physical, the
virtual and the mental environment.[2]
The physical environment consists of
the offices and facilities within these
offices. The virtual is a digital
environment where employees can find
all the files, systems and information
that they need in order to do their
work. The mental environment is the
environment where the employees areguided to learn how to work result
oriented and flexible. Here the
employee learns how to act according
to the new culture within the
organisation.
Fading the physical and
the virtual: a hybrid
spacePascale Carayon has stated that ICTs
broadened the workspace to otherphysical environments like homes and
cafs (12). According to Carayon a
change in the ICT will also lead to a
change in these environments (11). She
shows that ICTs are connected with the
physical world but what she doesnt
show is that these environments are
connected in a way that they cant be
separated anymore.
Saim Muhammed also
acknowledges that ICTs have impact on
the spatiality of working. He states that
some employees no longer have to work
in an office, but can work from any
place they want. They work in a virtual
environment that makes sure they are
no longer location dependent
(Muhammed 15-34). There are also
employees that can only do their jobs in
the physical world of the office, and
employees that both work in the virtual
environment and the physical
environment. The latter need to work
within the virtual environment, but at
the same time still have to meet at theoffice sometimes. He states that these
employees work in a hybrid space,
where a mixture of virtual and physical
workspace is required. Virtual work
environments are very promising
according to Muhammed, because
employees no longer have to travel to
work (15-34).
But this definition of hybrid spaces
is not sufficient, because it fails to
explain how intertwined technology and
physical spaces are. According toAdriana de Souza e Silva hybrid space
is a space where the physical and digital
complement each other. Through digital
The employee is place
independent in that way
that he can choose
wherever he wants to
work from, but the result
of work itself is place
dependent
Sanne BotterblomMaster-student New Media and Digital Culture.Extensive knowledge about the Rabobank.Plays guitar in her free time.
SAN
NEBOTTERBLOM9
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SANN
EBOTTERBLOM
10 devices we are always in contact with
each other and with information. Digital
and virtual environments can no longer
be separated from each other, because
mobile technologies make sure that
everyone can access the Internet from
every place: [t]he emergence of
portable communication technologies
has contributed to the possibility of
being always connected to digitalspaces, literally carrying the Internet
wherever we go (De Souza e Silva,
264).
But when the virtual can be reached
through digital devices from practically
everywhere, where does that leave the
physical environment? De Souza e Silva
does not mention whether the physical
world has an influence in how we deal
with the virtual, she only explains that
social interactions shape the hybrid
space. Carayon shows us thatenvironments have an influence on how
work is done. When working from a
home where little children are crying,
employees get less work done than
when they are working from a home
where the employee is the only one
present (11).
We can see this hybrid space as a
place with a virtual/physical dualism.
Wojciech Kalaga explains how the
virtual can only exist when it is in a
constant relationship with actual objects
(Kalaga 97). The virtual is a potentiality
of an actual object. With the help of
technology we can better see all the
potential options of the actual world.
The virtual elements are needed to show
how physical, or actual objects can be
used. Every actual object thus has a
certain potential that can only be
realized by the relations with the virtual
(96-103).
Michel Foucault also shows how
the physical element of hybrid space is
of importance. He explains that a
heterotopia is a place free of cultural
domination. Heterotopias are not really
physically present, like the space of a
phone call or the moment a person sees
himself in the mirror (1984). A person is
not physically in this heterotopia but
can change what happens in this
heterotopia. Working in a virtual
environment can be seen as a
heterotopia, where ICTs provide the
entrance to this heterotopia. In
Foucaults sixth principal ofheterotopias he shows how
heterotopias create a space of illusion
that exposes every real space, all the
sites inside of which human life is
partitioned (sixth principle). By
entering a heterotopia a person can see
real space and becomes aware of this
real, physical space. When an employee
works in the virtual environment, he
will become aware of the place where
he is working and act upon this space
while he is influenced by the
heterotopia.The digital devices are thus used as
a mirror to show the virtual elements of
this hybrid space. These virtual
elements consist of relations with the
physical environment. This means that
for example the office has different
relations to the virtual environment than
for example an employees home. The
employee is place independent in that
way that he can choose wherever he
wants to work from, but the result of
work itself is place dependent, becausethe location from where work has been
done can have impact on the way that
work is done.
Until so far we have seen that
workspace consists of a virtual and
physical element that cant be separated
from each other and are being shaped
by each other. When we take a look at
the Rabobank case, we can see that the
Rabobank acknowledges these virtual
and physical elements.
The Virtual and the Physical inRaboUnpluggedAs was mentioned in the introduction,
the new workplace of the Rabobank is
divided in three work-environments. In
this chapter the physical and virtual
environment are being analysed. The
Rabobank only recognizes a small
overlap between the virtual and the
physical environments.[2] This means
that the virtual work environment is
also reachable from the physical office.
Although the Rabobank seems to
consider the virtual and the physical aslargely separated, in their documents
they focus on place independency. ICTs
make sure that employees can work
wherever they want, whenever they
want.[3] It is important to say here that
the employees still need to work
according to the values of the
Rabobank, so they are free as long as
they stick to these values, but this will
be explained in the next chapter.[2] So
in a certain way the Rabobank
acknowledges a hybrid space. Theyknow their employees can have Internet
access everywhere, so they can work
everywhere.
Other than that, the physical
environment is still very important for
the Rabobank. They provide a variation
of office spaces to their employees, so
they can work in different settings.
They can sit in a quiet booth or a
conference hall for example.[4] The
Rabobank expects the best results from
its employees and therefore provides
different locations that suit theemployees needs.
Other than the above-mentioned
theorists, the Rabobank doesnt see the
role of the virtual element. They focus
on the design and reachability of the
office spaces, while they barely pay
attention to the design of the virtual
workspace.[2] The Rabobank also sees
the office as a base from where most of
the work is done, and a meeting place
where an employee can meet and
cooperate with their coworkers. Soalthough the Rabobank acknowledges a
form of hybrid space, they focus on the
role of the physical without spending
much attention to the role of the virtual
workspace by introducing
RaboUnplugged.
When we look at the discourse from
scholars and the Rabobank about
workspaces it becomes clear that it
promises a place independent way of
working. Muhammed and de Souza e
Silva showed that place independency is
guaranteed by ICTs without
acknowledging the role of the physical
element within the hybrid spaces.
Physical space has influence on the
work results. The Rabobank case shows
that although employees can work
wherever they want, they still have the
office as a base from where a big part of
the work is done. We can thus say that
there are certain rules about working in
a hybrid space, like treating the office as
a base from where cooperative work
can be done. In the next chapter will be
explained how hybrid space is culturally
produced and how these rules come to
exist.
Fading the hybrid and
the mental: a culturally
produced hybrid spaceStuart Elden shows how the French
philosopher Henri Lefebvre explains
how space is socially, culturally and
politically produced. The way peopledeal with space shows how they
understand and experience space (Elden
5). Lefebvre shows how every
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11individual understands space in their
own particular way. Al these individuals
act upon space, forming space in the
way they understand it. Every employee
thus understands and shapes the
workspace on his own individual way,
so workspace is different for every
person that is involved in this space.
Sharad Chari and Vinay Gidwani
show how this production of spaceallows certain ideologies and dominant
cultural values to organise the way
individuals experience space. They state
cultural production, or the ongoing,
creative work of reinterpretation in
everyday life, is necessary for cultural
reproduction, or the maintenance of
ideologies, discourses and persisting
cultural forms, which in turn are
necessary for people to participate in
concrete acts of social reproduction,
which make possible the durability ofsocial institutions that scaffold
particular capitalisms for
instance (268). By struggling these
dominant values an individual forms
and determines his own position within
space. This means there is a difference
in how certain individuals experience
hybrid space.
But hybrid space is not only
different for every individual, but also
for groups of individuals. There is a
difference in how managers and
employees act upon space. Maureen
Mackenzie found that employees for
example find familial bonds more
important than managers do.
Employees thus need more personal
contacts that are grounded on trust and
reliance. Mackenzie states that
managers in general need less personal
contacts and just want to see good
results. This can lead to a struggle and
misunderstandings in the workplace,
since employees think they need more
personal contact with their managers
(533). When every employee works
time and place independent, the efforts
to maintain these familial bonds are
much higher, because result driven
work gets even more important and
managers spend more time getting the
best results (536).
But there is not just a difference in
how certain individuals and groups
produce space. According to Anne Sofie
Laegran, groups and individuals also
adapt to the dominant culture withinspace, without losing their own
understanding of space (1993). She
gives an example about working at
night. When employees are time and
space independent in their work, they
usually still work on office hours,
because their clients and coworkers are
also working at these hours. Employees
want to be found useful for their co-
workers and clients, and so employees
adapt to their co-workers and clients
work hours (1993). The employees feel
obligated to adapt to this culture,because they are afraid that they lose
their jobs when they dont adapt (1994).
Hybrid space is thus a place where
everyone has the same options
regarding to working place and time
independent in this hybrid space, but
where dominant culture influences these
independencies and makes them
dependent. Groups and individuals
understand space in their own way and
act within space in their own way. But
they also have to subject to a dominantculture. So their freedom of using
hybrid space is culturally limited..
A culturally produced hybrid
space in RaboUnpluggedNext to the virtual and the physical
environment, RaboUnplugged also
consists of a mental environment. Inthis mental environment the employees
are guided in learning how to deal with
the change of the company culture.
They have to learn how to be a flexible,
result-driven worker in an organisation
that is flexible and stands for good
results. [2]
To get the best work results, the
Rabobank thinks that employees should
collaborate as much as possible.[5]
Therefore they consider the offices as a
home base for all forms of teamwork.[2] When working at the office will
provide better results than working from
home, the employee is expected to work
at the office.[6] That means that the
employee is not exactly free to choose
where he wants to work.
The most important thing for the
Rabobank is their clients.[2]
RaboUnplugged was introduced to be
better prepared for a flexible customer.
Therefore the employees must also be
flexible, in order to serve the clients in
the way that the client wants. Theemployee is not exactly place and time
independent, because it is expected that
the employee serves the clients wishes.
When the client wants to meet, the
employee must be available. Flexibility
was introduced as a privilege for the
employee, who could work place and
time independent. But flexibility turned
out to be compliance, the employee had
to arrange his work schedule to meet the
clients demands about space and time.
We can say that dominant culturalvalues shape the way employees deal
with their freedom to work where and
when they want.
This chapter showed that although
employees seem free in their choices,
dominant cultural values show how
employees should behave within this
freedom. Employees will all give
another meaning to the hybrid
workspace than managers do, by
interacting with it and with others
within this hybrid space. The
Rabobank documents show that the
mental state of employees should be
changed, so that the worker wants to
be result-driven and compliant. But as
the theories have shown, every
individual has another way of
interacting with space and looking at
space. It is therefore not possible that all
the employees think and act in the same
way. This might overlap, because
groups have overlapping understandings
of space and employees will behave
according to the dominant cultural
norm. But employees will not lose their
own way of understanding space and
dealing with space.
ConclusionThe use of ICTs in the workplace makes
sure this workplace can expand to other
physical environments than the office.
Employees can work from any place
they prefer, like home, a bar or a park.
Although, that is what the assumption is
when thinking about new working and
hybrid spaces. When looking at theories
from Carayon, Foucault and Kalaga we
We can say that
dominant cultural values
shape the way employees
deal with their freedom towork where and when
they want.
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12 see that the physical environment has an
impact on how work is performed. And
by exploring the theories of Lefebvre,
Chari & Gidwani, Mackenzie and
Laegran we have seen that dominant
cultural values prevent employees from
being totally free within this hybrid
space. They are controlled by cultural
power that urges them to work
whenever a boss or a client says so.There are some elements of hybrid
space that are not fully recognized yet.
De Souza e Silva and Muhammed did
not fully acknowledge the role of the
physical element in hybrid space. And
the Rabobank did not recognize the
impact of the virtual on the physical
space. The physical and the virtual
elements are constantly in interaction
with each other and are shaping each
other during this interaction. We can
thus not only state that the physical andvirtual elements are intertwined, but
they also shape each other.
But cultural factors also play a role
in the shaping of hybrid space. The
Rabobank shows how employees are
continuously guided in their way of
dealing with the new flexible way of
working. Employees are supposed to
learn how to work flexible, but by
forcing flexibility to an employee, the
employee is not taught how to be
flexible but how to be compliant. Under
the guise of freedom, the employee is
expected to act according to their boss,
clients and co-workers demands. The
employee must do all he can in order to
provide the best possible work results.
By constantly guiding the employee to
adapt to this flexible way of working,
the mental state of the employee is
being shaped to the dominant cultural
values. And even though every
individual has his own way of
producing and understanding space, all
individuals will act to the dominant
cultural values.
The way that scholars and
organisation think about the new way of
working seems very promising.
Employees can work place and time
independent and can decide how to
perform a certain task. This article
showed that these promises appear to be
false. Physical space and dominant
cultural influences shape the hybrid
work environment. To look at this new
way of working can show howincluding the role of physical space and
cultural influences can further specify
assumptions about hybrid space.
As a final remark it must be said
that the case study in this article is
purely based on organisational
documents. These documents show how
the Rabobank will organise
RaboUnplugged and how the Rabobank
thinks RaboUnplugged should be
designed and shaped. There is no reason
to assume that this is how the Rabobank
functions in practice. For betterstatements about the implementation of
the new way of working, an empirical
study should be designed.
Endnotes
1. Rabobank voert komende zes
jaar het nieuwe werken
in [09/15/2009] werken 2.0. http://
www.werken20.nl/nieuws-over-
nieuwe-werken/organisatie-bedrijf/
547/rabobank-voert-komende-zes-
jaar-het-nieuwe-werken-in/ - visitedon 13/04/2012
2. Haan, Harry and Marlon Mols.
RaboUnplugged: werken in de 21ste
eeuw July 6th, http://
www.google.nl/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=we
b&cd=3&sqi=2&ved=0CEEQFjAC
&url=http%3A%2F
%2Fsharepoint.vincis.com
%2Fhnwnn%2Fseminars
%2Fseminar06062010%2FBestanden%2FRabobank
%2520Unplugged.ppt&ei=pPOHT-
v6GYLP0QWpyYDZCQ&usg=AFQ
jCNFieziKZ4MVSqL_mPLEbyDscr
cPEg&sig2=lhjqFsKwGulDNd4QLO
dHSA - visited on 13/4/2012
3. Nieuwe werkstijl Rabobank
Groep. http://overons.rabobank.com/
content/profiel/nieuwbouw/
rabo_unplugged/tab2.jsp - visited on
13/4/2012
4. Nieuw Kantoor Rabobank
Groep. http://overons.rabobank.com/
content/profiel/nieuwbouw/
nieuwbouw_sub/tab3.jsp - visited on
13/4/2012
5. Haterd, Bas van de. Rabobank
over het nieuwe
werken [08/03/2009] RecTec. http://
www.rectec.nl/2009/08/03/rabobank-
over-het-nieuwe-werken/ - visited on
14/4/2012
6. Ketting, Pieter. Rabo
Unplugged Loslaten en sturen op
resultaat Slim reizen. http://
www.slimreizen.nl/
projectDocuments/
caseDescription_2846.pdf - visited
on 13/4/2012
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Netherlands, under the Influence of
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Journal Spaces of New Media - Max van der Pluijm
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SANN
EBOTTERBLOM
13Information and Communication
Technologies. Utrecht: Utrecht
University, Royal Dutch Geographical
Society, 2007: 15-34
Souza e Silva, Adriana de. "From
Cyber to Hybrid: Mobile Technologies
as Interfaces of Hybrid Spaces."
Space and Culture 9.3 (2006):
261-278
Traxler, Johannes and Micheal I.
Luger. Businesses and the Internet:
Implications for Firm Location and
Clustering Journal of Comparative
Policy Analysis: Research and Practice
2, 2000: 279-300
7/28/2019 Journal Spaces of New Media - Max van der Pluijm
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When technology comes to the aid!
7/28/2019 Journal Spaces of New Media - Max van der Pluijm
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Introduction
Written by Max van der Pluijm
In recent years, thanks to the on-going
progress of liberalization and the
development in information and
communication technology (ICT), more
and more companies are expanding
their services to other countries as partthe on-going globalisation. Outsourcing,
also known as offshoring, has become
an increasingly prominent core activity
for many businesses on strategic level
(Grossman 135). When searching for a
definition of the word outsourcing
throughout the various existing
literature, there can be concluded that it
is a very complex task. Therefore I will
use a paper written by Jagdish
Bhagwati, Arvind Panagariya and
Thirukodikaval Nilakanta Srinivasan todefine the definition. Bhagwati,
Panagariya and Srinivasan state that
outsourcing is the: purchase of services
abroad with the supplier and buyer
remaining in their respective
location. (Bhagwati, Panagariya &
Srinivasan 95). I will stick to this
definition of outsourcing, mainly
because of the fact that location plays a
particular role in this research.
In my research I will look upon the
various archaeological points of view
when new technologies were introduced
in line of customer services. What, for
instance, did the introduction of the
telephone mean for the external
business? What did the Internet do for
the external business? What happened
when mobile telephony was introduced?
And how does social media fit in this
picture? By trying to describe the
various moments in history, in broader
context, there will be explained from an
archaeological point of view that with
the introduction of new information
and media technologies, there was a
great turning point in history when
customer services dramatically
changed. Within this article customer
services are a central topic because of
the fact that nowadays there are plenty
of companies who outsource this
specific aspect of their business, butstill is seen as a crucial aspect of a
business. By stressing this particular
aspect the notion of space can be further
analysed in order to explain the
changing fundamentals within the
external business.
To put this in line of the earlier
mentioned aspect outsourcing, namely
location, it is important to take the
notion of the space of flows coined by
Manuel Castells. The space of flows is
the material organization of time-sharing social practices that work
through flows. (Castells 2004: 147).
Originally, space was considered to be a
passive given, when time was
mentioned as a separate entity, which
was active. Space, in Castells eyes,
should not be seen separate from time.
Castells sees space as a dynamic entity,
closely related to time. Castells also
rejected the thought that space would
disappear upon the creation of a global
village (ibid.: 147). The term global
village can be traced back to Marshall
McLuhan, since McLuhan described
how the globe has been contracted into
a village by electric technology
(McLuhan 31). Everybody is connected
to each other and nowadays the term
global village is more commonly used
as a metaphor to describe the Internet.
Castells on the other hand thinks that
we are not living in a global village but
more in high-level cultural abstraction
of space and time. The space of flows,
as mentioned earlier, comprehends
human action and interaction occurring
dynamically and at a distance. Affected
via telecommunications technology
containing continuous flows of time-
sensitive communications, and the
nodes of global computer systems.
These informational flows connect
people to a continuous, real-time
cybernetic community that differs
from the global village because the
groups position in time becomes
more important than their places(Castells 2004: 147).
But I will criticize this through an
archaeological point view. For in fact
companies do remain in their respective
locations, since their customer services
are nowadays largely placed in third-
world countries. This paper was written
so as to reach the academic audiences
and the general alike. In order to
provide easy access for those without
extensive knowledge of the various
technical language about the concepts
discussed in this research, an effort has
been made to make this approach
simple enough for all audiences tounderstand the used vocabulary. By
examining the information society from
an archaeological perspective it will be
made clear what is new (and at times
not) in the information society. By
taking the customer service from Cisco
Systems, which is an American
multinational corporation specialised in
networking equipment, as a case, an
example can be given in light of the
information society. The technical
language that someone would often findin media studies is explained when and
where needed. Furthermore this article
contains an extensive analysis of the
various media and the notion of space
that has been implemented throughout
this research. The exploration of how
media and customer services are an
intertwined within each other is part of
the information society. The reader will
be given enough of examples within
each paragraph to support the main
theme in this research. By carrying out
this research from an archaeological
perspective and connecting it to the
notion of space, makes it a relevant case
Everybody is connected
to each other and
nowadays the term global
village is more commonly
used as a metaphor to
describe the Internet
Max van der PluijmMaster-student New Media and Digital Culture.Media-archaeologist to the bone.
Tries to look like a cool surfdude.
The exploration of how
media and customer
services are an
intertwined within each
other is part of the
information society
MAXVANDERPLUIJM
15
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MAXVANDERPLUIJM
16 for a number of various fields within
academic and general perspectives.
The shift from offline to
onlineIn order to explain the shift from offline
to online customer services, it is needed
to describe various periods in history
when different media apparatuses were
introduced. In a sort of linear approachthe start will be made with the electric
telegraph, and then go on to the
telephone, the Internet and to conclude
this part of the paper with the
smartphones. Since the electric
telegraph is the predecessor of the
telephone and in a way every other
technological medium, it is interesting
to see how the electric telegraph made
early long distance communication
possible (Douglas 37; Kern 11).
Because of the availability ofelectricity in the nineteenth century, it
was a next big step in using the electric
telegraph. The electric telegraph
became popular under the public and
was socially accepted. Around the year
1870 telegraphy had developed in such
a way that people were still marvelling
over means of communication that had
already been in operation for over forty
years. Over two hundred submarine
cables had been laid and succeeded in
making virtually every corner of the
earth a link in a worldwide chain of
communications (American Telephone
and Telegraph Company 82). Direct
service could be conducted by telegraph
between points several thousand miles
apart. So the notion space of flows was
already in progress since the long
distances could be bridged, with each a
different perception of time. Printing
telegraphs recorded messages in Roman
letters as early as 1841. The advantage
of the electric telegraph over the
telephone, as those who ran thetelegraph industry saw it, was that
telegraphy left a permanent record
(Barnard 762).
There were all these utopian
thoughts, as we now may talk about
slight hints of hindsight, of whether the
telegraph would bring peace into to the
world and make the world a global
village (Douglas 37; Kern 13. So the
concept of the global village is not
something that was coined by Marshall
McLuhan after all, for in factresearchers and popular newspapers in
the late nineteenth century were already
speaking about a global unity. Where
space does not matter and a uniform
time (the Greenwich time zones) was
part of the unified world (Kern 11).
This, in a way, is something we can
see again in the telephone and can be
called a dj vu-like experience. This
dj vu-like experience of media is
something that Erkki Huhtamo, as a
media archaeologist, studies
excessively. Huhtamo pays particularattention to the topoi, elements that
emerge over and over again in media
history and provide certain blueprints
for experiences. In other words,
something that returns over and over
again. What may seem new often
proves to be just new packaging of
ideas repeated during hundreds and
even thousands of years (Huhtamo
222). In other sceptical words, the new
in new is eventually not new. In a way,
the telegraph was the predecessor of thetelephone within an ever-developing
information society.
When we pay close attention to the
period when the telephone was
introduced, we can see notions of
several inventors and contributors in the
process of development. The
introduction of a new medium cannot
be seen as a rupture in history. It slowly
adapted itself into society and was
gradually accepted. To give an
indication of the period when the
telephone was introduced, the notion of
Alexander Graham Bell, given by
Sidney H. Aronson applies decently in
this context. Because he states that
[t]he telephone came to America and
the rest of the world on March 10,
1876; on that day, as far as is known,
Alexander Graham Bell became the first
person to transmit speech
electrically (Aronson 15). Again the
notion space of flows can be adapted in
this citation, when talking about the
rest of the world.
But the workingman was not
convinced of its possibilities, mostly
because of the high rates that were
given for using the telephone. So the
business world adapted the telephone
much quicker than the common people,
because there was money in this area.
And because of this commercialised
way of implementing the telephone in
the everyday life of the working society,
it became accepted and available for the
common people (Pool 141-142). Thisresulted eventually in The Bell System
Corporation where they strongly put
universal service in front as the main
goal. In relation to this the economic
and marketing sections of the
businesses were pushing the medium
into the neighbourhoods. Mainly
because of the assumption that in these
particular sections of the cities most of
the money would be found (Pool et al.
142). Foremost, this was business to
business and as Chief Operating
Officer, Theodore Vail, a United Statestelephone industrialist, began creating
the Bell System, composed of regional
companies offering local service, a long
distance company providing toll service
and a manufacturing arm providing
equipment was created (Porticus).
These services were the first forms of
customer services via technological
media. The expanding of the
information society was taking a giant
leap in the process.
Furthermore it is interesting to seehow the development of the telephone
was similar to the process of
development of the Internet. The first
forms of the Internet can be related to
the research of Vannevar Bush.
Although Bush did not invent the
Internet, he was on the verge of
introducing a somewhat similar
concept. With his conceptualisation of
the Memex, a prototype of a memory
extension, which would store data and
connect it through hypertext, he would
initially lay down the fundament for the
later Tim Berners-Lee and the creator of
the World Wide Web (Bush 106). This
particular moment in the history of the
Internet took place in the 1930s. At that
time Bush saw the Memex as a medium
that would help extending, storing and
consulting data from the memory.
Though there is some criticism about
the relation to the Internet, because the
idea of Bush should be seen from the
historical perspective of microfilm
technology developed in the mid-1900s
(Buckland 286-287). Nonetheless, in
relation to the development of the
Internet and the World Wide Web and
the early conceptualisation of hypertext,
the Memex is a very interesting concept
to take into account since it is part of
the information society in many ways.
Since the Memex would connect data to
each other it can now be seen as a
crucial aspect of the formation of the
Internet and thus the information
society as we know it as of today.Besides connecting the utopian
visions of bringing the world together
into a global village and bringing peace
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17into the world to the telegraph and the
telephone, it may also be connected to
the Internet. Since these utopian vision
could also be applied to the Internet
when it was introduced. This dj vu-
like experience once again set the tone
for the rest of the history, as we know it
nowadays. But the Internet made some
of the utopian visions, and surely later
on when the World Wide Web wasintroduced, come out. Since it now is
simpler to connect one to another. And
up to today it is relatively easy to make
contact with someone positioned in, for
instance, Japan. Although time and
space are not the same, via the Internet,
communication is realised and the
notion of the information society, which
in a way has become more or less the
internet society. This developed up to
a whole new level since the Internet is
the backbone for the globally computer-mediated communication in the world
(Castells 2010: 375). This particular
aspect was also noticed by the big
corporations and saw opportunities to
outsource parts of their internal
businesses. Not only because of the
introduction of the Internet, but also the
telephone and off course the various
routes for intercontinental ships were
part of the process.
In a contemporary society,
services like Skype and instant
messaging through the Internet, create
greater and quicker possibilities in
contrast to the earlier years.