This article analyses office spaces and their gendered meanings, specifically concentrating on informal spaces such as coffee rooms, corridors and so-called chill-out areas. The analysis draws on feminist research on space and Henri Lefebvre’s theory of social space, which focuses on how lived space in the workplace is signified and contested. The ethnographic material was gathered in office environments during the 1980s, 1990s and 2010s. The analysis shows that opening up the office space invites new sorts of management of work tasks, social relations and embodiment. The authors suggest that the aim of fostering and capitalizing on informal encounters and spaces – which were typical for women workers in industrial offices – may paradoxically decrease direct meetings and communication in the post-industrial office.

The article analyzes ergonomics as a social and cultural phenomenon, as something that is formulated and described by speakers in a specific social context; in a company that is specialized in producing ergonomic office furniture. Through a case study of an office chair, the article examines how ergonomics and its association with the vision of the potential users and their working spaces are constructed by the relevant actors in project meetings and individual interviews during the manufacturing process. The article is concerned with how, in the process of producing an office chair, the chair gains an identity of an aesthetic design object and how this comes to mean the reformulation of the idea of ergonomics. The empirical analysis also provides insight into how the somewhat grand discourses of soft capitalism or aesthetic economy are not abstract, but very much grounded in everyday practices of an organization. The article establishes how the vision shared by all the relevant actors invites active, flexible, and cooperative end-users and how the vision also has potential material effects. The research is an ethnographically inspired case study that draws ideas from discursive psychology.Keywords office furniture, ergonomics, discursive psychology, ethnography, design, office work, soft capitalism, aesthetic economy 2 SAGE Open Gabriel, 2005;Gabriel & Lang, 2008;Gregory, 2011;Hancock & Tyler, 2007;Lopez, 2010; Rafaeli & VilnaiYavetz, 2004;Strati & deMontoux, 2002;Valtonen, 2012;Witz, Warhurst, & Nickson, 2003). This field of research shows how the design of objects and spatial settings for modern organizations is also a physical embodiment of a specific organization's culture and values. Sometimes, the display of things and people is identified as presenting the values of "knowledgeable capitalism" or "soft capitalism" (Chugh & Hancock, 2009; Heelas, 2002, pp. 81-83; Thrift, 2005, pp. 20-47) or "aesthetic economy" (Böhme, 2003;Entwistle, 2009), while highlighting the soft characteristic of modern work life: creativity, inspiration, emotions, and aesthetics. Indeed, it would be naive to assume that the visions the designers and producers promote would be somehow isolated from larger cultural and societal values and discourses. However, as part of this developing field of research, the reformulation of ergonomics has yet not gained attention, and this article aims to shed light on the specific meanings of ergonomics and their possible consequences through a case study of an office chair.Central to the literature concerning soft capitalism is the proposition that it is a form of capitalism that puts emphasis on organizations as flexible entities that "go with the flow," always in action and on the move, aiming to produce workers who fit this type of an organization. Flexible organizations aim to recreate themselves by attempting to generate new traditions and representations of themselves and the world, instead of accepting established knowledge. In fact, the refusal of established knowledge is the basi...

By drawing on eighty-nine qualitative interviews in which people account for their use of information and communication technology, this article analyzes how people negotiate their choices and principles in relation to prevalent discourses about proper and questionable conduct and content and whether old discourses are changing in the new media environment. Particular attention is paid to the way in which the cultural category of hobby is used as a speech repertoire that ennobles internet use. By describing their complementary use of different media and the meanings of different artifacts, informants are able to reverse default cultural hierarchies.

Ilman uudempien mediateknologioiden tarjoamia uusia kokemuksia ei voisi olla myöskään uutta tietoisuutta perinteisimpien mediateknologioiden, kuten kirjan ja sanomalehden, merkityksestä arjessa. Näitä vanhoja, tuttuja mediateknologioita voidaan arvioida uusin kriteerein. Keskeinen kriteeri on tällöin käytettävyys ja kannettavuus, kirjoittaja toteaa.

No abstract