Title: Social Media in a Rural Hong Kong Voluntary Eco-Community: Impacts and Evolution

Speaker: Robert Davison (Department of Information Systems, City University of Hong Kong)

Date: Friday, 26 November 2021

Time: 1-2:30 pm

Conducted in Person and on Zoom

Venue: NAH114

Meeting ID: 921 9898 6538

Passcode: 820481

Abstract:

As an Information Systems (IS) researcher, I seek to understand how people use technology, and what the impacts of that use are, whether intended or not. Here, I explore how the application and impact of social media applications have evolved in a rural and voluntary eco-community in Hong Kong’s far North East. I draw on a mix of interview data and personal observations gleaned through a year’s residence in the area, as well as participation in some of the eco-community’s activities. The ongoing social development of the community seems to me to (have) be(en) affected by the normative values associated with social media applications, though there is considerable variance in the opinions expressed and situations encountered. I consider the theoretical implications (media synchronicity, punctuated equilibrium, adaptive structuration, shifting baselines) of the findings as well as the direct practical implications for the community. I also reflect on my own role as a participant-observer researcher eager to be included and involved, yet sometimes excluded.

Bio:

Robert Davison is a Professor of Information Systems at the City University of Hong Kong. His current research focuses on how organisational employees: misuse and work around corporate information systems; develop guanxi with social media applications. He is particularly known for his scholarship in the domain of action research. Robert serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Information Systems Journal and the Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries. As a researcher and an editor, he promotes indigenous research perspectives. Home Page: http://www.is.cityu.edu.hk/staff/isrobert