ABSTRACT

In this work, Bridgette Wessels offers a unique insight into the ways in which core public institutions and powerful organizations develop digital communications and services within the public realm. The book draws on her ethnographic research with the London Metropolitan Police Service during their engagement in an innovative project to improve communication with the public using digital technology. As one of the largest, most advanced and highly respected police services in the world, working in a socially, culturally and demographically complex city, the Metropolitan Police Service offers a highly revealing case study of technology and the human processes which it is designed to serve. The ethnographic research is used to develop a new theoretical and conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between social action and technological change, addressing the way in which technology is socially shaped and culturally informed. The book also discusses the role of ethnography as a tool for researching complex multi-perspective, multi-sited networks of the innovation of digital technologies as forms of communication in late modern western society.

chapter 1|12 pages

Introduction

The Context of Changing Communication with the Public using Digital Technologies

chapter 2|14 pages

The Problem of Defining ‘Project Digital'

Making Sense of Digital Technologies in Police Service Environments

chapter 4|14 pages

Putting the Researcher in the Field

The Performances and Positions of the Ethnographer in Innovative Networks of Communication

chapter 6|14 pages

Phase One of the Relations of Production

‘Kicking-off and the Early Days'

chapter 7|13 pages

Phase Two of the Relations of Production

‘Moving on and Developing e-Services'

chapter 9|16 pages

Narratives of Service Provision in the Metropolitan Police Service

Embedding Telematics within Service Narratives

chapter 10|16 pages

Participation between Service Providers and Residents

Local People's Perceptions of Services in the East End of London

chapter 11|12 pages

Police Work and Everyday Life

chapter 12|12 pages

Conclusion