In my present role as professor
emerita I am mainly serving in the
following roles: Chair of one
annual international conference;
Member of scientific advisory
boards of international
conferences (IFIP, HCII, IADIS,
CIRN, ODAM) and international
journals; Reviewer/Referee for
full professorships; Key note
speaker; Mentor.
Below are the headlines and sub headlines and you can point at and open each headline to read. I list the latest tasks and commitments that I have been involved in and that are the basis for current invited talks, panel participation, books and book chapters.
- Mentorship in Sweden and abroad
- The Home of the Future - information and communication technology(ICT) - changes in society and human behaviour patterns in the Net Era
- Quality of life in research at the School of ICT
- Syntheses
Mentorship and "The
third task of the
Universities"
My present research encompasses
to a large extent mentorship for
junior and senior scientists and
contributions to disseminate
research information outside the
university ("tredje uppgiften" of
the Swedish universities).
Examples are invitations to serve
as key note speaker, presentations
of my latest books for various
audiences, contributions with
chapters in other researcher books
intended to be used as textbooks.
Advocating at School of ICT with
the purpose to bring the
behavioural and the social
sciences closer to the technical
IT related disciplines. In order
to get a balance between R&D
with a "technological push" and a
"people push" and with the purpose
to contribute to technology
applications from a deeper
understanding of the the work
place, the home and the society.
The vision is to move from
technology for all to quality of
life for all - towards a society
where people´s basic needs for
belonging, influence,
meaningfulness are fulfilled.
The Home of the Future
- information and
communication technology(ICT)
- changes in society and human
behaviour patterns in the Net
Era
The overall purpose of the
research project concerns ICT and
changes in society and human
behaviour patterns in the Net Era.
The objective is to describe and
analyse the ongoing social changes
with focus on 'working from home'
and 'homing from work' -
emphasized by the increased use of
ICT-related services and products.
The home is considered both as a
physical and a virtual space. To
obtain an in-depth understanding
of the change of peoples' life
roles in the Net Era, analyses of
human and organizational behaviour
related to the professional role,
private role and citizen's role
are performed.
A crossdisciplinary approach
characterizes the research.
International comparative analyses
between environments in network
organizations are used. Three
types of field studies were
included, covering strategic
organizations (homes) - one urban,
one suburban and one rural in
Sweden. International comparative
studies with a cross disciplinary
approach were done in US West and
East Coast, Singapore &
Malaysia, and Japan.
The big challenge in the near
future is "intelligent
environments" and "intelligent
living" in a broad sense. The
process of change is both socially
driven and technology driven.
Driving technology forces are the
converging and embedded
technologies (ubiquitous and
ambient technology).
The following trends are
enforcing the home as a
communication sphere and the basis
for a lot of activities and
experiences which are connected to
human needs: The home as the
extended family centre; The home
as a care centre; The home as a
multimedia centre; The home as a
centre for democratic dialogue;
The home as a market place; The
home as a learning centre. These
trends are crucial for both many
industries in the future e g paper
and electronic industries,
construction, telecom industries
and organisation and new
"intermediaries". Analyses from
this project are included in my
current publications.
Quality of life in
research at the School of ICT
The aim of the project is to
understand how "quality of life
and well-being for all" is
involved in basic research as well
as in the more applied sciences.
Interviews are made with most
research leaders and professor
colleagues at the School of ICT,
approaching how they perceive that
their research, directly or
indirectly, in short term or in
long term perspective, will
contribute to a larger societal
context and to values on various
levels of analysis: quality of
life, well-being, integrity,
security, trust, health, deepening
of democracy, personal growth,
sustainability and other ethical
considerations. Discussions are
held on how the chain of reasoning
could be described with regard to
these concerns, also identifying
various actors (driving forces)
contributing to the "Good ICT
Society". Experiences from this
project is valid for my mentoring
and advisory role. The key words
applied were: Quality of life,
research policy, social
construction, socioeconomic and
environmental impact, technology
innovation, sustainability.
Syntheses
A new period in the research
process was composing a textbook
for international use: Bradley
(2006) ”Social and Community
Informatics – Humans on the Net”,
(Routledge). I am currently
lecturing internationally and in
Sweden, thereby contributing to
“Social Informatics” and/or
“Community Informatics” which are
established as academic
disciplines and/or cross
disciplinary research
centers/institutes at universities
in several countries. World
conferences in the field are held
e g IFIP (International Federation
for Information Processing) -
conference on”Social Informatics –
An Information Society for All”
HCC7 in 2006, Maribor (Slovenia)
and annual conferences in
”Community Informatics” (CIRN) in
Prato (Italy). The discipline
Informatics has grown to focus the
use of ICT in work life, private
live and the role as citizen. This
broad research field has also
become a main concern in many
other disciplines and centres.
In 2007 and 2008 I held doctoral
courses in Social and Community
Informatics, based on my latest
book at Helsinki Technical
University and Salzburg
University, where I served as
guest professor in 2008 at Paris
Lodron University in Salzburg and
the ICT & Society Center.
Since 2008 I am the Chair of the
annual IADIS conference on “ICT,
Society and Human Beings”. The
first international conference was
held in Amsterdam, and the second
took place in Algarve in Portugal,
in 2008. IADIS= International
Association for Developing the
Information Society. Next one will
be held in Freiburg, Germany in
2010.
Sustainable Development and ICT
is the content of a special issue
of the International Journal of
Information, Communication Society
(iCS) in 2010, where I serve as
co-editor.
Below is the theoretical model on
the societal and social changes in
the Network Society, further
described in a chapter in this
Festschrift on request from the
Editors.
Figure 2.
The Convergence Theory on ICT,
Society and Human Beings (Bradley
2006)
