Social digitalization
Contact person at the department: Kornelia Hahn
This new social theory reverses dominant accounts of the ‘digital revolution’, arguing that today’s digital technology has been fitted into a long-term trajectory of social digitalisation. Social digitalisation focuses on the implementation of a digital logic that has re-organised previously contingent social processes into digitalised processes, including the necessary co-evolution of our collective digital literacy. The theory of social digitisation is a holistic approach that goes beyond a focus on technology. Its application to empirical projects makes it possible to understand the full complexity of digitalisation, to analyse how digital transformation has come to dominate our way of life, and to evaluate digital processing in order to consider its unequal impact on different social groups.
https://www.plus.ac.at/news/digitalisation-of-social-life-introducing-a-new-theory/?lang=en
Book project: Fashion’s Unworn Clothes
Contact person at the department: Kornelia Hahn
The story of fashion’s unworn clothes is told as a trajectory of long-term sartorial digital transformation, providing a novel theoretical account of the rise of what is vaguely termed ‘fast fashion’. This trajectory, which began long before the introduction of digital technology, is driven by the logic of digitalisation, which aims to optimise productivity and profits by minimising contingencies and associated risks. Its consequences are most evident in the ecologically dangerous overabundance of unworn and discarded clothing, but also in the paradoxical and hitherto unaddressed phenomenon of ‘dress deprivation’ on the part of consumers who are forced to engage with contemporary fashion and clothing culture even though they do not wear most of the products of the fashion industry. By challenging dominant narratives of fashion and industry, this book aims to inform initiatives for change based on an alternative concept of ‘commensurate fashion’.
Just a small cog in the wheel? Working conditions of bicycle couriers in the city of Salzburg
Contact person at the department: Wolfgang Aschauer
(Digital) platforms (gig economy) have contributed to the development of new markets, such as in the food delivery services segment, amid fierce competition. Their work is described in the literature as being caught between the need for autonomy and flexibility as well as control, uncertainty and non-transparent processes. They are often the prototype for a new group of precarious workers, as their pay is often low, their own work equipment such as smartphones are used and they are physically very demanding. Against this background, the project commissioned by the Salzburg Chamber of Labor takes a closer look at the work and life situation of bicycle couriers and their work experience under the influence of digital technologies. To this end, two group discussions and 26 individual interviews were conducted and analyzed using the documentary method. The central dynamics of platform work experienced by the bike couriers were analyzed and objective and subjective conditions of precarious work were identified. In addition, six types of bike couriers (the enthusiastic, the sporty, the unconcerned, the pragmatic, the critical and the disillusioned) were identified, which can be shaped along different socio-demographic and socio-structural characteristics and attitudes towards the platforms and towards interest representation and trade union work.
Findings of the study (with Wolfgang Aschauer, Katharina Obenholzner, Katharina Stiebler, Anna Stadler)
https://sbg.arbeiterkammer.at/service/veranstaltungen/rueckblicke/Studie-zur-VA-FAKUSA_Endbericht_final.pdf
https://wien.arbeiterkammer.at/interessenvertretung/arbeitdigital/crowdwork/AK_23Q2_Tagungsbroschuere_A4_digital.pdf
Technological Readiness:Telecare (TRTC)
Contact persons: Wolfgang Aschauer, Christopher Etter
The demographic change currently taking place in western industrialized nations requires innovative solutions in the field of healthcare. Modern care is already making use of such technologies and is already implementing them, for example, in forms of care commonly known as “telecare”. Technologies of this kind also include virtual, AI-based avatars that support people in need of care and their relatives at home. These digital tools are expected to improve care in remote areas, reduce the burden on the healthcare system and empower patients. In order to assess the degree of “technological readiness” with regard to the use of care avatars in German-speaking countries, we conducted three empirical studies in cooperation with Paracelsus Medical University (PMU). In a first step, 21 expert interviews were conducted with renowned scientists, political actors and medical service providers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland between September and November 2021. The team then designed a multimedia questionnaire that was sent to medical staff from the D-A-CH regions. This provided important quantitative insights into the opinions of nursing staff on care avatars. In order to enable statements to be made about the willingness of the population in the D-A-CH region to use technology, a comprehensive country comparison population study was carried out using an online access panel in collaboration with the market research institute “marketagent”. The PLUS methodology team (Wolfgang Aschauer and Christopher Etter) are currently working intensively with the PMU on the further dissemination of the results.
Aktuelle/geplante Publikationen:
Aschauer, W., Nemetz, F. P., Etter, C., Krutter, S., Osterbrink, J. & Kutschar, P. (2024). Einstellungen zu Avatar-Lösungen im Gesundheitswesen. Eine Online-Befragung zu den wichtigsten Antezedenzien zur Erklärung der technologischen Bereitschaft von Pflegekräften. Computerinformatik und Pflege (aktuell im Review).
Aschauer, W., Nemetz, F. P., Etter, C., Krutter, S., Osterbrink, J. & Kutschar, P. (2025). Einstellungen zu Avatar-Lösungen in der D-A-CH-Region. Ergebnisse einer umfangreichen Online-Befragung. (In Vorbereitung).
