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Mediatization and Social Design: For a Better Life With Media

Sun, May 27, 8:00 to 9:15, Hilton Old Town, Floor: M, Dvorak II/III

Abstract

Through the appropriation of new media people can extend their capabilities as autonomous human beings. At the same time, mediatization means that new forms of social and technological dependence emerge, accompanied by experiences of frustration, stress and anxiety. Against this background, this paper assesses the prospects of employing mediatization theory as a framework for social design. It is argued that social design should have as its goal to enhance the capacity among social agents to maintain a sense of autonomy in relation to mediatization. Social design can benefit above all from a cultural-materialist approach to mediatization. Following such an approach, the paper introduces a two-dimensional matrix that explicates the objects and objectives of social design. The concrete implications of the framework are demonstrated through empirical examples taken from the realm of mediatized work/life – a social terrain where the prospects of media-enhanced flexibility easily switch into further socio-technological entanglements with media.

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