[Air-l] new Encyclopedia of HCI

[Charles Ess]

Hi Barry et al,

Thanks very much indeed for the heads-up on the publication and your helpful
summary!  I'll pester my librarian to order it, no question.

Let me also ask the following question for the sake of clarification.
Two Finnish colleagues included in their presentation at CATaC'04 a survey
of how "culture" is taken up in HCI literature, summarized as follows (the
parentheticals are their comments and suggestions):

1. Culture is taken for granted. (There is no exhaustive definition for
culture, so we have to choose our definition.)

2. Culture is not defined explicitly. (We should always state clearly our
suppositions of culture (or the suppositions of the theories and models we
are using) and recognise their effects on our study.)

3. Culture is limited to national cultures. (It is good to remember that
culture does not exist at national level only. At least we should avoid
assuming that there is one national culture for every country.)

4. Cultures are seen as coherent wholes. (We should give up the idea that
cultures are isolated wholes or that we could draw strict borders between
them.)
5. 
Culture is seen in the role of maintenance.  (Culture is capable of both
resistance and transformation.)

(Kampurri, Minna and Markku Tukainen. 2004.  Culture in Human-Computer
Interaction Studies: A survey of ideas and definitions.  In F. Sudweeks and
C. Ess (eds.), Proceedings: Cultural Attitudes Towards Communication and
Technology 2004, 43-57. Murdoch, Western Australia: Murdoch University.)

I didn't immediately see in your a reference to these aspects of culture and
HCI, so let me simply ask -
[and just to be absolutely clear: this is intended as a collegial question
for the sake of information, _not_ a challenge or a criticism (the latter
impossible since I've not seen the volumes I'm asking about - smile!)] -
Since you've seen the volumes, can you tell me/us how far they include
entries, etc., that (a) address issues of culture and HCI along these lines
and thus (b) may require a revision of these summary points?

Thanks in advance, and cheers -

Charles Ess
Fall '04: Fulbright Senior Scholar
Universität Trier 
Fachbereich II
Fakultäten der Medienwissenschaft, Sinologie
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54296 Trier (Germany)
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Distinguished Research Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
Drury University
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Home page:  http://www.drury.edu/ess/ess.html
Co-chair, CATaC: http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/catac/

Exemplary persons seek harmony, not sameness. -- Analects 13.23