Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life

The Japanese term for mobile phone, keitai (roughly translated as "something youcarry with you"), evokes not technical capability or freedom of movement but intimacy andportability, defining a personal accessory that allows constant social connection. Japan'senthusiastic engagement with mobile technology has become -- along with anime, manga, and sushi --part of its trendsetting popular culture. Personal, Portable, Pedestrian, the first book-lengthEnglish-language treatment of mobile communication use in Japan, covers the transformation of keitaifrom business tool to personal device for communication and play.The essays in this groundbreakingcollection document the emergence, incorporation, and domestication of mobile communications in awide range of social practices and institutions. The book first considers the social, cultural, andhistorical context of keitai development, including its beginnings in youth pager use in the early1990s. It then discusses the virtually seamless integration of keitai use into everyday life,contrasting it to the more escapist character of Internet use on the PC. Other essays suggest thatthe use of mobile communication reinforces ties between close friends and family, producing"tele-cocooning" by tight-knit social groups. The book also discusses mobile phone manners andexamines keitai use by copier technicians, multitasking housewives, and school children. Personal,Portable, Pedestrian describes a mobile universe in which networked relations are a pervasive andpersistent fixture of everyday life.

Mizuko Ito is Research Scientist at the University of California Humanities Research Institute.