Computers in the home: domestication and gender

Abstract

This paper investigates the integration of the home computer into the domestic sphere through a gender perspective on the notions of domesticity and domestication. The study is based on a series of interviews with seven British families in the late 1990s. The analysis is used to identify some of the characteristics that contribute to make the home computer domestic or undomestic, and to explore the processes of domestication. A focus on fears and anxieties around the computer as well as the emergence of myths and magical notions allows for deeper insights into the gender‐domestication “problématique”.

Citation

Habib, L. and Cornford, T. (2002), "Computers in the home: domestication and gender", Information Technology & People, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 159-174. https://doi.org/10.1108/09593840210430589