Techno-Territories : the spatial, technological and social reorganization of office work

Abstract

In this thesis, I examine the current reorganization of office or information work in its technological, spatial, social and cultural aspects. Based on ethnographic and historical methods, I explore how information and communication technologies, and spatial designs combined with specific organizational visions shape the social organization and culture of work. Analyzing ideas as well as material configurations, design as well as use, and developments in offices as well as those beyond the office, I am particularly concerned with the new forms of life and cultural formations these developments produce. The 1990s saw a development towards more flexible, mobile and virtual ways of officing, such as non-territorial offices and remote work. Analyzing the alternative officing movement in the context of wider economic and cultural changes, I demonstrate the strategic role technology plays for the movement's vision of a less place-based definition of work. Suggesting an alternative intellectual origin for today's office concepts different from Taylorism, I opt for the concept of office landscaping, an influential German office concept developed after WW2 and inspired by cybernetics. Fieldwork in a present day innovative office design firm reveals a deep tension in its office designs between a more flexible and mobile organizational goal, and a more communicative and collaborative one - a tension that is exacerbated by technology. Further exploring the designers' own mobile and non-territorial office, I introduce the notion of placemaking to explain the observed friction in the mobile ways of the office. I also find a reconfigured power dynamic that is no longer based on space ownership, but rather on mobility and ownership of technology, or "techno-territory."

(cont.) Not only do I examine alternative office designs, I also investigate remote and technologically mediated work beyond the office among high-tech workers in the Silicon Valley region. My analysis suggests not only novel network-like social and professional structures but also hidden costs for individuals associated with these new formations.