Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Notes on the contributors -- Editors -- Contributors -- Preface and acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction: framing the issues -- Greater than gods -- A mind- and society-altering technology -- Scholarly lacuna -- More popular than TV -- Framing the mobile phone -- Folk framing -- Expert framing -- A new perspective and a new term: the convergence of the folks and experts -- Looking forward -- References -- Part I Mobile communication: national and comparative perspectives -- 2 Finland: a mobile culture -- Introduction -- Ownership -- The communicative and social aspects of the mobile phone -- Work and leisure -- Public and private -- The mobile phone and Finnish speech culture -- Mobile phones, emotions and lifestyle -- Summing up -- References -- 3 Israel: chutzpah and chatter in the Holy Land -- Cellular telephony in Israel: a pattern of growth -- Israelis and technology: a love story -- Patterns of use -- The social setting for interpreting mobile phone usage in Israel -- References -- 4 Italy: stereotypes, true and false -- Introduction -- The basic characteristics of the mobile phone -- Is the mobile phone seen as a communicative instrument? -- Is the mobile phone really a mobile technology? -- Is the mobile phone a metropolitan technology? -- Is the mobile phone a really portable technology? -- Is the mobile phone a technology of intimacy? -- The reasons for the success of the mobile phone -- The mobile phone and ethical and aesthetic dimensions -- Conclusions -- References -- 5 Korea: personal meanings -- Introduction -- Thesis -- Remarks on data -- Conditions for fast diffusion -- Korean social characteristics -- Life after work and the use of mobile phones -- Forming a new order? -- Appendix -- References.

6 United States: popular, pragmatic and problematic -- Introduction -- The United States mobile phone communication market -- Current US mobile phone users -- US mobile phone non-users -- Security and privacy issues -- Issues of symbolic behavior in public space -- Questions for researchers -- Conclusion -- References -- 7 France: preserving the image -- Scope and data -- The cellular phone and the management of distant phone interactions: of trust and negotiated local contexts -- De-contextualization effects of the mobile phone -- The cellular phone and the entrenchment of modernity: from trust and tracing to the construction of bonds and commitments… -- Temporal synchronizations: from disclosing and anticipating bits of schedule to the tracing of mobile phone users -- Synchronization, coordination and commitment: the building of trust and bonds in cellular phone interactions -- Conclusion -- References -- 8 The Netherlands and the USA compared -- Introduction -- Methodology -- The set-up of the research -- Theoretical orientation: cultural differences -- Realm 1: human relations -- Realm 2: attitude toward time -- Realm 3: environment and locus of control -- Results -- Mobility -- Reasons for the use of communication devices -- Values: ICTs and bad manners -- Cultural differences -- Owners and non-owners -- The relation of perceptions to the adopter curve -- Changing perceptions of usefulness and necessity -- Situation -- Conclusions and discussion -- References -- 9 Bulgaria: mobile phones as post-communist cultural icons -- Part II Private talk: interpersonal relations and micro-behavior -- 10 Hyper-coordination via mobile phones in Norway -- Introduction -- Method and general framework -- Method -- Framework for the analysis -- Micro-coordination -- Transportation, telecommunication and the development of the cities.

Mobile communication and micro-coordination -- Hyper-coordination -- Adolescence, contemporary society and accessibility -- Instrumental use of the mobile telephone -- Expressive use of the mobile telephone -- The mobile telephone as an element in the presentation of the self -- Conclusion -- References -- 11 Mobile culture of children and teenagers in Finland -- Introduction -- Purpose -- Data -- Informants -- Background on the social context of Finnish teenagers -- School and hobbies -- Income -- Religious confirmation -- Leisure -- Text messaging culture: the case of Finnish adolescents -- Message collecting culture -- Circulating chain messages -- Collective reading and composing of messages -- Relationships -- Language -- Personal text message repertoires -- New cultural artifacts -- Teens, text and mobile phones -- References -- 12 Pretense of intimacy in France -- Introduction -- Mobility -- Thesis -- Accessibility: a harbinger of the deregulation of civil coexistence -- The primacy of private life -- Criteria of social success -- Mobile phone conversations: from formal to informal -- Telephone sociability: from the dispersed social network to the inner circle -- Conclusion -- References -- 13 Mobile phone consumption and concepts of personhood -- Half full and half empty -- Individuation and selfhood -- Multiple ways of consuming? -- Conclusion -- References -- Part III Public performance: social groups and structures -- 14 The challenge of absent presence -- The expansion and implications of absent presence -- Cultural reverberations of absent presence -- Dangerous liaisons -- Horizontal relationships -- Humans without qualities -- The new floating world -- Retrenchment and reconfiguration: the cellular phone -- Perils of prophecy -- References.

15 From mass society to perpetual contact: models of communication technologies in social context -- Mass society -- Particularizing technologies and mass surveillance -- Creating the infrastructure of mass surveilance -- From mass society to perpetual contact -- Models of things to come -- Appendectomy vs. drug addiction -- Embryo vs. a random walk -- Niche-dweller vs. weed -- Concluding thoughts -- References -- 16 Mobiles and the Norwegian teen: identity, gender and class -- The mobile phone in teen identity and subculture -- Data and measures -- Independent variables -- Dependent variables -- Results -- Mobile phones and social class -- Mobile phones and gender -- Mobile phones and academic self-esteem -- Mobile phones and digital competence -- Discussion -- The mobile phone as a class phenomenon -- Gendering of mobile phones -- The mobile phone as digital capital -- The mobile phone as an icon in youth culture -- Acknowledgment -- Appendix -- References -- 17 The telephone comes to a Filipino village -- Main results -- Briefly about the Philippines -- Telephones in the Philippines -- Description of the barangay -- Access to phones -- Comparative prices of phone use -- Use of phones -- Comparison with expectations -- Conclusion -- References -- 18 Beginnings in the telephone -- References -- 19 Conclusion: making meaning of mobiles - a theory of Apparatgeist -- Span of consequences -- Tackling theoretical issues -- Articulating the neologism Apparatgeist -- The logic of perpetual contact -- The pertinence of the Apparatgeist theory -- Conclusion -- References -- Appendixes -- A On "Opening Sequencing": a framing statement -- Note -- References -- B Opening sequencing -- The problem of availability -- Summons-answer sequences -- Non-terminality of summons-answer (SA) sequences -- Conditional relevance in SA sequences.

Problematic answers to summonses -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- Index.