Perpetual Contact : Mobile Communication, Private Talk, Public Performance

Rating:
Summary: A Sociological Analysis of Mobile Communications
Review: Published in 2001, this book is a collection of twenty-one papers submitted by research-oriented writers from both the academic and corporate worlds.

The papers discuss aspects of mobile voice and data communication adoption and use and the impact of this technology on various societies. Some of the papers compare the affects of mobile communications technology between cultures and nations including Scandinavia, Asia, the USA and other European nations.

Some papers relied only on the author's observations to support their thesis, and others used qualitative or quantitative consumer surveys, or statistical analysis of other published numerical data. Most were very analytic and written in the tone of professional, peer reviewed academic technical journal articles complete with extensive bibliographic references. It seems the authors were searching to construct some new models of social and cultural interaction based on the use of mobile technologies.

There are some thought-provoking analytic studies documented here, and good bibliographic references. If this is what you are looking for I feel that these papers would rank among the vanguard of social and cultural research in mobile telephony at the time.