Calling Technology: Discourses On/Of The Intranet In A Comparative Case-Study Stream 15: Technology, Language and Power

The aim of the present paper is to point out linguistic practices of social construction through which technology is established both as a communication medium and a work tool. Starting from the analysis of technological imagery as a specific stage of innovation, language is addressed as one of the most important devices in setting out shared representations of information technologies. The technology in question is the Intranet, whose implementation inside companies is often depicted as a ‘must’ of advanced managerial thinking. On the other hand, these macro-representations shape and are shaped by other interpretations and discourses carried out into specific organisational contexts. The results presented here belong to an ongoing Ph. D research, based on a comparative case-study between an Italian and a UK company, both of them recently involved in the process of Intranet implementation. Data from the ethnographic fieldwork are re-ordered and classified according the categories of language and discourse, at the level of both social imagery (discourses on) and of organisational practices (discourses of). Power issues, as instances of fixity and stabilization of interpretative flexibility of technology, are addressed and analyzed in two main forms: users’ representations and inscription of obliged routines.