In his discussion paper, Richard Ennals takes a closer look on how information technology and its use changed over time and in which way this process altered the nature of workplaces and societies alike.
The technology has dropped out of separate consideration and provided a new vocabulary and set of concepts. Policy discourses have changed, physical distance is no longer an obstacle to communication, the workplace is no longer a fixed location. Mobile work environments are part of a wider process of societal change, where borders have moved, and keep on moving.
The author introduces contexts in different individual countries, and a set of new cross-disciplinary discourses. The same technologies are in use, but with meanings that have to be explained, at least in part, in terms of cultural situatedness.