Practice Theory and Media Infrastructures: "Infrastructural Disclosures" in Smartphone Use

Paolo Magaudda; Tiziana Piccioni

doi:10.6092/issn.1971-8853/9469

Authors

Paolo Magaudda FISPPA Department, University of Padova http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0830-8299
Paolo Magaudda is Assistant Professor in Sociology of Culture and Communication at the FISPPA Department, University of Padova (Italy), where he is member of the PaSTIS Research Unit (Padova Science Technology & Innovation Studies). The main focus of his work is on the relationship between culture, technology and society, with a specific attention to digital media, consumer culture and music. His most recent books are A History of Digital Media. An Intermedia and Global Perspective (with G. Balbi, Routledge, 2018) and Vite Interconnesse. Pratiche Digitali attraverso Smartphone, App e Piattaforme (in Italian, with M. Driusian and M. Scarcelli, Meltemi, 2019). He is co-editor-in-chief of the journals Tecnoscienza. Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies (STS Italia) and Studi Culturali (Il Mulino).
Tiziana Piccioni Free University of Bozen - Bolzano
Tiziana Piccioni obtained her PhD in Communication and New Technologies in 2014 at the IULM (International University of Languages and Media) in Milan, after her master's degree in Sociology from the University of Padua. Currently, she is Adjunct lecturer in Theories of Cultural Consumption at the Free University of Bozen. She is mainly interested in sociotechnical innovation processes in the field of media and communications and the use of qualitative analysis tools.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/9469

Keywords:

Practice theory, Media infrastructure studies, Smartphone, Digital media, Infrastructural disclosures

Abstract

The article concentrates on the contamination between practice theory and infrastructure studies by focussing on the routines and practices related to smartphone use. In order to address on an empirical ground the infrastructural implications of smartphone-based practices, the article presents the results of a qualitative research, based on a total of 26 qualitative interviews and one focus group with young smartphone users, residents of different cities of the Veneto Region in Italy. Theoretically, the article introduces the notion of infrastructural disclosure, which is adopted in the empirical analysis as an analytical tool to favour the visibility of infrastructural implications in smartphone practices. Infrastructural disclosures do not represent qualities of infrastructures but analytical strategies that bring to light the often “invisible” and “taken-for-granted” infrastructural qualities in smartphone use. On this basis, the article addresses five main dimensions of infrastructural disclosures in smartphone use: electricity, radio signal, data, operative systems and platforms. Finally, after the analysis of these five main infrastructural dimensions, the authors outline in the conclusion how a stronger emphasis on infrastructural relationships could improve our understanding of today’s digital media practices.

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Practice Theory and Media Infrastructures: "Infrastructural Disclosures" in Smartphone Use

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