The hospitality metaphor as a theoretical lens for understanding the ICT adoption process
pp. 305-326
in: , Bricolage, care and information, Berlin, Springer, 2009Abstract
The Hospitality Metaphor proposed by Ciborra represents an alternative view to the traditional models that describe the process of adopting information and communication technologies (ICT).This Metaphor helps us in considering social, behavioural and existential elements related to the adoption process, offering a critical and dialectical view of it. In this paper, we review the philosophical and methodological basis of this Metaphor and its main statements. We also apply it in analysing a case of mobile ICT adoption. The application of the Hospitality Metaphor enables a clear understanding of this process as an incremental and open one in which social, existential and "mundane" issues play a major role, and where technology reveals its dubious character, leading to unplanned results.