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Cognition and Place

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From Machinery to Mobility

Part of the book series: Public Administration and Information Technology ((PAIT,volume 2))

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Abstract

Viewed through a bureaucratic prism, a mobile workforce is unwieldy, uncontrollable, and unproductive. Conversely, a central premise of mobility is precisely the opposite—namely that bureaucracy is poorly suited to collaboration and engagement, much as its ethos of control runs counter to today’s imperative of empowerment. An environment of heightened mobility and virtualization necessitates alterations to the intellectual, physical, and organizational dimensions of organizational activity for public servants working within the confines of government. Yet despite a growing online universe and widening virtualization, the importance of geographic proximity remains a central element of socioeconomic development and public sector organization. Such tensions between the traditional patterns of place (and the physicality of both organizational and jurisdictional governance models) and more virtual communications and interactivity are central to tensions between machinery and mobility.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Regrettably, the author of this book himself fell victim to the related fraudulent practice of fabricating quotes (specifically quotes attributed to Bob Dylan), a scandal leading to his resignation in July 2012 from various prominent media affiliations. The absence of intellectual property protection during Shakespeare’s carries relevance to present tensions between proprietary forms of information and open source, a theme returned to in the subsequent chapter.

  2. 2.

    Underpinned by various metrics such as educational degrees and related indices of the knowledge workforce, many DC-area proponents characterize the region as the country’s second leading home of technology workers after Silicon Valley in California.

  3. 3.

    Extracted from an online commentary on “Shaping the Workplace Through Web 2.0 Technologies,” CIO Office of the US Department of Defense. Source: http://dodcio.defense.gov/Home/Initiatives/NetGenerationGuide/ShapingtheWorkplaceThroughWeb20Technologies.aspx

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Jeffrey Roy

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  1. Jeffrey Roy
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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Roy, J. (2013). Cognition and Place. In: From Machinery to Mobility. Public Administration and Information Technology, vol 2. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7221-6_3

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