We live in a world where social interaction is increasingly
mediated by technological devices. In this book, Ian Hutchby
explores the impact these technologies have on our attempts to
communicate. Focusing on four examples – telephones, computerized
expert systems at work, speech-based systems dealing with enquiries
from the public, and multi-user spaces on the Internet – Hutchby
asks: are we increasingly technologized conversationalists, or is
technology increasingly conversationalized?
Conversation and Technology draws on recent theory and
empirical research in conversation analysis, ethnomethodology and
the social construction of technology. In novel contributions to
each of these areas, Hutchby argues that the ways in which we
interact can be profoundly shaped by technological media, while at
the same time we ourselves are shapers of both the cultural and
interactional properties of these technologies.
The book begins by examining a variety of theoretical perspectives
on this issue. Hutchby offers a critical appraisal of recent
sociological thinking, which has tended to over-estimate society’s
influence on technological development. Instead he calls for a new
appreciation of the relationship between human communication and
technology. Using a range of case studies to illustrate his
argument, Hutchby explores the multiplicity of ways in which
technology affects our ordinary conversational practices.
Readers in areas as diverse as sociology, communication studies,
psychology, computer science and management studies will find much
of interest in this account of the human and communicative
properties of various forms of modern communication technology.

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