La téléphonie mobile, une communication itinérante ou individuelle ? Premiers éléments d'une analyse des usages en France

Abstract

The aim of this research paper is to construct hypotheses concerning uses of mobile phones in France, by relating them to their professional and family contexts. The author thus reveals that the forms of diffusion and types of usage which are gradually emerging seem to be determined less by the characteristics of the mobile communication tool itself, than by the profound transformations experienced by both the professional world (particularly with the introduction of new forms of management) and the family (particularly with a growing complexity of family ties).

The Mobile Phone: An Identity on the Move

“…In particular, there has not been to our knowledge any work aimed at defining the mobile's profile. However, Guillaume [15] and Heurtin [16] had already questioned the assumption that the mobile phone was a pre-eminently mobile technology, putting more emphasis on the aspect of individual.…”

“…The time has come to follow the road opened by Guillaume [15] and Heurtin [16], i.e. it is time to try and understand if there is any heuristic value in distinguishing mobile from fixed technologies (television, radio, computer, video-recorder, fax, answer-phone, the Internet).…”

“…In offices, for example, the mobile phone is the second phone, always on, and causing (but also resolving) many problems of telephone traffic and availability. It cannot be turned off, 87 5 Heurtin [16] reports that in the CNET/DIH/UCE French survey (1998) telephone users were going through a specialisation of networks, with interlocutors specifically contacted on fixed lines or mobile. In particular, the interlocutors of exclusive fixed lines were still the very large majority in 1998.…”

“…Considering the five countries analysed separately, this relation was significant only in the case of Germany 16 , where the use of the mobile phone was therefore, again significantly more wide- Source: Towards a European scenario of telecommunications [17].…”

“…(z=-4.60***). 16 For the relation between the diffusion of the use of the mobile and the residential mobility of the interviewees, in Germany w 2 (8) =17.43, p<0.03; for more than 20 years: z=2.29*. spread among interviewees who had lived at the same address for more than 20 years.…”