The Internet of Things: Social dimensions

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a vast, dispersed system in which a diverse array of objects, humans, and other living things is connected via “smart” technologies and the Internet. In this article, I present a thematic review of the literature that focuses on the social dimensions of the IoT. Drawing on research published in sociology, anthropology, cultural geography, critical urban studies, science and technology studies, environmental studies, and human–computer interaction studies and design, I outline key conceptual approaches and then discuss four major themes emerging across these dispersed but cognate literatures: (a) techno‐utopian imaginaries, (b) risks and harms, (c) lived experiences, and (d) interventions into futures. As I show, to date, most of the social research literature has focused on the topics of smart cities and smart homes in the context of the Global North. Some researchers have begun to employ innovative methods to generate new and alternative ways of imagining IoT technologies. The article concludes with proposing directions for future research. These include directing more attention to publics' role in intervening in the futures of IoT, to applications of smart technologies beyond the smart city and home, and the IoT in the context of the Global South.

Cyber-Physical-Social Systems: Taxonomy, Challenges, and Opportunities

“…Another issue is related to social acceptance. Social acceptance of new technologies such as IoT and CPSS is something that if the human is not considered as the user and provider of the system's information, we cannot make user-friendly applications and even appealing human interfaces [50]. Energy consumption plays an important role in the CPSS design.…”

Living in, with and beyond the ‘smart home’: Introduction to the special issue

“…The ‘smartness’ of these devices and systems relates to their promised automated functions, aspects such as voice activation, and data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) processing features that are promised to readily adapt to the conditions of the homes and lifestyles of their occupants (Hargreaves et al, 2018; Richardson et al, 2017; Strengers et al, 2019a). The more sophisticated systems are often described as part of the Internet of Things (Lupton, 2020), incorporating sensors that monitor motion, light and temperature and smart wiring that connect different devices and ‘learn’ from inhabitants’ activities and preferences. According to one building industry website (Build, 2021), ‘the measure of a “good” smart home is the extent to which it improves your home, and how unobtrusively it achieves this’.…”

Characteristics and Challenges of the Internet of Things in Entrepreneurship

“…In scientific literature, the IoT has been attributed a variety of descriptions (Oriwoh & Conrad, 2015). It has been described as a network (Gubbi et al, 2013;Xia et al, 2012;Hussein, 2019), a paradigm (Ning & Liu, 2012;Ryu et al, 2012), a concept (Bari, Mani, & Berkovich, 2013), and an ecosystem (Asghari, Rahmani, & Javadi, 2018) and a global network infrastructure (Vongsingthong & Smanchat, 2014;Lupton, 2019). Within this research paper, the IoT is defined as a computing concept that describes the idea of everyday physical objects being connected to the internet and being able to identify themselves to other devices.…”

“…The number of IoT devices is rapidly expanding. The industry analytics company Gartner estimated that in 2017, there were 8.4 billion Internet-connected things in use (Lupton, 2019). These objects include mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet computers, and wearable devices like fitness trackers and smartwatches, as well as industrial machinery and transport systems.…”