The Rhetoric and Realities of Internet Technologies on Trade Union Marketing: Marketing, Communications, Resistance

Peter John Stokes, Brian Jones and Howard Kline
Additional contact information
Peter John Stokes: De Montfort University, UK
Brian Jones: Leeds Beckett University, UK
Howard Kline: City University of New York, USA

International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction (IJTHI), 2021, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-22

Abstract: The internet and the many technologies it has generated (for example, social media) create varying impacts in specific sectors. Trades unions (TUs) are a case in point and are significant longstanding institutions which have developed over a number of centuries in many different national contexts. While the internet has been adopted by TUs, they have also generally been cast in an idealised light as if the web should automatically be expected to radically transform and improve processes, communities, and relations. The paper challenges this zeitgeist and suggests that the predominant ‘utopian'-style idealistic presentation of TU and the web is the product of technological determinism. This has important implications for TUs ‘lived experiences' and realpolitik. There is a risk that technologies will continue to operate at a macro, rather than a micro individual level, and be more dominated by managerial and commercial motives which encroach on legitimate TU representation and resistance rather than TU interests.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve. ... 018/IJTHI.2021040101 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jthi00:v:17:y:2021:i:2:p:1-22

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction (IJTHI) is currently edited by Anabela Mesquita

More articles in International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction (IJTHI) from IGI Global
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journal Editor ().