Information and communication technologies and the moral economy of the household

In this chapter we sketch out the framework of a model aimed towards understanding the nature of the relationship between private households and public worlds and the role of communication and information technologies in that relationship. 2‘No general model of how people use objects can ignore household practices and relations’ suggests James Carrier in a recent (1990:3) paper. The reverse is also true. No general model of household practices and relations can ignore how people use objects. But when those objects are communication and information technologies: televisions, telephones, videos and computers, the problems of modelling become extremely complex.