Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Co-Investigator: Professor Adele Ladkin

Project Description:

Family Ritual 2.0 is a multidisciplinary research project exploring the evolving nature of family rituals in the digital age and the use of technology to support the work-life balance of mobile workers.

The project identifies family rituals as key features of prosaic family experience that may come into conflict with workplace demands, especially in the digital era of being on-line or contactable at any time. In efforts to support work-life balance, a deeper understanding of the evolving nature of family rituals within the digital age is required.

The term work life balance is open to interpretation.  In its most simple form, it can be taken as the point at which an individual is satisfied with their lives both at work and in other areas of their lives.  However, complexity is evident. For example, work means different things to different people, boundaries between work and other aspects of lives are increasingly blurred, and what constitutes a balance is open to individual and cultural variation.  Whilst definitions of work life balance are open to interpretation, what is without question is that for many, the nature of work is changing.  In the technology based and knowledge intensive industries, work is released from its traditional time and space constraints, creating new opportunities for mobility and flexible working.  Technology is instrumental in facilitating this change.

Our research hypothesizes that engagement in domestic rituals are a way of constructing family life.  We seek to understand individuals’ values held in everyday rituals and the situated social context of mobile workers, and how digital technologies might be used to support inclusion in these rituals for those who are away from home.

The aims are of our research are to:

• Understand the domestic rituals people share and the values they place in them
• Explore existing technologies that facilitate ritual activity, as part of work/life balance
• Understand how simple technologies can support inclusion in domestic rituals.

• Understand how existing technologies are being used to support in engagement in family rituals for mobile workers

• Produce speculative designs around the novel reconfiguration of existing technologies to support domestic rituals

For further information about the project, please visit the project website:

http://familyrituals2-0.org.uk/