Mobile urban professionals in Tokyo: tales of locational, interactional and operational mobility

Abstract

Fueled by strong market forces as well as by increasingly ubiquitous and pervasive mobile technologies, shifts in working practices and the application of mobile technologies have been occurring around the turn of the millennium. One such change concerns the work of professionals. This paper discusses the emergence of the mobile professional, through a field study of more than 60 professional workers in Tokyo during 2002. The paper concludes that one must broaden one's conception of mobility and conceptualize mobile professional work in terms of locational, operational, and interactional mobility. Furthermore, some implications for a new design of mobile professional work and technology use are drawn from the analysis of the field study: ICT as mobility-booster; maintaining multiple ongoing interactions; the importance of personal networks; and places as material foundations for interaction.