• Forthcoming publications will stimulate
further dialog with scholars and community partners. English-Lueck’s
book, Cultures@Silicon Valley,
was published by Stanford
University Press in 2002. This book draws on our first ten years
of study to discuss the role of culture in Silicon Valley’s
character and evolution.
• Darrah, English-Lueck and Freeman
will soon publish Busy Bodies (working title)
based upon the Alfred P. Sloan
funded dual career middle class families study. The writing of this
second book was partially supported by a program officer grant made
by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
to Darrah.
• Darrah and Freeman’s Remaking
Everyday Life (working title) will be published
in the near future. This crossover book is an ethnographic study of
everyday life in the region and examines the changes that have taken
place as the economy has waxed and waned. It reflects insights gained
during the Alfred P. Sloan funded
project on dual career middle class families and follows the book
that will result from that research. Writing this book, too, was partially
supported by the same program officer grant to Darrah.
• Collaborations continue to be fruitful
for ethnographic research. Darrah and English-Lueck are continuing
their fruitful association with the Institute
for the Future regarding the future of households, work, technologies
and health. This research often informs and is informed by our in-depth
ethnographic work in Silicon Valley. Darrah and English-Lueck continue
to be involved in projects that identify social innovations in households,
youth networks and knowledge workers. One such project, completed
in 2001, was explicitly cross-cultural, drawing on the Silicon Valley
based research, but also complementing research done in other major
metropolitan areas around the world, such as London, Stockholm, Helsinki
and Tokyo. Collaborations with Herman
Miller on the future of work yielded insights on changing work
patterns for both partners.
The team continues to work locally,
harnessing community-based research to help organizations understand
the changes in the community. One partnership, concerning youth, was
built with Santa
Clara County Office of Education’s Center for Educational Planning
and other community organizations. The team is also forming collaborations,
part of the Engaged
Department Institute, using community-based research to link our
classes with ethnographic research. For example, in 2004 and 2005
the team will be partnering with the Health
Trust and Project Shine
to examine health literacy among elderly immigrants.
• Darrah will
continue to collaborate with the Center
for Work, Technology and Organization, Stanford
University where he served as an invited visiting professor 2001-2002.
This affiliation will provide additional intellectual support for
the writing projects. English-Lueck will continue to work with the
Stanford Continuing
Education program to develop classes on issues pertaining to Silicon
Valley.
• With two grants from San
José State University, Dr. English-Lueck visited silicon
places in New Zealand in July 2002 in preparation for more extensive
comparative research. Several grant proposals are under development
to continue this cross-cultural research. Research questions in this
project include:
› What is a silicon place and who defines it?
› How is that identity disseminated and why?
› What is the role of the postcolonial legacy in setting
the policy worldview that underpins contemporary
global interaction?
› What is the role of local work practices,
technological use patterns, and local constructions
of identity, friendship, networking on emerging
household and family formations?
› What role do governmental entities and universities
play in creating productive networks?
› How are those networks culturally constituted and
what impact does it have on the
creation, maintenance
and editing of the silicon identity?
Karl
Lueck Designs. . . karl.lueck@att.net.