These documents are work in progress and are therefore not available directly. Much of the work has been adapted for inclusion in the deliverables. Requests for copies of any of these papers should be directed to Jacqui Forsyth in the first instance.
Calvey, D.
MAN-2-5
In this paper I aim to outline the ethnographic mode both in its social science and systems design context.As regards the latter context the "shift to the social" shall be embedded within the development and prominence of firstly,CSCW as a topic and field and secondly,"radical" forms of ethnography inspired by ethnomethodological study policy which offer alternative theories,schemas and frameworks of work and organization.
Calvey, D.
MAN-2-6
This paper is concerned with clearly discerning a framework of analysis of work and organization for COMIC.Such a framework is both embedded within and informed by the radical ethnographic understanding of work and organization substantively drawn from an ethnomethodological tradition.Such a framework departs from,is an alternative to and hence shall be contrasted against what we shall refer to as the "classic studies and theories of work and organization".
Hughes, J., V. King, et al.
LANCS-2-11
Over the last few years, ethnography has been proposed as new approach to `requirements elicitation' in interactive systems development. The turn to ethnography is a response to the need for an adequate understanding of the nature of work to underpin the construction of interactive systems. In the context of system design, ethnographic studies have included photocopier use [13], office work [14], air traffic control [7], police work [1] and underground control rooms[8]. However, ethnography though holding much promise is still relatively untried in system design. It has been, and still is, strong on its critique of other methods, such as Task Analysis [4], but it has yet to prove itself within the wider community of software engineering, particularly to those working in commercial and industrial contexts.
Hughes, J., J. O'Brien, et al.
LANCS-2-10
In this paper we argue that industrial development of interactive systems has to recognise the social dimension of work if they are to fully meet the real needs of their users. Under current approaches this depends on whether an individual requirements engineer implicitly applies a user-centred approach and recognises the importance of cooperation and is sufficiently sympathetic and intuitive to understand the work and reflect this in the system requirements. We wish to move beyond this by allowing for the provision of a more systematic incorporation of the social dimensions of work. To this end we focus on developing a number of alternative models for involving ethnography in the requirements process and a more systematic approach to the presentation of ethnographic material. Our approach to the presentation of ethnographic information is based on the use of number of defined viewpoints and is embodied within a general hypertext tool.
Hughes, J., J. O'Brien, et al.
LANCS-2-12
Studies of the `requirements elicitation' process have conventionally focused on early `prototyping' phases in systems design, highlighting issues such as the `gradient of resistance' and conflict and negotiation between `users' and `designers'. This paper examines the emergence of `requirements' from systems in use in commercial contexts, using data from two ethnographic field studies, and discusses some of these issues in the light of this data. It draws conclusions relating to the nature of requirements elicitation as a `process', taking place over time and in different contexts of use and organisational response and priority, and discusses the role of ethnography in addressing such a process.
Kuutti, K.
OULU-2-11
The field of the study is challenges posed to Information Systems research by emerging new forms of work organisation. The concepts used for analysing work in a routine automation context are insufficient when analysing new work situations, and new conceptual tools are needed.
The characteristics of post-Fordist work are identified and compared with issues raised in recent discussions in Information Systems and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work research. It is found that there is a remarkable overlap. Based on such findings it is claimed that the emergence of new organisational forms may have influenced the occuurrence of the debates more than was expected or was documented in the literature. This connection greatly increases the importance of the theoretical debates, but also increases the pressure to produce results of practical relevance.
Kuutti, K. and H. Karasti
OULU-2-10
The paper continues the discussion about the role of ethnography in system design from the viewpoint of system designers. It suggests that ethnographically-inspired methods can be useful in system design also when used by system designers, but that system designers might also contribute something in deeper ethnographical analysis because of their firm connection to the material world and technology. The suggestions are illustrated by an example from a fieldwork done in studying radiological conferences. Finally, the paper suggests that ethnography might help in developing rich categories and concepts to describe future work practices.
Randall, D., J. Hughes, et al.
LANCS-2-13
Our particular concern in this paper is to contrast Business Process Re-engeering (BPR), with ethnography, a sociological approach to work study prominent in CSCW.Both approaches challenge orthodox structured methods for system design and stress the vital importance of investigating organisations as a preliminary for proposing changes. However, beyond this there are some crucially significant differences between the two approaches which have a bearing on CSCW. We focus here on Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), not because it is the 'best' or even the 'trendiest' of the available programmes, but because it is self- confessedly the most 'radical', systematic, and far-reaching of the change management techniques now available. We feel that an examination of its promise and some of its limitations is overdue not least because it poses a challenge to sociologists working in CSCW.
Rouncefield, M., J. O'Brien, et al.
LANCS-2-14
This paper reflects on our experiences in supporting communication between fieldworkers and the designers of cooperative systems. We have investigated the nature of this communication by using a tool orginally designed to support the representation of software designs to present emerging results of ethnographic material. In this paper we discuss the tool used (the DNP) and the experiences of using the toolkit in the context of design. Our particular focus is on the use of the tool to represents results from a study of a UK financial institution where a series of prototyping exercises was underway.
Sharrock, W.
MAN-2-4
This paper offers an account of ethnomethodologically informed ethnography. In doing so it contrasts ethnomethodology's fundamental treatment of social actors' 'commonsense' methods of understanding the world, with that treatment underpinning much work in the sociological tradition where the emphasis is on 'debunking' that which is seen as 'socially constructed'.
Sharrock, W. and G. Button
MAN-2-8
In this paper we will explore the distinctive character of ethnomethodological studies of technology, for this character provides, in turn, a distinctive understanding of the relationship between `the technical' and `the social' which is a major theme of many current sociological interests in technology. Our examination will be illustrative of ethnomethodological investigations of technology rather than a review of the various studies of technology done under the auspices of an ethnomethodological remit or an attempt to categorise those studies in terms of the thematics of analysis that are emerging. We will develop our illustration with respect to a major theme within ethnomethodological studies which is that social action takes place in real time.
Sharrock, W. and G. Button
MAN-2-9
This paper addresses the relationship between the organisation of talk and the organisation of the work of design and development, drawing on empirical material describing a sunrise meeting of the representatives of the different modules involved in the design and development of a photo-copier. The object of this paper is to ground this description in the interaction between the participants. We want to show that the participants are involved in working out what part of the ensuing day's work will be, as candidate solutions to engineering problems they find in the Fault Report Forms. We also what to show how that work is done, and how that mentality is displayed in and as the talk that makes up the meeting, and consequently we want to show how an account of the particular practices of talk is an account of part of the work of design and development.
Sharrock, W. and W. Coleman
MAN-2-7
Within the space of this brief paper it is not possible either fully to work out or to begin the documentation of the nature and sources of dissent such as ours from much of the use to which the notion of 'social construction' is currently put. Our argument must, of necessity, have a perfunctory character, with room only for the assertion and comparatively superficial argument on behalf of a handful of mainly critical points.
The fundamental reservations we express pertain to (a) what we see to be the conflation of epistemological and sociological issues and (b) the extent to which the pursuit of epistemological concerns subverts the realisation of the sociological objectives which might have been sought through the implementation of the notion of 'social construction.'
Viller, S.
LANCS-2-12
This document is a report on the ACM 1994 conference on CSCW, which took place in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on October 22-26. The report includes a full listing of the papers given at the conference, along with the author's experience of attending as a student volunteer.
Included at the end of the report is the paper presented at CSCW'94 which the author was a co-author of. It has already appeared as COMIC-LANCS-2-7