TY - JOUR
T1 - Technology and social interaction: the emergence of 'workplace studies'
AU - Heath, C
AU - Knoblauch, H
AU - Luff, P
PY - 2000/6
Y1 - 2000/6
N2 - Despite the substantial body of literature concerned with the ways in which digital media are transforming contemporary society and institutional life, we have relatively little understanding of the ways in which new technologies feature in day to day organizational conduct and interaction. There is however a growing corpus of empirical research which places the situated and contingent character of new technologies at the heart of the analytic agenda, but as yet, these studies are relatively little known within sociology. They include ethnographies of command and control centres, financial institutions, the news media, and the construction industry. They address the ways in which tools and technologies, ranging from paper documents through to complex multimedia systems, feature in work and collaboration. In this paper, we discuss these so-called 'workplace studies' and consider their implications for our understanding of organizational conduct, social interaction and new technology.
AB - Despite the substantial body of literature concerned with the ways in which digital media are transforming contemporary society and institutional life, we have relatively little understanding of the ways in which new technologies feature in day to day organizational conduct and interaction. There is however a growing corpus of empirical research which places the situated and contingent character of new technologies at the heart of the analytic agenda, but as yet, these studies are relatively little known within sociology. They include ethnographies of command and control centres, financial institutions, the news media, and the construction industry. They address the ways in which tools and technologies, ranging from paper documents through to complex multimedia systems, feature in work and collaboration. In this paper, we discuss these so-called 'workplace studies' and consider their implications for our understanding of organizational conduct, social interaction and new technology.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0034198710&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00071310050030190
DO - 10.1080/00071310050030190
M3 - Article
VL - 51
SP - 299
EP - 320
JO - British Journal of Sociology
JF - British Journal of Sociology
IS - 2
ER -