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Social informatics and sociotechnical research — a view from the UK

Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, E.Davenport{at}napier.ac.uk

This paper explores the connections between two historical lines of research: social informatics in the United States, and sociotechnical studies in the United Kingdom. The author discusses samples of work from three long established UK research sites, at Manchester, Edinburgh and the London School of Economics, to give the reader a sense of sociotechnical work at different historical periods. Though the US and UK traditions share a common interest in the production of technology, and work with complementary concepts and methods, formal links between the two have not been strong for much of the historical period under review. However, there are signs of fusion in the work of a current generation of researchers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Key Words: social informatics • sociotechnical studies • truth spots • participatory design • social shaping of technology • critical IS

This version was published on August 1, 2008

Journal of Information Science, Vol. 34, No. 4, 519-530 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0165551508091011


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