e-Infrastructures: How Do We Know and Understand Them? Strategic Ethnography and the Biography of Artefacts

Abstract

In health research and services, and in many other domains, we note the emergence of large-scale information systems intended for long-term use with multiple users and uses. These einfrastructures are becoming more widespread and pervasive and, by enabling effective sharing of information and coordination of activities between diverse, dispersed groups, are expected to transform knowledge-based work. Social scientists have sought to analyse the significance of these systems and the processes by which they are created. Much current attention has been drawn to the often-problematic experience of those attempting to establish them. By contrast, this paper is inspired by concerns about the theoretical and methodological weakness of many studies of technology and work organisation-particularly the dominance of relatively short-term, often single site studies of technology implementation. These weaknesses are particularly acute in relation to the analysis of infrastructural technologies. We explore the relevance to such analysis of recent developments in what we call the Biography of Artefacts (BoA) perspective-which emphasises the value of strategic ethnography: theoretically-informed, multi-site and longitudinal studies: We seek to draw insights here from a programme of empirical research into the long-term evolution of corporate e-infrastructures (reflected in current Enterprise Resource Planning systems) and review some new conceptual tools arising from recent research into e-Infrastructures (e-Is). These are particularly relevant to understanding the current and ongoing difficulties encountered in attempts to develop large-scale Health Infrastructures.

From Artefacts to Infrastructures

“…Pollock and Williams (2011) suggest that one implication of the current temporal and spatial framing of ERP is that studies are often blind to the ways in which the take-up of packaged solutions and their subsequent evolution are shaped by developments within the wider terrain or technological field (Swanson andRamiller 1997, Swanson 2010). In particular, this is how certain actors seek to establish boundaries around a technological field and draw up signposts about the state of the industry/technology and its future development (Pollock and Williams 2010). In particular, they have shown how visions of emerging technologies help mobilize the material and intellectual resources needed for innovation.…”

An Afterword to ‘Infrastructuring and Collaborative Design’

“…One of the themes that runs across the articles in the collection is 'scope and reach' and 'scaling', thus continuing addressing the theme of extending the scopes in investigating infrastructuring (Pollock and Williams 2010;Karasti et al 2010;Monteiro et al 2013;Blomberg and Karasti 2013). While the empirical infrastructuring phenomena are often conceived of as extended, for studying them researchers commonly use entry points at a smaller scale of analysis.…”

Archetypal Narratives in Social Machines

“…A biographical approach has been usefully applied to artefacts as diverse as a Fijian whales' teeth necklace [8, p171] and e-Infrastructure [12]. As a biography of a person might include a description of the family and the culture into which she was born, the biography of a thing incorporates its technological predecessors and its design alongside its "life-history" (Tringham's concept [16] -cited in [8, p169]) and fall from use.…”

“…As a biography of a person might include a description of the family and the culture into which she was born, the biography of a thing incorporates its technological predecessors and its design alongside its "life-history" (Tringham's concept [16] -cited in [8, p169]) and fall from use. Following the recommendations of Pollock & Williams' Biographies of Artefacts framework [12], we therefore adopt the notion that the design of a piece of software, a buttons in a software, an app, infrastructure, or an abstracted computational entity are an intrinsic part of their biographies. Biographies cannot encompass an entire life history.…”