INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods 8 April 2008

Outline  Some theories about technology in society  synchronizing theory / research questions / method  ‘Operationalizing’ theory – translating from theory into methodological procedure

Semiotic Analysis of Images Operationalizing Semiotics (last week)

Social Construction of Technology  Bijker on bicycles

Operationalizing SCOT  Subject/Topic: a new, unsettled technology under development (or from historical archives)  Who are the relevant groups?  Identify the divergent interpretations of the artifact held by these groups (interpretive flexibility)  Look for evidence of closure

What Use for Theory?  An argument against a grounded theory analytical approach Theory can sensitize, suggest ways of studying, analyzing a case Challenge received wisdom, ordinary, habitual interpretations To transcend our own socialization

The status of ‘things’ in society  In social theory - a new appreciation of the material world and the socializing effect of ‘things’ (in contrast to fixation on language, discourse, and a dematerialized social structure)  “the performative and integrative capacity of ‘things’ to help make what we call society.” [Pels, pg. 2]

The Medical Form Garfinkel  Forms as the evidence of a social process (to explore further)  Forms reflect Star Norms enforced through the form Form as infrastructure – mundane, invisible (and therefore powerful) Forms act

Attribution of Agency  How do we attribute agency in ordinary language The computer who thinks? To humans only? To inanimate things?  Research Question: In what ways can each involved entity be thought of as ‘acting’? [See Turkle, The Second Self]

Object boundaries  The “object hypothesis” [Wright]  Is this a world of discrete objects or a continuum?  What characteristics are attributed to an object?  Research Question: what do different groups consider to be emanating (benefits, forces, etc) from the technology under study?

Objects enforce the Normative Order  Visible vs. invisible  The Humility of Objects – “The less aware of [things we are], the more powerfully they can determine our expectations by setting the scene and ensuring normative behavior” [Miller]  Research Question: what mundane, seemingly neutral materials can we recover? What social order do they perpetuate? [See Bowker and Star Sorting Things Out]

[Source: Bowker and Star, Sorting Things Out]

 Function, exchange, symbolic, sign values  Objects are Defined Relationally (i.e. Actor-Network Theory)  Research Question: what systems of objects exist? In a home? In an office? How are the qualities of an object produced through relations? [See Baudrillard, The System of Objects] Objects form a Semiotic System

 "artifacts as culture derives…from their active participation in a process of social self-creation in which they are directly constitutive of our understanding of ourselves and others...” [Miller, Material Culture and Mass Consumption]  Identity display, class distinctions  Research question: how is status or identity accomplished through possessions? [see also Bourdieu, Distinction] Self constructed through possession of objects

Ethnographic Writing  Woolgar took a position within an IT company to study the development of a new technological object and a series of usability studies. What is his data? How does he references his subjective position?

Usability vs. Ethnographic Research  A usability trial vs. ethnographic study of a usability trial  The broader institution within which research takes place

Summary  To what do we attribute agency?  Shifting boundaries and characteristics of objects  Objects enforce normative order  The meaning of objects defined through relations (a semiotic system)  Identity and social difference through things