Operationalizing Theory in Technology/ Information STudies

1. INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods 9 April 2009 Operationalizing Theory in Technology/ Information STudies

2. Outline • ‘Operationalizing’ theory – translating from theory into methodological procedure • Some theories about technology in society • Note on Ethnographic Writing

3. Semiotic Analysis of Images Operationalizing Semiotics

4. Social Construction of Technology Terms: Relevant Social Groups Interpretive Flexibility Closure

5. Social Construction of Technology [Bijker on the bicycle] Athletic young men Concerned community members High wheeled bicycle

6. Operationalizing SCOT • Subject/Topic: a new, unsettled technology under development (or from historical archives) • Who are the relevant social groups? • Identify the divergent interpretationsof the artifact held by these groups • Look for evidence of how interpretive conflicts are resolved materially resulting in closure

7. Network Approaches • Cowan on the “Consumption Junction”

8. Operationalizing Network Approaches • Subject/Topic: the “consumption junction” • Q: how do consumers arrive at the decision to choose one technology over its alternatives? How do we account for delayed success? Approach: • Parallel treatment of failed and successful tech • Center on the consumer – then move through and map out other domains -- household, retail, wholesale, production, government

9. Revisiting Grounded Theory

10. What Use for Theory? • Here’s a counter-argument to 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

11. 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]

12. Three theoretical frames for thinking about (technological) objects

13. 1) 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, Material Culture and Mass Consumption] Research Question: what is visible or invisible? Who’s interests are served by this state of visibility?

14. [Source: Bowker and Star, Sorting Things Out]

15. 2) Objects Form a Semiotic System • Function, exchange, symbolic, and sign values • Objects are realized through relations (i.e. Actor-Network Theory) [See Baudrillard, The System of Objects] Research Question: what systems of objects exist? In a home? In an office? How are the social properties of an object produced through its relationships?

16. 3) The Self is Constructed Through Possession of Objects • "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]

17. Ethnographic Writing

18. 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 reference his subjective position?

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

20. Summary • How theory can be used to guide site selection, suggest novel questions, and define procedures • A case for embracing existing theory rather than eschewing it entirely for ‘grounded’ theory. • Ways of thinking about objects/ documents/ info as integral to the social • Ethnography vs. Usability