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Despite the extraordinary advances in digital and communication technology over recent years, we know very little about the way these complex systems affect everyday work and interaction. This book seeks to explore these issues through a series of video-based field studies. It begins by discussing the introduction of basic information systems in general medical practice and ends with an exploration of interpersonal communication in advanced media spaces; in the process also looking at news production, the control room of London Underground and computer aided design in architectural practice. Social interaction forms a particular focus of these studies as they explore the way individuals use various tools and technologies and coordinate their actions and activities with each other. The authors also show how video-based field studies of work and interaction can inform the design, development and deployment of new technology, in this valuable new resource for academics, researchers and practitioners.
List of contents
1. Technology and social action: computers and situated conduct; 2. Documents and professional practice: 'bad' organisational reasons for 'good' clinical records; 3. Animating texts: the collaborative production of news stories; 4. Team work: collaboration and control in London Underground line control rooms; 5. The collaborative production of computer commands; 6. 'Interaction' with computers in architecture.
Summary
This book explores the way complex systems affect everyday work and interaction through video-based field studies looking at the introduction of basic information systems in general medical practice, news production, the control room of London Underground and computer aided design in architectural practice.
