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Science, Technology & Human Values
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When Is a Work-Around? Conflict and Negotiation in Computer Systems Development

Neil Pollock

University of Edinburgh

The notion of a "work-around" is a much-used resource within the sociology of technology, reflecting an interest in showing how users are not simply shaped by technologies but how they, through adopting artifacts in ways other than those for which they were designed or intended, are also shapers of technology. Using the language and concerns of actor-network theory and focusing on recent developments within computer-systems implementation, this article seeks to explore and add to our understanding of work-arounds through unpacking the work of one group of "users" as they attempt to tailor and roll out a system within the administration departments of their university. This article argues that paying attention to the various networks that lead to and from work-arounds can improve our understanding of the way users both shape and are shaped by technologies. Focusing on work-arounds as "networks in place" also allows us to highlight some of their contingencies; for example, the other actors and entities on which these depend and are constituted.

Key Words: actor-network theory • programmers • software • users • work-arounds

Science, Technology & Human Values, Vol. 30, No. 4, 496-514 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0162243905276501
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 Social Studies of ScienceHome page
N. Pollock, R. Williams, and L. D'Adderio
Global Software and its Provenance: Generification Work in the Production of Organizational Software Packages
Social Studies of Science, April 1, 2007; 37(2): 254 - 280.
[Abstract] [PDF]