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Journal ArticleDOI

Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication

Lucy Suchman1
15 Dec 1987-American Journal of Psychology (Cambridge University Press)-Vol. 103, Iss: 3, pp 424
TL;DR: This paper presents a meta-modelling architecture for human-machine communication that automates the very labor-intensive and therefore time-heavy and therefore expensive and expensive process of designing and implementing communication systems.
Abstract: Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Interactive artefacts 3. Plans 4. Situated actions 5. Communicative resources 6. Case and methods 7. Human-machine communication 8. Conclusion References Indices.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
John Seely Brown1, Paul Duguid
TL;DR: Work, learning, and innovation in the context of actual communities and actual practices are discussed in this paper, where it is argued that the conventional descriptions of jobs mask not only the ways people work, but also significant learning and innovation generated in the informal communities-of-practice in which they work.
Abstract: Recent ethnographic studies of workplace practices indicate that the ways people actually work usually differ fundamentally from the ways organizations describe that work in manuals, training programs, organizational charts, and job descriptions. Nevertheless, organizations tend to rely on the latter in their attempts to understand and improve work practice. We examine one such study. We then relate its conclusions to compatible investigations of learning and of innovation to argue that conventional descriptions of jobs mask not only the ways people work, but also significant learning and innovation generated in the informal communities-of-practice in which they work. By reassessing work, learning, and innovation in the context of actual communities and actual practices, we suggest that the connections between these three become apparent. With a unified view of working, learning, and innovating, it should be possible to reconceive of and redesign organizations to improve all three.

8,227 citations

MonographDOI
01 Dec 2014
TL;DR: This chapter discusses the emergence of learning activity as a historical form of human learning and the zone of proximal development as the basic category of expansive research.
Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. The emergence of learning activity as a historical form of human learning 3. The zone of proximal development as the basic category of expansive research 4. The instruments of expansion 5. Toward an expansive methodology 6. Epilogue.

5,768 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A set of principles for the conduct and evaluation of interpretive field research in information systems is proposed, along with their philosophical rationale, and the usefulness of the principles is illustrated by evaluating three publishedinterpretive field studies drawn from the IS research literature.
Abstract: This article discusses the conduct and evaluatoin of interpretive research in information systems. While the conventions for evaluating information systems case studies conducted according to the natural science model of social science are now widely accepted, this is not the case for interpretive field studies. A set of principles for the conduct and evaluation of interpretive field research in information systems is proposed, along with their philosophical rationale. The usefulness of the principles is illustrated by evaluating three published interpretive field studies drawn from the IS research literature. The intention of the paper is to further reflect and debate on the important subject of grounding interpretive research methodology.

5,588 citations

Book
01 Jan 1999
TL;DR: In Sorting Things Out, Bowker and Star as mentioned in this paper explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world and examine how categories are made and kept invisible, and how people can change this invisibility when necessary.
Abstract: What do a seventeenth-century mortality table (whose causes of death include "fainted in a bath," "frighted," and "itch"); the identification of South Africans during apartheid as European, Asian, colored, or black; and the separation of machine- from hand-washables have in common? All are examples of classification -- the scaffolding of information infrastructures. In Sorting Things Out, Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world. In a clear and lively style, they investigate a variety of classification systems, including the International Classification of Diseases, the Nursing Interventions Classification, race classification under apartheid in South Africa, and the classification of viruses and of tuberculosis. The authors emphasize the role of invisibility in the process by which classification orders human interaction. They examine how categories are made and kept invisible, and how people can change this invisibility when necessary. They also explore systems of classification as part of the built information environment. Much as an urban historian would review highway permits and zoning decisions to tell a city's story, the authors review archives of classification design to understand how decisions have been made. Sorting Things Out has a moral agenda, for each standard and category valorizes some point of view and silences another. Standards and classifications produce advantage or suffering. Jobs are made and lost; some regions benefit at the expense of others. How these choices are made and how we think about that process are at the moral and political core of this work. The book is an important empirical source for understanding the building of information infrastructures.

4,480 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The paper aims to provide a useful reference point for researchers who wish to work in the interpretive tradition, and more generally to encourage careful work on the conceptualisation and execution of case studies in the information systems field.
Abstract: There has been an increase in recent years in the number of in-depth case studies which focus on human actions and interpretations surrounding the development and use of computer-based information systems (IS). This paper addresses philosophical and theoretical issues concerning the nature of such interpretive case studies, and methodological issues on the conduct and reporting of this type of research. The paper aims to provide a useful reference point for researchers who wish to work in the interpretive tradition, and more generally to encourage careful work on the conceptualisation and execution of case studies in the information systems field.

4,043 citations

References
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Book
01 Sep 1987
TL;DR: It is argued that what AI needs is not so much a hermeneutic approach as a better appreciation of biology and psychology.
Abstract: Winograd and Flores' `Understanding Computers and Cognition' proposes that the rationalist tradition in AI must be replaced by a hermeneutic approach. Associating the rationalist tradition with the goal of building a human mind, the authors propose that a hermeneutic approach must adopt the goal of constructing prostheses which magnify the human mind. This paper argues that what AI needs is not so much a hermeneutic approach as a better appreciation of biology and psychology. Understanding Computers and Cognition is a groundbreaking book that presents an important new approach to understanding what computers do and how their functioning is related to human language, thought and action.

3,338 citations

Book
01 Jan 1983
TL;DR: Barwise and Perry as discussed by the authors tackle the slippery subject of "meaning, " a subject that has long vexed linguists, language philosophers, and logicians, and they tackle it in this book.
Abstract: In this provocative book, Barwise and Perry tackle the slippery subject of "meaning, " a subject that has long vexed linguists, language philosophers, and logicians.

2,112 citations


"Plans and situated actions: the pro..." refers background in this paper

  • ...As a minor point, the term 'efficiency' of language, as used by Barwise and Perry (1983), is introduced early on, but not clearly explained until the concluding chapter....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Barwise and Perry as discussed by the authors tackle the slippery subject of ''meaning, '' a subject that has long vexed linguists, language philosophers, and logicians, and they tackle it in this book.
Abstract: In this provocative book, Barwise and Perry tackle the slippery subject of \"meaning, \" a subject that has long vexed linguists, language philosophers, and logicians.

1,834 citations