Negotiating Information Technology : Politics and Practices of a Web Site
| Document type: | Conference Papers |
|---|---|
| Peer reviewed: | Yes |
| Author(s): | Pirjo Elovaara |
| Title: | Negotiating Information Technology : Politics and Practices of a Web Site |
| Conference name: | PDC Participatory Design |
| Year: | 2002 |
| Pagination: | pp. 306-310 |
| ISBN: | 0-9667818-2-1 |
| Publisher: | CPSR & ACM & STIMDI |
| City: | Malmö |
| Organization: | Blekinge Institute of Technology |
| Department: | Department of Human Work Science, Media Technology and Humanities (Institutionen för arbetsvetenskap, medieteknik och humaniora) Department of Human Work Science, Media Technology and Humanities, Box 520, 372 25 Ronneby +46 455 38 50 00 http://www.iar.bth.se/ |
| Authors e-mail: | pirjo.elovaara@bth.se |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | In this paper I investigate municipal web production activities in a Swedish context. I implement Gärtner & Wagners suggestion about thinking through three different arenas when studying design processes: Arena A for individual projects, Arena B for organisational layer and Arena C for the national arena. The arena C, in my case National politics, I regard as the dominating information political discourse, which draws up the ideological scene of the topics, which are available for the information technology translations at the local level. The Arena B is a municipal political IT-vision document. The arena A is an analysis of an interview with a municipal web developer. I implement the analytical tools and vocabulary of the actor-network theory (ANT). I suggest that the web design process is a network of negotiations, where political documents, web producers, private companies, software, and time meet. The messy mixture of actors reinforces the idea of understanding information technology as a hybrid of humans and non-humans, and technology and society. By understanding the complexity of the design process also enables us to think about why the everyday work sometimes seems to be complex, vulnerable and unstable. |
| Subject: | Technoscience Studies\General |
| Keywords: | Information technology, Politics, Public sector, Web production, Sweden |
