E-Book Overview
How disruptions and discontinuities caused by the introduction of new technologies often reveal aspects of practice not previously observed.
What happens in an established practice or work setting when a novel artifact or tool for doing work changes the familiar work routines? Any unexpected event, or change, or technological innovation creates a discontinuity; organizations and individuals must reframe taken-for-granted assumptions and practices and reposition themselves. To study innovation as a phenomenon, then, we must search for situations of discontinuity and rupture and explore them in depth. In Shifting Practices, Giovan Francesco Lanzara does just that, and discovers that disruptions and discontinuities caused by the introduction of new technologies often reveal aspects of practice not previously observed.
After discussing methodological and research issues, Lanzara presents two in-depth studies focusing on processes of design and innovation in two different practice settings: music education and criminal justice. In the first, he works with the music department of a major American university to develop Music LOGO, a computer system that allows students to explore musical structures with simple, composition-like exercises and experiments. In the second, he works with the Italian court system in the design and use of video technology for criminal trials. In both cases, drawing on anecdotes and examples as well as theory and analysis, he traces the new systems from design through implementation and adoption. Finally, Lanzara considers the researcher's role, and the relationship—encompassing empathy, vulnerability, and temporality—between the reflective researcher and actors in the practice setting.
E-Book Content
Shifting Practices
Acting with Technology Bonnie Nardi, Victor Kaptelinin, and Kirsten Foot, editors Tracing Genres through Organizations: A Sociocultural Approach to Information Design, Clay Spinuzzi, 2003 Activity-Centered Design: An Ecological Approach to Designing Smart Tools and Usable Systems, Geri Gay and Helene Hembrooke, 2004 The Semiotic Engineering of Human Computer Interaction, Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza, 2005 Group Cognition: Computer Support for Building Collaborative Knowledge, Gerry Stahl, 2006 Acting with Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design, Victor Kaptelinin and Bonnie A. Nardi, 2006 Web Campaigning, Kirsten A. Foot and Steven M. Schneider, 2006 Scientific Collaboration on the Internet, Gary M. Olson, Ann Zimmerman, and Nathan Bos, editors, 2008 Acting with Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design, Victor Kaptelinin and Bonnie A. Nardi, 2009 Digitally Enabled Social Change: Online and Offline Activism in the Age of the Internet, Jennifer Earl and Katrina Kimport, 2011 Invisible Users: Youth in the Internet Cafés of Urban Ghana, Jenna Burrell, 2012 Venture Labor: Work and the Burden of Risk in Innovative Industries, Gina Neff, 2012 Car Crashes without Cars: Lessons about Simulation Technology and Organizational Change from Automotive Design, Paul M. Leonardi, 2012 Coding Places: Software Practice in a South American City, Yuri Takhteyev, 2012 Technology Choices: Why Occupations Differ in Their Embrace of New Technology, Diane E. Bailey and Paul M. Leonardi, 2015 Shifting Practices: Reflections on Technology, Practice, and Innovation, Giovan Francesco Lanzara, 2016
Shifting Practices
Reflections on Technology, Practice, and Innovation
Giovan Francesco Lanzara
The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England
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