Representations and Uses of the Intranet: A Comparative Case Study

sult of overlapping negotiations among social actors inside organizations. Such negotiations are aimed at establishing and embedding specific relations and representations of work, communication, and learning into the technological artifact. Two case studies are presented to analyze practices and processes of imple-mentation and use of the Intranet. The fieldwork, car-ried out in two companies in Italy and theUnitedKing-dom, shows how specific contexts and organizational histories can affect such processes. Despite the “opti-mistic ” imagery associated with Intranet technology and the high expectations about its communicative and economic efficiency, the article points out many constraints in the process of implementation and use. Company history and culture, skills and work groups, and use of other technologies and media are relevant factors to account for the current use of the two sys-tems and their low degree of integration into everyday working and communicative practices