Computer-support work: an amodern ethnography

© 2000 Dr. Martin R. GibbsOffice work in the majority of contemporary organizations has become crucially dependent on complex systems of information technology. Computer-support technicians are responsible for maintaining and managing these technological infrastructures. This thesis is an ethnographic study of this significant occupational group and the work they do to maintain the modern, informated office as a productive assemblage of people and information technologies. Drawing methodological and theoretical insights from recent Science and Technology Studies and from Cultural Anthropology this thesis develops an 'amodern' ethnographic framework that is capable of producing an account of technical work that is ethnographically thick and sensitive to ontological complexity. Using this framework, I present fieldwork and other material that demonstrates some of the myriad ways that computer-support technicians contribute to the work of ordering and organizing the informated workplace, and in so doing make a valuable contribution to the ongoing reproduction of the organizations they work for. In this thesis I describe the life-world and work of two groups of computer-support technicians. These technicians all worked for the Information Technology Services Departments of two large, white-collar organizations and provided computer-support services at the local level. These descriptions reveal the ways in which social life and material infrastructure are deeply imbricated within the informated workplace. I argue that computer-support technicians play crucial and often overlooked roles in maintaining and sustaining these places of work. Career, values and identity are also explored to reveal how technicians view themselves, their work and their organizational roles. Computer-support work involves three forms of mediation. Computer-support technicians mediate between: non-technical members of staff who work within the local organization and external information technology specialists; people and the information technology they use in the conduct of their work; and the generic character of commodified information technology and the specific requirements of the local workplace. I argue that these forms of mediation form a crucial point of articulation that connects and aligns the work of two different communities of practice. Computer-support work also involves shaping the manner in which people interpret and use information technology. Under the rubric of 'configuring users' I describe this work as producing a coherent alignment between the 'ideal reader' or 'ideal user' built into technology, and the people, or 'users-in-the-flesh', who use this technology in their work. I argue that these activities involve the creation and maintenance of a 'user habitus' appropriate to the organizational context and work procedures of the local workplace. Through these various activities, computer-support technicians encourage and nurture convivial relationships between people and the information technologies they use in their work. As a result, computer-support technicians play important yet often overlooked roles in organizations, and make significant contributions to the reproduction of informated workplaces as productive places of work