Abstract
Empirical studies of material artifacts in practice continue to be a rich source of theoretical concepts for CSCW. This paper explores the foundational concept of boundary objects and presents the results of a year-long ethnographic study of collaborative work. This research questions the assumption that artifacts exist necessarily within a web of standardized processes and that disorderly processes should be treated as “special cases”. I suggest that artifacts can serve to establish and destabilize protocols themselves and that artifacts can be used to push boundaries rather than merely sailing across them.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Albrechtsen, H. and E. K. Jacob (1998). “The Dynamics of Classification Systems as Boundary Objects for Cooperation in the Electronic Library.” Library Trends 47(2): 293–312.
Bechky, B. A. (1999). Crossing Occupational Boundaries: Communication and Learning On a Production Floor. Industrial Engineering. Palo Alto, Stanford University: 114.
Boujut, J.-F. and E. Blanco (2003). “Intermediary Objects as a Means to Foster Co-operation in Engineering Design.” CSCW Journal 12: 205–219.
Bowker, G. C. and S. L. Star (1999). Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press.
Brereton, M. and B. McGarry (2000). An Observational Study of How Objects Support Engineering Design Thinking and Communication: Implications for the Design of Tangible Media. CHI 2000.
Bucciarelli, L. (1994). Designing Engineers. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
Diggins, T. and P. Tolmie (2003). “The ‘Adequate’ Design of Ethnographic Outputs for Practice: Some Explorations of the Characteristics of Design Resources.” Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 7 (July): 147–158.
Eckert, C. (2001). “The Communication Bottleneck in Knitwear Design: Analysis and Computing Solutions.” CSCW Journal 10(1): 29–74.
Garrety, K. and R. Badham (2000). “The Politics of Socio-technical Intervention: An Interactionist View.” Technology Analysis & Strategic Mangement 12(1): 103–118.
Harper, R. (1998). Inside the IMF: An Ethnography of Documents, Technology and Organizational Action, Academic Press.
Heath, C. and P. Luff (1996). Documents and Professional Practice: ‘Bad’ Organizational Reasons for ‘Good’ Clinical Records. CSCW, Boston, MA, ACM.
Henderson, K. (1999). On Line and On Paper: Visual Representations, Visual Culture, and Computer Graphics in Design Engineering. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
Hertzum, M. (1999). Six Roles of Documents in Professionals’ Work. ECSCW, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Karsten, H., K. Lyytinen, et al. (2001). “Crossing Boundaries and Conscripting Participation: Representing and Integrating Knowledge in a Paper Machinery Project.” European Journal of Information Systems 10(2): 89–98.
Krasner, H., B. Curtis, et al. (1987). Communication breakdowns and boundary spanning activities on large programming projects. Empirical Studies of Programmers: Second Workshop. G. M. Olson, S. Shepard and E. Soloway. Norwood, NJ, Ablex: 47–64.
Larsson, A. (2003). Making Sense of Collaboration. GROUP’ 03, Sanibel Island, FL, ACM.
Lee, C. (2004). The Role of Boundary Negotiating Artifacts in the Collaborative Design of a Museum Exhibition. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Information Studies. Los Angeles, University of California, Los Angeles: 299.
Lutters, W. G. and M. S. Ackerman (2002). Achieving Safety: A Field Study of Boundary Objects in Aircraft Technical Support. CSCW 2002, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, ACM.
Mambrey, P. and M. Robinson (1997). Understanding the Role of Documents in a Hierarchical Flow of Work. Group 97, Phoenix, AZ, ACM.
Pawlowski, S. D., D. Robey, et al. (2000). Supporting Shared Information Systems: Boundary Objects, Communities, and Brokering. 21st International Conference on Information Systems, Atlanta, GA, Association for Information Systems.
Perry, M. and D. Sanderson (1998). “Coordinating Joint Design Work: the Role of Communication and Artefacts.” Design Studies 19(3): 273–288.
Pycock, J. and J. Bowers (1996). Getting Others to Get it Right: An Ethnography of Design Work in the Fashion Industry. CSCW, Boston Massachusetts.
Schmidt, K. and C. Simone (1996). “Coordination Mechanisms: Towards a Conceptual Foundation of CSCW Systems Design.” Computer Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing 5(2–3): 155–200.
Schmidt, K. and I. Wagner (2002). Coordinative Artifacts in Architectural Practice. Cooperative Systems Design. A Challenge of the Mobility Age. M. Blay-Fornarino et al. (eds.) Amsterdam, The Netherlands, IOS Press: 257–274.
Schmidt, K. and I. Wagner (2005). “Ordering Systems: Coordinative Practices and Artifacts in Architectural Design and Planning.” CSCW Journal 13: 349–408.
Star, S. L. (1987–1989). The Structure of Ill-Structured Solutions: Boundary Objects and Heterogeneous Distributed Problem Solving. Distributed Artificial Intelligence. L. Gasser and M. N. Huhns. San Mateo, CA, Morgan Kaufmann. II: 37–54.
Star, S. L. and J. R. Griesemer (1989). “Institutional Ecology, ‘Translations’ and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907–39.” Social Studies of Science 19: 387–420.
Strauss, A. (1988). “The Articulation of Project Work: An Organizational Process.” The Sociological Quarterly 29(2): 163–178.
Subrahmanian, E., I. Monarch, et al. (2003). “Boundary Objects and Prototypes at the Interfaces of Engineering Design.” CSCW Journal 12: 185–203.
Tang, J. C. (1989). Toward an Understanding of the Use of Shared Workspaces by Design Teams. Department of Mechanical Engineering. Stanford, CA, Stanford University.
Van House, N. A., M. H. Butler, et al. (1998). Cooperative Knowledge Work and Practices of Trust: Sharing Environmental Planning Data Sets. CSCW 98, Seattle, Washington, ACM.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice. New York, NY, Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lee, C.P. (2005). Between Chaos and Routine: Boundary Negotiating Artifacts in Collaboration. In: Gellersen, H., Schmidt, K., Beaudouin-Lafon, M., Mackay, W. (eds) ECSCW 2005. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4023-7_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4023-7_20
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-4022-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4023-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)