Abstract
The scope of CSCW has been a topic of sporadic debate for many years, but in a programmatic article from 2005, three esteemed CSCW researchers – Andy Crabtree, Tom Rodden, and Steve Benford – now forcefully argue that CSCW should ‘move its focus away from work’. It is thus time to reconsider CSCW, to rethink what it is and why it might be important. This paper focuses on CSCW’s scope: the rationale for its focus on ordinary work. It offers an analysis of the concept of ‘work’ (based on Ryle, Urmson, and Schutz), a critique of prevailing illusions about the realities of work in the contemporary world, and an attempt position CSCW in the context of technological development more broadly.
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Notes
- 1.
It takes some stretch of ‘sociological imagination’ to extend the concept of the ‘ludic’ to include, of all things, domestic life.
- 2.
It should be noted, also in passing, that it requires more than ‘sociological imagination’ to claim that ‘awareness, division of labour, collaboration, distribution of tasks, efficiency and even workflow […] exist in our leisure lives as much as [in] our work’ (emphasis added).
- 3.
Johnny Cash: The Johnny Cash Show, Columbia Records, October 1970.
- 4.
The huge increases in productivity under the Industrial Revolution were accompanied by something in the magnitude of 100% increase of overall work time [20, Chapter 3]. The fact of the matter is that the development of technology does not in any way automatically translate into improved conditions of work and life.
- 5.
The term ‘material production’ is here used as shorthand for ‘production of material goods’. The term ‘material work’ should be understood in the same way. This usage should not be read as implying that ‘immaterial production’ is something out of this world.
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Schmidt, K. (2010). ‘Keep Up the Good Work!’: The Concept of ‘Work’ in CSCW. In: Lewkowicz, M., Hassanaly, P., Wulf, V., Rohde, M. (eds) Proceedings of COOP 2010. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84996-211-7_15
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