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Deconstructing Ethnography

Towards a Social Methodology for Ubiquitous Computing and Interactive Systems Design

  • Book
  • © 2015

Overview

  • Critically examines the relationship between new approaches to ethnography in HCI and their traditional antecedents in mainstream social science
  • Addresses foundational methodological problems that affect old and new approaches to ethnography alike
  • Elaborates the notion of “members’ methods” as a means of systematically building the social into the design of ubiquitous and interactive computing systems

Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series (HCIS)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book aims to deconstruct ethnography to alert systems designers, and other stakeholders, to the issues presented by new approaches that move beyond the studies of ‘work’ and ‘work practice’ within the social sciences (in particular anthropology and sociology). The theoretical and methodological apparatus of the social sciences distort the social and cultural world as lived in and understood by ordinary members, whose common-sense understandings shape the actual milieu into which systems are placed and used.

In Deconstructing Ethnography the authors show how ‘new’ calls are returning systems design to ‘old’ and problematic ways of understanding the social. They argue that systems design can be appropriately grounded in the social through the ordinary methods that members use to order their actions and interactions.

This work is written for post-graduate students and researchers alike, as well as design practitioners who have an interest in bringing the social to bear on design in a systematic rather than a piecemeal way. This is not a ‘how to’ book, but instead elaborates the foundations upon which the social can be systematically built into the design of ubiquitous and interactive systems.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Le Muy, France

    Graham Button

  • School of Computer Science Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Andy Crabtree

  • Lancaster University School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster, United Kingdom

    Mark Rouncefield

  • University of Nottingham School of Computer Science, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Peter Tolmie

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