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CSCW
1999
ACM

Layers of Silence, Arenas of Voice: The Ecology of Visible and Invisible Work

13 years 11 months ago
Layers of Silence, Arenas of Voice: The Ecology of Visible and Invisible Work
No work is inherently either visible or invisible. We always "see" work through a selection of indicators: straining muscles, finished artifacts, a changed state of affairs. The indicators change with context, and that context becomes a negotiation about the relationship between visible and invisible work. With shifts in industrial practice these negotiations require longer chains of inference sentation, and may become solely abstract. This article provides a framework for analyzing invisible work in CSCW systems. We sample across a variety of kinds of work to enrich the understanding of how invisibility and visibility operate. Processes examined include creating a "non-person" in domestic work; disembedding background work; and going backstage. Understanding these processes may inform the design of CSCW systems and the development of related social theory. Key words: cooperative work, articulation work, invisible work, social informatics, requirements analysis, fem...
Susan Leigh Star, Anselm Strauss
Added 22 Dec 2010
Updated 22 Dec 2010
Type Journal
Year 1999
Where CSCW
Authors Susan Leigh Star, Anselm Strauss
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