Page 232 - Culture Technology Communication

Preserving Communication Context 215

tion of social interaction in technological environments. In the field
of information systems management, several authors have sug-
gested that differences in national culture may explain differences in
IS effects (Deans and Ricks 1991; Raman and Watson 1994; Watson
and Brancheau 1991).
In short, studies in development and organizational communi-
cation over the past two decades have consistently pointed to three
key factors in explaining successful IT implementation: existing
technological infrastructure and predisposition—the context; the
process of implementation; and the importance of viewing use as a
process in which uses change over time. This is evidenced in needs
and gratifications, and active reception theories of communication.
At the same time, there has been a growing backlash against
technological determinism, an increasing awareness that the path a
given technology takes may not be inevitable and absolute. Although
many engineers may continue to support the position that the tech-
nologies they build are neutral, it has become something of a com-
monplace in the social sciences to say that technology is socially
constructed. In recent years, numerous instances of how technical ar-
tifacts embody political, cultural or economic positions have been
identified (see for example the collections edited by Bijker, Hughes
and Pinch 1987 and Bijker and Law 1992, as well as Winner 1993).
Increasingly, it appears important to understand how technological
artifacts are constructed and how the end result relates to its condi-
tions of construction if we are to understand their implementation
and use.
The challenge for social science, in our view, is to go a step fur-
ther to examine how this process of social construction is accom-
plished and to determine which aspects of the black box called
“technology” are more or less susceptible to social influences. By ask-
ing how ideas and circumstance affect action, we are in fact raising
larger issues of the relationship between technology and context. As
such, this research is part of a growing body of work struggling to
come to terms with this question of growing significance given in-
creasing globalization and the increasing impact of technology (com-
puter-based or not) in our lives (Hales 1994; Jackson 1996).

Research Question and Method

This paper focuses on one object: computer-supported cooperative
work (CSCW), one stage in the process: design, and one cultural