Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!apple!limbo!taylor From: kling@ics.uci.edu (Rob Kling) Newsgroups: comp.society Subject: Article part 3: Reading 'All About' Computerization Message-ID: <2079@limbo.Intuitive.Com> Date: 17 Jun 91 06:15:24 GMT Sender: taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com Lines: 639 Approved: taylor@Limbo.Intuitive.Com Note: This is a long article of about 1420 lines. Please address any comments to the author at the adresses listed below. This third file of 3 contains the second and last part of the article. ------ Reading "All About" Computerization: Five Common Genres of Social Analysis Rob Kling Department of Information and Computer Science University of California Irvine, CA 92717 kling@ics.uci.edu 714-856-5955 August 1990 To appear in: Directions in Advanced Computer Systems, 1990. Doug Schuler, (Ed.) Norwood, N.J. Ablex Publishing Co. ========================= BEYOND THE UTOPIAN IMPULSE: SOCIAL REALISM, SOCIAL THEORY and ANALYTICAL REDUCTION In the previous section, I identified four major problems of utopian and anti-utopian analyses which I see as characteristic of these genres. Not all utopian (or anti-utopian analyses) are equally coherent, clear, or credible. But other forms of social analysis can also be incoherent or baseless. So clarity does not differentiate between utopian analyses and other modes of social analysis. Attractive alternatives to utopian analysis should be more credible in characterizing conflict in a social order, the distribution of knowledge, and ways of solving problems that arise from new technologies. Most important, they would also identify the social contingencies which make technologies (un)workable and social changes benign or harmful for various social groups. I briefly identify three alternatives: social realism, social theory and analytical reduction. Analyses in these three genres often acknowledge social conflict, yet are more open-ended and contingent than both genres of utopian analysis. Social Realism. I use the label "social realism" to characterize a genre which uses empirical data to examines computerization as it is actually practiced and experienced. Social realists write their articles and books with a tacit label: "I have carefully observed and examined computerization in some key social settings and I will tell you how it really is." The most common methods are those of journalism (e.g., Salerno, 1985) and the social sciences, such as critical inquiries (e.g., Forester 1989), and ethnography (e.g., Kling, 1978; Laudon, 1986). But the genre is best characterized by the efforts of authors to communicate their understanding of computerization as it "really works" based on reporting fine grained empirical detail (e.g., Stoll, 1989; Office of Technology Assessment, 1986). Social realism gains its force through gritty observations about the social worlds in which computer systems will be used. An interesting example of social realism is found in a study of instructional computing in classrooms by Sheingold, Hawkins and Char (1984). They report on a number of ethnographic studies of instructional computing in specific classrooms, including the use of databases, a mathematical game, and LOGO programming. They carefully report different ways that teachers conceptualize the relationship between these programs and instruction (with resulting differences in ways that they integrate them into their classes). They also report a variety of ways that students use the programs, from those that fit traditional conceptions of media in learning to those that simply get the work done. The cute title of the paper, "I'm the thinkist, you're the typist" comes from their observation of the educationally inappropriate way that two girls divided their efforts in programming with LOGO. Another example of social realism is Grudin's (1989) analysis of the social assumptions that designers and advocates of groupware make about the use of these packages. He argues that the meeting scheduling systems championed by Derfler (1989) work best when their users all have secretaries to help keep their calendars upto-date. These packages are especially attractive to managers, who often have secretaries, and who often want to schedule meetings with subordinates. They can be a burden to professionals who do not have secretarial support. They can also burden people who are away from their desks in meetings out of their offices part of the day, where they are making new commitments which are not reflected in their shared calendars. More deeply, Grudin examines computer applications with a model of organizations in which resources and authority are not equally distributed. Grudin places computer systems in work worlds in which there is a political economy of effort -- some people can generate work for others. And the people who generate work may not have to work as hard as do the people who have to met their requirements. Grudin's article examines the social contingencies which make these systems (un)workable. And Grudin does not paint all groupware with a black brush. Social realism offers us frank portrait but suffers from particularism. Authors in this genre rarely are explicit in drawing concepts or themes which generalize across technologies and social settings from the rich literature about the social character of computerization, or in contrasting their study with many other studies or accounts in the computerization literature. Moreover, it is always debatable what the present can tell us about what the future can be like if social arrangements or technologies are substantially transformed. Social Theory In contrast with social realism, theoretical analysts explicitly develop or test concepts and theories that transcend specific situations. Unlike utopian and anti-utopian accounts, social theoretical works are not "reality transcending." But they are situation transcending. Some examples are reinforcement politics (Danziger, Dutton, Kling and Kraemer, 1982), web models (Kling and Scacchi, 1982; Kling, 1987), Judith Perrolle's explication of social control theories (Perrolle, 1988), and Terry Winograd's (1988) explication of language-action theory. Web models illustrate this kind of theoretical work. Walsham, Symons and Waema (1988) characterize web models in these terms: "The basic tenet of web models (Kling and Scacchi, 1982) is that a computer system is best conceptualized as an ensemble of equipment, applications and techniques with identifiable information processing capabilities. Each computing resource has costs and skill requirements which are only partially identifiable; in addiction to its functional capabilities as an information processing tool it is a social object which may be highly charged with meaning. There is no specially separable 'human factor' for information systems: the development and routine operations of computer-based technologies hinge on many human judgement and actions, often influenced by political interests, structural constraints, and participants' definition of their situations. The network of producers and consumers around the focal computing resource is termed the 'production lattice'; the interdependencies in this network form the 'web' from which the model derives its name. The production lattice is a social organization which is itself embedded in a larger matrix of social and economic relations ('macrostructure') and is dependent upon a local infrastructure. According to web models, these macrostructures and local infrastructures direct the kind of computer-based service available at each node of the production lattice, and since they evolve over time computing developments are shaped by a set of historical commitments. In short, web models view information systems as 'complex social objects constrained by their context, infrastructure and history' (Kling and Scacchi, 1982)." Web analyses are action-oriented and examine the political interplay of coalitions in structured -- but somewhat fluid -- settings (Kling, 1987). The main organizing concepts were a "focal computing technology" which was the center of analysis, the infrastructure which supported its development and operation (including production lattices), its context of development and use, and a history of organizational commitments which structured these arrangements. Researchers have applied web models to better understand a variety of cases, including dilemmas of developing the Worldwide Military Command and Control System, dilemmas of converting complex inventory control systems in manufacturing firms, the development of software in insurance firms, and the ways in which desktop computerization changes worklife in offices. Social theoretical studies of computerization offer the traditional virtues of theory: relatively concise explanations. But they are much less accessible to a broad audience than utopian, anti-utopian and social realist accounts because of their intellectual demands: their (necessary) use of specialized terms and their frequent abstraction from the kinds of concrete situations that readers can readily visualize and perhaps identify with. The contrast between social realism and social theory, as ideal types, is rather clear. And it is easy to find books and articles which illustrate these types. All social analyses are imbued with theoretical assumptions, however implicit (Kling, 1980). Journalists and others who are not trained in the social sciences are much more likely to write as social realists rather than as social theorists. Social scientists are more capable of developing theoretical inquiries, but they are more likely to publish realist discourses about computerization or documents which apply existing theory to sharpen realist accounts. I believe that there a shortage of good theoretical explorations. Analytical Reduction Some scholars organize their social investigations into computerization by working within a tightly defined conceptual framework. They identify a few key concepts, sometimes derived from theory or abstracted from a group of studies, and examine them in new settings. If they adopt a strictly quantitative social science approach, they operationalize all of their key concepts into variables, measure them, examine how behaviors are distributed along the variables and via mathematical relationships between variables (e.g., correlations). While completely quantitative studies represent ideal examples of this genre, studies which focus on a few qualitatively described dimensions share enough key characteristics to be appropriate to group with them also. A recent paper by Starr Roxanne Hiltz (1988) on the ways that computer conferencing systems alter productivity of groups illustrates the quantitative version of the genre. Hiltz administered questionnaires to people who used four different computer conferencing system before and after a period of use. She grouped four survey questions items into a summary measure of productivity (e.g., quality of work with system, quantity of work with system, overall usefulness of system and utility of system in reaching other people). She measured many aspects of the groups, their work, their usage of the conferencing systems, and the features of the systems. She bases her conclusions on the magnitude of quantitative relationships between the variables which she measured. For example, she notes: The strongest correlates of productivity improvements for all four systems are pre-use expectations about whether the system would increase productivity. Other determinants relate to the group context: leadership skill is important and strong competitive feelings may hamper productivity (Hiltz, 1988:1449). In a similarly analytical approach, Suzanne Iacono and I (1988) examined the extent to which the development of a complex computerized inventory control system could best be explained by one of three different kinds of organizational choices processes: rational decision making, organizational drift, and partisan politics. In this study we presented a qualitative case study, and then systematically examined it for evidence in the form of episodes and social relationships which would support or undermine each of these three models of organizational choice. I label this genre as analytical reduction because the authors reduce their accounts of the social world and computer technologies to a few key concepts. Depending on one's view, this approach represents the best or worst of social science inquiry. Those who see it as a valuable genre appreciate the way that the authors critically examine key concepts and examine the extent to which they shed insight into the social world of computing. They believe that our best hope for systematically understanding the social character of computerization will come from studies in this genre. Those who criticize, or sometimes even despise analytical reduction, see it as arcane and inaccessible except to academic specialists. They usually prefer social realist studies because they more easily accessible and identifiably concrete. Further, the quantitative reductions are less likely to characterize the shifts of understandings that participants have over time, the nature of unusual but important events, or even the occasions when computerization becomes comical or tragic. HYBRID DISCOURSES I have identified five genres of investigation and writing as ideal types. I try to classify works into a genre by using criteria such as these: if the analysis focuses on problems, are good outcomes possible (and the conditions which lead to them characterized)? Conversely if the analysis focusses on the way that computerization leads to a benign world, how well are the character of potential problems and their causes identified? While many articles and books clearly fit one of these genres, some works are hybrid. For example, some works combine key facets of social realism and anti-utopianism. David Burnham's The Rise of the Computer State is a passionate examination of the way that many computerized data systems operated by credit reporting agencies, medical information bureaus, police agencies and so on reduce personal privacy in the United States. His book reports his investigation of several large data systems based on dozens of interviews. Burnham is insightful in identifying the ways that large scale personal information systems have eroded personal privacy. He views each system as a medium for personal abuse -as examples of organizations intruding unfairly upon people's private lives. For example, he discusses the Parent Locator System which uses matching on a complex array of Federal and State systems to track parents (usually fathers) who avoid paying legally mandated child support by hiding, often in another state. In this discussion he criticizes the system, sometimes obliquely. But he doesn't suggest that it has any socially redeeming value, even if, on balance, he would disagree with the tradeoffs made by using it. I see his book as reflecting a strong anti-utopian orientation mixed with a social realist format. Burnham's antiutopianism is particularly clear when his book is read in contrast with Ken Laudon's Dossier Society - a social realist study which criticizes many key aspects of computerized police systems. Another hybrid work is Shoshana Zuboff's In the Age of the Smart Machine which is the most daunting and serious recent study which examines the labor processes and phenomenology of work with computer- based systems. She provides vivid and often brilliant descriptions of the phenomenology of work with special computer systems in specific work settings. She examines several cases of computerization in white collar offices and in the control room of a paper factory, thus giving the book the appearance of social realism. She draws on labor process theories of work, and develops an interesting theoretical argument. But her book is also driven by a significant anti-utopian subtext since all of her empirical cases (and drawings which illustrate them) conclude that computerization has uniformly degraded work. The body of empirical research literature shows that computerization has not altered work in such a unidirectional manner and that there are many technological and social contingencies which Zuboff ignores (Kling and Iacono, 1989). The books by Burnham and Zuboff illustrate only two of a myriad of hybrid patterns. Hybrid works are quite common. They can avoid some of the problems of their component genres if they are carefully developed (e.g., Datawars by Kraemer, Dickhoven, Tierney and KIng, 1987 which mixes social relaism and analytical reduction); or they can suffer from some of the fatal problems of their underlying genres if their authors do not take special pains to resolve these limits (e.g, Zuboff, 1988). CONCLUSIONS I have have identified five important genres in the literature which claims to describe the actual nature of computerization, the character of computer use, and the social choices and changes that result from computerization: utopian, anti-utopian, social realism, analytical reduction and social theory. There are other genres, which I have ignored in order to maintain some focus in a long paper. I have examined the character of these genres and some of their strengths and limits. Writings in each genre have formulaic limits, much in the way that romantic fiction (or any other literary genre) has important limits (Cawelti, 1976). Cawelti notes that "The moral fantasy of the romance is that of love triumphant and permanent, overcoming all obstacles and difficulties (Cawelti, 1976:41-42)." This does not mean that we can't be entertained or our appreciation of life enriched by romantic fictions; it is simply a genre with important formulaic limits. The moral fantasies of technological utopianism and antiutopianism similarly limit the way that they can teach us about the likely social realities of new forms of computerization: one is romantic and the other is tragic. I am not arguing for some simple for of "balance" -- and especially not for balance between the utopian and anti-utopian genres. Life is more than a balance between romance and tragedy. (For example, neither romances nor tragedies frequently illustrate effective negotiations). I am much more sympathetic to the empirically oriented genres -social realism, social theory and analytical reduction, than to the utopian and anti-utopian lines of analysis which I find more credible. But I see the two utopian genres and legitimate, for they help explore the limits of the possible. Social realist accounts are usually so anchored in the present that they don't examine long term possibilities very well. The social theories of computerization are a relatively new mode of analysis in its infancy. Analytical reduction can be arcane for non- specialists and is usually limited to the tightly defined intellectual world of its key concepts (and measures, if they are quantified). It is easy to identify the two utopian genres with Ideology and the three sociological genres with Science. This polarity captures important contrasts. But it is also too facile because all discourses, even scientific discourses, make ideological assumptions. Conversely, even the most blatantly ideological analysis can make some valid empirical claims. In the 1990s, there will be a large market for social analyses of computerization stimulated by: * the steady stream of computing innovations; * the drive by academic computer science departments and funding agencies such as NSF and DARPA to justify large expenditures on computing research; * justifications for major national computerization programs, such as the High Performance Computing Initiative; and * articles examining life and technology in the 21st century. A large fraction of this literature will be written by technologists and journalists for diverse professional and lay audiences. However, utopian analyses are most likely to dominate the discourse because most authors will champion special computer technologists or align with their champions. The simplicity of technological utopianism and anti-utopianism is deceptive. But utopian and anti-utopian lines of analysis are legitimate and useful genres for helping us to understand how new technologies expand the limits of the possible. But they are insufficient for creating an adequate literature about the social character of computerization. Moreover, organizations that have tried to computerize with utopian blueprints have often found that actual technologies are much more costly, complex, and problematic while providing much less value than the utopian analysts suggest when they are taken literally. The actual uses and consequences of developing computer systems depends upon the "way the world works." Conversely, computerized systems may slowly, but inexorably, change "the way the world works" -- often with unforseen consequences. A key issue is how to understand the social opportunities and dilemmas of computerization without becoming seduced by the social simplifications of utopian romance or to be discouraged by dystopian nightmares. I see both kinds of images as far too simplified. But they do serve to help identify an interesting and important set of social possibilities. The main alternatives, social realism, social theory, and analytical reduction, are less likely to be produced in comparable quantity. They are relatively subtle, portray a more ambiguous world, and have less rhetorical power to capture the imagination of readers. However, social realists have not developed systematic strategies for analyzing the social character of powerful technologies that are not yet available, in use, for the kind of highly nuanced empirical observation which is the hallmark of the genre. Journalists probably produce the largest number of social realist accounts, although they also write stories which fit within the utopian genres. Social theory and analytical reduction are the specialty of social scientists and relatively inaccessible to non-specialists. Few scholars have examined computerization with a social theoretical perspective. The scholarly literature about computerization is relatively unknown to journalists, computer scientists, and computer professionals. Even though they are much more scientific than the utopian genres, the sociological genres don't seem to appeal to many scientists and engineers. Some technologists dismiss social realist accounts as "primarily anecdotal," and they have little patience for social theory. For example, articles from these genres are rarely published in Scientific American, Science, and IEEE publications. Fortunately, they appear periodically in some ACM journals, such as Communications and Transactions on Information Systems. I see the development of systematic social analyses of computerization -- that are both credible and compelling -as a major challenge for the 1990s. 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