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.