Infrastructuring: Toward an Integrated Perspective on the Design and Use of Information Technology

In this contribution, we investigate how results from the ongoing discussion about e-Infrastructures can be used to improve the design of IT infrastructures in organizations. We first establish a perspective on organizational IT as work infrastructure that focuses on the infrastructural nature of or...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of the Association for Information Systems Vol. 10; no. 5; pp. 447 - 473
Main Authors Pipek, Volkmar, Wulf, Volker
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Atlanta Association for Information Systems 01.05.2009
Subjects
Alliances
Design
Designers
Electricity distribution
Information systems
Information technology
Integration
Internet
Software
Studies
Technology
Work environment
United States > US
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Summary:In this contribution, we investigate how results from the ongoing discussion about e-Infrastructures can be used to improve the design of IT infrastructures in organizations. We first establish a perspective on organizational IT as work infrastructure that focuses on the infrastructural nature of organizational Information Systems and describe challenges for designing within and for this type of infrastructure. Then we elaborate on possible use of concepts from the e-infrastructure discussion, in particular on the concept of infrastructuring as it was developed by Star and Ruhleder (1996) and Star and Bowker (2002). Using their "salient characteristics of infrastructure" we describe the methodological approach of Infrastructuring to develop methodological and tool support for all stakeholders' activities that contribute to the successful establishment of an information system usage (equivalent to a work infrastructure improvement). We illustrate our ideas by drawing on a case in which new work infrastructures are introduced into an organizational context and by mapping out existing and possible tool support for infrastructuring. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1536-9323
1536-9323
DOI:10.17705/1jais.00195