kling@ics.uci.edu (Rob Kling) (06/16/91)
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.
It is ironic that computing -- often portrayed as an instrument of
knowledge -- is primarily the subject of a popular and professional
literature which are heavily weighted towards the genres whose
knowledge claims are most suspect. Conversely, the discourses whose
claims as valid knowledge are strongest seems to have much less appeal
in the engineering and scientific communities which develop the highest
performance computing systems.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have sharpened the ideas discussed here through lively discussions
with Jonathan Allen, Werner Beuschel, Charles Dunlop, Jonathan Grudin,
Mark Poster, Thomas Standish, Leigh Star, Karen Wieckert and Joseph
Weizenbaum. This research was funded, in part, by National Science
Foundation grant #IRI-87-09613.
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