Rhetorical Authority in STS: Reflections on a Study of IT Implementation at a Hospital Ward

Abstract

In Denmark as in other European countries, information technologies have become an important political topic in ways that relate to the role of the university in society. The politicization is usually based on the understanding that 'science and technology shape society ' (Bijker et al., 1993, p. 3), which can be named technological determinism. Technological innovation is considered a driving force in social development, as if technology forms a rational structure, effecting progress and anticipating the future. Further, innovation is often understood as the outcome of a collaborative process between researchers at the university and private firms or public institutions in order to develop new technologies. In this view usefulness is turned into a primarily technological and economic issue.But what might one do, if it is precisely this idea of technology and progress one wants to debate? How can we question dominant images of technology, and find ways of reimagining the techno-scientific world we live in? Under the present circumstances, what are our possibilities for intervening and making a difference? This is a challenge that scholars in science and technology studies (STS) face, in general, and that we, in particular, faced when we carried out an STS study of IT in the health sector some years ago.In this paper we will examine the idea of intervention based on this project. We take as a starting point the notion of rhetorical authority developed by Michael Lynch as it expresses a view on scholarly practices that we find important. We sketch the research environment, and the options that we faced when we arranged the project at the outset. Subsequently we introduce the idea of 'naturally occurring experiments' as an appropriate methodological device, which can be contrasted with conventional ideas about scientific method. On this basis we account for the course of our project regarding the introduction of a medication module in an electronic patient record (EPR) at a Danish hospital ward. We focus on various discourses on technology that we identified in our experiments and how they perform technology differently, and on how we happened to make ourselves relevant to people engaged in the work of developing and implementing EPRs. Finally we Science as Culture

Engaging with Technologies in Practice: Travelling the Northwest Passage

“…9 That is, rather than having 'repair' or 'usefulness' as a core issue in our approach, repairing was unavoidable, but more importantly it also assisted us in becoming 'members' of the project and creating a credible position. Like Markussen and Olesen (2007) we found that focusing on the seemingly banal-or rather, seeing the banal as an accomplishment-at the same time brought with it a strategic research site and the construction of our credibility within the project.…”

“…at Said Business School, Michael Lynch argued that 'STS pedagogy should alert us to the necessity to struggle, in an effort to create local-interactional spaces in which "STS" can become a "source" of rhetorical authority' (Lynch, 2004, p. 9). Whereas Lynch argues that becoming 'useful' is not what STS in the first instance should strive for-a striving that Markussen and Olesen (2007) associate with using the 'repair' metaphor-our travelling and the repair work associated with it became a resource for our 'rhetorical authority' within the project. 9 That is, rather than having 'repair' or 'usefulness' as a core issue in our approach, repairing was unavoidable, but more importantly it also assisted us in becoming 'members' of the project and creating a credible position.…”

A Cautionary Tale About Cautionary Tales About Intervention

“…One peculiarity of my intervention was that, in addition to the more familiar role for the social scientist as 'consultant' (e.g. Czarniawska, 2001;Markussen and Olesen, 2007;Mesman, 2007;Vikkelsø, 2007;Wouters and Beaulieu, 2007), I also assumed the role 'witness', specifi cally an expert witness about the validity of fi ngerprint identifi cation. Although not all organizational researchers should expect to become legal witnesses, it has been argued that the performance of ethnographic fi eld work is itself a form of witnessing and its reporting a form of testimony (Quattrone, 2006).…”

Disturbing Observations as a Basis for Collaborative Research

“…Lynch alerts us to create localinteractional spaces in which 'STS' can become a 'source' of rhetorical authority by questioning the social and the technical as distinct entities or the dominant images of practices and (re)imagining the world we live in. 5 In this methodological approach intervention can be considered as a form of ongoing explicit reflection of the researcher while interacting with the staff. This reflection focuses on the specific conceptualization and framing of everyday practice.…”