Establishing the Internet in Costa Rica: Co-optation and the Closure of Technological Controversies

Abstract Research in science and technology studies has devoted significant attention to technological controversies and the mechanisms that actors employ to resolve them. This paper contributes to this literature by developing the notion of co-optation as a dynamic of closure. Co-optation is conceptualized as the incorporation of an actor or group into the organizational structure of another group in order to avert threat or adapt to a context of change. Drawing on the history of the Internet in Costa Rica from 1990 to 2005, this study examines a controversy between two distinct models for the development of computing networks in this country: the academic, sociotechnical network and the state-sponsored, commercial project. The analysis shows that the dispute between these groups ended when the Costa Rican government co-opted leading figures of the academic network into its structure. The notion of co-optation helps us theorize shifts in the configuration of relations between groups that lead to the partial resolution of conflicts and have important consequences for the development of technological infrastructures

Ordinary user experiences at work: a study of greenhouse growers

We investigate professional greenhouse growers’ user experience (UX) when using climate-management systems in their daily work. We build on the literature on UX, in particular UX at work, and extend it to ordinary UX at work. In a ten-day diary study, we collected data with a general UX instrument (AttrakDiff), a domain-specific instrument, and interviews. We find that AttrakDiff is valid at work; its three-factor structure of pragmatic quality, hedonic identification quality, and hedonic stimulation quality is recognizable in the growers’ responses. In this paper, UX at work is understood as interactions among technology, tasks, structure, and actors. Our data support the recent proposal for the ordinariness of UX at work. We find that during continued use UX at work is middle-of-the-scale, remains largely constant over time, and varies little across use situations. For example, the largest slope of the four AttrakDiff constructs when regressed over the ten days was as small as 0.04. The findings contrast existing assumptions and findings in UX research, which is mainly about extraordinary and positive experiences. In this way, the present study contributes to UX research by calling attention to the mundane, unremarkable, and ordinary user experiences at work

A sociedade da informação como problemática: tecnologias da informação, organização do trabalho e emprego

Mestrado em Sistemas Socio-Organizacionais da Actividade Económicainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio