Communication about colorectal cancer screening in Britain:public preferences for an expert recommendation

BACKGROUND: Informed decision-making approaches to cancer screening emphasise the importance of decisions being determined by individuals' own values and preferences. However, advice from a trusted source may also contribute to autonomous decision-making. This study examined preferences regarding a recommendation from the NHS and information provision in the context of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. METHODS: In face-to-face interviews, a population-based sample of adults across Britain (n=1964; age 50–80 years) indicated their preference between: (1) a strong recommendation to participate in CRC screening, (2) a recommendation alongside advice to make an individual decision, and (3) no recommendation but advice to make an individual decision. Other measures included trust in the NHS and preferences for information on benefits and risks. RESULTS: Most respondents (84%) preferred a recommendation (47% strong recommendation, 37% recommendation plus individual decision-making advice), but the majority also wanted full information on risks (77%) and benefits (78%). Men were more in favour of a recommendation than women (86% vs 81%). Trust in the NHS was high overall, but the minority who expressed low trust were less likely to want a recommendation. CONCLUSION: Most British adults want full information on risks and benefits of screening but they also want a recommendation from an authoritative source. An ‘expert' view may be an important part of autonomous health decision-making

A Case Study of an Information Infrastructure Supporting Knowledge Work in Oil and Gas Exploration

It is well rehearsed in the fields of CSCW and IS that the relationship between the social and the material is bi-directional and shaped locally. But what happens when knowledge work is stretched across space and time, and the practice of today relies on actions and reflections done elsewhere and at different times? This paper presents an on-going case study of oil and gas exploration that takes steps to shed light on this emerging issue. I argue the relevance of framing the process of generating interpretations in oil and gas exploration in terms of information infrastructures. The case is representative for other cases where practitioners’ reflections cannot immediately be confirmed by empirical observation. Through a discussion on the concepts of coordination and accumulation across the dimensions of space and time, I outline how an able information infrastructure in this domain must balance the dualism of the concepts of naturalisation and historification

Virtual Platforms for Government Services in COVID-19 and Beyond: A Sociomaterial Case Study of Passport Service in Ghana

Part 2: Adoption of Mobile and Platform-Based ApplicationsInternational audienceIn the COVID-19 era, the use of virtual platforms to meet social and physical distancing requirements has become more important across the world. Before COVID-19, information systems research on virtual platforms had focused on born-digital organizations and virtual platformization of pre-digital organizations in the private sector. Not much research therefore exists on virtual platformization of government services, especially from the developing world. This study therefore investigates a virtual platformization initiative for passport service in Ghana and its performance under the COVID-19 lockdown and beyond. The findings show that the service could not be fully platformized to meet physical distancing requirements due to activities related to physical materials such as signature, stamps, and documents as well as non-platformized systems of collaborating institutions. The paper discusses these constraints and how they can be addressed to enable end-to-end virtual platformization of government services in COVID-19 and beyond

Synthetic Situations in the Internet of Things

Part 5: Examining Knowledge and PracticeInternational audienceThe proliferation of distributed digital technologies in contemporary enterprise challenges the understanding of situated action. This paper revisits this notion in the era of Big Data and the Internet of Things. Drawing upon longitudinal studies within the offshore oil and gas industry, we empirically expand upon Knorr Cetina’s “synthetic situation” to encompass data-intensive work where people are not co-located with the physical objects and phenomena around which work is organized. By highlighting the performative nature of synthetic situations in the Internet of Things – where phenomena are algorithmically enacted through digital technologies – we elaborate upon the original formulation of synthetic situations by demonstrating that (i) algorithmic phenomena constitute the phenomena under inquiry, rather than standing in for physical referents; (ii) noise is irreducible in algorithmic phenomena; (iii) synthetic situations are productive rather than reductive. Finally, we draw brief methodological implications by proposing to focus on the material enactment of data in practice

Co-materialization: Digital Innovation Dynamics in the Offshore Petroleum Industry

Track III: Emerging Themes in Interpretive Case Study ResearchInternational audienceThis paper empirically explores the concept of co-materialization to explain the digital innovation dynamics in offshore petroleum production. The central insight developed is that the very nature of subsurface processes and phenomena that may be monitored and controlled is transformed as offshore petroleum production is digitalized. The paper shows how digital technologies are intrinsic to this transformation as material reality and abstract concepts take on meaning together through digital technologies. The central dynamic driving this transformation is the process wherein digital technologies, physical phenomena, and work processes for monitoring and controlling these phenomena evolve together in continuous interplay

The Facets of Sociomateriality: A Systematic Mapping of Emerging Concepts and Definitions

Sociomateriality is gaining momentum and is by now characterized as a research stream in the information system field. Although some definitions emerged, there is still uncertainty about how to conceptually and analytically address sociomateriality. The debate ranges from understanding sociomateriality as just a fancy word for technology to treating it as a de-facto theory of the human-technology relationship. To bring the field forward, a common basic understanding of what sociomateriality entails is needed. In this paper we set out to contribute to such an understanding. We do this by conducting a systematic mapping study of emerging concepts and definitions in the current empirical body of literature on sociomateriality. Our analysis finds three key resulting facets: mutuality (what is a sociomaterial assemblage?), performativity (how does it perform?), and multidimensionality (When and where does it perform?). Our findings outline how sociomaterial studies analytically and methodologically address performativity spanning across time and space.The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39832-2_