Documentscape: Intertextuality, sequentiality, & autonomy at work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

On the basis of an ethnographic field study, this article introduces the concept of documentscape to the analysis of document-centric work practices. The concept of documentscape refers to the entire ensemble of documents in their mutual intertextual interlocking. Providing empirical data from a global software development case, we show how hierarchical structures and sequentiality across the interlocked documents are critical to how actors make sense of the work of others and what to do next in a geographically distributed setting. Furthermore, we found that while each document is created as part of a quasi-sequential order, this characteristic does not make the document, as a single entity, into a stable object. Instead, we found that the documents were malleable and dynamic while suspended in intertextual structures. Our concept of documentscape points to how the hierarchical structure, sequentiality, and authorless nature of documents serve as a constitutive platform for the development of iterative and emergent work practices, making it possible for highly distributed actors to collaborate with limited communication, as the documentscape serves as a vehicle of coordination.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCHI 2014 : One of a CHInd - Conference Proceedings, 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Number of pages10
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Publication date2014
Pages2451-2460
ISBN (Print)9781450324731
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes
Event32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2014 - Toronto, ON, Canada
Duration: 26 Apr 20141 May 2014

Conference

Conference32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2014
LandCanada
ByToronto, ON
Periode26/04/201401/05/2014
SponsorSIGCHI
SeriesConference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings

    Research areas

  • Documents, Documentscape, Global Interaction, Global Software Development

ID: 285805368