Trajectories, social worlds, and boundary objects: A framework for analyzing the politics of technology

Abstract

Many people recognize that politics plays a central role in sociotechnical change. Despite this recognition, however, there is little discussion in the human factors literature about what the term “politics” actually means, and how it can be studied. In this article, we propose a definition of politics, based on symbolic interactionism, a sociological tradition that emphasizes the close relationship between human agency and social structures. We illustrate the use of the approach, and some of its key concepts, through a case study of a human factors intervention in the trial of an intelligent manufacturing system in Australia. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.