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Call for papers 
CSCW Journal Special Issue: 
CSCW, Technology and Diagnostic Work 

Editors: Monika Buscher; Jacki O'Neill, John Rooksby 

CALL FOR PAPERS 
When we think of diagnostic work, often the first domain to come to mind
is healthcare. However, practices of noticing and categorising trouble
and of defining the scope for remedial action span many domains. For
example, diagnostic work also takes place in software and hardware
troubleshooting, engineering, emergency work, detective work, coaching,
hospitality work, piano tuning, and quality control.  Broadening the
analytical focus can leverage important insights for the design and use
of CSCW technologies.

Although frequently conceived of as a 'moment' of individual cognition,
diagnosis is often a material, collaborative process.  It requires
careful sensory and sensitive engagement with other people (e.g. in
healthcare, teaching, policing or customer service), resourceful and
iterative probing of information technology (e.g. debugging code,
playing a video game) and manipulation of material objects (e.g. fixing
a printer jam). Some activities involve rational everyday knowledge,
others demand scientific practices, representation and calculation, and
some call for emotional and intuitive ways of knowing.  Moreover,
technology use pervades diagnostic work, mediating or facilitating it.
Increasingly, technologies are used in remote diagnostic practices, for
example, for bomb disposal, environmental monitoring, healthcare, or for
customer support from one of a myriad of call centres. And local
diagnosis also often relies on technological support, for example to
alert people to problems, to help assess their nature, to locate
solutions, to communicate diagnostic reasoning and so on. 

Diagnostic practices are a pervasive and important feature of
contemporary life. They matter, not least because it is through
diagnostic work that different perspectives (e.g. novices and experts,
users, developers and designers) meet. Technologies meant to support
diagnostic work can interfere with the everyday practices,
organizational structures and skills involved, both positively and
negatively. For this Special Issue of the Journal of Computer Supported
Cooperative Work we invite contributions that explore key dimensions of
this dynamic relationship to inform the design and use of CSCW
technologies, including questions around:

*	Collaboration: Diagnosing is often a collaborative endeavour.
How is collaboration organised and sustained? Is it made visible or
invisible? How do participants 'calibrate' for varying degrees of
competence? What technologies are used? How could technologies support
collaboration? 
*	Human-matter engagement: Engagement with physiological or
material agencies entails skills of human-matter 'communication'. People
use technologies that translate, amplify, or otherwise document material
activities. They use thresholds, patterns and alarms. How do (or don't)
such technologies help people in making matter 'speak'? How do they
'sit' with the collaborative dynamic of diagnostic work? 
*	Human-technology engagement: The states and processes of many of
the technologies meant to support diagnostic work themselves are hard to
notice, inspect, 'diagnose', let alone 'debug'. How do people understand
and make the most of these technologies? How do they notice and exploit
affordances and address breakdown? 
	

In this special issue of the Journal of Computer Supported Cooperative
Work we seek to analyze the collaborative practical accomplishment of
technologically mediated or facilitated diagnostic work. We particularly
invite studies of domains outside of healthcare.  Regardless of the
domain studied, authors must clearly address what constitutes diagnostic
work within the context of their study, they must clearly describe the
collaborative nature of diagnostic work and the opportunities and
challenges that technologies in general and CSCW technologies in
particular raise.  Papers may focus on:

*	studies of technologically mediated and/or facilitated
diagnostic work 
*	critiques and analysis of existing technologies in use in
diagnostic practice 
*	descriptions of concepts or designs of new technologies for
diagnosis 
	

Submissions should be 6000-8000 words and follow the Springer guidelines
for authors, available at 
http://www.springer.com/uk/home?SGWID=3-102-70-35755499-0&changeHeader=t
rue&SHORTCUT=www.springer.com/journal/10606
<http://www.springer.com/uk/home?SGWID=3-102-70-35755499-0&changeHeader=
true&SHORTCUT=www.springer.com/journal/10606>  
Submission is electronic, details are included in the author guidelines
above. 

Schedule: 
Submission deadline:
18 April 2008 
Reviews returned:
21 June 
Submission deadline for completed, revised manuscripts:         30 July
2008 

Contact: 
Monika Buscher [log in to unmask] 
Jacki O'Neill [log in to unmask] 
John Rooksby [log in to unmask] 

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