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These two semiars are organized by the Department of Information Systems at LSE and are part of the ESRC funded <http://is.lse.ac.uk/events/esrcseminars/default.htm> ICTs in the contemporary world: work management and culture series and is open to public. UK PhD students are particularly encouraged to participate and their travels costs are subsidized; <mailto:[log in to unmask] t%20support%20for%20doctoral%20students%20to%20attend%20seminars> more information about support for doctoral students. They will both take place in i-studio5 on the 5th floor of Tower One at LSE How to find <http://is.lse.ac.uk/LSE_buildings_files/location.htm> us The Mind or the Heart? It depends on the (definition of) situation Claudio Ciborra Professor of Information Systems, LSETuesday 8 June 2004 3.00-5.00 p.m Abstract: These days everything in organization theory and information systems that wants to be alternative is 'situated'. In knowledge management it is about 'situated knowledge'. In innovation and learning it is about 'situated change'. In media studies it is 'situated cultures'. In planning and AI it is 'situated action'. In a recent and influential article on the 'practice lens' in studying structuration and technology, the most quoted IS researcher, W. Orlikowski from MIT, uses (without ever defining it) the term 'situated' 31 times. Curiously enough she mentions (without applying or defining it) the term 'emotional' 3 times, of which one in a final footnote where she thanks an unknown reviewer for having reminded her that this dimension might be important, too. All this is a bit bizarre and very American. Situatedness was coined by continental phenomenologists, and the actual translation of situated in German is 'befindlich', a term that refers simultaneously to situational circumstances of action AND the emotional disposition of the HOW do you FEEL. The seminar compares as two distinct case studies two approaches to situatedness. The first one is the classic study of Lucy Suchman carried out at Xerox Parc in the eighties on situated action and describes the human-machine interactions of people dealing with a complex photocopying machine and its expert system. The second is taken from the early courses of M. Heidegger (1919-21) where he first introduces the concept of situation in phenomenology and applies to study the life situation of communities undergoing radical change. Although both studies refer to phenomenology as a background, the contrast in aims, method, scope, approach and outcomes could not be more blatant. Comparing the original thrust of phenomenology in introducing the notion of situatedness with the present day California rendition is scary. Much of the original innovation and radical thinking has gone lost. The PARC approach today in good currency is just a pale instance of what the phenomenology manifesto contained. Moreover, the present approaches feature methods and characteristics that are the very aspects phenomenology wanted to fight. All this has also dramatic implications for how to conduct field work, gather data, the relationship with the studied subjects, etc. ICTs and Collaborative R&D Roberta Lamb University of Hawaii, ManoaWednesday 2 June 2004 3.00-5.00 p.m. Abstract: Increasingly, information and communication technology (ICT) uses are transforming professional activities and interactions in ways that challenge traditional assumptions about collaboration, professional identity, and economic growth. This seminar presentation will draw on empirical data from an ongoing study to critically examine the portrayal of ICTs in a two-part model that has guided economic policy conceptualizations in the US and elsewhere. In the first part of the model, the university/industry Innovation Engine, ICTs are expected to enhance instruments of discovery, speed communication, and facilitate collaboration. This production-line view reflects little of what socio-technical researchers have learned about ICT uses in collaboration networks of research and development (R&D), and virtually nothing about the ways in which ICT uses shape professional identity. In the second part of the model, the university/industry Economic Growth Engine, ICTs are expected to automate manufacture, speed and enhance informational exchanges, and add efficiencies to distribution. Such results rely on the adoption of traditional organizational forms by commercial firms; even though many new start-ups find such forms unworkable. Researchers and policy-makers have promoted some new forms, like e-markets, that support key conceptualizations about economic growth, while denigrating others that challenge them. In particular, the growth of hybrid forms of R&D enterprise has been lamented within academia, while analogous hybrids in industry have been dismissed as transient or immature forms of commercial organization. Academic hybrids are frequently portrayed as being tainted by industry funding and related interests; industry hybrids, that survive primarily through government-funded research, are often regarded by taxpayers as economically unproductive. Mike Cushman [ mailto:[log in to unmask]] Information Manager Department of Information Systems London School of Economics and Political Science Houghton Street London WC2A 2AE Phone: +44 (0)20 7955 7426 Fax: +44 (0)20 7955 7385 http://is.lse.ac.uk/