Site of research: School of Social Sciences & Humanities, University of Tampere
Project director: Ph.D (sociology), psychologist Virve Peteri
Sponsor: Academy of Finland
Duration: 2009 – 2012
The project studies the domestication of design and ergonomics at work. There is currently a lack of knowledge and theoretical models of what kinds of processes are related to the domestication of design and ergonomics at organizational settings. The research provides new information about the relations between design and “the biography of things” in organizational settings. The research project concentrates on work environments that have met and will most likely meet extensive changes when it comes to adopting (or rejecting) new technologies and products; offices. Thus, these organizational settings are highly topical and designers, users and policy makers need more profound academic research on the relations between designing the products and the actual uses, ways of sense making, routines and practices related to these products.
The main research questions are the following:
- How are the relations between design and ergonomics defined at work places and what kinds of processes are involved when these relations get negotiated in organizations over time?
- How do different contextual characteristics of an organization shape the domestication processes of new products?
- How can design have an impact on how new products get domesticated in environments of constant technological change
This project aims to improve design practice and education by focusing on a key question in ergonomics. It upgrades conceptual thinking concerning ergonomics and builds connections between design studies and social sciences. Thus, proposed project will develop theoretical insights of domestication processes at work places and practical knowledge on how these insights should be put to use in designing work place products. One of the aims is also to advance methodology for gathering and analyzing data on domestication processes in organizational settings. The project’s goal is to make suggestions on how the gap between official discourses of organizational change when introducing new products and the “real” practices and meanings attached to these products by users, might be surpassed.