Article

A new role for anthropology?: rewriting "context" and "analysis" in HCI research

Authors:

Minna Räsänen,

James M. NyceAuthors Info & Claims

NordiCHI '06: Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: changing roles

Pages 175 - 184

https://doi.org/10.1145/1182475.1182494

Published: 14 October 2006 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper we want to reconsider the role anthropology (both its theory and methods) can play within HCI research. One of the areas anthropologists can contribute to here is to rethink the notion of social context where technology is used. Context is usually equated with the immediate activities such as work tasks, when and by whom the task is performed. This tends to under represent some fundamental aspects of social life, like culture and history. In this paper, we want to open up a discussion about what context means in HCI and to emphasize socio-structural and historical aspects of the term. We will suggest a more inclusive analytic way that able the HCI community to make "better" sense of use situation. An example of technology use in a workplace will be given to demonstrate the yields this kind of theoretical framework can bring into HCI.

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Index Terms

A new role for anthropology?: rewriting "context" and "analysis" in HCI research
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image ACM Other conferences

NordiCHI '06: Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: changing roles

October 2006

517 pages

ISBN:1595933255

DOI:10.1145/1182475

Editors:
Anders Mørch
University of Oslo, Norway
,
Konrad Morgan
University of Bergen, Norway
,
Tone Bratteteig
University of Oslo, Norway
,
Gautam Ghosh
Userminded, Norway
,
Dag Svanaes
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

Copyright © 2006 ACM.

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Published: 14 October 2006

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NORDICHI06: The 4th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

October 14 - 18, 2006

Oslo, Norway

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