|
|
|
|
|
|
|
boundary infrastructures have sufficient play to allow for local variation together with sufficient consistent structure to allow for the full array of bureaucratic tools (forms, statistics, and so forth) to be applied. Even the most regimented infrastructure is ineluctably also local: if work-arounds are needed, they will be put into place. The ICD, for example, is frequently used to code cultural expectations (such as low heart attack rates in Japan) even though these are nowhere explicitly part of the classification system. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What we gain with the concept of boundary infrastructure over the more traditional unitary vision of infrastructures is the explicit recognition of the differing constitution of information objects within the diverse communities of practice that share a given infrastructure. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Future Directions: Texture and Modeling of Categorical Work and Boundary Infrastructures |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
If you could say it, you would not need metaphor. If you could conceptualize it, it would not be metaphor. If you could explain it, you would not use metaphor.
(Morton 1985, 210) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So far this chapter has given a series of analytic categories that we hope will prove useful in the analysis and design of information infrastructures. At the limit, as Nelle Morton points out, we arrive at the sets of metaphors that people use to describe information networks of all kinds. These metaphors we live by are powerful means of organizing work and intellectual practice. We will now look at one cluster of metaphorscentered on the concept of filiationswhich we believe, offers promise for future analytical work. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
How Are Categories Tied to People? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The frequency with which metaphors of weaving, threads, ropes and the like appear in conjunction with contextual approaches to human thinking is quite striking.
(Cole 1996, 135) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Categories touch people in a variety of waysthey are assigned, they become self-chosen labels, they may be statistical artifacts. They may be visible or invisible to any other group or individual. We use the term filiation hererelated via Latin to the French "fil" for threadas a thread that goes from a category to a person. This metaphor allows |
|
|
|
|
|