Ph.D. course in Work Practice and Design (WPD)

The Ph.D. Course Work Practice and Design is offered regularly at the Blekinge Institute of Technology. The course has been offered every other year since 1997 and brings together graduate students from the Nordic counties who are working in the area of relations between studies of practice and technology design. The course is organized by Jeanette Blomberg from BTH and IBM Research Almaden and Bo Helgeson from BTH. The last course was held in the fall of 2003.

The course is divided into two parts, each corresponding to 5 points in the Swedish educational system (the equivalent of five full time working weeks).

About the course

Studies of work practice have provided insights into how work is actually accomplished and how technologies are integrated into everyday activities.   These studies also have contributed to new ways of thinking about how to design new technologies so that they reflect understandings of work practice and the everyday settings in which technologies are used.   In recent years studies of practice have been extended to include a consideration of the connections between work and other activities, and an investigation of how new technologies and social practices blur boundaries between work, home and play. Anthropologists, ethnomethodologists, conversation analysts, and sociologists among others have contributed to our thinking about the relation between work practice and technology design. The focus of their research has varied with respect to the range of activities and situations studied, the types of analyses undertaken, and the degree to which technology design is central to the research. Yet researches working in these areas share a commitment to looking in detail at work and other activities in the everyday settings in which they occur.

Part I

In Part I of the course we will review a growing body of empirical research in the field of work practice and design and provide students with practical experiences in applying various research approaches. Through the experiences and perspectives of a series of quest lecturers, students will be exposed to a range of analytical methods and research strategies including ethnography, conversation analysis, interaction and video analysis, grounded theory, and practice-based design. Guest lecturers will cover topics in ethnography where interpretations of the lived experiences of others are connected to the immediately observable events of the social world; conversation analysis where talk is viewed as situated social practice whose study provides insights into the organization of human activity;   ethnomethodology where the focus is on locally and interactionally produced accountable phenomena; and grounded theory where theoretical abstractions emerge from the analysis of ongoing activity.   The course will address the question of the relations between studies of work and other activities as practiced within these various traditions, and the relation between studies of practice and technology and system design.  The final session will introduce students to design approaches and methods that incorporate the study of everyday activities into their overall design practice.

The course is intended for both beginning and advanced graduate students who have had some exposure to the literature on work practice and design and who are involved in or are considering embarking upon dissertation research which includes field studies of human activity.

Part II

Drawing on information covered in Part I, students will work on materials from their own research projects. Two workshops will be held as part of the course. The first will provide students with an opportunity to discuss with course participants the challenges they are facing and the insights they are gaining in analyzing their field materials.   The second workshop will be dedicated to student presentations of their final papers where they will receive written and oral comments from course tutors and fellow students.

How to apply

 Please contact Bo Helgeson or Marcus Sanchez Svensson for further information about the next course.