As far as I can recollect, my interest in the complicated relations between work practice and system design dates back to my experiences during the first years of university studies while I was also working part-time in a bank. As a summer apprentice I had taken care of one particular account, namely debt collection. I had learned how the account worked and about the typical errors that occurred. I had got used to dealing with the branch offices when the account had to be balanced once a month. During the winter, when a new system had been introduced for managing this account, I was summoned, in my capacity as a student of computing, to help with the problems in implementation, and eventually also redesign. This was the first time that I found myself acting as a mediator between the actual practice and system design.
After these initial experiences my path has been winding. I started to feel somewhat uneasy with my own field of study, especially after challenging my own perspectives during a year of travelling around the world. I questioned some of the prevailing, taken-for-granted assumptions in my own discipline. For instance, in my graduate thesis I took up nothing less than “the views on human-beings“ in Information Systems. I also sought familiarity with other fields by taking up different optional subjects until I found sociology and women’s studies.
As my scope of contacts and network of people broadened, I discovered with relief that I was not the only “difficult person“ posing critical questions, and was encouraged in my inclination to interdisciplinarity. Some time and maturing of thought have, however, been needed before I have been able to find alternatives and more deliberately give directions to my own path in research. Plenty of people have taught me different things and influenced my work in various ways. In the following I would like to acknowledge them.
First of all, I am very grateful to two people who have been most important for this work. Kari Kuutti, my formal supervisor, has made room for me in the Department of Information Processing Science during these years and he has encouraged me to “go international“ already from the beginning. When I started my post graduate studies Kari was involved in the ESPRIT project called COMIC through which I also got a peek into a large international project and a chance to meet interesting researchers.
Marja Vehviläinen started as my “informal mentor“, as she calls herself, less than a year ago. As I had come to appreciate her solid work and candid ways of doing research as well as got to know her kind person, I dared to approach her with the scribbly draft that contained just about everything I had been working on in the past six years. Understandingly and supportively she taught me to see multiple layers in my work and by that means to organise my writing. Without the discussions with Marja and her insightful comments, this introduction would be but a pale shadow of what it is now.
An essential part of this thesis is the empirical work carried out in the field of radiology. In many ways the fieldwork has felt as the best time that went into this study. When Samuli Saukkonen first told about the inkling of a possibility for research collaboration with the Clinic of Radiology at Oulu University Hospital, I had no presentiment of what a unique opportunity for a longitudinal series of fieldwork phases would unfold. I gratefully acknowledge Jarmo Reponen for his enthusiasm for and pioneering work with digital radiology. I thank Ilkka Suramo and Osmo Tervonen for allowing me to work in the clinic, and having so much faith in my work as to employ me as a researcher for my longest stay in the clinic. Eero Vierimaa is thanked for the permission to carry out fieldwork at the Kuusamo Primary Care Center.
I want to express my deepest gratitude to the staff of the radiology departments, both in Oulu University Hospital and Kuusamo Primary Care Center, who so graciously let me into their working lives and everyday practices. I also want to thank the necessary few who made me understand that my access and presence was not and should not be taken as self-evident. It is not possible to name all personnel with whom I have worked, but to mention only a few and through them extend my gratitude to the others: Pirjo Alaperä, Kari Forsman, Eero Ilkko, Marita Jokela, Virpi Karhula, Antero Koivula, Marjatta Kristo, Kari Kylmäniemi, Sinikka Lehto, Seppo Lähde, Maire-Liisa Mattila, Salme Meriläinen, Liisa Miikki, Liisa Niemelä, Airi Ojala, Eija Pääkkö, Marjatta Rydman, Maija Väisänen and Tuulikki Vääräniemi. I also want to thank the personnel of the involved IT companies, especially Petri Satokaski of Acta Systems Oy and Mauri Drufva of Finnelpro Oy for participating in the teleradiology phase, and Tapani Kunnas of Sectra-Commit Oy for participating and collaborating in the PACS phase.
As a novice it was of great value to have a more experienced fieldworker to work with. Juha Pihlaja did not have an easy job because as much as I wanted to learn as much I also questioned what he had already started to take for granted in fieldwork as he had taken part in several Developmental Work Research projects. A special thanks to Juha is in order. In the phase of experimental teleradiology fieldwork I was accompanied by Sari Tuovila who completed her research apprenticeship course through participating in the fieldwork. Warm thanks to Sari who got involved in her tasks more than the study credits would have required. Kari Kuutti is thanked for co-facilitating the workshops and being available when seniority was needed, for example in negotiations with the clinic.
To counterbalance the solitude of analysis and to challenge the bias of an individual researcher, I have sought to carry out collaborative analysis of video recordings with different groups of people. The opportunity to review some of my videotapes of radiologists’ image interpretation work with Charles Goodwin at an early stage in 1995 gave an exceptional chance to learn from and to train my analytic eye with a very experienced video analyst. Though the session was brief it encouraged me to carry on, and I also thank Charles for the support that continued in the form of e-mails. During 1995-1997 I participated in the analysis sessions of a multidisciplinary group of discourse researchers at Oulu University where also my data was collaboratively worked on. Especially I am grateful to Pirkko Raudaskoski and Paul McIlvenny for creating such a lively, friendly and constructive forum.
Within my home department I organised video analysis sessions of radiology work, and I want to thank the colleagues who participated: Marjo Favorin, Antti Juustila, Kari Kuutti, Tonja Molin-Juustila, Tuomo Tuikka and Sari Tuovila. I owe a special thanks to Marjo who also worked with me on the initial analyses of the workshops. Collaboration with the University of Karlskrona/Ronneby has provided several opportunities for joint analysis, both in connection to my visits and the Roulu-project. I owe my thanks to Monika Alriksson, Bo Helgeson, Yvonne Dittrich, Antti Juustila, Timo Petman, Kari Rönkkö, and Berthel Sutter.
Later on, as my interest came to comprise also the use of video in system design, I have been fortunate to collaborate with Peter von Savigny from the University of Hamburg who shares the fascination for the integration of video-assisted ethnography and participatory design, and with the former participants of the User-Centered Design group at Danfoss, namely Thomas Binder, Eva Brandt and Jacob Buur, after meeting them at the Seattle CSCW’98 Conference.
I would also like to acknowledge some more institutional bodies that have influenced and supported my post graduate studies and research. The Finnish doctoral program in information systems has offered opportunities for grasping some of the variety in the field and for broadening of views. In the seminars the participants were able to learn from visiting international researchers. In one of my first seminars I had the chance to meet Lucy Suchman whose work I had discovered earlier and found inspiring. Not purely coincidentally, in this particular seminar I also met for the first time in person Marja Vehviläinen whose licentiate’s thesis I had just finished reading.
At the Department of Human Work Science in University of Karlskrona/Ronneby, a course called Work Practice and Technology has been organised by Bo Helgeson and Jeanette Blomberg for several consecutive years. I was fortunate to participate in the first one that took place during the study year of 1997-1998. The course was exactly what I had been looking for for already some years. In addition to the organisers, Bo and Jeanette, I would like to thank the visiting lecturers John Hughes, Jack Whalen and Charles Darrah, as well as the co-participants, especially Gunnel Andersdotter and Yvonne Dittrich. Furthermore, I want to express my deepest gratitude to the warm and kind people of Ronneby who have always made me feel most welcome.
During the more recent years, the Information Technology, Transnational Democracy and Gender (ITDG) research network funded by NorFa has provided an intellectually challenging but also safe forum for exploring issues that in this thesis still remain almost silent. Some of the personal contacts within the network were already established in Manchester WWC’95 Conference, and the network has provided for new friends and colleagues in the area of the Nordic and Baltic countries and Northwest Russia. Especially I want to thank Christina Mörtberg and Marja Vehviläinen who have shown, by setting an example themselves in choosing alternative paths in research, that it is possible to do border crossing and to work within different disciplines.
On a similar note I would also like to thank Ellen Balka who has, from overseas, given encouragement and provided literature for pursuing interdisciplinary work.
The commentators and reviewers of the original publications are thanked in the respective acknowledgements. However, a special expression of gratitude is in order for two loyal and enduring peer-commentators, Marjo Favorin and Peter von Savigny. Even after changing places of work Marjo continued to read my texts and to pose constructive questions to help me clarify my thinking and writing. Peter, in turn, has always provided supportive comments and has also painstakingly corrected my grammatical and spelling errors.
Ina Wagner and Jeanette Blomberg, the external reviewers of the thesis appointed by the faculty, have provided insightful critique and encouragement which I will value also in my future work. Jeanette will be the official examiner in the public defence of the thesis.
I want to acknowledge a few people whose work has been indispensable in the thesis process but is not necessarily directly distinguishable in the final outcome. Helena Koljonen and Helena Rimpinen transcribed parts of the interview and workshop materials. Both of them are thanked for coping with the often technically imperfect audio and video recordings. Laura Tohka, who had a tight time schedule, has flexibly provided with improving the English language in this introductory part. Special thanks to her, and the responsibility for the remainder of mistakes rests with me.
I thank my trusted technical support person, Ari Vaulo, for his eternal patience in giving advice and providing support with good humor in all sorts of technical questions and dilemmas I have been able to create with the not-so-work-sensitive-technologies.
My warmest thanks go to Marjo Favorin and Tuomo Tuikka, my friends and colleagues in the Department of Information Processing Science. It has been important to be able to talk about practicalities, to narrate and relate experiences, to air grievances, and to share the occasional highlights in the everyday life of doctoral students. Above all, I appreciate the emotional support these more or less frequent ‘peer-therapy sessions’ have bestowed.
This study has been financially supported by the Department of Information Processing Science, and the University of Oulu, the Tauno Tönning Foundation, the Zonta Club Oulunseutu, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, as well as the Regional Fund of Northern Ostrobothnia of the Finnish Cultural Foundation, all of which I gratefully acknowledge.
The permissions from the original publishers to reprint the articles is acknowledged.
The few lines here at the end of acknowledgements cannot enough appreciate the love, support and encouragement I have received from my dear partner Hannu, and from my relatives and friends. As most of these people closest to me have no share in or care for the academics, I shall rather show them my gratitude in person, be it at the sea or inland, but in any case with joyous companionship.
Oulu, March 2001 Helena Karasti