Working across Boundaries in Design: A Sociotechnical Spaces Approach

The paper addresses how insights from the social shaping tradition and political process theory may contribute to an understanding of design as staging of sociotechnical relations and processes cutting across boundaries of diverse organisational, political and knowledge domains. This idea is pursued through the notion of ‘socio-technical spaces’ and its delineation, with respect to the analysis of a case of Business Process Reengineering (BPR).

Sociotechnical space is elaborated as being an occasioning as well as a result of sociotechnical choices and processes. It points to the role of socio-material and discursive practices in render-ing spaces open to problematisation and action including some perspektives at the expense of others. The present paper will address the role of preconceived notions and artefacts in design processes, from the standpoint of how they come to be translated into concrete organisational practices.

One implication of this approach includes an attention towards what (and how) ar-eas may be rendered open to negotiation and transformation in technological design, implementation, and change processes.