Editing Social informatics (section)

{{short description|Subfield between informatics and sociology}}
'''Social informatics''' is the study of [[Information technology|information and communication tools]] in [[cultural]] or [[institutional]] contexts.<ref name="KlingRosenbaumSawyer2005">{{cite book|last1=Kling|first1=Rob|last2=Rosenbaum|first2=Howard|last3=Sawyer|first3=Steve|title=Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics: A Framework for Studying and Teaching the Human Contexts of Information and Communications Technologies|date=2005|publisher=Information Today, Inc.|location=Medford, New Jersey|isbn=978-1-57387-228-7}}</ref> Another definition is the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of information technologies that takes into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts.<ref name="Kling2007">{{cite journal|last1=Kling|first1=Rob|title=What Is Social Informatics and Why Does It Matter?|journal=The Information Society|date=2007|volume=23|issue=4|pages=205–220|doi=10.1080/01972240701441556|s2cid=41866775}}</ref> A [[transdisciplinary]] field,<ref name="SawyerRosenbaum2000">{{cite journal|last1=Sawyer|first1=Steve|last2=Rosenbaum|first2=Howard|title=Social informatics in the information sciences: Current activities and emerging directions|journal=Informing Science: The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline|date=2000|volume=3|issue=2|pages=89–95|url=http://www.inform.nu/Articles/Vol3/v3n2p89-96r.pdf|accessdate=15 August 2016|doi=10.28945/583|doi-access=free}}</ref> social informatics is part of a larger body of socio-economic research that examines the ways in which the technological artifact and human social context mutually constitute the [[information and communications technology]] (ICT) ensemble.<ref name=":0">Sawyer, S. and Jarrahi, M.H. (2014) ''The Sociotechnical Perspective: Information Systems and Information Technology'', Volume 2 (Computing Handbook Set, Third Edition,) edited by Heikki Topi and Allen Tucker. Chapman and Hall/CRC. | http://sawyer.syr.edu/publications/2013/sociotechnical%20chapter.pdf</ref> Some proponents of social informatics use the relationship of a [[Biology|biological]] [[community]] to its [[Ecology|environment]] as an [[analogy]] for the relationship of tools to [[person|people]] who use them. The [http://rkcsi.indiana.edu/ Center for Social Informatics] founded by the late Dr. [[Rob Kling]], an early champion of the field's ideas, defines the field thus:

:Social Informatics (SI) refers to the body of research and study that examines social aspects of computerization – including the roles of information technology in social and organizational change, the uses of information technologies in social contexts, and the ways that the social organization of information technologies is influenced by social forces and social practices.<ref name="rkcsi">{{cite web|last1=Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics|title=Homepage of Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics|url=http://rkcsi.indiana.edu/|website=Indiana University|publisher=Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics|accessdate=22 August 2016|date=2016}}</ref>