Editing Social informatics (section)

==Research==
Historically, Western European concepts of social informatics research has been strong in the Scandinavian countries and the UK.<ref name="WilliamsEdge1996">{{cite journal|last1=Williams|first1=Robin|last2=Edge|first2=David|title=The social shaping of technology|journal=Research Policy|date=1996|volume=25|issue=6|pages=865–899|doi=10.1016/0048-7333(96)00885-2|s2cid=17412694 |url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28638/1/Introductory%20essay%20%28LSERO%29.pdf}}</ref> The beginnings can be traced to the 1980s in Norway and Slovenia.<ref name="FichmanRosenbaum2014">{{cite book|last1=Fichman|first1=Pnina|last2=Rosenbaum|first2=Howard|title=Social Informatics: Past, Present and Future|date=2014|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|location=Newcastle upon Tyne|isbn=978-1443855761}}</ref> The fundamentals of social informatics in the USA were laid by Kling in 1996 with his colleagues and students from Indiana University.<ref name="FichmanRosenbaum2014" /> Within North America, the field is represented largely through independent research efforts at a number of diverse institutions.<ref name="SawyerRosenbaum2000" /> There are several approaches, which were historically named or classified as social informatics: American, Russian, British, Norwegian, Slovenian, German and Japanese.<ref name="Smutny2016">{{cite journal|last1=Smutny|first1=Zdenek|title=Social informatics as a concept: Widening the discourse|journal=Journal of Information Science|date=2016|volume=42|issue=5|pages=681–710|doi=10.1177/0165551515608731|s2cid=9355999}}</ref> The oldest concept of social informatics was founded in the USSR by A.V. Sokolov and his colleagues in the 1970s.<ref name="Smutny2016" /><ref name="Chugunov2012">{{cite book|last1=Chugunov|first1=Andrey Vladimirovich|title=Социальная информатика: Учебное пособие|date=2012|publisher=НИУ ИТМО|location=Санкт-Петербургский}}</ref>

Social informatics research diverges from earlier, deterministic (both social and technological) models for measuring the social impacts of technology. Such technological deterministic models characterized information technologies as tools to be installed and used with a pre-determined set of impacts on society which are dictated by the technology's stated capabilities.<ref name="WilliamsEdge1996" />  Similarly, the socially [[Determinism|deterministic theory]] represented by some proponents of the [[social construction of technology|social construction of technology (SCOT)]] or [[social shaping of technology]] theory as advocated by Williams & Edge (1996)<ref name="WilliamsEdge1996" /> see technology the product of human social forces.  In contrast, some social informatics methodologies consider the context surrounding technology and the material properties of the technology to be equally important:  the people who will interact with a system, the organizational policies governing work practice, and support resources.<ref name=":0" />  This contextual inquiry produces "nuanced [[concept]]ual understanding" of systems that can be used to examine issues like access to technology, [[Telecommunication|electronic forms of communication]], and large-scale [[Computer networking|networks]].<ref name="Kling2000a">{{cite journal|last1=Kling|first1=Rob|title=Learning about information technologies and social change: The contribution of social informatics|journal=The Information Society|date=2000|volume=16|issue=3|pages=217–232|doi=10.1080/01972240050133661|s2cid=17184442}}</ref>

Research in social informatics can be categorized into three orientations.<ref name="SawyerRosenbaum2000" />  [[Norm (sociology)|Normative]] research focuses on the development of theories based on [[empirical]] analysis that may be used to develop organizational policies and work practices.<ref name="Kling2000a" /> The heart of such analyses lies in socio-technical interaction networks,<ref name="Kling2000a" /> a framework built around the idea that humans and the technologies they build are "[[Coconstitutionalism|co-constitutive]]", bound together, and that any examination of one must necessarily consider the other. Studies of the analytical orientation develop theory or define methodologies to contribute to theorizing in institutional settings.<ref name="Kling2000a" />  Critical analysis, like [[Lucy Suchman]]’s examination of articulation work,<ref name="Suchman1994">{{cite conference|first1=Lucy|last1=Suchman|title=Supporting articulation work: Aspects of a feminist practice of office technology production|conference=Proceedings of the 5th IFIP WG9.1 Conference on Women, Work and Computerization|date=1994|publisher=Elsevier|location=New York|pages=7–21}}</ref> examine technological solutions from non-traditional perspectives in order to influence design and implementation.<ref name="SawyerRosenbaum2000" /><ref name="Kling2000a" />