Knowledge Development and Social Change through Technology: Emerging Studies

Citation

Keary, M.Y. (2012), "Knowledge Development and Social Change through Technology: Emerging Studies", Online Information Review, Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 621-622. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521211254103

This work is a collection of papers on applications and advances for encouraging research on social change and growth at the organisational level. The 20 studies look at specific areas of technology designs for social environments (workplace, home and externally) and examine key issues in combining the use of information and communication technologies with the effective and humanistic use of people in the work environment.

The introductory paper by the Coakes reviews articles published from 1968 to 2008 on the application of socio‐technology in the study of technology in society, and the way it governs organisations and systems. This same theme is dealt with in two subsequent studies, one looks at how knowledge management (KM) is introduced via a lessons‐learned programme, and the other in creating socially aware designs for non‐goals, clean design and anti‐usability.

Two studies describe the use of socio‐technology solutions by project managers: one, examines the user‐developer gap between leaders; the other defines and articulate goals and objectives through which project managers and teams engage in sense‐making for understanding knowledge communication.

Several articles examine the way in which socio‐technical systems are incorporated into user interfaces, their relevance to emerging forms of virtual organisations, and the use of social web tools during disasters. These studies show how the movement towards virtual organisations, mobile technologies and social networking systems is creating forms of socio‐technical systems with new characteristics for people, organisations and the developing world.

KM is topical in areas of practice and research, and of the studies included, one provides insights for managers to implement KM in service businesses, whilst another assesses the current state of research performed in knowledge flow theory, and examines the relationship between these activities and their affect on different cultures and generations. Two further studies look at differences between belief, the true, true belief and justified true belief and how these affect our understanding of different kinds of organisational knowledge. The other discusses affective factors present in the workforce and their impact on the success of KM.

The global application of socio‐technology completes the studies in this book. These range from the public health sector in southern countries to ICTs in Ethiopia, the use of technology determinism to understand the role of technological objects in transfers related to development issues, and the social roles of mobile phones for Chinese entrepreneurs. The final two studies apply social shaping of technology, complemented with affordance and domestication theory, and reflect on strategies adopted by a rural e‐services project for a co‐operative of marginal farmers in India to design software and practices using mobile camera phones for communication purposes.

This collection is designed to introduce the reader to socio‐technical theory and its development through a range of practical studies. A useful compilation of bibliographical references is provided, as well as notes of contributors, to complete this comprehensive resource.