Suchman2000c
| Suchman2000c | |
|---|---|
| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Suchman2000c |
| Author(s) | Lucy Suchman |
| Title | Organising alignment: a case of bridge-building |
| Editor(s) | |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Heterogeneous engineering, ordering, organizational ethnogrphy, performance, planning |
| Publisher | |
| Year | 2000 |
| Language | English |
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| Month | |
| Journal | Organization |
| Volume | 7 |
| Number | 2 |
| Pages | 311–327 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1177/135050840072007 |
| ISBN | |
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Abstract
The project of building a bridge is a canonical example of what John Law (1987) has termed 'heterogeneous engineering', involving the arrangement of human and nonhuman elements into a stable artifact. This paper reports ethnographic research on the work of civil engineers engaged in designing a bridge scheduled for completion by the year 2004. My emphasis is on a view of bridge-building as persuasive performances that both rely upon and reflexively constitute the elements to be aligned. The work of designing a bridge, on this view, is as much a matter of story-telling as of analysis, calculation, and work with concrete and steel.
Notes
