Layers of Silence, Arenas of Voice: The Ecology ofVisible and Invisible Work

  • Authors:
  • Susan Leigh Star;Anselm Strauss

  • Affiliations:
  • Graduate School of Library and Information Science 501, East Daniel St., University of Illinois, Champaign IL, 61820 USA s-star1@uiuc.edu;Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, USA

  • Venue:
  • Computer Supported Cooperative Work - Special issue: a web on the wind: the structure of invisible work
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

No work is inherently either visibleor invisible. We always ’’see‘‘ work through aselection of indicators: straining muscles, finishedartifacts, a changed state of affairs. The indicatorschange with context, and that context becomes anegotiation about the relationship between visible andinvisible work. With shifts in industrial practicethese negotiations require longer chains of inferenceand representation, and may become solely abstract.This article provides a framework for analyzing invisible work in CSCW systems. We sample across avariety of kinds of work to enrich the understandingof how invisibility and visibility operate. Processesexamined include creating a ’’non-person‘‘ in domesticwork; disembedding background work; and goingbackstage. Understanding these processes may informthe design of CSCW systems and the development ofrelated social theory.