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Research Project as Boundary Object: negotiating the conceptual design of a tool for International Development

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Abstract

This paper reflects on the relationship between whoone designs for and whatone designs in the unstructured space of designing for political change; in particular, for supporting "International Development" with ICT. We look at an interdisciplinary research project with goals and funding, but no clearly defined beneficiary group at start, and how amorphousness contributed to impact. The reported project researched a bridging tool to connect producers with consumers across global contexts and show players in the supply chain and their circumstances. We explore how both the nature of the research and the tool's function became contested as work progressed. To tell this tale, we invoke the idea of boundary objects and the value of tacking back and forth between elastic meanings of the project's artefacts and processes. We examine the project's role in India, Chile and other arenas to draw out ways that it functioned as a catalyst and how absence of committed design choices acted as an unexpected strength in reaching its goals.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sheffield Hallam University, Sydney

    Ann Light

  2. University of Technology, Sydney

    Theresa Dirndorfer Anderson

Authors
  1. Ann Light
  2. Theresa Dirndorfer Anderson

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ann Light .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Vienna University of Technology, Austria

    Ina Wagner & Hilda Tellioğlu &

  2. Simon Fraser University, Canada

    Ellen Balka

  3. Universita' di Milano-Bicocca, Italy

    Carla Simone

  4. University of Limerick, Ireland

    Luigina Ciolfi

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Cite this paper

Light, A., Anderson, T.D. (2009). Research Project as Boundary Object: negotiating the conceptual design of a tool for International Development. In: Wagner, I., Tellioğlu, H., Balka, E., Simone, C., Ciolfi, L. (eds) ECSCW 2009. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-854-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-854-4_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84882-853-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84882-854-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer Science Computer Science (R0)

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