Technology Configuring the User: Implications for the Redesign of Electronic Information Systems in Social Work

The introduction of technology to any workplace can not only change the nature of the task, but re-orient priorities and change the way that workers conduct and think about their work. In this article, based on the findings of a programme of ethnographic research, examples of changes brought to both the context for and the practice of social work by the heavily critiqued current designs of electronic information systems (IS) are analysed. It is argued that understanding these changes is crucial to research-based approaches to redesigning IS that support rather than hinder social work practice. The implications for initiatives to improve social work practice are also explored.