When looking at the implementation of ERP systems in large organizations, the typical business concerns span from attaining the goals of the application, usually globalization and efficiency, securing the organization’s acceptance, avoiding rigidity and so on. By now, the literature is full of both normative models on how to implement ERPs successfully and cautioning tales of how the road to success is paved by traps, slowdowns and even disillusion. This paper does not want to take sides in this emerging literature, simply because it submits that there is a need to look at the broader context of ERPs implementation. There is a need to discover new meanings before turning to consulting or critique. Such meanings stem from re-considering the managerial concepts that accompany the ERP implementation, especially the issues of “what is an ERP”; how to do strategic alignment; and what does globalization really entail. The authors frame the study of ERP in organizations within the broader context of an analysis of the consequences of modernity. The new vocabulary sheds a different light on what organizations are doing with ERP: these systems are open, pasted-up, uncontrollable expanding infrastructures; strategic alignment flounders in never-ending tactics and compromises; globalizationgenerates side-effects. Harnessed to enhance control over complex, global organizations, ERPs enshrine the consequences of modernity in a nutshell: they accelerate organizational drift and runaway. The case of the introduction of SAP in a large Norwegian company illustrates a range of drifting processes and side-effects. 1.

The ‘seamless’ integration of a collection of information systems has been recognised as vital in promoting and realising the collaborative aspects of work. This emphasis on the collaborative role of integration supplements other studies in CSCW focusing on more singular tools for collaboration. Empirically, we analyse the design and use of an electronic patient record system (EPR) in large hospitals in Norway. We discuss the conditions for and types of integration of EPR with the host of related information systems in hospitals. We formulate design principles for the integration of collaborative information systems based on a pragmatic study of the productive role of redundant, fragmented and ambiguous information.

This paper proposes a `bricolage' approach to designing systems for cooperative work. This involves users, participatory designers and ethnographers in a continuing cycle of design and revised work practice, often in settings where resources are limited and short-term results are required. It exploits the flood to market of hardware, software and services. The approach is illustrated with results from a project with a practice of landscape architects. Their work is analysed in terms of communities of practice and actor networks. These perspectives help to identify the `socialities' of people and of technologies and of the relationships between them. They help to distinguish different forms of cooperation with differing support needs, opportunities and vulnerabilities. They inform the design of technical support, the assessment of outcomes, and the design of further solutions, in a cycle of `situated experimentation'.

2003 I dedicate this thesis to my son, Shuntaro, who came into this world on December

In this article, we examine an in-depth case of the introduction of geographical information systems (GIS) in the Indian forestry sector and associated social transformations. Our study is informed by Giddens’s recent theoretical developments on globalizing in-� uences at the institutional level and their interconnectedness to new trust systems and self-identity at the individual level. We examine how some elements of our case analysis are illuminated by Giddens’s theoretical concepts, and also highlight some potential areas for further theoretical development. In particular, our case suggests that there are ongoing processes of stability as well as re-� exivity, and we also develop the concept of trust systems to support interactions with new groups of people. Finally, our analysis notes some limitations of Giddens’s ideas, especially the somewhat homogeneous form of his theory in suggesting the nature of social transformations in current times. Instead, the case emphasizes the need to examine more closely cultural and other sociocultural characteristics in particular contexts, and how they play out with global in � uences.

In this article we use recent survey data to test three arguments on the relationship between social stratification and cultural consumption: i.e. what we label as the homology, individualization and omnivore–univore arguments. We note various conceptual and methodological problems in the ways these arguments have been advanced, and stress in particular the importance of maintaining the Weberian distinction between class and status. We concentrate on musical consumption and apply latent class models to identify types of musical consumer. We then examine the social character of these types through a regression analysis that includes a range of demographic and stratification variables. As would be anticipated from a Weberian standpoint, type of musical consumption proves to be more closely associated with status, and also with education, than with class. In general, our results provide little support for the homology or individualisation arguments. They are more consonant with the omnivore–univore argument, although a number of qualifications to this are also suggested. Introduction—The Three

This article argues for a cultural perspective to be brought to bear on studies of climate change risk perception. Developing the “circuit of culture ” model, the article maintains that the producers and consumers of media texts are jointly engaged in dynamic, meaning-making activities that are context-specific and that change over time. A critical discourse analysis of climate change based on a database of newspaper reports from three U.K. broadsheet papers over the period 1985–2003 is presented. This empirical study identifies three distinct circuits of climate change—1985–1990, 1991–1996, 1997–2003—which are characterized by different framings of risks associated with climate change. The article concludes that there is evidence of social learning as actors build on their experiences in relation to climate change science and policy making. Two important factors in shaping the U.K.’s broadsheet newspapers ’ discourse on “dangerous ” climate change emerge as the agency of top political figures and the dominant ideological standpoints in different newspapers. KEY WORDS: British press; climate change; cultural circuits; discourse analysis 1.

Pagination here does not match pagination as published, and some wording may be slightly different.

conflicts in forestry. Silva Fennica Monographs 2. 109 p. Owing to the internationalisation of the forestry debate and forest policy, there is growing need to conduct comparative forest policy research at an international scale. This research compares environmental conflicts in forestry in seven cases during 1984–1995. The cases

www.jims.cam.ac.uk These papers are produced by the Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge. The papers are circulated for discussion purposes only. Their contents should be considered preliminary and are not to be quoted without the authors ’ permission.