A year-long reading group that matches foundational long-form works about technology to modern management papers.
| Session | Date | Reading | Guest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book 1 | Wed Oct 14, 2026 | Yates, Control through Communication | JoAnne Yates |
| Papers 1 | Wed Nov 4, 2026 | Genres, records, data infrastructure | |
| Book 2 | Wed Jan 13, 2027 | Zuboff, In the Age of the Smart Machine | |
| Papers 2 | Wed Feb 3, 2027 | Automate / informate, skill & authority | |
| Book 3 | Wed Apr 7, 2027 | Suchman, Human–Machine Reconfigurations | |
| Papers 3 | Wed Apr 21, 2027 | Situated action & invisible work | |
| Book 4 | Wed Jun 30, 2027 | Orr, Talking about Machines | |
| Papers 4 | Wed Jul 21, 2027 | Communities of practice, narrative & the algorithm |
These four books represent foundational books in the field of work and technology studies. Each of these books leverages qualitative methods to surface fundamental concepts which have gone on to influence the field of management and in particular theories around technology.
Our purpose in selecting these four books and accompanying papers was to provide an opportunity for scholars to be exposed to foundational texts around technology in their entirety or revisit these texts in the context of AI. By pairing these books with more current papers, we hope to foster a discussion that connects these books to current phenomena, providing modern context while reinforcing theoretical foundations.
This effort builds on the intellectual community around technology and long form scholarship started by Ruthanne Huising and Virginia Leavell in the 2025-2026 academic year with the History of Technology reading group. We look forward to exploring these books and papers together, as we continue this tradition.
Eight sessions, ninety minutes each, in four pairs. The first session of a pair focuses on the book. Three weeks later the second session focuses on three related papers, thirty minutes each. All meetings will be on Zoom.
Readings that come up in discussion are added here afterwards.
Each paper is marked Empirical or Theoretical. Titles link to the publisher's page and its abstract.
Everything on this page is in a Zotero group library, foldered by session. Anyone can browse it, and joining the group syncs it into your own Zotero. If you have trouble accessing a paper, email Daniel or Amanda.
Theme: How communication technology affected, and was affected by, record keeping and thus management practice. Based on historical archival data, this work lays the foundation for understanding how systems of producing, transmitting, and storing business information affects organizing and organizational structures.
Theme: A technology can automate work (do what people used to do), or it can informate it, turning the work into a stream of readable data. Zuboff's fieldwork in mills, offices and plants shows organizations reaching for the first and getting the second, and then having to decide who is allowed to read what, and who counts as skilled once the job is legible on a screen.
Theme: Situated action. Anyone who has used a piece of digital technology has encountered a situation where their intent seems to be at odds with the technology's design. Suchman explores how the limitations of a machine's contextual knowledge challenges human-machine communication and the ability for people to achieve their intended action. Specifically, she shows how plans are resources people use to act, not scripts that determine what they do, by exploring machines built on the opposite assumption.
(Note: Please read the 2007 edition rather than the original Plans and Situated Actions so that we can all discuss the additional chapters.)
Theme: Communities of practice. Xerox copier technicians diagnose problems their manuals cannot describe, and they do it by telling each other stories over breakfast, in the field, and in front of the customer. The knowledge lives in an occupational community rather than a repository, and so do the identity and the memory that come with it.