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This paper documents some details and some examples of the influence of ethnomethodological work in the fieldwork tradition associated with European CSCW; in particular what has been termed 'ethnomethodologically informed ethnography'. In so doing, we do not wish to downplay other perspectival and methodological contributions but to simply suggest that much of the ethnomethodological work that was done in the UK during the early development of CSCW had a distinctive character and made significant contributions to the study of complex organizational environments for design-related purposes that arguably reinvigorated the European fieldwork tradition. The distinctiveness we speak of in 'ethnomethodologically informed ethnography' had to do with what it owed to Wittgenstein and Winch as much as Garfinkel and Sacks, was rooted in a contempt for methodological fetishism, and emphasized the centrality of reasoning or rationale in the conduct of working and, more generally, social life. This focus and approach drew heavily on the ethnographic work of the likes of John Hughes in Lancaster, Wes Sharrock in Manchester, Bob Anderson at Xerox in Cambridge, and Christian Heath in King's, London, where attention was focused on the actual 'doing' of work as opposed to work in some idealised form – and it is this that we suggest has become important to design and designers of various kinds and in various domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses a series of emergency calls related to the same event: an accident in a factory. The aim of the analysis is to show how a lack of information hinders operator’s diagnostic work. The paper shows the effects of communication problems on operator’s decision making, that is, how the operator’s diagnostic work is actively resisted by callers, and therefore, how disaligment in relation to the activity at hand influences operator’s decision making and the actual organisation of the rescue activities. I argue that CSCW technologies need to enable negotiation of potentially conflicting social practices and organizational protocols around diagnostic work and should not just support remote collaboration between professionals, but also with the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]