Reflexivity of Account, Professional Vision, and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: Working in the Maritime Domain

Abstract

Computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) researchers have plenty to say about designing through texts. However, the relationships between implementation and design are often misunderstood by engineering project systems developers who design collaborative systems, among others. This problem is not new; how to utilize CSCW insights effectively and correctly in engineering projects has long been a concern in the CSCW community. By reviewing year-long, multiple-site ethnographic studies in the maritime domain conducted since 2015, this paper reflects on the "reflexivity of account" and "professional vision" as complementary concepts for ensuring that actors' actions and reasonings are designed in such a way that actors-in this case, maritime operators, systems developers, educators, policymakers, and shipowners-are accountable in and through their member groups. Rather than generalizing my findings and my role in the maritime domain as explicit knowledge to help other CSCW researchers in studying engineering projects, the goal of this paper is to seek intersubjective knowledge of my fieldwork to trigger the utilization of CSCW insights as a fundamental basis for facilitating systems design. The aim is to shape and reshape systems in line with what those actors do in reality.