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`Code talk' in soft work

University College Dublin, Ireland, allen.higgins{at}ucd.ie

The performance of writing software is an under-studied phenomenon in Information Systems (IS) studies. Key aspects of the process of software development — the practice of writing code, coding texts collectively, maintaining and extending source code — are too often glossed or treated unproblematically as technical `givens' rather than social accomplishments. Although ethnographic methods are now considered a valid mode of study in the software industry, there is a relative scarcity of ethnographic studies of the performance of programming itself. Utilizing data drawn from an ethnographic study of an Irish software development company, this article presents an intensive study of what I term `code talk', the verbal interactions which attend the performance of programming software. `Code talk' is then situated as a crucial element of a broader social understanding of collaborative knowledge work.

Key Words: information systems development • software development • programming • workplace studies • ethnography • ethnomethodology

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Ethnography, Vol. 8, No. 4, 467-484 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1466138107083563


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Higgins, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?