The Work, Interaction and Technology (WIT) is an interdisciplinary research group at King’s College London. It is based in King’s Business School's Department of Public Services Management and Organisation.

Members of the group specialise in video-based field studies of social interaction and have a particular interest in how tools and technologies feature in interaction, work practice, and collaboration. These studies often concern complex organisational environments, such as operating theatres, control rooms, health care consultations, and auction houses, as well as more informal, public settings such as museums, science centres, and cafés. Alongside their contribution to contemporary research and debates in the social sciences, computer sciences, and organisation studies, many of these studies are also used to inform the design of advanced technologies.

Members of the group published the first book on using video to analyse work and social interaction (Heath, Luff & Hindmarsh, Sage), as well as editing and authoring both on ethnomethodological contributions to organisation studies (Hindmarsh, Cambridge University Press), communication in healthcare (Hindmarsh, Blackwell), the analysis of auctions and markets (Heath, Cambridge University Press), and People, Technology and Social Organization (vom Lehn, Gibson and Ruiz-Junco, Routledge).

Approach and methods

WIT research is primarily naturalistic, informed by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, and concerned with the social and interactional organisation of work and everyday activities. It involves fine-grained, video-based studies of social interaction and work practices. It encompasses studies of talk and bodily conduct and the ways in which objects and artefacts, and other aspects of the material environment, feature in conduct and collaboration. Members of the group are at the forefront of developing video-based field methods for the analysis of situated activity and social interaction.

Contributions

These projects contribute to empirical research, theory, and method in a range of disciplines in the social and computer sciences including sociology, communications, organisational studies, CSCW, HCI, and museum studies. They also contribute to the design and development of advanced technologies as well as skills training within organisations. For example, in recent years we have been involved in the development of simulation tools for training in healthcare, image recognition systems for command and control, and video-mediated technologies. Other projects have generated findings that have informed the development of professional training programmes for optometrists.

Activities

Members of the group organise conferences and colloquia, provide research training, and offer specialised short courses. They also help to shape the contemporary research agenda. They are regularly on programme and conference committees for international conferences such as ECSCW, EGOS, the ACM conferences of CSCW, CHI, the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI), and the American Sociological Association (ASA). Members of the group serve on a range of editorial boards and edit special issues concerning aspects of work, interaction, and technology. They serve on various ESRC (including Information and Communications, Heath) and EPSRC committees and act as scientific consultants to private and public sector organisations in the UK and abroad. Furthermore, the group participates in funded networks in the UK and abroad each of which has a remit to develop research agendas in their different fields.