The Ethnography of Infrastructure
1999/11/01 by Susan Leigh Star, SUSAN LEIGH STAR · 5 voices · 80 citations
Computer Science · Social Sciences · #E-Government and Public Services #ICT in Developing Communities #Information Systems Theories and Implementation
paper · doi:10.1177/00027649921955326
openalex publication_date 1999/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Abstract
This article asks methodological questions about studying infrastructure with some of the tools and perspectives of ethnography. Infrastructure is both relational and ecological—it means different things to different groups and it is part of the balance of action, tools, and the built environment, inseparable from them. It also is frequently mundane to the point of boredom, involving things such as plugs, standards, and bureaucratic forms. Some of the difficulties of studying infrastructure are how to scale up from traditional ethnographic sites, how to manage large quantities of data such as those produced by transaction logs, and how to understand the interplay of online and offline behavior. Some of the tricks of the trade involved in meeting these challenges include studying the design of infrastructure, understanding the paradoxes of infrastructure as both transparent and opaque, including invisible work in the ecological analysis, and pinpointing the epistemological status of indictors.
Citations
Cited by
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Discussions
- from Susan Leigh Star
STAR, S. L. (1999). The Ethnography of Infrastructure. The American Behavioral Scientist (Beverly Hills), 43(3), 377–391. doi.org/10.1177/0002... [bsky, 3 points, 0 comments]
- doi.org/10.1177/0002... [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- Reading about the ethnography of infrastructure (Star, Susan Leigh. ‘The Ethnography of Infrastructure’. American Behavioral Scientist 43, no. 3 (1 November 1999): 377–91. doi.org/10.1177/0002...) and [bsky, 1 points, 2 comments]
- It's the little things, the little bits of humor, when combing through journal article after journal article.
STAR, S. L. (1999). The Ethnography of Infrastructure. American Behavioral Scientist, 43 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- Star, Leigh (1999), The Ethnography of Infrastructure. American Behavioral Scientist. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027649921955326 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
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