Multidisciplinary research into new technologies: Collaboration and Breakdown.
Annamaria Carusi
Oxford University Computing Laboratory
Email address of corresponding author: Annamaria.carusi@comlab.ox.ac.uk
A study of a recent joint MIT-OII workshop on how to do research into the social implications of new technologies, bringing together researchers from a wide range of disciplines, was undertaken in order to see what factors facilitated multi-disciplinary discussion, and what factors were hindrances. The main divisions among this particular group of multi-disciplinary researchers are discussed in this paper; some suggestions are made concerning the prevalence of these divisions over the sector as a whole, and we conclude with suggestions concerning ways in which such discussions may be facilitated – not in order, necessarily to overcome the divisions, but rather in order to allow dialogue to continue even where there are divisions.
