Talking about Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job

by Julian E. Orr

This is a story of how work gets done. It is also a study of how field service technicians talk about their work and how that talk is instrumental in their success. In his innovative ethnography, Julian E. Orr studies the people who repair photocopiers and shares vignettes from their daily lives. He characterizes their work as a continuous highly skilled improvisation within a triangular relationship of technician, customer, and machine.

The work technicians do encompasses elements not contained in the official definition of the job yet vital to its success. Orr's analysis of the way repair people talk about their work reveals that talk is, in fact, a crucial dimension of their practice. Diagnosis happens through a narrative process, the creation of a coherent description of the troubled machine. The descriptions become the basis for technicians' discourse about their experience, and the circulation of stories among the technicians is the principal means by which they stay informed of the developing subtleties of machine behavior. Orr demonstrates that technical knowledge is a socially distributed resource stored and diffused primarily through an oral culture.

Based on participant observation with copier repair technicians in the field and strengthened by Orr's own years as a technician, this book explodes numerous myths about technicians and suggests how technical work differs from other kinds of employment.

Genres: Anthropology, Technology, Ethnography, Academic, Nonfiction

191 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 24, 1996

Reviews

[Miriam Cihodariu · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best sources to read up on, if you want to know how to truly 'do' anthropology, from the roots up. It strives to see what people really do when they describe their activity like 'organizing', 'managing' and so on, as if words were only a veil (which they are).

[Lorin Hochstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’d think that an academic study of the quotidian work of photocopy repair technicians would be dull. But Orr’s ethnography captures the details of the work, and the interaction between the technicians, in ways that will feel familiar to anyone who does any kind of technical work, including software developers.

[Jan D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating account of a “modern job” and the goals, values and struggles connected to it. I found it particularly interesting that the instructions for repair work were both seen as useful (sometimes helpful, giving structure, claim to have done all the instruction provides) but limited (following the process takes too long, not useful for many defects) by the repair workers. The management, however, saw these instructions as very important but due to the wish to auto-translate allowed the use of a limited vocabulary only.

[Andrew Hatch · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you work in Tech, and more specifically dealing with Incident Response and operational work, you are going to have your mind-blown at the amazing parallels between photocopier service personal in the early 1990's and your current job.

Really enjoyed this book, so many excellent takeaways and relatable content to the work I currently do - even if some were a little uncomfortable and hit a little close to home!

[mcburton · Rating 4 out of 5]

My excitement about this book began to dwindle as I progressed. It is not well written with several irritating and confusing moments. But the content is incredibly interesting to an ethnographic-centric crowd and its status as a classic in the field cannot be denied. Definitely an important read for any student of sociology/ethnomethodology.

[John Stepper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this certainly is for everyone. :-) An ethnographer shadowing Xerox copier technicians while they work? And yet...I loved it, and think many of the patterns and insights apply today and to a broad range of work and workers. Useful for anyone interested in HR, organizational development, and the future of work as well as the past.

[Gaurang Desai · Rating 4 out of 5]

For hard-core design ethnographers. Thoroughly enjoyable read and makes one wonder why Xerox shutdown its research center

[Cynde Moya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool.

[rixx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nonfiction