Professionsgetriebene Digitalisierung: Ethnografie der Softwareentwicklung und konzeptuelle Herausforderungen

Büchner Stefanie () and Braunsmann Katharina ()
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Büchner Stefanie: Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institut für Soziologie, Arbeitsbereich Soziologie der Digitalisierung, Schneiderberg 50, 30167 Hannover, Deutschland
Braunsmann Katharina: Leibniz Universität Hannover, Institut für Soziologie, Arbeitsbereich Soziologie der Digitalisierung, Schneiderberg 50, 30167 Hannover, Deutschland

Arbeit, 2025, vol. 34, issue 3, 185-210

Abstract: Digitalization initiatives often aim to transform and optimize processes, structures and practices. Increasingly, not only programmers and developers, but also professionals are getting involved in the digitalization of their fields of work and developing software solutions. This article examines such a digitalization project: the development of software for child and youth welfare services. The results of the ethnographic study show that, despite this constellation, professional expectation complexes do not predominantly shape software design processes. Rather, in addition to professional expectation complexes, the design of digital communication is also shaped by complexes that are more organizational in nature, as well as by societal expectations on the design of interfaces and digital communication. The results point to the complexity and heterogeneity of digitalization initiatives, even if these are strongly structured by professions. Accordingly, initiatives of software design cannot be reduced to a simple denominator such as re- or de-professionalization. Instead, our findings highlight conceptual challenges for the analysis of the relationship between organization, profession and digital technologies.

Keywords: Organization; profession; profession-driven digitalization; ethnography; Organisation; Profession; professionsgetriebene Digitalisierung; Ethnografie; Organization; profession; profession-driven digitalization; ethnography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:arbeit:v:34:y:2025:i:3:p:185-210:n:1002

DOI: 10.1515/arbeit-2025-0011

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