Taking technomethodology seriously: hybrid change in the ethnomethodology–design relationship

The incorporation of ethnomethodology in professional systems development has prompted the call for the approach to move from design critique to design practice and the invention of the future. This has resulted in the development of a variety of mixing pot hybrids that have had marginal impact upon product-based development, whose needs the approach has been configured to meet. This paper suggests that a concern to fit ethnomethodology into product-based development life cycles is a primary source of the difficulties encountered in moving ethnomethodology from design critique to design practice. In practice, ethnomethodology is largely employed in research rather than product development settings. Recognition of the real-world uses of ethnomethodology in design practice opens up the possibility of devising a hybrid methodology that actively supports the invention of the future. Accordingly, this paper articulates a distinct socio-technical model that provides an iterative structure for the constructive involvement of ethnomethodology in processes of technological innovation, the results of which may subsequently be subject to the rationalities and constraints of product development.