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Social Science Computer Review
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Notes

Computers in Context : The Philosophy and Practice of Systems Design Bo Dahlbom and Lars Mathiassen Publisher: Blackwell Publishers, 238 Main St., 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02142 Year of Publication: 1993 Length: 306 pages Price: $49.95 (hardbound) Intended Audience: Students, professionals, and managers interested in computing implementation issues; supplementary reading in courses on computer science and information systems (Notes for Instructors section is included

This exploration of software development and systems design eschews jargon, assumes no computer science background, and presents an interesting and sometimes amusing discussion that challenges computer professionals to focus on the methods, goals, and politics of computerization as it impacts everyday life. Dahlbom, trained in philosophy, holds a chair in information systems at the University of Goteborg, Sweden. Mathiassen is professor of mathematics and computer science at the School of Engineering, Aalborg University Center, Denmark. The book's 12 chapters carry succinct titles: Computers; Information; Thinking; Construction; Evolution;Intervention; Artifacts; Culture; Power; Computers and People; Systems and Change; and From Philosophy to Practice. Part I discusses mechanistic and romantic world views as related to computing. Part II treats construction, evolution, and intervention as three perspectives on systems development. Part III focuses on "quality" in terms of three different viewpoints anchored in artifacts, culture, and power. The conclusion discusses four theories of science (positivism, hermeneutics, critical theory, and structuralism) in terms of contradictions between computers and people, and between systems and change. The authors would like to see this work as a main text for a course on the philosophy of computer science, but because there are few or none of those they commend it as supplementary reading in more conventional courses. Overall, the work owes more to phenomenology than to sociotechnical systems, though both have an antitechnocratic human focus.

Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 12, No. 2, 330-331 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/089443939401200222
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