ABSTRACT
In the Introduction, we argued that much thinking about computing is limited by technicist assumptions and that a more empirical approach to computing is desirable. Chapter 1 made a more positive, essentially humanistic, case for studying computerization empirically—because people think computers are important to changes taking place in their lives and because sorting out what to do about these changes is essential to working out strategies for the future. The humanistic approach also implies something about how to study computing—the use of methods that give meaningful attention to the cultural constructs through which real people apprehend their experience. An ethnographic approach can complement the preoccupations of structuralisms with attention to the "emic" dimension of technological change—that is, how the change is experienced by people and what cultural categories they use.
