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The authors present nine dimensions to provide structure for the many Futures of Work (FoW). This is done to advance a more sociotechnical and nuanced approach to the FoW, which is too-often articulated as singular and unidimensional. Futurists emphasize they do not predict the future, but rather, build a number of possible futures – in plural – often in the form of scenarios constructed based on key dimensions. Such scenarios help decision-makers consider alternative actions by providing structured frames for careful analyses. It is useful that the dimensions be dichotomous. Here, the authors focus specifically on the futures of knowledge work.

Building from a sustained review of the FoW literature, from a variety of disciplines, this study derives the nine dimensions.

The nine FoW dimensions are: Locus of Place, Locus of Decision-making, Structure of Work, Technologies’ Roles, Work–Life, Worker Expectations, Leadership Model, Firm’s Value Creation and Labor Market Structure. Use of the dimensions is illustrated by constructing sample scenarios.

While FoW is multi-dimensional, most FoW writing has focused on one or two dimensions, often highlighting positive or negative possibilities. Empirical papers, by their nature, are focused on just one dimension that is supported by data. However, future-oriented policy reports tend are more often multi-faceted analyses and serve here as the model for what we present.

In this chapter, we theorize about online freelancers’ approaches to work flexibility. Drawing from an ongoing digital ethnography of US-based online freelancers pursuing work on digital platforms, our data question the common conceptualizations around the flexibility of online freelancing. We posit that the flexibility of where to work, not when to work, is the most important attribute of their work arrangement. Our data show (1) the online freelancers in our study prefer the stability and sustainability of full-time work over freelancing when both are offered as remote options; (2) full-time remote employment increases these workers’ freelancing control / flexibility; (3) these workers keep freelance work options open even as they transition to more permanent full-time work arrangements. We discuss how these findings relate to workplace culture shifts and what this means for contemporary working arrangements. Our insights contribute to the discourses on knowledge-based gig work and for what it means to study individuals online.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight and reflect on the increased use of social media in the museums sector in the UK and beyond. It seeks to explore the challenges of utilising such media for institutions steeped in discourses of authority, authenticity and materiality.

Arguments are illustrated using examples of practice and policy from across the museums sector, and are informed by critical theory. In particular, Erving Goffman's frame analysis is used as a means for understanding and articulating the current use of social media by museums.

There is currently a gulf between the possibilities presented by social media, and their use by many museums. This leads to forms of frame misalignment, which can be intensely problematic. It is crucial that museums increase their understanding of the frames within which such activity is being encouraged and experienced.

The paper does not offer a comprehensive mapping of social media use by museums at the current time. Rather, it uses notable examples to foreground a number of concerns for exploration through further research.

The paper calls into question the naturalised discourse surrounding social media use in the museums sector. It calls for a re‐appraisal and re‐framing of such activity so that it might more genuinely and satisfactorily match the claims that are being made for and about it.

To extend the work of Rob Kling, whose research interests, and advocacy were at the center of a movement in analytical inquiry and empirical research now known as “social informatics”.

Reviews the work of those who engage in social informatics research to strengthen and further the conceptual perspective, analytical approaches, and intellectual contributions of social informatics.

The vibrant and growing international community of active social informatics scholars has assembled a social informatics resource kit that includes: perspective lenses through which research data can be viewed critically; techniques for building theory and developing models from socially rich empirical data; and a common body of knowledge regarding the uses and effects of ICTs.

The paper identifies opportunities to engage new scholars in social informatics discussions, and suggests new venues for promoting and extending the work of scholars already enrolled in the social informatics movement.

Discusses the characteristics of packaged software versus information systems (IS) development environments that capture the differences between the teams that develop software in these respective industries. The analysis spans four levels: the industry, the dynamics of software development, the cultural milieu, and the teams themselves. Finds that, relative to IS: the packaged software industry is characterized by intense time pressures, less attention to costs, and different measures of success; the packaged software development environment is characterized by being a “line” rather than “staff” unit, having a greater distance from the actual users/customers, a less mature development process; the packaged software cultural milieu is characterized as individualistic and entrepreneurial; the packaged software team is characterized as less likely to be matrix managed and being smaller, more co‐located, with a greater shared vision.

Knowledge management has increasingly been regarded as an important research theme in information systems studies, with a substantial accumulated stock of empirical research. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast theoretical and methodological approaches to knowledge management in extant information systems studies. In so doing, the author builds a new typology and discusses relevant research questions and fundamental ontological and epistemological assumptions about the nature and study of social sciences, and the nature and scope of organizational knowledge. Previous typologies have tangled together basic assumptions about the nature and study of social sciences and the “transformative” nature and scope of organizational knowledge. The present typology acknowledges that these two dimensions need to be untangled to be able to discriminate and analyze fundamental assumptions that researchers, explicitly or implicitly, adopt in the study of knowledge management and information systems in organizations. This distinction is necessary because the implementation and use of information systems has the potential to enhance, or hinder, the transformative attributes or characteristics of organizational processes. This new typology is used to conceptualize, categorize, and criticize a sample of selected research articles, and to suggest new directions for research.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are reshaping many industries, often by reshaping how information is shared. However, while the effects and uses of ICT are often associated with organizations (and industries), their use occurs at the individual level. To explore the relationships between individual uses of ICT and changes to organization and industry structures, we examined the residential real estate industry. As agents, buyers and sellers increase their uses of ICT, they also change how they approach their daily work. The increasing uses of ICT are simultaneously altering industry structures by subverting some of the realtors’ control over information while also reinforcing the existing contract‐based structures. This structurational perspective and our findings help to explain why information intermediaries persist when technology‐based perspectives would suggest their disappearance.