The mystery of the missing referent: Objects, procedures, and the problem of the instruction follower

Abstract

An omni-relevant issue for workplace studies is how participants engaged in joint activity make sense of the objects that constitute their shared material environment. In this study we examine a surgery taped in a teaching hospital to explore how formal procedures make relevant certain sorts of objects and, at the same time, are constituted through them. We proceed by unpacking one particular strip of talk and demonstrate how its determinate sense rests upon a vernacular understanding of unfolding procedure. We treat surgical procedures as sequences of projected instructions. Competent design of technologies intended to support cooperative work must rest ultimately on an intimate understanding of that work's organization. The practices of instantiating objects and followintg procedures are foundational to that organization. This paper is intended to provide method and vocabulary for studying and describing such matters. © Copyright 2006 ACM.