Negotiating Information Technology: Politics and Practices of a Web Site

Abstract

In this paper I do a preliminary investigation of the web production in one Swedish municipality. I implement Giirtner & Wagners suggestion of thinking through three arenas when studying design processes: Arena A for individual projects, Arena B for the organisational layer and Arena C for the national arena. The arena C, the National politics draws up the ideological scene available for the information technology translations at the local level. The Arena B is a municipal political IT-vision document. The arena A is the analysis of an interview with a municipal web developer. I implement the analytical tools of the a:tor-network theory (ANT). I suggest that the web design process is a network of negotiations, where political documents, web producers, private companies, software, and time meet.