Books in the Sociological Observations series

This book provides one of the first clear-headed assessments of information technology and organizational transformation. Its virtue is not so much in its recognition of the importance of the subject; speculations on this topic have been rampant for more than a decade. Rather, it is unusual and unusually useful, because it avoids speculation in favor of conceptually coherent accounts grounded in empirical study of actual organizations. The chapters contained in this volume move beyond the superficial glorification of information technology as an extraordinary instrument of social change, and straight to the heart of the mechanisms of change as they play out in everyday organizational life. In the process, they reaffirm that the real story of information technology in organizations is more about people than about technology. Taken together, they provide an important contribution to the intellectual foundations of one of the most interesting developments in decades.

The deaf are outsiders in a world largely created and controlled by those who hear. Based on intensive interviewing, observation, and the personal experience of the author (whose parents are deaf), Outsiders in a Hearing World examines the lives of deaf people within a social and historical context. It examines the communities created by deaf people and the identities of their members, and describes and analyzes the everyday interactions between the deaf and the hearing. Drawing on the works concerning other outsiders, this book not only increases our understanding of deafness and the deaf, but of outsiders in general.