Dissertation Research: ICT Development in the NGO Sector: The Case of Greenpeace

论文研究：非政府组织部门的信息通信技术发展：绿色和平案例

• 批准号: 0453855
• 负责人: Kim Fortun
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-01-01 至 2006-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0453855&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; ICT; Development; NGO

This Science and Technology Studies Dissertation Improvement Grant will provide funds to document and analyze the development of information systems at Greenpeace, a prominent, transnational environmental organization. Greenpeace grew to prominence largely from its successes in using mass media for environmental advocacy, and the organization has traditionally emphasized technical innovation in the service of environmental advocacy. It is unique among the larger environmental organizations in incorporating confrontational tactics, technical sophistication, and a relatively hierarchical governance structure. This combination of traits makes it an ideal setting for investigating the synergies and discordances between institutions and practices proper to advocacy and those found in commercial settings. Over the past decade, ICT development has emerged as a strategic area for Greenpeace, as is witnessed by increased management attention and a three-fold increase in investment. At present, there are clear indications that technical innovation is being rethought by senior managers, who see promise in models borrowed from commercial settings as means of adaptation to external change. This project will analyze the implications of the organization's efforts to develop shared, geographically distributed information systems. It will use participant observation, ethnographic interviews, and archival research as the basis for detailed histories of three information system projects. The primary conceptual problem of the study will be relating the development and use of the information systems to their successively larger organizational and societal contexts. Extended participant observation of central office IT support work has been conducted at the study's main research site, Greenpeace International. Subsequent phases of research will focus on the distributedenvironment in which the information systems are used-the organization's many national offices. By examining socio-technical systems in an advocacy context, this study will contribute to research on organizational informatics, social movements, and globalization. Conclusions of this research will be presented as a dissertation that explores the strategic and operational dimensions of information systems development by large environmental organizations. The dissertation will be reworked into a book manuscript. Portions of this work will be presented at Greenpeace International with the primary goals of informing strategic planning for ICT investment and management of information systems projects, and the secondary goal of demonstrating how the insights of contextual inquiry can inform socio-technical design within the organization.

这项科学和技术研究论文改进基金将提供资金，以记录和分析绿色和平组织（一个著名的跨国环境组织）信息系统的发展。绿色和平组织之所以能够脱颖而出，很大程度上是因为它成功地利用大众媒体进行环境宣传，该组织传统上强调技术创新，为环境倡导服务。在大型环境组织中，它是独一无二的，因为它结合了对抗策略、技术复杂性和相对分层的治理结构。这些特征的结合使其成为调查适合倡导的机构和实践与商业环境中的机构和实践之间的协同作用和不协调的理想环境。在过去十年中，信息通信技术发展已成为绿色和平组织的一个战略领域，管理层对其的重视程度不断提高，投资也增加了三倍。目前，有明确的迹象表明，高级管理人员正在重新考虑技术创新，他们从商业环境中借鉴的模式中看到了希望，认为这是适应外部变化的手段。这个项目将分析组织努力开发共享的、地理上分布的信息系统的含义。它将使用参与者观察，人种学访谈和档案研究作为三个信息系统项目详细历史的基础。这项研究的主要概念问题将是将信息系统的发展和使用与其先后较大的组织和社会背景联系起来。在该研究的主要研究地点，绿色和平国际，对中央办公室IT支持工作进行了扩展的参与性观察。后续阶段的研究将集中于信息系统使用的分布式环境——该组织的许多国家办事处。通过研究倡导背景下的社会技术系统，本研究将有助于组织信息学、社会运动和全球化的研究。本研究的结论将作为一篇论文提出，该论文探讨了大型环境组织的信息系统开发的战略和运营维度。论文将被改写成一本书的手稿。这项工作的部分内容将在国际绿色和平组织上展示，其主要目标是为信息通信技术投资和信息系统项目管理的战略规划提供信息，次要目标是展示背景调查的见解如何为组织内的社会技术设计提供信息。