Doolin, Bill | New Zealand

Bill Doolin is Professor of Technology and Organisation in the Business School at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. He holds a PhD in Organisation Studies from the University of Waikato (1998). His research is interdisciplinary, located at the intersection of information systems, organisation studies, and the sociology of technology. He is interested in how technology, particularly digital technology, is implicated in work and organisational processes, innovation and change, and social practices. Past research projects have included exploring scientists’ narratives on biotechnology, work and self; public understanding of genetic modification; contestation surrounding oil and gas extraction; the institutionalisation of environmental management regimes; digital technology and the social inclusion of refugees; and the digital transformation of public service delivery. Bill has been a visiting researcher at Lancaster University (UK), Adelaide University (Australia), Grenoble Ecole de Management (France) and the University of Agder (Norway).
 

Project at IAS-STS: Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Reconfiguring Knowledge Work and Care Work
During his stay, Bill will be working on two projects related to how AI is reshaping knowledge practices and person-centred care. The first project examines the use of generative AI tools by knowledge workers and how their use is reshaping work practices. Using assemblage theory, these practices are understood as dynamic configurations of human, technological, and normative elements, with generative AI acting as a disruptive force that disrupts and reconfigures these practices. This study explores how these changes unfold over time as ongoing processes of formation, destabilisation, and reorganisation. The second project looks at person-centred AI for disability and aged care. It follows the design, development and deployment of a “human-in-the-loop“ generative AI system intended to to assist disability and aged care professionals in performing their work more effectively and efficiently. The research uses a value tensions lens to examine the trade-offs and conflicts that emerged in the system’s development and how the developers managed those conflicts in practice. It also draws on a care ethics lens to examine how the AI system is reshaping relationships, responsibilities, and practices of care, and to what extent it supports competent and responsive caregiving that is attentive to vulnerability and dignity, as intended by the system developers.
 

Selected Publications

Waizenegger, L., Schaedlich, K., & Doolin, B. (2023). Sociomateriality in action: Theorizing change in sociomaterial practices of working from home. Business & Information Systems Engineering 65(3): 235-257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-023-00796-w

Techatassanasoontorn, A.A., Waizenegger, L. and Doolin, B. (2023). When Harry, the human, met Sally, the software robot: Metaphorical sensemaking and sensegiving around an emergent digitaltechnology. Journal of Information Technology 38(4): 416-441.https://doi.org/10.1177/02683962231157426

Díaz Andrade, A., & Doolin, B. (2019) Temporal enactment of resettled refugees’ ICT‐mediated information practices. Information Systems Journal 29(1): 145-174. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12189

Bloomfield, B.P., & Doolin, B. (2017) Landfarming: A contested space for the management of waste from oil and gas extraction. Environment and Planning A 49(11): 2457-2476. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X17730582

Bloomfield, B.P. and Doolin, B. (2013) Symbolic communication in public protest over genetic modification: Visual rhetoric, symbolic excess and social mores. Science Communication 35(4): 502- 527. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547012469116