Eric Monteiro

• Ribes, David; Bowker, Geoffery & Monteiro, Eric (2026). Parables of circulating reference. In Aaltonen, Aleksi; Stelmaszak, Marta & Lyytinen, Kalle (Ed.), Research Handbook on Digital Data Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781035348701. Full text in Research Archive
• Ribes, David & Monteiro, Eric (2026). More Instrument than Data. Science, Technology and Human Values. ISSN 0162-2439. doi: 10.1177/01622439261430784. Full text in Research Archive
• Presacan, Oriana; Ojha, Jaya; Yazidi, Anis; Monteiro, Eric & Lind, Pedro G. (2025). A Comprehensive Review of Explainable AI in Deep Learning Algorithms for EEG Analysis. ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare (HEALTH). ISSN 2691-1957. doi: 10.1145/3785409. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  While deep learning techniques are nowadays a powerful field to automatically learn and perform accurate EEG data classification in the clinical context, they still lack wide acceptance within the medical and health research community. This lack of trust is associated with the high complexity deep learning algorithms typically have which contributes to a low level of interpretability of the outcome and predictions. This survey aims to provide a comprehensive discussion of the latest advancements in deep learning models applied to EEG analysis, while also emphasizing research in explainable AI within this domain. It explores commonly used algorithms in EEG analysis, their main application areas, and the insights provided by XAI. Moreover, the survey addresses current limitations, such as the evaluation of XAI methods and the need for clinical validation, as well as ongoing challenges in this field. One critical insight from this review is the relative paucity of clinical evaluations of the rich stock of proposed techniques and methods for AI explainability. By showcasing various applications and breakthroughs in EEG analysis facilitated by XAI, the survey underscores the potential of these technologies to revolutionize neurological diagnosis and treatment, paving the way for wider acceptance and implementation in clinical settings.

• Ojha, Jaya; Presacan, Oriana; Lind, Pedro G.; Monteiro, Eric & Yazidi, Anis (2025). Navigating Uncertainty: A User-Perspective Survey of Trustworthiness of AI in Healthcare. ACM Transactions on Computing for Healthcare (HEALTH). ISSN 2691-1957. 6(3). doi: https:/dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3716317. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article offers an extensive survey of one of the fundamental aspects of the trustworthiness of AI in healthcare, namely uncertainty, focusing on the large panoply of recent studies addressing the connection between uncertainty, AI, and healthcare. The concept of uncertainty is a recurring theme across multiple disciplines, with varying focuses and approaches. Here, we focus on the diverse nature of uncertainty in medical applications, emphasizing the importance of quantifying uncertainty in model predictions and its advantages in specific clinical settings. Questions that emerge in this context range from the guidelines for AI integration in the healthcare domain to the ethical deliberations and their compatibility with cutting-edge AI research. Together with a description of the main specific works in this context, we also discuss that, as medicine evolves and introduces novel sources of uncertainty, there is a need for more versatile uncertainty quantification methods to be developed collaboratively by researchers and healthcare professionals. Finally, we acknowledge the limitations of current uncertainty quantification methods in addressing the different facets of uncertainty within the medical domain. In particular, we identify from this survey a relative paucity of approaches that focus on the user’s perception of uncertainty and accordingly of trustworthiness.

• Mohanty, Pooja; Ribes, David & Monteiro, Eric (2025). Sensing the winds: ML- based predictive maintenance of windmills. Academy of Management Proceedings. 2025(1), p. 14–18. doi: 10.5465/AMPROC.2025.15897symposium. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Present-day organizations are keen to encompass Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology into their processes and practices. Machine learning (ML) in particular has been used in developing suitable organization specific systems. Organization science and information systems literatures studied on how challenges with ML in organizational contexts with modest changes to work, practices, and routines. The focus of the research streams so far has been split into data- and algorithmic-studies, emphasizing more on data and algorithms as somewhat separated from the phenomena they represent. In contrast, we bring out the physicality of the phenomena where ML systems are employed, often with guided interest to improve organizational processes. We empirically bring forth the physical-digital duality of a real-world ML system from a longitudinal case study of windmill monitoring. We draw attention by showing ML systems are concatenated instruments encompassing data, algorithm, physical contexts, and work practices, and that there exists no clear distinction among neatly separation of data, algorithms, and sensing phenomena. By bringing forth instrumentation process as the core analytical lens, we emphasize ML as more than data feeding, mathematical sequential steps and as instruments tethered to physical reality of the organizational processes.

• Aanestad, Margunn; Hanseth, Ole; Monteiro, Eric; Niemimaa, Marko Ilmari & Ribes, David (2024). From Methodological Symmetry to Gaia: Latour’s Legacy and Untapped Potential for IS Research. Journal of the AIS. 25(2), p. 182–195. doi: 10.17705/1jais.00881. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  A defining concern for information systems (IS) is how to theorize its primary object of study, the digital artifact. Historically, approaches in IS have oscillated between technological determinist and social determinist ones. Bruno Latour’s works contributed to recalibrating a more symmetrical treatment of the two, and he played a distinctive role in stimulating the evolution of empirically committed, process-oriented theorizing in the IS field. We commemorate Latour’s work by revisiting his early influence on IS research and discuss some of the direct and indirect influences on contemporary IS, such as infrastructure studies and sociomateriality. With the interest in agentic technologies via AI, Latour’s perspectives on technological agency are more relevant than ever. In addition, we explore ideas that are relevant to IS but have yet to be taken up, thus representing untapped theoretical and methodological potential for future IS research—for example, approaching data as circulating reference or how his work could contribute to sustainability discussions in IS.

• Monteiro, Eric (2024). Taking the longer road. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS). ISSN 0905-0167. 36(1). Full text in Research Archive
• Mohanty, Pooja; Grundstrom, Casandra Ann; Monteiro, Eric & Zhang, Zhenyou (2024). Tensions in the transition of Human-AI Collaboration: A Case Study of the Nordic Renewable Energy Sector. Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). ISSN 1530-1605. p. 257–266. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The increasing trends of developing and using artificial intelligence (AI) in organizations and industries are not without consequence to work practices. Theoretical suggestions for humans to collaborate with AI clash with the empirical studies, which highlight problems with implementing and using AI systems. We investigate this phenomenon through the practice lens of tensions in a Nordic renewable energy organization’s digital transformation (DT) effort. Following an ethnographic case study, we uncover four tensions experts feel across knowledge boundaries in group collaboration settings, disrupting normal work practices and taxing additional organizational resources. Through these tensions, we reflect on the softer and less dramatic changes and dynamics of human-AI collaboration for emerging work practices and DT in an organizational setting.

• Constantinides, Panos; Monteiro, Eric & Mathiasssen, Lars (2024). Human-AI joint task performance: Learning from uncertainty in autonomous driving systems. Information and organization. ISSN 1471-7727. 34(2). doi: 10.1016/j.infoandorg.2024.100502. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  High uncertainty tasks such as making a medical diagnosis, judging a criminal justice case and driving in a big city have a very low margin for error because of the potentially devastating consequences for human lives. In this paper, we focus on how humans learn from uncertainty while performing a high uncertainty task with AI systems. We analyze Tesla's autonomous driving systems (ADS), a type of AI system, drawing on crash investigation reports, published reports on formal simulation tests and YouTube recordings of informal simulation tests by amateur drivers. Our empirical analysis provides insights into how varied levels of uncertainty tolerance have implications for how humans learn from uncertainty in real-time and over time to jointly perform the driving task with Tesla's ADS. Our core contribution is a theoretical model that explains human-AI joint task performance. Specifically, we show that, the interdependencies between different modes of AI use including uncontrolled automation, limited automation, expanded automation, and controlled automation are dynamically shaped through humans' learning from uncertainty. We discuss how humans move between these modes of AI use by increasing, reducing, or reinforcing their uncertainty tolerance. We conclude by discussing implications for the design of AI systems, policy into delegation in joint task performance, as well as the use of data to improve learning from uncertainty.

• Aaltonen, Aleksi; Alaimo, Cristina; Parmiggiani, Elena; Stelmaszak, Marta; Jarvenpaa, Sirkka & Kallinikos, Jannis [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2023). What is Missing from Research on Data in Information Systems? Insights from the Inaugural Workshop on Data Research. Communications of the Association for Information Systems. 53(1), p. 475–490. doi: 10.17705/1CAIS.05320. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Data are the building blocks of the ongoing digital revolution, yet there are still many unresolved questions regarding their role in the study of information systems (IS), management and innovation. As data become increasingly pervasive elements of socio-economic life, we ask whether IS needs to expand the ways in which it conceptualizes data and their role in business and society. This panel report summarizes discussions that took place in the inaugural workshop on data research. The workshop asked what is missing from research on data in IS from four well-known scholars whose work touches upon the topic in different ways. Three main themes emerged from the speakers’ statements that were further discussed by the workshop participants: 1) the need to go beyond traditional ways of conceiving data, 2) the need to investigate the relationship between data and meaning, and 3) the need to study new data management and governance approaches. We present these research themes and connect them with future research directions.

• Braa, Jørn Anders; Sahay, Sundeep & Monteiro, Eric (2023). Design Theory for Societal Digital Transformation: The Case of Digital Global Health. Journal of the AIS. 24(6), p. 1645–1669. doi: 10.17705/1jais.00816. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  With societal challenges, including but not limited to human development, equity, social justice, and climate change, societal-level digital transformation (SDT) is of imminent relevance and theoretical interest. While building on local-level efforts, societal-level transformation is a nonlinear extension of the local level. Unfortunately, academic discourse on digital transformation has largely left SDT unaccounted for. Drawing on more than 25 years of intensive, interventionist research engagement with the digital transformation of public healthcare information management and delivery in more than 80 countries in the Global South, we contribute to theorizing SDT in the form of a design theory consisting of six interconnected design principles. These design principles articulate the interplay and tensions of accommodating over time increased diversity and flexibility in digital solutions, while simultaneously connecting local, national, and regional/ global efforts.

• Mohallick, Itishree; Monteiro, Eric & Østerlie, Thomas (2022). The Design Multiple: Sharedness and Multiplicity in Common Information Space. Reports of the European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies. doi: 10.48340/ECSCW2022_EP12. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Common Information Space (CIS) seeks to support communication, interaction, and sharing information to collectively perform work tasks and organize dependencies among the involved actors. The concerted efforts that go into collaborative work require some degree of shared understanding among the actors. However, exactly how much shared understanding is needed remains contested. Our findings from a case study of the complex-product design show that sharedness ranges from significant and moderate to minimal, which is already well established in the CSCW literature. This paper discusses these conventions concerning the CIS to improve collaboration. The case study focuses on the CIS conventions observed in the early-stage design of subsea equipment in an Oil and Gas project. Besides, it confers the significance of such CIS in supporting collaborative work practices. Our research represents an under-researched version of CIS against the dominance of moderate (and significant) degrees of overlap. Relative to the CSCW discourse on CIS, however, the most interesting aspect of our analysis is the presence of the third (“minimal”) overlap. The reported empirical insights can help the researchers to discuss the design-related work practices- sharedness and multiplicity- in a context not well explored in literature.

• Monteiro, Eric; Constantinides, Panos; Scott, Susan; Shaikh, Maha & Burton-Jones, Andrew (2022). Qualitative research methods in Information Systems: A call for Phenomen-focused Problematization. MIS Quarterly. ISSN 0276-7783. 46(4). Full text in Research Archive
• Hochwarter, Stefan; Schwarz, Julian; Muehlensiepen, Felix & Monteiro, Eric (2022). Becoming a Guest: On Proximity and Distance in Mental Health Home Treatment. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). ISSN 0925-9724. doi: 10.1007/s10606-022-09456-1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Mental health home treatment is a service where patients with severe mental illnesses are visited by a multiprofessional psychiatric care team at their homes. In Germany, inpatient-equivalent home treatment as a specialized form of home treatment has been offered by hospitals since 2018. In its early stage, the shift of care activities out of the hospital toward the patient’s home opened up a new set of problems and blurred the existing boundaries. This ethnographic study follows two home treatment teams and provides an in-depth description of their work. The findings are presented by three themes from our data analysis: (i) closeness and familiarity; (ii) bridging the distance; and (iii) tensions of proximity and distance. We then discuss the findings with the guiding lens of Becoming a Guest, which refers to the ambiguity of proximity and distance. The contribution for computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) is twofold; on the one hand, we provide a detailed account of mental health home treatment, and on the other hand, we outline a conceptual model that helps to describe and analyze similar cases. We conclude the paper with directions for further research.

• Hepsø, Vidar & Monteiro, Eric (2021). From Integrated Operations to Remote Operations: Socio-technical Challenge for the Oil and Gas Business. In Black, Nancy; Neumann, Patrick & Noy, Ian (Ed.), Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021). Springer Nature. ISSN 9783030746018. p. 169–176. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-74602-5_26. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Remote operations started with integrated operations (IO) some years ago where designated tasks and roles were shifted from off- to onshore. Remote operations, however, is more than remote control as the operational model or concept is key: it defines the scope for the tasks to be conducted remotely. With this increased ambition and scope, sociotechnical concerns play an increasingly important role. With increased autonomy and automation in the oil and gas business, the reliance upon digital representations of the process conditions that the center/control room follow up becomes more complex, technically but not the least organizationally and institutionally. Operational, organizational and information infrastructure issues are key considerations for remote operation including employer-employee relationships and collaboration with vendors. How will these new centers differ from traditional control rooms and the previous generation of collaboration centers that came with integrated operations 10–15 years ago? What are the key capabilities around which you build scalability and replicability in the design of such control centers? We discuss and empirically illustrate different configurations of remote operations.

• Mikalsen, Marius & Monteiro, Eric (2021). Acting with inherently uncertain data: practices of data-centric knowing. Journal of the AIS. 22(6), p. 1–21. doi: 10.17705/1jais.00722. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Data-driven data science challenges our conceptualization of “data.” Significantly beyond capturing a given phenomenon, data, increasingly, are the phenomenon. Data may be iteratively manipulated algorithmically, undermining the “faithfulness” of data to any originating phenomenon. Crucially, data that are not “faithful” are inherently uncertain as data risk becoming meaningless symbols. We empirically study how a community of commercially based geoscientists grapple with the phenomenon of offshore oil and gas reservoirs residing kilometers below the seabed. The data available about these reservoirs are algorithmically manipulated sensor-based Internet of Things data. Our main contribution is the articulation of three patterns of work practices detailing how inherently uncertain data are woven into consequential work practices: (i) accumulating, the cumulative process of supporting and triangulating one set of data with supplementary ones; accumulating captures the conservative approach of backing up existing interpretations of the data, (ii) reframing, the process where existing interpretations are contested by new data or models; reframing captures how there are limits to how far data may be pulled by their hair and (iii) prospecting, the cultivation of competing, incompatible data interpretations; with the former two patterns essentially attempting to regulate uncertainty, prospecting is about embracing it. Our concept of data-centric knowing is constituted by these three interleaved, ongoing practices.

• Østerlie, Thomas & Monteiro, Eric (2020). Digital sand: The becoming of digital representations. Information and organization. ISSN 1471-7727. 30(1). doi: 10.1016/j.infoandorg.2019.100275. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The versatility of digital technologies relies on a capacity to represent and subsequently manipulate algorithmically selected physical processes, objects or qualities in a domain. ‘Organizationally real’ digital representations are those that, beyond the mere capacity to, actually get woven into everyday work practices. Empirically, we draw on a four-year case study of offshore oil and gas production. Our case provides a vivid illustration of Internet of Things (IoT) based visualizations and data driven predictions characteristic for efforts of digitally transforming industrial process and manufacturing enterprises. We contribute by identifying and discussing three mechanisms through which digital representations become organizationally real: (i) noise reduction (the strategies and heuristics to filter out signal from noise), (ii) material tethering (grounding the digital representations to a corresponding physical measurement) and (iii) triangulating (in the absence of a direct correspondence, corroborating digital representations relative to other representations).

• Monteiro, Eric & Parmiggiani, Elena (2019). Synthetic Knowing: The Politics of the Internet of Things. MIS Quarterly. ISSN 0276-7783. 43(1), p. 167–184. doi: 10.25300/MISQ/2019/13799. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  All knowing is material. The challenge for Information Systems research is to specify how knowing is material by drawing on theoretical characterizations of the digital. Synthetic knowing is knowing informed by theorizing digital materiality. We focus on two defining qualities: liquefaction (unhinging digital representations from physical objects, qualities, or processes) and open-endedness (extendable and generative). The Internet of Things (IoT) is crucial because sensors are vehicles of liquefaction. Their expanding scope for real-time “seeing,” “hearing,” “tasting,” “smelling,” and “touching” increasingly mimics phenomenologically perceived reality. Empirically, we present a longitudinal case study of IoT-rendered marine environmental monitoring by an oil and gas company operating in the politically contested Arctic. We characterize synthetic knowing into four concepts, the first three tied to liquefaction and the last to open-endedness: (1) the objects of knowing are algorithmic phenomena; (2) the sensors increasingly conjure up phenomenological reality; (3) knowing is scoped (configurable); and (4) open knowing/data is politically charged.

• Parmiggiani, Elena & Monteiro, Eric (2019). Digitized Coral Reefs. In Vertesi, Janet & Ribes, David (Ed.), Digitalsts: A Field Guide for Science & Technology Studies. Princeton University Press. ISSN 9780691187075. p. 300–325. doi: 10.2307/j.ctvc77mp9.24. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Lophelia pertusa is a variety of cold-water coral that has colonized the world’s oceans for the last nine thousand years. The coral’s widest habitat is on the seafloor of the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), which is also home to several oil and natural gas fields, with thousands of wells, pipelines, cables, vessels, and rigs. In 2013, a Scandinavian oil company and a marine research institute presented a web portal that displays real-time ecological data from a subsea sensor network installed next to a Lophelia reef off North Norway (dubbed Venus). Venus is the only area in the NCS where operations are currently prohibited but might be permitted in the future. This situation creates perceived uncertainty related to future business planning, on one hand, and the assessment of possible environmental consequences, on the other. In this scenario, the Venus web portal emerges as a political arena to facilitate the generation and legitimization of knowledge about real-time environmental monitoring in the oil and gas domain. The main contribution of this chapter is to characterize the politics of digital infrastructure. We trace the trajectory of the infrastructure-in-the-making underlying the Venus web portal and show how it is negotiated to simultaneously advocate the oil company’s ability to prevent environmental damage and leverage the collaboration among stakeholders that have contrasting interests in the opening (or not) of the Venus area. We discuss how the inherently open-ended capacity of the Venus digital infrastructure is leveraged through three facets of political work: the performative potential of the infrastructure’s under-specification, the evolvability enabled by the malleable nature of digital technologies, and the use of open data sharing to promote knowledge legitimization.

• Parmiggiani, Elena & Monteiro, Eric (2018). Shifting Baselines? Recommendations for Green IS. In Baskerville, Richard & Nickerson, Robert (Ed.), Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Association for Information Systems (AIS). ISSN 9780996683173. p. 1–16. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In 1995, marine biologist Daniel Pauly warned against shifting baseline syndrome, or the tendency to assess environmental sustainability against biased or inappropriate baseline data. Today, digital systems have a strong potential to make new Green Information Systems (IS) solutions possible. However, these systems also require in-depth analysis, to prevent Green IS from falling into shifting baseline syndrome. We draw on a qualitative study of distributed systems for environmental monitoring during oil and gas operations. We problematize the creation of baseline data against which the environmental sustainability of operations is calculated. Based on a performative understanding of technology in practice, we illustrate the material-discursive conditions of the data production and use. We present four recommendations for future research in Green IS, inviting researchers to critically investigate the way in which sustainable business processes are mutually constituted by the digital technologies, monitoring practices, and knowledge in organizations and societies.

• Monteiro, Eric; Østerlie, Thomas; Parmiggiani, Elena & Mikalsen, Marius (2018). Quantifying quality: Towards a Post-Humanist Perspective on Sensemaking. In Schultze, Ulrike; Aanestad, Margunn; Mähring, Magnus; Østerlund, Carsten & Riemer, Kai (Ed.), Living with Monsters? Social Implications of Algorithmic Phenomena, Hybrid Agency, and the Performativity of Technology. IS&O 2018. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 543. Springer, Cham. Springer. ISSN 9783030040901. p. 48–63. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-04091-8_5. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Processes of quantifying the qualitative have deep historical roots that demonstrate their contested nature. The ongoing push for Big Data/data science presupposes the quantification of qualitative phenomena. We analyse an ongoing case where the core of the qualitative – judgements, assessments, sensemaking – is being challenged by quantification through Big Data/data science-inspired new digital tools. Concretely, we study how traditionally qualitative sensemaking practices of geological interpretations in commercial oil and gas exploration are challenged by efforts of quantification driven by geophysical, sensor-based measurements captured by digital tools. Drawing on Wylie’s notion of scaffolding, we outline three aspects of the performativity of scaffolding underpinning geological sensemaking: scaffolding is (i) dynamic (evolving with additional data, quality assurance, triangulation), (ii) provision-al (radically changed when faced with sufficiently inconsistent data) and (iii) decentred (in and through distributed, loosely coupled networks of practices). In our analysis, the quantitative does not unilaterally replace the qualitative; there is an irreducible, reciprocal relationship. Yet, there is scope for signifi-cant changes in the role, location and sequence of tasks of quantification with-in the qualitative as we reflect on by way of concluding.

• Monteiro, Eric (2018). Reflections on digital innovation. Information and organization. ISSN 1471-7727. 28(2), p. 101–103. doi: 10.1016/j.infoandorg.2018.04.001. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The paper by Henfridsson et al. opens up a new agenda for IS research on the content and process of digital innovation. The crucial element in their perspective is the role of recombination in innovation. They supplement an emphasis on design recombination with a symmetrical emphasis on use recombination. While supporting Henfridsson et al.'s overall argument, I point out how central parts overlap with and are extended in disciplines outside IS research.

• Mikalsen, Marius & Monteiro, Eric (2018). Data Handling in Knowledge Infrastructures: A Case Study from Oil Exploration. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI). 2(CSCW), p. 123:1–123:16. doi: 10.1145/3274392. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Offshore oil exploration is concerned with subsea geological reservoirs that are numerous kilometers below the seabed. These reservoirs are knowable only through a knowledge infrastructure of interconnected technologies that are applied to diverse instrument-generated data. Noise, holes, and inaccuracies are inherent in the data, which depend on the technology producing it. We conducted an interpretative case study of data handling work in the exploration unit of a European oil company. Our findings show how data handling involves the skills needed for managing data identities and ownership, a variety of technologies, and contingent negotiations of data needs. We use the notion of repair to analyze this data handling work and discuss how the concept of repair in data handling involves keeping the knowledge infrastructure navigable and attending to countless details. Our research contributes to the literature on repairing infrastructures by considering how repair relates to data work.

• Roland, Lars Kristian; Sanner, Terje Aksel; Sæbø, Johan Ivar & Monteiro, Eric (2017). P for platform: Architectures of large-scale participatory design. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS). ISSN 0905-0167. 29(2), p. 3–34. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Participatory Design (PD) has traditionally been committed to extensive interaction between developers and situated users to mitigate the disempowering consequences of computerization, such as the deskilling of labour workers. However, the widespread adoption of off-the-shelf software and the emergence of complex information system architectures with interdependencies across user groups and organizations challenge the applicability of traditional custom PD. Pressure is put on PD to scale with initiatives that span an increasing number and distribution of heterogeneous settings, developers, users and uses over time. In this article, we follow a PD project that started out in post-apartheid South Africa more than two decades ago. The project, which centres on the development of a software product for decentralised public health care management, has since grown into a venture with a significant footprint in the Global South. In order to problematise the scaling of key aspects of PD, such as the politics of design, the nature of participation and participatory design techniques, we first review extant literature and develop a classification of four different types of PD with respect to scale. We then apply the typology to our empirical case to discuss PD in relation to architectural traits at different stages of project scale. We contribute to PD literature by addressing the exploratory research question: What role does architecture play in large scale PD? Specifically, the study highlights how an emergent platform architecture and its surrounding ecosystem co-constitute a platform for participation in design.

• Parmiggiani, Elena & Monteiro, Eric (2016). A measure of ‘environmental happiness’: Infrastructuring environmental risk in oil and gas offshore operations. Science & Technology Studies. 29(1), p. 30–51. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We know little about the marine environment, particularly in the inhospitable Arctic region. Whereas national authorities often rely on the construction of a solid knowledge base to allow human activity access to new areas, scientists point to the impossibility of building comprehensive knowledge of subsea ecosystems. This paper presents an ethnographic study of a Norwegian oil and gas company’s development of a knowledge infrastructure for measuring the long-term trend of the behaviour of the marine environment, i.e. a baseline to be used as a reference to calculate potential risks in a commercially relevant Arctic area. The company’s infrastructuring mechanisms involve selecting and configuring environmental sensing technologies, and tying them into the fabric of the company’s operational analysis routines. We identify and discuss how these mechanisms address and articulate temporal, spatial, and social tensions and how, in so doing, they mould new representations of environmental risk.

• Faraj, Samer; Krogh, Georg von; Monteiro, Eric & Lakani, Karim (2016). Online community as space for knowledge flows. Information Systems Research. ISSN 1047-7047. 27(4), p. 668–684. doi: 10.1287/isre.2016.0682. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Online communities frequently create significant economic and relational value for community participants and beyond. It is widely accepted that the underlying source of such value is the collective flow of knowledge among community participants. We distinguish the conditions for flows of tacit and explicit knowledge in online communities and advance an unconventional theoretical conjecture: Online communities give rise to tacit knowledge flows between participants. The crucial condition for these flows is not the advent of novel, digital technology as often portrayed in the literature, but instead the technology’s domestication by humanity and the sociality it affords. This conjecture holds profound implications for theory and research in the study of management and organization, as well as their relation to information technology.

• Parmiggiani, Elena; Monteiro, Eric & Østerlie, Thomas (2016). Synthetic situations in the internet of things. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. ISSN 1868-4238. 489, p. 215–228. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-49733-4_13. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The proliferation of distributed digital technologies in contemporary enterprise challenges the understanding of situated action. This paper revisits this notion in the era of Big Data and the Internet of Things. Drawing upon longitudinal studies within the offshore oil and gas industry, we empirically expand upon Knorr Cetina’s “synthetic situation” to encompass data-intensive work where people are not co-located with the physical objects and phenomena around which work is organized. By highlighting the performative nature of synthetic situations in the Internet of Things – where phenomena are algorithmically en-acted through digital technologies – we elaborate upon the original formula-tion of synthetic situations by demonstrating that (i) algorithmic phenomena constitute the phenomena under inquiry, rather than standing in for physical referents; (ii) noise is irreducible in algorithmic phenomena; (iii) synthetic sit-uations are productive rather than reductive. Finally, we draw brief methodo-logical implications by proposing to focus on the material enactment of data in practice.

• Almklov, Petter & Monteiro, Eric (2015). Entifisering og digitalisering av arbeid. In Aspen, Harald; Ravn, Malin Noem & Røyrvik, Emil André (Ed.), Det skapende mennesket : Antropologiske dialoger om tegn, ting og tolkning. Scandinavian Academic Press. ISSN 9788230401736. p. 141–158. Full text in Research Archive
• Parmiggiani, Elena & Monteiro, Eric (2015). The nested materiality of environmental monitoring. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems (SJIS). ISSN 0905-0167. 27(1), p. 33–54. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Present knowledge about the Arctic marine ecosystem is sparse. These areas are vast, remote, and subject to harsh weather conditions. We report from a three-year case study of an ongoing effort for real-time sub-sea environmental monitoring by a Norwegian oil and gas operator aimed to obtain permission to drill in Arctic Norway. The marine ecosystem is monitored through a network of sensors, communication links, and visualisation and analysis tools. We propose the concept of nested materiality to describe how ‘facts’ about the sub-sea environment are anything but neutral; they are intrinsically caught up with the material means by which they are known. Nested materiality draws on perspectives in sociomateriality but highlights (i) the distributed and interconnected infrastructure of the material means (as opposed to artefact-centric), and (ii) a technology in-the-making (as opposed to black-boxed) that brings to the fore the empirical moments when materiality is questioned and unpacked.

• Parmiggiani, Elena; Monteiro, Eric & Hepsø, Vidar (2015). The Digital Coral: Infrastructuring Environmental Monitoring. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). ISSN 0925-9724. 24(5), p. 423–460. doi: 10.1007/s10606-015-9233-6. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Technologies for collaboration within the oil and gas industry, which are referred to as Integrated Operations, challenge traditional geographical, disciplinary, and organisational boundaries. Fuelled by the availability of sensor networks, faster data transfer technologies, shared data exchange formats, and collaborative work flows, Integrated Operations entail difficult transformations at the technological, social, and political levels. We describe and discuss the efforts of a Scandinavian oil and gas company to develop an information infrastructure for real-time subsea environmental monitoring. This accentuates the ongoing controversy among environmental concerns, fisheries, and the oil and gas industry. Theoretically leaning on infrastructuring and, methodologically, on the concept of infrastructural inversion, our analysis specifically targets the evolution of emergent infrastructures. We identify and discuss the increasing degree of entanglement of the infrastructuring process over time by empirically characterizing two concepts: (1) bootstrapping, which is particularly pronounced in the early stages of infrastructure evolution and involves exploring the local feasibility of subsea environmental monitoring methods and devices, and (2) enactment, which is increasingly present in the later stages of infrastructure evolution to weave environmental information into the agenda of heterogeneous oil and gas professionals.

• Monteiro, Eric; Pollock, Neil & Williams, Robin (2014). Innovation in Information infrastructures: introduction to the special issue. Journal of the AIS. 15(4). doi: 10.17705/1jais.00359. Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric; Pollock, Neil; Hanseth, Ole & Williams, Robin (2013). From artefacts to infrastructure. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). ISSN 0925-9724. 22(4-6), p. 575–607. doi: 10.1007/s10606-012-9167-1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  In their initial articulation of the direction of the CSCW field, scholars advanced an open-ended agenda. This continuing commitment to open-ness to different contexts and approaches is not, however, reflected in the contents of the major CSCW outlets. The field appears to privilege particular forms of cooperative work. We find many examples of what could be described as ‘localist studies’, restricted to particular settings and timeframes. This focus on the ‘here and now’ is particularly problematic when one considers the kinds of large-scale, integrated and interconnected workplace information technologies—or what we are calling Information Infrastructures—increasingly found within and across organisations today. CSCW appears unable (or unwilling) to grapple with these technologies—which were at the outset envisaged as falling within the scope of the field. Our paper hopes to facilitate greater CSCW attention to Information Infrastructures through offering a re-conceptualisation of the role and nature of ‘design’. Design within an Information Infrastructures perspective needs to accommodate non-local constraints. We discuss two such forms of constraint: standardisation (how local fitting entails unfitting at other sites) and embeddedness (the entanglement of one technology with other apparently unrelated ones). We illustrate these themes through introducing case material drawn on from a number of previous studies.

• Hamre, Gro Alice & Monteiro, Eric (2013). Towards a Socio-technically Resilient Collaborative Medication Process. CEUR Workshop Proceedings. 984(7), p. 1–9. Full text in Research Archive
• Meum, Torbjørg; Ellingsen, Gunnar; Monteiro, Eric; Wangensteen, Gro & Igesund, Harald (2013). The interplay between global standards and local practice in nursing. International Journal of Medical Informatics. ISSN 1386-5056. 82(12), p. e364–e374. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2013.02.005. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Purpose The paper assesses the extent, form, and transformation of global nursing classifications (NANDA) in a nursing practice during a period of 5 years. Method A longitudinal case study was used to trace implementation, adoption and use of nursing classifications as an integral part of an electronic nursing module. A mixed method of data collection was used, including semi-structured interviews, observation and document analysis. Results A surprisingly high proportion of nursing diagnoses was consistent with the global standard, in spite of a gradual increase of user-generated concepts. This is elaborated more thoroughly through a co-constructing perspective, emphasizing how the global standard and the practice mutually shaped each other over several years. Conclusion Standardization is an iterative process that is performed in close relationship with practice. The mutual interrelation between formal classifications (NANDA) and local practices are co-constructed in a dynamic interplay that evolves over time. In such a process, the use of local classifications and local strategies can be a means to bridge the gap between these two extreme points.

• Monteiro, Eric & Rolland, Knut-Helge Ronæs (2012). Trans-situated use of integrated information systems. European Journal of Information Systems. ISSN 0960-085X. 21(6), p. 608–620. doi: 10.1057/ejis.2012.8. Full text in Research Archive
• Ellingsen, Gunnar & Monteiro, Eric (2012). Electronic patient record development: the case for an evolutionary strategy. Health Policy and Technology. ISSN 2211-8837. 1(1), p. 16–21. doi: 10.1016/j.hlpt.2012.01.007. Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric; Jarulaitis, Gasparas & Hepsø, Vidar (2012). The family resemblance of technologically mediated work practices. Information and organization. ISSN 1471-7727. 22(3), p. 169–187. doi: 10.1016/j.infoandorg.2012.03.001. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Practice-based perspectives in information systems have established how, in every instance of use (i.e., work practices), the user exercises considerable discretion in their appropriation of the technology with local workarounds and situated improvisations. We analyse the relationship between technologically mediated work practices separated in time and space. Specifically, we analyse how similarity in work practices is achieved. Achieving absolutely similar (or ‘best’) practices is unattainable. Drawing on a longitudinal (2007 – 2011) case of ambulatory maintenance work in the oil and gas sector, we identify and discuss three constituting strategies (differentiation, assembling and punctuation) through which a family resemblance of – similar but not the same – work practices is crafted. We discuss how, in the absence of an essentialist criterion, similarity is subject to pragmatic but also political negotiations. Keywords: Practice-based perspectives, mediating role of technology, work practices, standardisation

• Monteiro, Eric; Almklov, Petter & Hepsø, Vidar (2012). Living in a sociomaterial world. In Bhattacherjee, Anol & Fitzgerald, Brian (Ed.), Shaping the future of ICT research: Methods and approaches. Springer. ISSN 9783642351419. p. 91–107. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-35142-6_7. Full text in Research Archive
• Ellingsen, Gunnar; Monteiro, Eric & Røed, Kristoffer (2012). Integration as interdependent workaround. International Journal of Medical Informatics. ISSN 1386-5056. 82(5), p. E161–E169. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2012.09.004. Full text in Research Archive
• Haeflieger, Stefan; Monteiro, Eric; Foray, Dominique & Krogh, Georg von (2011). Social software and strategy. Long Range Planning. ISSN 0024-6301. 44(5-6), p. 297–316. doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2011.08.001. Full text in Research Archive
• Hjelle, Torstein Elias L. & Monteiro, Eric (2011). Tactics for Producing Actionable Information. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing. ISSN 1865-1348. 86(9), p. 69–83. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-22766-0_8. Full text in Research Archive
• Pedersen, Rune; Ellingsen, Gunnar Adelsten & Monteiro, Eric (2011). The standardized Nurse: Mission Impossible? IFIP International Federation for Information Processing. ISSN 1571-5736. p. 163–178. doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-21364-9_11. Full text in Research Archive
• Meum, Torbjørg; Monteiro, Eric & Ellingsen, Gunnar (2011). The Pendulum of Standardization. In Bødker, S; Bouvin, Niels Olof; Lutters, W; Wulf, Volker & Luigina, C (Ed.), ECSCW 2011: Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 24-28 Septmember 2011, Aarhus, Denmark. Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. ISSN 9780857299123. p. 101–120. doi: 10.1007/978-0-85729-913-0_6. Full text in Research Archive
• Hamre, Gro Alice; Berntsen, Kirsti Elisabeth & Monteiro, Eric (2010). Kvalitetssikring av legemiddelhåndtering i et samhandlingsperspektiv. In Aanestad, Margunn & Olaussen, Irene (Ed.), IKT og samhandling i helsesektoren - Digitale lappetepper eller sømløs integrasjon?. Tapir Akademisk Forlag. ISSN 9788251926461. p. 119–133. Full text in Research Archive
• Hamre, Gro Alice; Berntsen, Kirsti Elisabeth & Monteiro, Eric (2010). Towards safer medication use - in practice. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. ISSN 0926-9630. 157(1), p. 187–192. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  "Information Technology in Health Care: Socio-Technical Approaches 2010 - From Safe Systems to Patient Safety" IOS Press (ISBN 978-1-60750-568-6)

• Jarulaitis, Gasparas & Monteiro, Eric (2010). UNITY IN MULTIPLICITY: TOWARDS WORKING ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS. In Alexander, Trish; Turpin, Marita & van, Deventer JP (Ed.), Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems (AIS). ISSN 9780620471725. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Enterprise systems are attractive exactly as they promise a stronger unity – integration, collaboration and standardization – across distinct and different organisational units of a business. However, empirical research on enterprise systems has documented convincingly how situated workarounds undermine the unity of enterprise systems through local thus different practices and adoptions. This produces an apparently paradoxical character of enterprise systems: unity in the face of multiplicity. Our contribution is (i) to outline a theoretical middle-position effectively resolving the paradox and (ii) identify and analyse empirical strategies for how the paradox gets resolved in practice. The empirical basis for our study is a longitudinal (2007-2009) case study of a global oil and gas company with 30.000 employees operating in 40 countries across 4 continents.

• Meum, Torbjørg; Wangensteen, Gro; Igesund, Harald; Ellingsen, Gunnar Adelsten & Monteiro, Eric (2010). Standardization – the iron cage of nurses’ work? Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. ISSN 0926-9630. 157, p. 85–90. doi: 10.3233/978-1-60750-569-3-85. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  "Information Technology in Health Care: Socio-Technical Approaches 2010 - From Safe Systems to Patient Safety" Edited by Christian Nøhr, Jos Aarts ISBN 978-1-60750-568-6

• Pedersen, Rune; Ellingsen, Gunnar Adelsten & Monteiro, Eric (2010). Standardized nursing work: works in practice but not in theory? Studies in Health Technology and Informatics. ISSN 0926-9630. 57, p. 91–96. doi: 10.3233/978-1-60750-569-3-91. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  "Information Technology in Health Care: Socio-Technical Approaches 2010 - From Safe Systems to Patient Safety" IOS Press (ISBN 978-1-60750-568-6)

• Sahay, Sundeep; Monteiro, Eric & Aanestad, Margunn (2009). Toward a Political Perspective of Integration in Information Systems Research: The Case of Health Information Systems in India. Information Technology for Development. ISSN 0268-1102. 15(2), p. 83–94. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  There is an urgent need to address the issue of non-integrated health information systems (HIS) in developing countries. The existing literature on information systems (IS) integration, however, is overly optimistic and prescriptive. It is predominantly technical in orientation, often touting new and better technical approaches to deal with the integration challenges. We identify and build on critical literature that goes beyond the largely unchallenged consensus that integration is desirable (and doable). We are not arguing against integration per se, but discussing the challenges of actually achieving integration, specifically the political aspects of integration. The empirical material is drawn from an ongoing effort to computerize the health care sector and integrate IS systems in India. We focus on the sociotechnical and political aspects of integration of these systems. Our aims are (1) to address the conceptualizations of integration within IS and (2) to provide guidelines for how integration can or should be managed in practice. This article, in understanding the political–technical aspects of integration, has implications not only to health and India, but also to other domains of IS in both developed and developing countries.

• Jarulaitis, Gasparas & Monteiro, Eric (2009). CROSS-CONTEXTUAL USE OF INTEGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEMS. In Newell, S.; Whitley, E.; Pouloudi, N.; Wareham, J. & Mathiassen, L. (Ed.), Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Information Systems. Association for Information Systems (AIS). ISSN 9788861293915. Full text in Research Archive
• Sahay, Sundeep; Monteiro, Eric & Aanestad, M (2009). Configurable politics and asymmetric integration: health eInfrastructtures in India. Journal of the AIS. 10(5), p. 399–414. Full text in Research Archive
• Hepsø, Vidar; Monteiro, Eric & Rolland, Knut (2009). Ecologies of e-Infrastructures. Journal of the AIS. 10(5), p. 430–446. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We present and discuss a historical reconstruction of the development of a Microsoft SharePoint eInfrastructure in NorthOil (2003¿ 2008). The eInfrastructure was to support strategically emphasized work processes and open up a richer context of decisionmaking around production optimization. Specifically, the new eInfrastructure was to make it more convenient to trace decisions historically and across disciplinary and geographical boundaries ¿ a need driven in part by post-Enron requirements for more elaborate and systematic reporting to the stock exchange. The Microsoft-based SharePoint eInfrastructure was intended to ¿seamlessly¿ integrate the many different and distinct information systems holding relevant information on production optimization. A principal aim of our study is to analyze how, why, and who resisted this largely top-down eInfrastructure initiative. We analyze how local practices rely heavily on specialized, niche information systems that are patched together as an ongoing performance to achieve commensurability. These local practices, however, are not immune to change. We discuss the indications of a transformative amalgam of (elements of) the new eInfrastructure and (elements of) the existing, local practices.

• Hepsø, Vidar; Monteiro, Eric & Rolland, Knut Helge Ronæs (2009). Ecologies of e-Infrastructures. Journal of the AIS. 10(5), p. 430–446. Full text in Research Archive
• Sahay, Sundeep; Monteiro, Eric & Aanestad, M (2009). Towards a Political Perspective of Integration in IS Research: the case of Health Information Systems in India. Information Technology for Development. ISSN 0268-1102. 15(2), p. 83–94. Full text in Research Archive
• Ellingsen, Gunnar & Monteiro, Eric (2008). The organising vision of integrated health information systems. Health Informatics Journal. ISSN 1460-4582. 14(3), p. 223–236. Full text in Research Archive
• Hartswood, Mark; Kennedy, Jessie; Martin, Dave; Monteiro, Eric & Rouncefield, Mark (2008). Special issue integrated health records: practice and technology. Health Informatics Journal. ISSN 1460-4582. 14(2), p. 75–77. Full text in Research Archive
• Ellingsen, Gunnar & Monteiro, Eric (2008). The organising vision of integrated health information systems. Health Informatics Journal. ISSN 1460-4582. 14(3), p. 223–236. Full text in Research Archive
• Ulven, Mette; Monteiro, Eric; Rolland, Knut Helge Ronæs & Hepsø, Vidar (2008). Kunnskapsnettverk på tvers: sårbar eller selvforsterkende ressurs? In Sørensen, Knut Holtan; Gansmo, Helen Jøsok; Lagesen, Vivian Anette & Amdahl, Eva (Ed.), Faglighet og tverrfaglighet i den nye kunnskapsøkonomien. Tapir Akademisk Forlag. ISSN 9788251923392. p. 115–134. Full text in Research Archive
• Rolland, Knut Helge Ronæs & Monteiro, Eric (2007). When ‘Perfect’ Integration Leads to Increasing Risks: The Case of an Integrated Information System in a Global Company. In Hanseth, Ole & Ciborra, Claudio (Ed.), Risk, Complexity and ICT. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISSN 9781845426613. Full text in Research Archive
• Munkvold, Glenn; Ellingsen, Gunnar & Monteiro, Eric (2007). From Plans to Planning: the Case of Nursing Plans. In Gross, Tom & Inkpen, Kori (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2007 international ACM conference on Supporting group work. ACM Publications. ISSN 9781595938459. p. 21–30. Full text in Research Archive

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• Cabrio, Elena & Monteiro, Eric (2026). Natural Language Processing and Information Systems. Springer. ISBN 9783032295323. doi: 10.1007/978-3-032-29532-3. Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric (2022). Digital oil: Machineries of knowing. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262544672. 229 p. Full text in Research Archive
• Bandi, Rajendra; Klein, Stefan; Madon, Shirin; Raghavendra, Ranjini & Monteiro, Eric (2020). IFIPJWC: IFIP Joint Working Conference on the Future of Digital Work: The Challenge of Inequality. Springer. ISBN 9783030646967. 359 p. Full text in Research Archive

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• Mohanty, Pooja & Monteiro, Eric (2025). Sensing the winds: ML as concatenated instrumentation. doi: https:/www.xcdsystem.com/4sonline/program/b51ICpL/index.cfm?pgid=128&print=1&printmode=1. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We approach machine learning (ML) as a form of instrumentation which is itself built upon already existing forms of instrumentation. To do so we inspect a longitudinal case of windmill maintenance in which ML technologies are being incorporated into long-standing and established routines of sensing and maintenance. Our account is different from prevailing ones of the appropriation of ML: while ML certainly did not represent anything akin to a complete overhaul, there is so much more than nothing at all (or only selected practices, say, ‘data analytics’). We portrait the appropriation of ML as an ongoing, iterative process of mutual fitting of the ML to the setting: the work practices, existing instruments and the ‘domain’ of windmill maintenance. We offer the following: First, building on and feeding into existing practices of windmill sensing and acting, in an iterative process of trial & error, ML (never in the singular!) in its many versions was (and still is) attempted, introduced, for periods enjoying some level of “success”, at other times sending the AI engineers back to the drawing board. In this, we cast ML as an extension to long standing practices of sensing and action, or as we will write, as part of ‘concatenated instrumentation.’ Second, there is a tendency to separate, let alone reify with misplaced concreteness (Whitehead), our conceptualization (as well as empirical attention) of algorithms from data and from the ‘domain knowledge’. In contrast, we show how in concatenated instrumentation, they are thoroughly blurred: sometimes ‘data’ are the inputs and at other times the outputs of ML; domain expertise shapes algorithms which are never purely trained from the data no matter how ‘unsupervised’; and how newly perceivable phenomena enabled by ML must be tied back to the old phenomena.

• Røyrvik, Emil André & Monteiro, Eric (2025). Democracy: Yay or nay? -ISFiT, Samfundet.no. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Part 3 of the trilogy debate on structural power, climate and money; Balancing the Future: Democracy: Yay or nay? We live in a world that has throughout history experienced severe ebbs and flows in authoritarian and democratic regimes. From a eurocentric perspective the idea of democracy is often seen as an idealized regime. Yet, we don't thoroughly question its effectiveness, its downfalls. You can also question if our proclaimed democracies are truly democratic. What legitimizes a democratic regime in contrast to other ruling regimes? Some might argue that through democratic processes, one only portrays the voice of the many, but it is not a fair representation of the voice of the whole people

• Røyrvik, Emil André & Monteiro, Eric (2025). En vei ut av søvngjengeriet | Klassekampen. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Norge er fremdeles et viljeløst vedheng til USAs tekgiganter. Vi bør heller henge oss på nabolandene våre og arbeide for digital suverenitet og frihet.

• Mohanty, Pooja & Monteiro, Eric (2024). Machine learning as concatenation of instruments. doi: https:/easst.net/conference/easst4s2024/easst4s-2024-conference-programme/#14354.83605. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Machine learning is itself an instrument - a technical apparatus which can serve to sense and present, and make available to interaction that which could not be engaged before. But machine learning applications themselves operate downstream of instruments, reliant on the long pathways of sensors that generate data, and which in turn configure ML and feed its algorithmic analytics. This paper thus explores ML as concatenations of instrumentation, or recurrent cascades of sensing, presenting, and then sensing and presenting again. Instruments (and not only algorithms and data), deserve our attention. Instruments differentiate and materialize the world according to their design, though not so much as to be ‘determined’. By definition an instrument must be capable of surprise, of revealing something other than what was expected or even hoped, though not so much so as to produce incoherence, a finding that cannot be placed and understood. We explore the matter through the case of energy generating windmills. These windmills consist of an aggregation of components (eg. gearboxes, transmission, turbines), each of which are themselves replete with data generating sensors, and in turn these data are fed into machine learning models (eg. for predicting maintenance needs or energy output). In sum, sensors layered on sensors, which at each stage are themselves agentic, that is, consequential in how they intermediate phenomena, presentation and interaction.

• Mohanty, Pooja & Monteiro, Eric (2024). Instrumenting the winds: Recurrent stability and breakdown. doi: https:/www.esade.edu/en/IIIWorkshop2024. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This paper socially and technically tracks the development of an emerging instrument intended to monitor and predict the health of energy producing windmills. Across the process of the instrument’s development what is being sensed (‘phenomena’), how it is being recorded and circulated (‘data’), and how to analyse or interpret findings (‘algorithm’) are all in flux, so much so that common sense distinctions between data, phenomena, and algorithm are being continuously re-written.  We argue that the extant literature currently i- emphases either algorithms or data, ii- that it often wholly skirts the issue of sensing and phenomena altogether, and that iii- the sum effect is a reification of the distinction between data and algorithm that in practice is instead negotiated, situated and in flux. In contrast, we develop a perspective that treats the distinction between data, algorithm and phenomena as an outcome of the process of instrumental development. Only in punctuated moments, as the instrument stabilises, can one speak so tidily about data, algorithms and phenomena, even while other moments are characterised by breakdown in those categories.  To develop the argument we draw on an ongoing case of transforming the work practices of windmill maintenance in Scandinavia. To conduct maintenance of these complex electro-mechanical assemblages, managers and technicians are seeking to sense breakdowns in the functioning windmills, or to predict the cost of labour and parts. We inspect several episodes in the unfolding of this ‘condition-based maintenance’, with some cases occurring very proximate to those windmills as technicians work with eyes and hands, but at other times this novel sensing is occurring very remotely, intermediated by layers of machine learning (ML) and managerial work. ML based models inform about the optimal time to intervene - not too soon when the machines have much “useful remaining time” left, but not too late when corrective repair becomes indispensable and expensive for the energy production.  Instruments are much more than mere vehicles to measure well-defined aspects of the world and produce data about it. Instead, we argue that the emergence of novel instrumentation is characterized by, on the one hand, periods of stability and coherence, when reliable and valid ‘data’ about the world may be captured, and, on the other hand, periods of breakdown and instability, when one do not know what aspect of the world to focus on, how to get at it, and actor’s  face an uncertain understanding of what the data are even about. The emergence of instrumentation is fallible and recurrent, demanding some level of stabilization long before some static understanding emerges for what are data, how to understand them and or what is being sensed. As such, our analysis undermines any sharp distinction between ‘data’ and ‘algorithm,’ as both come at once through our analytic lens of instrumentation.

• Sporsem, Tor Thorsrud & Monteiro, Eric (2024). Vil du teste KI? Unngå «Tesla-fellen» (https://www.dn.no/innlegg/ki/forskning/helse/vil-du-teste-ki-unnga-tesla-fellen/2-1-1650977). Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric & Sporsem, Tor Thorsrud (2024). Vil du teste KI? Unngå «Tesla-fellen». Full text in Research Archive
• Sporsem, Tor Thorsrud & Monteiro, Eric (2024). Are you looking to test new AI tools? Make sure you avoid the ‘Tesla trap’. Full text in Research Archive
• Mohanty, Pooja & Monteiro, Eric (2023). Explanable AI from work practice perspective: A Field Study. doi: https:/research.idi.ntnu.no/nail/xai-seminar/. Full text in Research Archive
• Vestues, Kathrine; Mikalsen, Marius & Monteiro, Eric (2021). Using digital platforms to promote a service-oriented logic in public sector organizations: A case study. Full text in Research Archive
• Russpatrick, Scott McKee; Sæbø, Johan Ivar; Monteiro, Eric; Nicholson, Brian & Sanner, Terje Aksel (2021). Digital Resilience to Covid-19: A Model for National Digital Health Systems to Bounce Forward From the Shock of a Global Pandemic. Full text in Research Archive
• Nystad, Arild Normann; Pavlov, Alexey; Schiefloe, Per Morten & Monteiro, Eric (2019). People Development for Digitalization in Oil and Gas Industry: BRU21 perspective. Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric (2018). Organizational and human aspects of digitalization in Oil and Gas. Full text in Research Archive
• Parmiggiani, Elena; Monteiro, Eric & Østerlie, Thomas (2017). Synthetic Situations and Algorithmic Phenomena. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  With the proliferation of social media, algorithms, simulations, and the Internet of Things in work-related and private settings, the idea of situated action and interaction is challenged. Situations are seamlessly augmented with a wide and expanding variety of digital representations, thus becoming entangled with their material and technological means. This shift resonates with the notion of algorithmic phenomenon (Orlikowski and Scott 2015): the digital no longer stands in for but becomes the phenomenon. Algorithmic phenomena are manifest in our longitudinal studies within the offshore oil and gas industry, characterized by data-intensive work where people are not co-located with the physical objects and processes around which their work is organised. The phenomena under inquiry emerge as algorithmically performed through digital technologies: the datasets, the technological arrangements that generate them, and the practices in which they are embedded are co-constituted. Our contribution to STS expands Knorr Cetina's (2009) 'synthetic situation' to develop a sensitivity to the way different entailments of these algorithmic phenomena play out and under what conditions. Highlighting the performative nature of synthetic situations, we find that, first, noise in the data is not only irreducible, but productive in and of algorithmic phenomena. Second, we highlight how the generative nature of algorithmic phenomena reshapes the ramifications of the synthetic situation. Third, we discuss how politics manifests in synthetic situations. While algorithmic phenomena open the stage for the interaction of diverse actors, they have the potential to further concentrate knowledge creation (hence power) in the hands of a few strong stakeholders.

• Østerlie, Thomas; Parmiggiani, Elena & Monteiro, Eric (2017). Information infrastructure in the face of irreducible uncertainty. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This short paper draws upon our initial investigations into digital infrastructure for oil and gas exploration. Digital oil and gas exploration exhibits many of the hallmarks forwarded under headings such as Big Data (Agarwal and Dhar 2014; Lycett 2013a), the (Industrial) Internet of Things (Boos et al. 2013), and Industry 4.0 (Lasi et al. 2014) – along with associated projections of technological possibilities (Swanson and Ramilier 1997). At the same time, digital exploration is conducted within the confines of well-established industrial structures, where the installed base of existing organizational, institutional, and technological arrangements temper and shape technological visions and trajectories. Digital exploration is therefore a fruitful venue to build and extend upon infrastructure theory to explore the relationship between digitalization, transformation of work and organizing, and industrial innovation (Nambisan et al. 2017).

• Parmiggiani, Elena & Monteiro, Eric (2016). "There's no single Arctic": Knowing nature in oil operations. Full text in Research Archive
• Parmiggiani, Elena; Monteiro, Eric & Almklov, Petter (2014). Where Oil and Gas Find LoVe. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Engelsk

• Mascia, F; Garotti, Luciano; Duarte, Francisco & Monteiro, Eric (2014). Planning an organizational simulation to support an integrated operation initiative in the oil and gas industry. Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric (2014). Infrastructures and intervention. Full text in Research Archive
• Parmiggiani, Elena & Monteiro, Eric (2014). The digital coral reef. Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric (2013). Infrastructures and complexity. Full text in Research Archive
• Parmiggiani, Elena & Monteiro, Eric (2013). Digital Coral Reefs. Full text in Research Archive
• Hamre, Gro Alice & Monteiro, Eric (2013). Towards a Socio-technically Resilient Collaborative Medication Process. Full text in Research Archive
• Hamre, Gro Alice; Berntsen, Kirsti Elisabeth & Monteiro, Eric (2010). Towards safer medication use – in practice. Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric (2009). Technology and agency. Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric (2009). From artefacts to infrastructures. Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric (2009). Innføring av IKT i store virksomheter. Full text in Research Archive
• Monteiro, Eric (2008). Trans-situated enactment of integrated information systems. Full text in Research Archive
• Munkvold, Glenn; Ellingsen, Gunnar & Monteiro, Eric (2007). From Plans to Planning: the Case of Nursing Plans. Full text in Research Archive
• Braa, Jørn; Monteiro, Eric; Sahay, Sundeep; Staring, Knut & titlestad, ola (2007). Scaling up local learning – experiences from south-south-north networks of shared software development. Full text in Research Archive
• Grøder, Charlotte Husom; Parmiggiani, Elena; Monteiro, Eric & Farshchian, Babak A. (2025). Responsible AI as an Organizing Vision: Planning for AI integration in the Norwegian public sector. Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet. ISSN 9788232695836. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is portrayed as a transformative technology for enhancing publicservice delivery. The term ‘AI’ carries high symbolic value and is associated with expectations of increased efficiency, improved decision-making, and data-driven insights – ultimately aimed at better fulfilling the public sector’s social mission. However, the expectations surrounding AI often introduce more questions than answers. Unlike traditional technologies, AI systems operate in ways that are difficult to interpret or trace, raising concerns about transparency, accountability, and unintended consequences. To ensure that AI systems reflect public values, expectations, and norms, practitioners and policymakers advocate for a responsible AI (RAI) approach. RAI highlights that ethical and trustworthy AI cannot be achieved solely through technical design, but rather must be embedded within the organizational, legal, and societal contexts in which AI systems are developed and used. This perspective underscores that RAI is a sociotechnical concern, shaped by the broader environment in which it operates. A diverse range of actors and organizations contribute their own principles and priorities for RAI, meaning it does not follow a one-sizefits- all model but is deeply context-dependent. Despite growing interest in AI, the formative stages of AI adoption – where critical decisions and assumptions are made that shape how organizations envision and prepare for RAI – remain underexplored. This “pre-history” of AI adoption is critical yet an overlooked area of research. This thesis is based on a four-year qualitative case study in the Norwegian public sector. Through five empirical studies grounded in Information Systems (IS) research, I investigate how public sector organizations plan for RAI, with a focus on the early phases where visions for RAI are formed and negotiated. I draw on a sociotechnical perspective and use the theoretical lenses of Organizing Visions (OVs) and Information Infrastructure (II) to understand how RAI shapes stakeholder engagement and guides collective action within the context of the public sector, characterized by infrastructural complexity and bureaucratic processes. By viewing AI as a technology-in-the-making rather than a finished product, this thesis underscores the importance of ongoing negotiation in shaping the trajectory of RAI integration. The findings show that RAI functions as an OV, shaped by responsibility discourses and embedded within the public sector’s infrastructural context. Visions for RAI are constructed through practices such as data work, legal interpretation, and ethical deliberation, and are influenced by existing systems, bureaucratic routines, and institutional norms. This thesis makes three key contributions. Theoretically, it extends OV theory by conceptualizing RAI as a dynamic and negotiating vision formed in the early planning phases. Empirically, it provides insight into the preparatory work required for planning RAI integration within public sector organizations. Practically, it offers implications for public organizations and policy makers seeking to integrate AI responsibly in public services, emphasizing the importance of early-stage planning.

• Nordal, Elise; Monteiro, Eric & Smebye, Andreas (2022). Digital samhandling i bygg- og anleggsbransjen En casestudie av en digital plattform for sirkulær utnyttelse av overskuddsmasser. Masteroppgave i Datateknologi. NTNU. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Miljødirektoratet rapporter at det utvinnes mye ikke-fornybare ressurser som pukk og grus i forbindelse bygg- og anleggsprosjekter. Samtidig blir store mengder overskuddsmasser sendt p°a deponi. N°a st°ar man i fare for at bynære omr°ader g°ar tom for disse ressursene. Bransjen er nødt til °a tenke gjenbruk av disse massene for °a klare °a gjennomføre den byggeaktiviteten de har. Regjeringen ser p°a digitale løsninger som en forutsetning i overgangen til en sirkulær økonomi i bygg- og anleggsnransjen Per dags dato ser vi at aktørene som er involvert i et prosjekt, i liten grad samhandler med aktører i andre prosjekter. For at bygg- og anleggsbransjen skal g°a over til en sirkulær utnyttelse av overskuddsmasser kreves det at aktørene samhandler mer p°a tvers av prosjekter. Det er derfor svært aktuelt °a se p°a hvordan man kan utvikle en digital plattform som kan øke denne samhandlingen. I denne oppgaven ble det gjennomført en casestudie for °a kartlegge informasjonsflyten hos aktørene involvert i masseh°andtering, samt barrierer for gjenbruk. Ved observasjon av et masseh°andteringsprosjekt, samt intervjuer med relevante bransjeaktører, var form°alet °a f°a en større forst°aelse for arbeidet med overskuddsmasser og hvordan legge til rette for digital samhandling. I tilegg ble det brukertestet en plattform-prototype . Brukertestingen hadde som fokus °a kartlegge informasjonen aktørene trengte i forbindelse med gjenbruk og hvilke funksjoner plattformen burde ha for at brukerne skulle oppleve den som nyttig. Oppgaven konkluderer med at det i utviklingen av en digital plattform m°a det tas høyde for at det er mange aktører involvert og problemet er komplekst. For det første peker funnene p°a at en digital plattform m°a være veldig enkel fra start. Man m°a starte °a designe den billigste løsningen som tilfredsstiller de enkleste behovene til de mest motiverte brukerne. Deretter m°a man fortsette °a videreutvikle løsningen i iterasjoner, samtidig som man gradvis introduserer plattformen for flere brukere. N°ar plattformen oppn°ar en kritisk brukermasse er det viktig utvikle plattformen til °a støtte potensielle nettverkseffekter digitale plattformer kan generere. Etterhvert som man er trygg p°a at man har bygget en solid base som bist°ar brukerne i de enkleste arbeidsoppgavene kan man fortsette °a utforske, identifisere og ta i bruk innovasjon for °a finne løsninger p°a de mer komplekse eller kritiske oppgavene som aktørene st°ar ovenfor.

• Kaasbøll, Jens Johan; Monteiro, Eric & Asah, Flora Nah (2021). Challenges and Approaches of Implementing Standard Health Indicators in Hierarchical Organizations: A multisited study. Universitetet i Oslo. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This thesis explores challenges associated with implementing standard health indicators in hierarchical organizations, and which approaches can be employed to mitigate these challenges. Hierarchical organizations are entrenched in fragmented healthcare system, coupled with fragmented information systems, and multiple stakeholders and partners with different views and perspective, a common scenario for low and middle-income countries (LMIC). The study was guided by a main research question and two sub-research questions: What challenges are associated with implementing standard health indicators in hierarchical organizations, and which approaches can be employed to mitigate these challenges? Sub-RQ1: What are the challenges associated with implementing standard health indicators in hierarchical organizations? Sub-RQ2: What approaches could be employed to mitigate the challenges of implementing standard health indicators in hierarchical organizations? The research was qualitative, interpretative, and multi-sited study, in three empirical sites – Cameroon, Ghana, and South Africa. However, the study in Cameroon laid the foundation for this study, and the findings from Cameroon influenced the selection of the other two sites. Mixed methods were used to collect data, and the study applied both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods. Data analysis was done when writing individual papers and writing the thesis, which followed five key steps; preliminary data analysis, preparing and familiarizing oneself with data, coding, creating categories, and identifying themes. The findings showed that although implementing standard health indicators is one of the strategies to curb fragmented information systems, the process is embedded in several challenges, which hinder the generation and eventually the use of data to support decision-making, particularly among staff at the peripheral level in hierarchical and centralized organizations. This thesis contributed to developing a new analytical framework to understanding the challenges associated in implementing standard health indicators in hierarchical and centralized organizations. The thesis builds on the rich understanding of boundary objects to discuss and outline approaches that could help resolve different opinions, interests, and opinions among the different partners and stakeholder involved in IS/HIS in the healthcare domain. The thesis contributed to IS training literature by demonstrating the capabilities of Community of Practices (CoP) in building local capacity. Practically, the thesis adopted and extended the concepts of CoP by providing measures to building local capacity on HIS.

• Yogarajah, Aravinthan; Monteiro, Eric & Dingsøyr, Torgeir (2016). Smidig utviklingsmiljø: Organisatorisk læring og kommunikasjon - Case studier av retrospektivmøter. Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Smidig utviklingsmetodikk har blitt bredt brukt blant programvareselskapene i både samlokalisert og distribuert team. I slike situasjoner forekommer det at prosjektene ikke leverer produktet til tide, der manglende læring og kommunikasjonsutfordringer kan være grunnen. Derfor undersøkes utfordringene systemutviklingsteam har i forhold til organisatorisk læring og kommunikasjon i både samlokalisert og distribuert team. Det er gjennomført ti observasjoner basert på tre case studier. Resultatene mine viser at systemutviklingsteam gjennomfører retrospektivmøter og tar læring av dette, men læringen er begrenset. Det er både identifisert enkelt og dobbeltløkkelæringer i retrospektivmøtene, men det er primært enkeltløkkelæringer som forekommer og dette henger sammen med eksisterende teori. Den største hindringen for å danne dobbeltløkkelæring har vært gjennomføring av forbedringstiltakene. Manglende gjennomføringsevne skyldes at det fokuseres på mange forbedringstiltak, manglende oppfølgning og tilrettelegging av forbedringstiltakene, manglende konkrete forbedringstiltak og involvering av eksterne aktører. Når forbedringstiltakene ikke gjennomføres fører det til at de samme utfordringene diskuteres gjentatte ganger. En konsekvens av dette har ført til misnøye for gjennomføring av retrospektivmøtene. Jeg har utarbeidet en liste med faktorer som har bidratt til å danne dobbeltløkkelæring. Basert på denne listen har jeg foreslått en modell for gjennomføring av retrospektivmøtene. Når det gjelder kommunikasjon viser det seg at mangel på ansikt-til-ansikt kommunikasjon i distribuerte team har ført til vanskeligheter med å forstå informasjonen som blir formidlet korrekt i motsetning til samlokalisert team. Tilslutt konkluder jeg med at manglende gjennomføring av forbedringstiltakene vil påvirke produktiviteten til teamet. Manglende ansikt-til-ansikt kommunikasjon i distribuert team har ført til redusert forståelse rundt informasjonen som er formidlet mellom distribuerte teammedlemmer og henger sammen de fleste studiene på dette forskningsfeltet.

• Fægri, Tor Erlend; Dingsøyr, Torgeir; Monteiro, Eric & Dybå, Tore (2012). Collaborative learning in software development: An investigation of characteristics, prerequisites and improvement. Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet. ISSN 9788247133491. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Collaborative learning integrates individual and collective learning with practical activity. The great demand for learning in software development practice makes collaborative learning attractive. However, social and technical conditions complicate software organizations’ effort to improve collaborative learning capabilities. In particular, specialization through social structures and technical systems restrict software practitioners’ opportunities for collaborative learning. Hence, the software organization’s learning potential is not fully utilized which in turn may constitute a bottleneck to innovation and a threat to competiveness. Existing research from a range of domains provides insights into collaborative learning. This suggests that collaborative learning in software development should be subjected to integrative investigations. Therefore, the dissertation presents an open-ended, integrative exploration of collaborative learning. The main objective is to increase understanding of how collaborative learning capabilities can be improved in software development practice. Two research questions guided the investigation: What are the characteristics of collaborative learning in software development? What are the prerequisites for collaborative learning in software development? Using a literature study covering relevant fields such as software process improvement, team research, organizational learning, organization science and socio-technical research, I develop a conceptual framework that explains how collaborative learning in software development can be usefully seen as a variegated phenomenon with a number of core elements aligned within the pillars characteristics, prerequisites and considerations for improvement. Subsequently, I discuss how empirical results from three investigations of collaboration and learning within Norwegian software organizations elaborate the framework. The discussion extends the framework with empirical findings to provide a preliminary conceptual framework for collaborative learning in software development which includes five characteristics; (1) collective, situated performance, (2) purposeful, (3) cooperative behavior, (4) coordinated action, and (5) empowerment. There are five identified prerequisites; (1) participation, (2) opportunities for learning, (3) knowledge diversity, (4) knowledge redundancy, and (5) proximity; physical or virtual. At last, there are three identified considerations for improvement; (1) a re-orientation of governing values, (2) creating and exploring opportunities for collaborative learning, and (3) socio-technical reconciliation. The preliminary conceptual framework for collaborative learning in software development is a contribution to existing literature on practice-based learning and offers a comprehensive theoretical platform within which collaborative learning in software development can be understood and improved. The concluding arguments discuss the contributions, the limitations of the research and then discuss implications for further research and practice.

• Berntsen, Kirsti Elisabeth; Monteiro, Eric & Divitini, Monica (2011). IS supported service work: a case study of global certification. Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet. ISSN 9788247128169. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  The thesis approaches the issue of IS support for service work, understood as distributed knowledge work taking place as a negotiation between diverse interests. It is based on an ethnographically inspired, longitudinal case study of certification auditing according to a formal generic standard. A handful of certification auditors are followed closely, periodically and comprehensively over three years. Observations are combined with interviews of subjects and colleagues, added by exploration of other material. The practices of company ‘W’ is placed within a larger historical and institutional context. Research literature and theory is explored in four chapters from Social studies of science (STS), Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), Information systems (IS), Information infrastructures (II) and Management literature. The aim is to identify basic characteristics of service work, its opportunities and challenges, from both the company’s and workers’ perspective. Main topics are Decision Making as negotiated sensemaking, contextual rationality and judgement; Sharing of understanding and meaning as ongoing practiced articulation work aiming for trust and an equifinal level of accord that will ‘find and allow common action’; Perseverance in a capable role that will allow calibration of distributed knowledge is vital for auditors. Common Information Spaces (CIS) is used as a framework to explore the heterogeneous circumstances of identity work in work practices; Predictability in production is sought through various strategies of standardization. Approaches to avoid and counter the inherent side-effects of standardization are described. The empirical results of the research project are presented and analysed in four chapters that look at the issue of i) being an accomplished service worker and ii) practicing service work. Both issues are addressed from a local, individual perspective, and from an organizational perspective in terms of the continuation of quality production. The thesis closes with a Conclusion of organized and standardized service work as displaying Practical drift, in response to the research question RQ0. How is IS supported distributed service work negotiated?, followed by implications for IS research and practice. The empirical case displays the role of information systems (IS) support in distributed service work - as part of a larger assembly of standardization measures, a broad-spectrum approach, displaying practical drift in its effect. The service work of certification auditing is characterized by ongoing negotiation of partly contradictory interests. It is heterogeneously standardized through material, rational/immaterial and social/organizational measures, many in place long before the advent of advanced IS. Traditionally, there are release mechanisms that, on the auditors’ discretion, alleviate the inappropriate effects of standardization. With new harmonising efforts the scope of this personal latitude needs to change, but when first implemented the IS along with new procedures start off as too tight. However, over time adaptations are made, making the overall process self regulatory with feedback mechanisms. On the whole, the thesis aims to contribute to the literature on information infrastructures, on knowledge work in general, and CSCW by drawing on insights from this specific collaborative work in controversial settings. The case provides practical insights for resilient systemizing of knowledge based global service work practices.

• Braa, Jørn; Monteiro, Eric; Sahay, Sundeep; Staring, Knut & Titlestad, Ola Hodne (2007). Scaling up local learning – experiences from South-South-North networks of shared software development. Proceedings of IFIP WG 9.4 9th international conference "Taking Stock of E-Development". Full text in Research Archive

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