Patricia Walls
Biographic Data
| ID | 146396 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Patricia Walls |
| GIVEN NAMES | Patricia |
| FAMILY NAME | Walls |
| SIGNATURE | WALLS P |
| AFFILIATIONS | MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 37 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Business Ethnography
Ethnographic studies have become an integral part of many projects at Xerox: guiding product improvements, inspiring new product concepts, uncovering technology and organizational issues, and informing strategic directions. Ethnographic methods provide a deep understanding of technology usage in context and have the potential to shift the perspectives of the researchers themselves, the study participants, and the business stakeholders. These tran…
Socio-Cultural Challenges in Conducting Ethnographic Research among Ethiopian Street Youth
Little has been written on the personal experience of the researcher as it relates to data collection, data analysis and interpretation of results. Even more scarce has been knowledge that addresses the challenges and barriers faced by 21st century researchers engaged in ethnographic data collection amidst culturally diverse populations. The present work has addressed these gaps in the literature by detailing the personal, methodological and cult…
Back to the Future of Work
This paper describes the results of a multi-year ethnographic study of how knowledge workers integrate new technology into their work practices. We studied mobile and remote workers who use smartphones, tablets, cloud computing, and social networking to support their work. Study findings describe the characteristics of mobile work, the coordination of multiple devices and sources of information, how new technology functioned as a social resource …
Pushing New Frontiers
Rapid socio-technological change is underway in the world of work. The Xerox Future of Work team conducted ethnographic studies to explore the impact of these changes on the use of paper, printing, and electronic documents. Study findings revealed needs and requirements for workers of the future, and influenced the research directions Xerox is undertaking to explore how documents (both paper and electronic) play a role in the world of work. The t…
The Secret Life of Medical Records
A study of the practices surrounding paper medical records captured key aspects of the work necessary to support this crucial element of health care. It uncovered work that was invisible to the nurses and physicians who use the records. This invisible work comprises tasks necessary to find and deliver the records as well as those necessary to ensure that the records are accurate and up to date. This study was undertaken because medical records ar…
Giving Voice to Print Production Facility Workers
This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of digital production printing with a focus on a complex, labor-intensive production print job. The goal of the study was to inform the development of tools, processes and technologies to improve the efficiency of this kind of job within the print production facility. By documenting how work was done from the perspective of the people who did the work, our study ensured that the voices and p…
The Baker's Dozen
This paper explores whether or not Marcel Mauss's concept of the gift is applicable to understanding the diverse roles that ethnographers assume in corporate environments. Kneading together the themes of gift exchange from anthropological literature on the one hand and “Representations” from the participatory design research community on the other; we suggest that the artifacts we create and share with customers actually evoke the presence of the…
Religious discrimination in Scotland
A recent article on sectarianism in Scotland in Ethnic and Racial Studies by Bruce et al. sought to undermine the conclusions of a previous paper of ours, also published in this journal. Bruce et al. contend that sectarianism is a myth, while we have provided new qualitative evidence for personal experience of anti-Catholic discrimination in employment, which clearly contradicts their thesis. To contextualize these papers, we have summarized some…
Accounting for Irish Catholic ill health in Scotland
This paper considers the ways in which accounts from Glasgow Catholics diverge from those of Protestants and explores the reasons why people leave jobs, including health grounds. Accounts reveal experiences distinctive to Catholics, of health-threatening stress, obstacles to career progression within (mainly) private-sector organisations, and interactional difficulties which create particular problems for (mainly) middle class men. This narrows t…
Sectarianism at work
This article examines accounts of discrimination in employment against Irish Catholics in Glasgow from both majority and minority ethnic and religious perspectives. It reveals evidence of continuing experience of sectarian discrimination in work. Of particular note is the existence of discriminatory practice affecting Catholic (Irish-descended) attempts to move up the social scale. This evidence disputes the thoroughness of analyses which ignore …
Sectarianism at work
This article examines accounts of discrimination in employment against Irish Catholics in Glasgow from both majority and minority ethnic and religious perspectives. It reveals evidence of continuing experience of sectarian discrimination in work. Of particular note is the existence of discriminatory practice affecting Catholic (Irish-descended) attempts to move up the social scale. This evidence disputes the thoroughness of analyses which ignore …
Religious discrimination in Scotland
A recent article on sectarianism in Scotland in Ethnic and Racial Studies by Bruce et al. sought to undermine the conclusions of a previous paper of ours, also published in this journal. Bruce et al. contend that sectarianism is a myth, while we have provided new qualitative evidence for personal experience of anti-Catholic discrimination in employment, which clearly contradicts their thesis. To contextualize these papers, we have summarized some…
The Secret Life of Medical Records
A study of the practices surrounding paper medical records captured key aspects of the work necessary to support this crucial element of health care. It uncovered work that was invisible to the nurses and physicians who use the records. This invisible work comprises tasks necessary to find and deliver the records as well as those necessary to ensure that the records are accurate and up to date. This study was undertaken because medical records ar…
The Baker's Dozen
This paper explores whether or not Marcel Mauss's concept of the gift is applicable to understanding the diverse roles that ethnographers assume in corporate environments. Kneading together the themes of gift exchange from anthropological literature on the one hand and “Representations” from the participatory design research community on the other; we suggest that the artifacts we create and share with customers actually evoke the presence of the…
Pushing New Frontiers
Rapid socio-technological change is underway in the world of work. The Xerox Future of Work team conducted ethnographic studies to explore the impact of these changes on the use of paper, printing, and electronic documents. Study findings revealed needs and requirements for workers of the future, and influenced the research directions Xerox is undertaking to explore how documents (both paper and electronic) play a role in the world of work. The t…
Giving Voice to Print Production Facility Workers
This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of digital production printing with a focus on a complex, labor-intensive production print job. The goal of the study was to inform the development of tools, processes and technologies to improve the efficiency of this kind of job within the print production facility. By documenting how work was done from the perspective of the people who did the work, our study ensured that the voices and p…
Sectarianism at work
This article examines accounts of discrimination in employment against Irish Catholics in Glasgow from both majority and minority ethnic and religious perspectives. It reveals evidence of continuing experience of sectarian discrimination in work. Of particular note is the existence of discriminatory practice affecting Catholic (Irish-descended) attempts to move up the social scale. This evidence disputes the thoroughness of analyses which ignore …
Accounting for Irish Catholic ill health in Scotland
This paper considers the ways in which accounts from Glasgow Catholics diverge from those of Protestants and explores the reasons why people leave jobs, including health grounds. Accounts reveal experiences distinctive to Catholics, of health-threatening stress, obstacles to career progression within (mainly) private-sector organisations, and interactional difficulties which create particular problems for (mainly) middle class men. This narrows t…
The Baker's Dozen
This paper explores whether or not Marcel Mauss's concept of the gift is applicable to understanding the diverse roles that ethnographers assume in corporate environments. Kneading together the themes of gift exchange from anthropological literature on the one hand and “Representations” from the participatory design research community on the other; we suggest that the artifacts we create and share with customers actually evoke the presence of the…
Religious discrimination in Scotland
A recent article on sectarianism in Scotland in Ethnic and Racial Studies by Bruce et al. sought to undermine the conclusions of a previous paper of ours, also published in this journal. Bruce et al. contend that sectarianism is a myth, while we have provided new qualitative evidence for personal experience of anti-Catholic discrimination in employment, which clearly contradicts their thesis. To contextualize these papers, we have summarized some…
Giving Voice to Print Production Facility Workers
This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of digital production printing with a focus on a complex, labor-intensive production print job. The goal of the study was to inform the development of tools, processes and technologies to improve the efficiency of this kind of job within the print production facility. By documenting how work was done from the perspective of the people who did the work, our study ensured that the voices and p…
The Secret Life of Medical Records
A study of the practices surrounding paper medical records captured key aspects of the work necessary to support this crucial element of health care. It uncovered work that was invisible to the nurses and physicians who use the records. This invisible work comprises tasks necessary to find and deliver the records as well as those necessary to ensure that the records are accurate and up to date. This study was undertaken because medical records ar…
Pushing New Frontiers
Rapid socio-technological change is underway in the world of work. The Xerox Future of Work team conducted ethnographic studies to explore the impact of these changes on the use of paper, printing, and electronic documents. Study findings revealed needs and requirements for workers of the future, and influenced the research directions Xerox is undertaking to explore how documents (both paper and electronic) play a role in the world of work. The t…
Back to the Future of Work
This paper describes the results of a multi-year ethnographic study of how knowledge workers integrate new technology into their work practices. We studied mobile and remote workers who use smartphones, tablets, cloud computing, and social networking to support their work. Study findings describe the characteristics of mobile work, the coordination of multiple devices and sources of information, how new technology functioned as a social resource …
Socio-Cultural Challenges in Conducting Ethnographic Research among Ethiopian Street Youth
Little has been written on the personal experience of the researcher as it relates to data collection, data analysis and interpretation of results. Even more scarce has been knowledge that addresses the challenges and barriers faced by 21st century researchers engaged in ethnographic data collection amidst culturally diverse populations. The present work has addressed these gaps in the literature by detailing the personal, methodological and cult…
Business Ethnography
Ethnographic studies have become an integral part of many projects at Xerox: guiding product improvements, inspiring new product concepts, uncovering technology and organizational issues, and informing strategic directions. Ethnographic methods provide a deep understanding of technology usage in context and have the potential to shift the perspectives of the researchers themselves, the study participants, and the business stakeholders. These tran…
Political science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Engineering (6 works) · Work (physics (5 works) · Anthropology (4 works) · Business (4 works) · Ethnography (4 works) · Knowledge management (4 works) · Law (3 works)