WETO – Work, Expertise, Technology and Organization

Contemporary organizations and work practices are permeated with expertise and technologies. WETO focuses on the co-constitution of work, organization, expertise, and technology. This includes how work, technology and expertise are organized, how they have organizing effects, and what the consequences are.

We study this by drawing upon conceptual developments from social and organizational theories, and by using qualitative/ethnographic methods. In the study of work, expertise, technology, and organization,  we emphasize their relationship with forms of power, management, and rationality. We also address how technology and expertise are sources of organizational authority as well as distribution and coordination of work.

Empirically,  we have members studying, for instance, energy production, agricultural production and healthcare. We also have members focusing on specific technologies such as automated case processing solutions, organizational tools, and market devices.

This includes how different types of technologies make organizations visible to themselves and allow organizations to operate; the organizational and work-related consequences of new technology and forms of expertise; and the role of technology and expertise in changing notions of work and organization. 

We have the ambition to produce advanced scientific knowledge that is of relevance also outside academia.