Research

My main research falls into the research domain of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). CSCW is an interdisciplinary research agenda with two main aims, namely to 1) investigate the basic nature of collaborative work, with the aim of 2) designing collaborative technologies. Since 2006, I have studied the collaborative work practices in several different domains: Software development, Healthcare, Engineering, and Education. The collective contribution of all this work has to date added to unpacking practices of routine, coordination, sorting, triage, awareness, commitment, coupling of work, knowledge sharing, and cultural difficulties (e.g. Bjørn and Christensen 2011; Bjørn and Markussen 2013; Bjørn 2014; Bjørn 2016). Unpacking of complexities of collaborative practices can be done in many ways, and most currently we have looked into how digital tracking technologies can facilitate architectural practices of future hospitals (Møller and Bjørn, 2017). The purpose of this work is to figure out how to bring these insights into the way we think, design, adapt, and embed collaborative technologies (e.g. Bjørn, Burgoyne et al. 2009; Andersen, Bjørn et al. 2010; Bannon, Bjørn et al. 2012).

Most recently, my interest have moved towards more design-oriented interests especially how to utilise the potentials of digital fabrication technologies (e.g. 3D printing and micro-controller programming) for exploratory prototyping. In particular, I am interested in exploring Maker communities and the role which Makerspaces have in facilitating entrepreneurship and innovation. More concretely, exploring how disruptive technologies e.g. Blockchain have the ability to change innovation (Jabbar and Bjørn, 2017). Current work also includes exploring the role of critical design artefacts (Menendez Blanco, Bjørn, and De Angeli, 2017) , and the ways in which we can challenge current trends within development of digital interactive technologies. See more examples below.

Research projects with example papers

Next Generation Tools & Processes for Global Software Development (NexGSD) 

  • Bjørn, P. (2019). Dark agile: Global Software Development risk perceiving people as assets, not as humans. Rethinking Productivity in Software Engineering. C. Sadowki and T. Zimmermann, Apress.
  • Matthiesen, S. and P. Bjørn (2017). “When distribution of tasks and skills are fundamentally problematic: A failure story from global software outsourcing.” PACM on Human-Computer Interaction: Online first 2018 ACM Conference on Computer-supported Cooperative Woek and Social Computing 1(2, Article 74): 16.
  • Bjørn, P., A.-M. Søderberg and S. Krishna (2017). “Translocality in Global Software Development: The Dark Side of Global Agile.” Human-Computer Interaction 10.1080/07370024.2017.1398092.
  • Bjørn, P. (2016). “New fundamentals for CSCW research: From distance to politics.” Interactions(May-June): 50-53.
  • Matthiesen, S. and P. Bjørn (2015). Why replacing legacy systems is so hard in global software development: An information infrastructure perspective. CSCW. Vancouver, Canada, ACM.
  • Bjørn, P., M. Esbensen, R. E. Jensen and S. Matthiesen (2014). “Does distance still matter? Revisiting the CSCW fundamentals on distributed collaboration.” ACM Transaction Computer Human Interaction (ToChi) 21(5): 1-27.
  • Matthiesen, S., P. Bjørn and L. M. Petersen (2014). “Figure Out How to Code with the Hands of Others”: Recognizing Cultural Blind Spots in Global Software Development. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). Baltimore, USA, ACM.
  • Søderberg, A.-M., S. Krishna and P. Bjørn (2013). “Global Software Development: Commitment, Trust and Cultural Sensitivity in Strategic Partnerships.” Journal of International Management 19(4): 347-361.
  • Bjørn, P., J. Bardram, G. Avram, L. Bannon, A. Boden, D. Redmiles, C. d. Souza and V. Wulf (2014). Global Software Development in a CSCW perspective. Workshop paper for Computer Supported Cooperative Work  and Social Computing (CSCW). Baltimore, ACM.

Conflict IT: IT in conflicted geographical zones

  • Bjørn, P. and N. Boulus-Rødje (2018). “Intrastructural inaccessibility: Tech Entrepreneurs in occupied Palestine.” ACM Transaction on Computer-human Interaction (TOCHI) 25(5): 31.
  • Boulus-Rødje, N., P. Bjørn and A. Ghazawneh (2015). “It’s about Business not Politics”: Software Development between Palestinians and Israelis European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW). Oslo, Norway, Springer.
  • Boulus-Rødje, N., P. Bjørn, D. Randall, V. Wulf and A. Ghazawneh (2015). “ConflitIT: Technologies and collaborative practices in Conflict areas.” Workshop at ECSCW, 2015, Oslo.
  • Boulus-Rødje, N., P. Bjørn and A. Ghazawneh (2015). “It’s about Business, not Politics”: an ethnographic study of an Israeli-Palestinian web start-up. International Conference of Critical Geography. Rammallah, Palestine.

Blockchain, Innovation & Entrepreneurship 

  • Jabbar, K. and P. Bjørn (2019). Blockchain Assemblages: Whiteboxing Technology and Transforming Infrastructural Imaginaries. ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI’19) Edingburg, Scotland, ACM.
  • Jabbar, K. and P. Bjørn (2018). “Permeability, interoperability and velocity: Entangled dimensions of infrastructural grind in the intersection of blockchain and shipping.” ACM Transaction on Social Computing.
  • Jabbar, K. and P. Bjørn (2018). Infrastructural Grind: Introducing Blockchain technology in the shipping industry. ACM GROUP. Sanibel Island, Florida, ACM.
  • Jabbar, K. and P. Bjørn (2017 ). Growing the Blockchain information infrastructure. CHI2017. Denver, CO, USA.

Diversity and inclusion in Technology 

  • Menendez-Blanco, M., P. Bjørn, N. H. Møller, J. Bruun, H. Dybkjær and K. Lorentzen (2018). “GRACE: Broadening narratives of computing through history, craft and technology ” Demo paper, ACM GROUP conference.
  • Menéndez, M., P. Bjørn and A. D. Angeli (2017). Critical design artefacts: Enacting alternative political agendas. ACM CSCW Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Portland, USA, ACM
  • Fuchsberger, V., M. Murer, M. Tscheligi, S. Lindtner, S. Bardzell, J. Bardzell, A. Reiter and P. Bjorn (2016). Fabrication & HCI: Hobbyist Making, Industrial Production, and Beyond. Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. San Jose, California, USA, ACM: 3550-3557.
  • Fuchsberger, V., M. Murer, M. Tscheligi, S. Lindtner, A. Reiter, S. Bardzell, J. Bardzell and P. Bjørn (2015). The Future of Making: Where Industrial and Personal Fabrication Meet Workshop paper at Critical Alternatives. Århus, Denmark, https://projects.hci.sbg.ac.at/fabrication2015/organizers/.

ACTION for Health

  • Bjørn, P. and E. Balka (2007). Health Care Categories have Politics too: Unpacking the Managerial Agendas of Electronic Triage Systems. ECSCW 2007: Proceedings of the Tenth European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Limerick, Ireland, Springer.
  • Balka, E., P. Bjørn and I. Wagner (2008). Steps towards a typology for health informatics. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), San Diego, CA, USA, ACM.
  • Bjørn, P., S. Burgoyne, V. Crompton, T. MacDonald, B. Pickering and S. Munro (2009). “Boundary factors and contextual contingencies: Configuring electronic templates for health care professionals.” European Journal of Information Systems 18: 428–441.
  • Bjørn, P. and M. Hertzum (2011). “Artefactual Multiplicity: A Study of Emergency-Department Whiteboards.” Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): An International Journal 20(1-2): 93-121.
  • Bjørn, P. and K. Rødje (2008). “Triage drift: A worksplace study in a pediatric emergency department.” Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): An International Journal 17(4): 395-419.

Co-constructing Technology for Healthcare

  • Bjørn, P. and R. Markussen (2013). “Cyborg Heart: The affective apparatus of bodily production of ICD patients.” Science & Technology Studies 26(2).
  • Andersen, T., P. Bjørn, F. Kensing and J. Moll (2011). “Designing for collaborative interpretation in telemonitoring: Re-introducing patients as diagnostic agents.” International journal of Medical Informatics 80(8): 112-126.
  • Andersen, T., J. Bansler, P. Bjørn, E. Havn, M. Jensen, F. Kensing, J. Moll, T. Mønsted and K. Schmidt (2009). Co-constructing IT and healthcare. poster paper presented at European Conference Computer Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW). Vienna, Austria

Methodological contributions

  • Bjørn, P. and N. Boulus-Rødje (2015). “The multiple intersecting sites of design in CSCW research.” Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): An International Journal 24(3): 319-351.
  • Bjørn, P. and C. Østerlund (2014). Sociomaterial-Design: Bounding technologies in practice, Book, CSCW series, Springer.
  • Bjørn, P. and N. Boulus (2011). “Dissenting in reflective conversations: Critical components of doing action research.” Action Research Journal 9(3): 282-302.

Main Publications from my PhD thesis work (done between 2002-2006)

  • Bjørn, P. and O. Ngwenyama (2009). “Virtual Team Collaboration: Building Shared Meaning, Resolving Breakdowns and Creating Translucence.” Information Systems Journal 19(3): 227-253.
  • Bjørn, P. and O. Ngwenyama (2010). “Technology Alignment: A New Area in Virtual Team Research.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 53(4): 382-400.
  • Bjørn, P., A. Scupola and B. Fitzgerald (2006). “Expanding Technological Frames Towards Mediated Collaboration: Groupware Adoption in Virtual Learning Teams.” Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems 18(2): 3-42.
  • Bjørn, P. (2003). Re-Negotiating Protocols: A way to Integrate Groupware in Collaborative Learning Settings. ECIS, New Paradigms in Organizations, Markets and Society, Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Information System, Napoli
  • Bjørn, P. (2006). “Medieret Vejledning af Problemorienteret Projektarbejde: Udfordringer for Vejledning i Problemformuleringsfasen.” UNEV: Tidsskrift for Universiteternes efter- og videreuddannelse 9.