This four-year research project, supported by ANID Fondecyt Regular N°1250587 (2025-2028), aims to understand how databases influence social life within organizations in Chile. The investigation seeks to examine how these digital tools shape worldviews, define identities and roles, and coordinate work across various organizational sectors.
The research will be conducted using a qualitative multiple-case study approach, examining how this phenomenon manifests across various sites. Six cases of digital infrastructure implementation based on databases will be analyzed in Chilean organizations, covering sectors such as education and research, cultural heritage, and healthcare. The methodology will include semi-structured interviews, collection of documents, and observation of practices, artifacts, and materialities. Based on the analysis of each case, a qualitative comparative analysis will be performed to enhance understanding of the social life of databases within organizations. Additionally, narrative workshops will be held to encourage reflective and critical discussions among team members and other stakeholders about the research findings, aiding in the verification, dissemination, and impact of the results.
This study will be pioneering in observing and analyzing the forms that databases take in organizations across different areas of society, the relationships they form with other materialities and participants, and the types of collective life that develop from them. Although the study of documents as active materials in organizational settings has advanced significantly in recent decades, databases have largely remained in a "gray zone" behind the scenes of machine work, despite their ubiquity and influence on our daily lives.
The results of this study will not only advance research on the social life of information infrastructures but also contribute to studies in sociology of work, organizations, administration, memory, and subjectivity. Additionally, the findings will help highlight and value people and forms of work that often occupy subordinate positions within organizations' moral economies. Ultimately, this study will provide members of diverse organizations with a renewed understanding of the challenges posed by the increasing adoption of digital infrastructures, facilitating the identification of new alternatives and strategies for action.
Project title: The Hidden Life of Databases: A Multiple Case Study of Information Infrastructures in Organizations in Chile
Principal Investigator: Fernando A. Valenzuela (UNAB)
Co-Researcher: Juan Felipe Espinosa Cristia (UTFSM)
Field Researchers: Consuelo Dinamarca-Noack y Helena Katherina Nogales
Funding Source: FONDECYT Regular N°1250587 (2025-2029)
The research will be conducted using a qualitative multiple-case study approach, examining how this phenomenon manifests across various sites. Six cases of digital infrastructure implementation based on databases will be analyzed in Chilean organizations, covering sectors such as education and research, cultural heritage, and healthcare. The methodology will include semi-structured interviews, collection of documents, and observation of practices, artifacts, and materialities. Based on the analysis of each case, a qualitative comparative analysis will be performed to enhance understanding of the social life of databases within organizations. Additionally, narrative workshops will be held to encourage reflective and critical discussions among team members and other stakeholders about the research findings, aiding in the verification, dissemination, and impact of the results.
This study will be pioneering in observing and analyzing the forms that databases take in organizations across different areas of society, the relationships they form with other materialities and participants, and the types of collective life that develop from them. Although the study of documents as active materials in organizational settings has advanced significantly in recent decades, databases have largely remained in a "gray zone" behind the scenes of machine work, despite their ubiquity and influence on our daily lives.
The results of this study will not only advance research on the social life of information infrastructures but also contribute to studies in sociology of work, organizations, administration, memory, and subjectivity. Additionally, the findings will help highlight and value people and forms of work that often occupy subordinate positions within organizations' moral economies. Ultimately, this study will provide members of diverse organizations with a renewed understanding of the challenges posed by the increasing adoption of digital infrastructures, facilitating the identification of new alternatives and strategies for action.
Project title: The Hidden Life of Databases: A Multiple Case Study of Information Infrastructures in Organizations in Chile
Principal Investigator: Fernando A. Valenzuela (UNAB)
Co-Researcher: Juan Felipe Espinosa Cristia (UTFSM)
Field Researchers: Consuelo Dinamarca-Noack y Helena Katherina Nogales
Funding Source: FONDECYT Regular N°1250587 (2025-2029)