Growing the Blockchain information infrastructure

TY - GEN

T1 - Growing the Blockchain information infrastructure

AU - Jabbar, Karim

AU - Bjørn, Pernille

PY - 2017/5/2

Y1 - 2017/5/2

N2 - In this paper, we present ethnographic data that unpacks the everyday work of some of the many infrastructuring agents who contribute to creating, sustaining and growing the Blockchain information infrastructure. We argue that this infrastructuring work takes the form of entrepreneurial actions, which are self-initiated and primarily directed at sustaining or increasing the initiator's stake in the emerging information infrastructure. These entrepreneurial actions wrestle against the affordances of the installed base of the Blockchain infrastructure, and take the shape of engaging or circumventing activities. These activities purposefully aim at either influencing or working around the enablers and constraints afforded by the Blockchain information infrastructure, as its installed base is gaining inertia. This study contributes to our understanding of the purpose of infrastructuring, seen from the perspective of heterogeneous entrepreneurial agents. It supplements existing accounts of the "when" and "how" of infrastructure, with a lens for examining the "why" of infrastructure. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.

AB - In this paper, we present ethnographic data that unpacks the everyday work of some of the many infrastructuring agents who contribute to creating, sustaining and growing the Blockchain information infrastructure. We argue that this infrastructuring work takes the form of entrepreneurial actions, which are self-initiated and primarily directed at sustaining or increasing the initiator's stake in the emerging information infrastructure. These entrepreneurial actions wrestle against the affordances of the installed base of the Blockchain infrastructure, and take the shape of engaging or circumventing activities. These activities purposefully aim at either influencing or working around the enablers and constraints afforded by the Blockchain information infrastructure, as its installed base is gaining inertia. This study contributes to our understanding of the purpose of infrastructuring, seen from the perspective of heterogeneous entrepreneurial agents. It supplements existing accounts of the "when" and "how" of infrastructure, with a lens for examining the "why" of infrastructure. Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.

U2 - 10.1145/3025453.3025959

DO - 10.1145/3025453.3025959

M3 - Article in proceedings

SP - 6487

EP - 6498

BT - Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - 2017 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Y2 - 6 May 2017 through 11 May 2017

ER -