17678: Unboxing the Black Box: Qualitative Tricks of the Trade for Studying Data-Intensive Work

Monday, July 28, 2025

08:30 - 10:00 CEST (GMT+2)

Location: Bella Center: MR62/63

Session Type: Symposium (panel)
Orientation: International,Research
Highlight: Showcase Symposium
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/4RpQ4J

Organizer(s)

KE

Kasper Elmholdt

Aalborg U., Denmark
IE

Ingrid Erickson

Syracuse U. School of Information, United States

Panelist(s)

AC

Angèle Christin

Stanford U.
AF

Anne-Laure Fayard

-, Portugal
VG

Vern Glaser

U. of Alberta, Canada
CO

Carsten S. Osterlund

Syracuse University, United States
NP

Neil Pollock

U. of Edinburgh business school
AS

Anastasia Sergeeva

Vrije U. Amsterdam, Netherlands
EV

Elmira Van Den Broek

Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden

As digital data has become integral to organizational life, data-intensive work emerges as a hybrid practice, blending visible actions with less apparent, trace-based processes embedded in digital infrastructures. This transformation is reshaping established professions, such as journalism and healthcare, while institutionalizing new roles like prompt engineers, data scientists, and business intelligence analysts across industries. These developments challenge organizational and management scholars to rethink how to unbox the black box and examine the interplay between infrastructures, worker practices, and the broader organizational and societal contexts in which they operate. This symposium seeks to address these challenges by convening a panel of leading experts whose research intersects with data-intensive knowledge work and qualitative methodologies. The discussion will explore how emerging digital practices complicate traditional methods, the skills researchers must develop to capture contemporary work's fluid and interconnected nature, and the ethical considerations raised by black-boxed systems. By drawing on their own experiences and examining diverse empirical contexts, this session aims to illuminate new phenomena in data-intensive labor while advancing methodological innovation. The symposium will provide attendees with practical insights into evolving research strategies and propose methodological vantage points to sustain scholarly inquiry into the future of work in the digital age.