Compare methods

	Sociotechnical Systems Analysis	Infrastructure Studies
Field	Science Technology Studies	Science Technology Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1983	1996
Originator	Thomas P. Hughes	Susan Leigh Star, Geoffrey Bowker, Karen Ruhleder
Type	Historical-analytic method for large technological systems	Qualitative method for studying relational infrastructure
Seminal source	Hughes, T. P. (1983). Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN: 9780801828737	Star, S. L., & Ruhleder, K. (1996). Steps toward an ecology of infrastructure: design and access for large information spaces. Information Systems Research, 7(1), 111-134.
Aliases	Large technical systems analysis, Hughesian systems approach, Technological systems analysis	Infrastructural inversion, Ecology of infrastructure, Study of boundary objects
Related	4	4
Summary	Sociotechnical systems analysis, developed by the historian of technology Thomas P. Hughes, studies large technological systems—electric power, telephony, transport—as a 'seamless web' in which physical artefacts, organisations, scientific knowledge, laws, and people are woven together. Drawing on his study of electrification in Networks of Power and his model of system evolution, the method locates the system's reverse salients, follows the work of system builders, and traces how a system acquires momentum and passes through characteristic phases of growth.	The infrastructure studies method, developed by Susan Leigh Star, Geoffrey Bowker, and Karen Ruhleder, studies the normally invisible relational systems—standards, classifications, pipes, protocols, and installed bases—on which modern life silently depends. Its signature move is 'infrastructural inversion': deliberately foregrounding the background, treating the taken-for-granted substrate as the object of analysis, and reading its standards, classifications, and breakdowns to understand how it shapes work, knowledge, and lives.