“It’s about Business not Politics”: Software Development between Palestinians and Israelis

Nina Boulus-Rødje, Pernille Bjørn, Ahmad Ghazawneh

    Research output: Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapterArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    This paper focuses on the collaboration in an Israeli-Palestinian tech start-up company. We investigate the strategies enacted by the IT developers for managing the political dynamics and making collaboration possible under the highly challenging political conditions. We found that one of the key strategies was explicitly separating the work domain of software development from the domain of politics. We argue that the IT developers manage to collaborate by displacing the political conflict through strategies of non-confrontation instead of engaging in translating conflicting agendas against each other. By insisting on keeping politics outside of the workspace, the IT developers adopt a strategy of keeping the collaboration together by keeping politics and work apart. However, we found that despite the attempts to manage the sub-group dynamics, politics constantly invade the workspace and challenge the collaboration. Significant resources are invested into managing the regimes of differentiated identity cards, permits, and checkpoints, all of which have consequences on the employees’ freedom or restriction of mobility. Thus, we argue that the IT development domain is inseparable from and deeply dependent upon the political domain.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationECSCW 2015: Proceedings of the 14th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 19-23 September 2015, Oslo, Norway : Part I
    Number of pages21
    PublisherSpringer
    Publication date2015
    Pages43-61
    ISBN (Print)978-3-319-20498-7
    ISBN (Electronic)978-3-319-20499-4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015
    EventEuropean Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work - Olso, Norway
    Duration: 19 Sept 201523 Sept 2015
    http://www.ecscw2015.no/

    Conference

    ConferenceEuropean Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
    Country/TerritoryNorway
    CityOlso
    Period19/09/201523/09/2015
    Internet address

    Keywords

    • Collaboration Strategies
    • Political Dynamics
    • Tech Start-Up
    • Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
    • IT Development and Politics

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