ABSTRACT
This chapter explains an account of the ways in which ethnography can be adapted in late modern western society for researching complex, multi-perspective, multi-sited networks involved in the innovation of digital technologies in public service environments. The Advanced Trans-European Telematics for Community Help (ATTACH) project network involved partners from local government and the public sector, private-sector information technology suppliers, and voluntary agencies in six European countries. The construction of a framework of analysis was based on the concept of the cultural form that enabled enough flexibility for the actualities of innovation in public service environments to emerge. The chapter identifies key themes that have emerged out of this particular ethnographic study of information and communication technologies (ICT) innovation. It explains the complexity of innovation of ICTs in public service settings, and constructs a complex and sophisticated ethnographic research strategy.
