Draft:European Society for Socically Embedded Systems

The European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies (EUSSET) is a European association of researchers dedicated to the study and design of socially-embedded digital technologies. EUSSET provides a platform for scholars and practitioners from various disciplines who are interested in understanding the social contexts in which digital technologies are developed, implemented, and used. EUSSET organizes and supports several academic events each year, including its flagship European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW), Communities and Technologies and the International Conference on Infrastructures in Healthcare. The association also hosts an annual Summer School for early-career researchers, promoting interdisciplinary learning. It also hosts the EUSSET Digital Library (DL), an open-access repository for peer-reviewed research articles.

Mission and Scope

The European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies promotes interdisciplinary research into the development and use of digital technologies within their social contexts. Its mission is to support innovation that is grounded in real-world practices by:

• Investigating the social situations and everyday activities where digital technologies are embedded,
• Developing participatory design methods involving users and stakeholders,
• Enabling the sustainable integration of technologies into their intended settings.

EUSSET positions itself at the intersection of social sciences, human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), and design research. The society advocates a practice-centered approach that bridges technical innovation and societal relevance, emphasizing that digital systems must be co-constructed with attention to human needs, cultural practices, and organizational dynamics.

There are two key texts document the evolution of this research tradition:

Schmidt, K., & Bannon, L. J. (2013). Constructing CSCW: The First Quarter Century. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 22(4–6), 345–372.

Schmidt, K. (2012). The CSCW Journal Turns 20. CSCW, 21(6), 475–484.

Organization Structure

EUSSET is formally organized as an institute of Social Computing e.V., a German non-profit association. This legal and financial framework ensures compliance with German law while enabling the international coordination of its academic community. EUSSET is governed by an elected steering commitee consisting of an chair, chair elect and treasurer. Currently Hilda Tellioğlu from the Technical University in Vienna is EUSSET chair. Chair elect is Thomas Ludwig from the University of Hagen and treasurer is Aparecido Fabiano Pinatti de Carvalho from the University of Oslo. Honorary chair person is Volker Wulf from the University of Siegen.

EUSSET Digital Library

The EUSSET Digital Library (DL) is an open-access repository maintained by the European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies. It archives peer-reviewed research from EUSSET-organized and affiliated conferences, such as the European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW).

The DL enhances the visibility and accessibility of European research in areas like Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It is indexed by Google Scholar and freely available to the public, supporting EUSSET’s mission of openness and community engagement.

In addition to providing access to academic publications, the DL supports EUSSET’s strategic goals by informing planning, promoting collaboration, and aligning with European research funding priorities.