Visual perception at work: Lessons from the world of meteorology

Abstract Drawing on fieldwork at a forecasting office of the National Weather Service, this paper analyzes the sociocognitive organization of meteorological perception and expertise via the notion of “screenwork” in the hopes that it may provide a common constructivist ground on which sociologists and neuroscientists will be able to comfortably study visual perception at work. Three key intersecting areas of research are examined in the process: the practice of looking, visual expertise, and visual decision-making. The paper concludes by employing the metaphor of the collage to further elaborate on the link between screenwork and expert visualization.

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