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Reassembling the Social : An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory / B. Latour.
Abstract
Obra teórica de una sociología de las asociaciones, el autor se cuestiona sobre lo que supone la palabra social que ha sido interpretada con diferentes presupuestos y se ha hecho del mismo vocablo un nombre impreciso e inadecuado, además se ha materializado el término como quien nombra algo concreto, de manera que lo social se convierte en un proceso de ensamblado y un tipo particular de material. Propone retomar el concepto original para hacer las debidas conexiones y descubrir el contenido estricto de las cuestiones que están conectadas bajo la sociedad.
... In more recent times, anthropologists have become less enthusiastic about the concept for various reasons. Human agency is increasingly regarded as overly destructive and potentially problematic rather than something to be celebrated (see Latour 2014). At the same time there is an increasing realisation that human agency is rather limited, and there is a widespread sense of powerlessness in the face of climate change, pandemics, and war. ...
... They can intend to do it, engage in the necessary activities, and will likely achieve the desired effects. Other theoretical approaches, however, like actor-network theory (Latour 2005, see below), almost take intention completely out of the equation: they argue that agency is always networked and relational and therefore that things can have agency without having intention. ...
... Especially in many so-called Western countries, the ideas that everyone is the master of their own fate and identity, and that humans control nature and their own bodies, are widespread and can be traced back to the philosophy of René Descartes. Cartesian thinking, and Enlightenment thought more generally, replaced the idea that God was in charge of life on Earth with beliefs in science, rationality, and human mastery (Latour 2014, Mazzarella 2021, Taussig 2020. However, this is not a straightforward genealogy: Marxist or psychoanalytic perspectives, for instance, offer radically different perspectives on self-control and the ability to make 'conscious' or rational choices. ...
... The third methodological principle of early ANT is what Callon calls "free association." The social, and for that matter space, is made of hybrid relations, where anything can be connected with anything else, hence the description of ANT as a "sociology of associations" (Latour 2005). The crucial consequence of this principle is that the social is, so to speak, unfinished, that is, always expanding and shrinking, combining new entities while separating others. ...
... Early ANT had an important implication for the study of space (and time), which are to be thought as "consequences of the ways in which bodies relate to each other" (Latour 1997). Or more drastically: "We never encounter time and space, but rather a multiplicity of interactions with actants that have their own timing, spacing, goals, means, and ends" (ibid: 182). ...
... John Law's suggestion is fascinating as it involves adopting a symmetric perspective on the relationship between Euclidean and other topologies. Using the example of tourist maps, Farías (2011) argues that instead of accusing such maps of propagating confusion, "Imagine that-the real world confused with the white expanse of a piece of paper!" (Latour, 2009: 142), we should underscore how tourist maps decompress and expand destination space. By visualizing the destination as a res extensa, tourist maps counteract the possibility of a synecdoche of the tourist destination and render physical movement into a necessary condition to cover the material extensions making up destination space. ...
Listening, experiencing, drawing or interpreting spaces: narratives, experiences, visualizations and discourses can be helpful for the empirical investigation of spaces. This interdisciplinary handbook presents a broad spectrum of established methods and innovative method development to capture and understand different facets of spaces. Instructive explanations and concrete examples make the varied qualitative methods of spatial research understandable and applicable across disciplines. The theoretical and methodological aspects of qualitative spatial research form the framework of this handbook.
... However, in this methodological paper, I focus on the analytical challenges with an ANT approach that assumes a decentring of the human in research practices (e.g. Latour, 2005;Law, 2004). Exploring the analytic assemblages as devices for modes of knowing, is an opportunity to 'think hard about our relations with whatever it is we know, and ask how far the process of knowing it also brings it into being' (Law, 2004, p. 3). ...
... This ontological turn deals with the decentring of the human in the practices of doing research, which has caught the interest of ANT researchers since its inception in Science and Technology studies (STS) in the early 1980s (see e.g. Latour, 2005). In the aim of decentring the social realm of the human, analytic attention can give room for matter as complexly entangled in livable more than human worlds; technology, nature, bodies and affect. ...
... There are other ways that analyses can assemble. I will now turn to the analytic method of tracing (Latour, 2005) by working with an empirical example from the interviews. ...
The practices of doctoral education are intricately entangled with technologies. This methodological paper examines the practical concerns involved in doing the analytic work in a networked learning setting with Actor-Network theory (ANT). It is a story about engaging with ANT as a companion in an ethnographic research project on teaching practices in Sweden during the Covid-19 pandemic. The empirical examples are pulled from online interviews in the pandemic outbreak and two ways of assembling the analytic practices of those interviews. On the premises that method and technology are non-neutral, the focus is on how the interviews are analysed and the modes of knowing that they form. For example, the paper examines how computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software acts on the analyses of the interviews and the knowledge patterns made possible and what signals are silenced. A second analytic assemblage is deployed that traces those signals. Based on the empirical examples of doing analyses, the paper discusses how analytic assemblages change and move research and the researcher in unpredictive and performative ways that troubles the expectations of a singularised doctoral journey.
... Esta teoría no es un cuerpo sistemático de conceptos, sino una disposición comprensiva. En este sentido, para que un estudio se enmarque en la ant solo tiene que asumir los siguientes principios generales (Latour, 2005): ...
... La dispersión, la destrucción y la deconstrucción no son las metas que deben alcanzarse, sino lo que necesita ser superado. Es mucho más importante saber cuáles son las nuevas instituciones, procedimientos, conceptos, objetos y cosas que sirven para re-conectar lo social (Latour, 2005). Este tercer principio redefine la vieja tradición de creer que la función analítica y la compulsión por la crítica son actividades constructivas en sí mismas o que son el punto de paso obligado preliminar para luego llegar a la construcción. ...
... Se trata más bien de un modelo de sociedad futura que puede o debe comenzar a implementarse perentoriamente. No lo dije antes, pero uno de los objetivos de la ant es construir un mundo común o cosmos, como lo llama Latour (2005). De allí el énfasis en reensamblar lo social. ...
... Research Design/Method. This work uses the language of the "sociology of translation", or Actor-Network Theory (ANT) (Latour 2005;Czarniawska 2017) to make sense of the reforms concerning the introduction of digital technologies and accountability mechanisms in the administration of justice (Gherardi, Lippi 2000). The "actors" who enter into action in a space of social action (an "action net" : Callon 1984;Law 1986Law , 2009 can be considered as translators who, in attributing and negotiating the meaning of what they do, also build the collective subject who implements the process of translation (Gherardi, Lippi 2000). ...
... The "actors" who enter into action in a space of social action (an "action net" : Callon 1984;Law 1986Law , 2009 can be considered as translators who, in attributing and negotiating the meaning of what they do, also build the collective subject who implements the process of translation (Gherardi, Lippi 2000). In the ANT language, the actors of a translation process (Callon, Latour 1981;Latour 2005) form a space of relationships that involves (Gherardi, Lippi 2000): those who produce and codify/share expert knowledge (universities, legal training, consultants); regulators and laws that impose themselves as obligatory passage points, the movements and detours that must be accepted as well as the alliances that must be forged (Law 1986(Law , 2009Latour 2005) (the ministry of Justice, the High Judicial Council, the CEPEJ, the reform decrees, internal rules); the "territorial" actors who in turn produce knowledge, imitate, copy, adopt what a "transfer center" imposes or disseminates as a model, such as courts that "resist" the process of translation or promote it as forms of "representation" or as a "community of practice"; intermediaries, anything that circulate between actors and defines their relationships (Law 1986;Latour 2005), who can be humans (i.e. chief justices and chief prosecutors), technological (i.e. ...
... The "actors" who enter into action in a space of social action (an "action net" : Callon 1984;Law 1986Law , 2009 can be considered as translators who, in attributing and negotiating the meaning of what they do, also build the collective subject who implements the process of translation (Gherardi, Lippi 2000). In the ANT language, the actors of a translation process (Callon, Latour 1981;Latour 2005) form a space of relationships that involves (Gherardi, Lippi 2000): those who produce and codify/share expert knowledge (universities, legal training, consultants); regulators and laws that impose themselves as obligatory passage points, the movements and detours that must be accepted as well as the alliances that must be forged (Law 1986(Law , 2009Latour 2005) (the ministry of Justice, the High Judicial Council, the CEPEJ, the reform decrees, internal rules); the "territorial" actors who in turn produce knowledge, imitate, copy, adopt what a "transfer center" imposes or disseminates as a model, such as courts that "resist" the process of translation or promote it as forms of "representation" or as a "community of practice"; intermediaries, anything that circulate between actors and defines their relationships (Law 1986;Latour 2005), who can be humans (i.e. chief justices and chief prosecutors), technological (i.e. ...
Framing of the research. This paper illustrates a research program on the processes of organizational change and institutional learning in the Italian administration of the justice and in the trajectories of courts technology development. It is argued that objects, artifact and materiality should be included in theoretical accounts of organizational phenomena connected with (digital) innovation and change (Carlile et al. d) the reform as a process of "translation-into-practice" by an "actor-network" capable of triggering institutional learning in the judicial system and organizational change in the courts (Czarniawska, Sevon 1996; Gherardi, Lippi 2000; Nimmo 2016), rather than an "implementation" of a policy (i.e., a model of rational and temporally linear decision) or "diffusion" of an innovation (i.e., recalling the absence of "agency" and logics of "replication", or "institutional isomorphism").
... Drawing from the work of Gilmore, in this paper I will explore how these racial social-technical formations are enrolled in and mediated through the Evros/Meric ß Riverscape. Enrolling refers to the process of constituting a network of different elements that influence each other, such as how the Riverscape is mobilised as a site of containment as seen in the introduction of this paper (Latour 2005;Law 2019;Law and Mol 1995). Mediation here refers to how the River transforms the interactions between state authorities, border crossers, and the landscape itself, thereby shaping border regimes (Latour 2005). ...
... Enrolling refers to the process of constituting a network of different elements that influence each other, such as how the Riverscape is mobilised as a site of containment as seen in the introduction of this paper (Latour 2005;Law 2019;Law and Mol 1995). Mediation here refers to how the River transforms the interactions between state authorities, border crossers, and the landscape itself, thereby shaping border regimes (Latour 2005). In other words, following critical border scholars, as I will argue throughout this paper, the Evros/Meric ß River has become part of an assemblage of heterogeneous elements (Teunissen 2020), through which borders are enforced, contested, and changed (Hess and Kasparek 2017;Tsianos et al. 2009). ...
This paper investigates the interplay between infrastructures, geophysical
environments, and mobility regimes by focusing on the Evros/Meric River, as the border between Turkey, Greece, and the EU. Situated in the fields of Infrastructure Studies, Mobility Studies, and Critical Border Studies, this paper examines how border regimes are enrolled in the riverscape, thereby shaping who can cross the river-as-border and under what conditions. Through an interdisciplinary research practice of “montaging”, which integrates ethnographic research, literary and visual analysis, cartography, and textual analysis, this paper analyses how geophysical environments and socio-technical formations co-constitute racialising border regimes. Using the conceptual framework of infrastructure as ecology, this paper highlights the relationality between geophysical environments, border regimes, and how people-on-the-move navigate these landscapes. In so doing, this paper explores a critical way of thinking about “natural borders” and “infrastructures” and aims to put forward analytical tools for documenting and analysing bordering practices.
... In der oben bereits erwähntenVortragsreihe Kampf um Gaia erklärt Latour das Gaia-Modell analog zur Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie (vgl. dazu Latour 2005). Das sei hier noch einmal aufgegriffen, weil es eineMöglichkeit bietet, den Roman, mit dem Zeh sich im Grunde vomK limaaktivismusa bwendet,trotz der oben vorgeschlagenen Leseweise doch als engagiert zu interpretieren. ...
... 017,332). Vgl. zur Mührs Analyse der FigurenwahrnehmunginGo! Die Ökodiktatur. 7 Die Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie hat, wie Latour immer wieder betont, in ihrer Anwendungb eschreibenden Charakter.S ie bietete in Instrumentarium dafür nachzuvollziehen, wie Akteure einander anstoßen und aufd iese Weise Verbindungens chaffen und Wirklichkeit herstellen (vgl.Latour 2005). ...
... These objects have agency in that they provoke humans to act 58 Yates and Mackenzie 2021, p. 131 59 Caronia and Mortari 2015 60 Caronia and Mortari 2015 61 Appadurai 1988. We, of course, draw heavily from ideas such as ANT (e.g., Latour 2005Latour , 1996 and assemblages (e.g., Deleuze and Guattari 1987), and especially the concept of lawscape (Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos 2014). and have a profound effect on human trajectory. ...
... These objects have agency in that they provoke humans to act 58 Yates and Mackenzie 2021, p. 131 59 Caronia and Mortari 2015 60 Caronia and Mortari 2015 61 Appadurai 1988. We, of course, draw heavily from ideas such as ANT (e.g., Latour 2005Latour , 1996 and assemblages (e.g., Deleuze and Guattari 1987), and especially the concept of lawscape (Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos 2014). and have a profound effect on human trajectory. ...
In this paper we present T. rex fossils as disruptive objects that can drastically influence the actions and reactions of humans that encounter them. We present a vision of the T. rex as being a key node within a web of human and object associations that ultimately produces, first, extreme desire in humans, and then a breakdown in human relationships resulting in disagreements, disputes, lawsuits, and the committing of crime. From there we bring these T. rex fossils into the concept of desirescape which sees a network of object/object and object/human reactions provoking irresistible desire in humans. We argue that this desire can push humans to violate law or social norms or, in several T. rex cases, sue each other. How then should we humans approach T. rex and other disruptive objects? Cautiously, and with the knowledge that these objects may be more powerful than we are.
... Este levantamento também não nos levou a artigos sobre o tema. De todo modo, mobilizamos os trabalhos sobre agência (mais amplos) encontrados nas pesquisas nacionais para contextualizar as noções de agência no campo de pesquisa em educação e auxiliar na identificação de possíveis aproximações e/ou controvérsias teóricas dos trabalhos da área de Educação em Ciências (Engel, 2017;Foucault, 1982;Latour, 2013;Schlosser, 2015;Sewell, 1992;Sugarman & Sokol, 2012). ...
... Os sujeitos ocupam posições a partir das quais podem exercer agência, sob estruturas de poder (Foucault, 1982). Outra perspectiva, baseada em proposições latourianas, considera fenômenos sociomateriais situados no complexo das relações entre humanos e não humanos (Latour, 2013) e seus contextos, incluindo objetos, lugares, sistemas, espaço e tempo. A agência, nesse caso, emerge da interação dos atores que compõem uma rede, tanto humanos quanto não humanos. ...
Um dos desafios emergentes do ensino de ciências envolve o compartilhamento de responsabilidades epistêmicas entre professores e estudantes nos processos de construção do conhecimento. Nesse contexto, o constructo agência epistêmica tem sido mobilizado como uma proposta promissora entre pesquisadores da área de Educação em Ciências. Com o propósito de discutir os significados do conceito para a área, abordamos a maneira pela qual pesquisadores têm interpretado e investigado a agência epistêmica, dando enfoque aos significados atribuídos aos dois componentes do construto: "agência" e "epistêmico". Para isso, buscamos situar a noção de agência no campo educacional mais amplo, considerando aquelas pesquisas que buscam relações entre agência, como construto mais amplo e interseccional, e aprendizagem. De modo articulado, discutimos aspectos epistêmicos comumente considerados nas análises da agência epistêmica. Por fim, discutimos relações entre agência epistêmica e poder, o que nos parece particularmente relevante para os avanços no campo, considerando as discussões já consolidadas sobre o papel ativo do estudante na aprendizagem. Defendemos que as pesquisas sobre agência epistêmica se beneficiariam de uma fundamentação mais sólida em teorias de poder, o que permitiria: i) situar os aspectos considerados relevantes nas análises, ii) operacionalizar conceitos próprios de teorias de poder para análise; iii) articular proposições teóricas sobre poder a noções de aprendizagem de ciências usadas no campo; iv) avançar na compreensão sobre transformações de contextos de aprendizagem.
... One prominent current in the scholarship that well suits this conversation is the actor-network theory (ANT). It suggests that the modern world relies on an artificial distinction between what is perceived as 'natural' and 'societal', and that the real world is based on mixed human and non-human networks (Latour, 2007). From this viewpoint, individuals gain their ability to influence events not by themselves, but through their interconnected relationships with other elements of the system (i.e., social media and algorithms). ...
This thesis examines how the virtual libertarian community in Poland has adapted and evolved in relation to technological advancements in a digital society. Drawing upon the contextual framework of the 20th and 21st centuries digital revolution, this doctoral thesis focuses on individual experiences and the broader implications for the community, as perceived by its members. Employing Episodic Narrative inquiry (ENI) for data collection and thematic analysis bolstered by auto-ethnographic elements for data interpretation, this study uncovers common trends and themes across interviews.
It contributes to a deeper understanding of online socio-political activities within the virtual libertarian community in Poland, moving beyond the examination of their philosophical beliefs. In doing so, it also allows for a unique, as it is the first of its kind, insight into the virtual dimension of libertarianism. It contributes to drawing new perspectives on virtual social groups and their impact on society.
Key findings include the integral role of technology in shaping the real-life experiences of those individuals, the dichotomy of online and offline experiences they shared, and the transformative impact of increased connectivity and access to information they underlined. The study not only offers valuable insights into the experiences of Polish virtual libertarians but also illuminates the transformative potential of digitally driven social groups. By exploring the complex dynamics between technology, individual experiences, and collective engagement, this study paves the way for future research on the societal impact of technological advancements in the digital age as well as on the virtual character of libertarianism.
... For instance, actors exercise agency through participation in technological innovations leading to the co-production of energy systems (Miller et al., 2015) that contribute to the climate objectives Schot and Steinmueller, 2018). Agency is also exercised in constructing and shaping energy transitions (Coenen et al., 2021), influencing the actions of others (Latour, 2007), as well as facilitating the understanding of the significance of renewable energy (Coenen et al., 2021). ...
This article investigates how to enhance the agency of regional actors in the branding of the ‘Nordic Battery Belt’ (NBB), the region where the industry, considered a new green path, is emerging. Branding will enhance the attraction of skilled workforce, investment, market, and increased public awareness of the industry’s contribution to decarbonization. While national battery strategies have been developed to promote the industry, the tool kit that can enhance the implementation of the strategic branding action plan is underexplored. Firstly, this article develops a tool kit based on the directed content analysis, which ensures the use of existing branding theory and its pyramidic components: attention, awareness, associations, attitudes, and relationships. Regional actors can leverage the tool kit as it reduces oversight and increases lucidity and conciseness. Secondly, the paper develops a conceptual framework through a multidisciplinary approach to elaborate on the importance of the tool kit for enhancing actors’ agency in regional branding. The paper is relevant for regional actors, e.g., development agencies within the Nordic region that are saddled with the responsibility of place branding.
... Influenced by the structuration approach, scholars within the third research stream have built on the recursiveness and interdependence of social and material agencies. Essén andVärlander (2019, p.1156) referred to this stream as "recursiveness" studies, focusing on co-constitution and the mutual shaping of the social and material to highlight how technology use, and social processes mutually constitute each other (Essén and Värlander 2019;Leonardi 2011;Orlikowski and Scott 2014). Also referred to as sociomateriality, this stream has two variants: ...
Ex nihilo nihil fit—nothing comes from nothing—fundamentally challenges IS scholars to explain how a new behavior may emerge and evolve into a recognizable practice from an organization’s IT implementation processes. Prior research addressing this problem has ascribed consequences to a pre-existent macro-level structure or micro-level interactions. We examine this issue by conceptualizing the emergence of IT implementation consequences as a multi-phased process with analytically disaggregated phases. Using an assemblage lens, our theorizing draws on data from a multisite case study of Body-Worn Camera technology implementation in three municipal police organizations in the U.S. We identify three emergence phases—individuation, composition, and actualization—and develop a process model theorizing a path from material and expressive components to IT implementation consequences through cascading properties and capacities. Our model shows that the emergence of IT implementation consequences is non-linear, and involves feedback loops across multiple phases. In some instances, IT implementation consequences may emerge via negative feedback loops involving tweaks and course correction before converging into recognizable new practices. In other instances, they may fail or delay converging into recognizable practices. We also show how combining existing components and assemblages results in nesting assemblages at successively larger scales. This helps us to relativize the micro-macro relationship and explain both top-down and bottom-up emergence of IT implementation consequences.
... Combining these two theories is a valuable approach (Rose et al., 2005) to understanding platform landscapes. While structuration theory sees technology only as a tool employed by human agents, the actor-network theory (Latour, 2005) understands technology as actors (or actants) in their own right, and inseparable from society. ...
The increasing impact of algorithmically driven processes on human societies, which can exacerbate political, economic, and cultural asymmetries, raises questions about reducing human agency by constraining platform structures. We draw on the theoretical concept of algo-rithmic imaginary, which captures users' appropriations and ideas of these processes. In this paper, we focus on the dynamics between agency and structure in algorithmic imaginaries regarding the future of digital media platforms in Europe. The paper takes structuration theory as a theoretical starting point and employs methods of futures studies to analyze how the future is constructed in scenarios developed by a diversity of experts participating in a series of workshops. The future scenarios analysis is mapped around four actors, namely platform users, platform corporations, algorithms and institutions. By considering the role of various actors, particularly institutions, and their interdependencies this paper contributes to more balanced conceptualizations of algo-rithmic imaginaries, which tend to be centered around users' perspectives.
... The opening questions concern two issues: philosophical relations between classical metaphysics, ontology and epistemology, and metaphysical entanglements in the relations between culture, society and man in the contemporary anthropological reflection. The author, among other things, looks at the actor-network theory of Bruno Latour as a concept of experimental, relational metaphysics, as proposed by Krzysztof Abriszewski (Abriszewski, 2012), dependent on the point of view (Latour, 2010;Pacukiewicz, 2021) and analyses the critique of Latour made by Graham Harman (Harman, 2016). He poses questions about the metaphysical motif in Claude Lévi-Strauss's research (Lévi-Strauss, 2000;2001) and its continuation in the writings of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro (Viveiros de Castro, 2014) and Philippe Descola (Descola, 2014). ...
The article concerns the recently published book by Marek Pacukiewicz, Landscapes of Context. The author presents the dilemmas of a culturologist – a theoretician and anthropologist of culture struggling with the multifaceted discourse of contemporary humanities. Leading representatives of these sciences, making culture the declared subject of their research, are often content with the presentation of various epistemological strategies aimed at learning about selected aspects of social practices. The practices they analyse, including those of thought, are relatively rarely embedded in broader contexts, and the concept of culture itself is contested as cognitively non-instrumental. Contrary to these tendencies, Pacukiewicz tries to stand up for the metaphysical dimension of culture and proposes to study it as a self-existent being independent of subsequent methodological fashions. He considers landscape and context to be key concepts for the proposed approach.
... In this research, we have focused on the question-whether the mainstreaming of video games is a cultural response in our designated area. From a methodological standpoint, the research undertaken in this study is firmly rooted in the framework of Actor-Network Theory (ANT), aligning with the seminal works of Latour (2005) and Law (1999). This inquiry places a particular emphasis on the novel dimensions of digital ethnography, as delineated by Hine (2010) and its intricate interplay with more conventional research methodologies, as elucidated by Thornham (2011). ...
This paper examines the integration of video games into Dhaka's cultural landscape in Bangladesh, considering the impact of sociocultural and economic factors. Through ethnographic research and the application of theoretical frameworks such as the theory of attainment, this study investigates the factors contributing to the popularity of video games in Dhaka. The research explores how vocational expectations in education and a focus on specific career outcomes shape the cultural narrative surrounding video games. Video games serve as sources of entertainment and social validation, filling the void created by limited recreational spaces and changing social norms. The commercial aspect of video games also facilitates peer bonding and social interaction, aligning with the prevailing neoliberal ethos in Dhaka's society. The theory of attainment helps explain the motivations underlying the widespread adoption of video games, linking it to the pursuit of predefined objectives within the neoliberal paradigm. As Dhaka undergoes neoliberal transformations, video games have become central to its cultural landscape, functioning as coping mechanisms and sources of identity and connectivity in the face of limited leisure spaces and changing social configurations. This article seeks to understand the popularity of video games in Dhaka by exploring the interplay of culture, technology, and socioeconomic factors. It presents video games as both reactions to and reflections of the city's evolving environment, shedding light on the dynamics shaping leisure practices in urban Bangladesh. This research can contribute to further investigations and studies on online gaming within the sociocultural context of Bangladesh.
... The bridge between society and nature makes this theory applicable and broadly extended to diverse topics, like the analysis of the market (Callon 1999), cultural differences (Law, John & Hassard 1999) and geography (Murdoch 1998). Using a slogan from ANT, you have 'to follow the actors themselves', that is, try to catch up with their often wild innovations to learn from them what the collective existence has become in their hands, which methods they have elaborated to make it fit together, which accounts would best define the new associations that they have been forced to establish (Latour 2005). In this respect, our report uses it as a theoretical basis for discussion. ...
Food waste (FW) remains a growing issue affecting global economic
growth, sustainability, food insecurity and the climate. According to the
United Nations, 14% of food produced is lost between harvest and retail,
and an additional 17% after consumption. As globally connected hubs of
retail and consumption, cities are a significant site of FW. Although
strategies to avoid, reduce or mitigate FW already occur, little research
addresses the practices most appropriate for tackling the issue in the
food retail sector. This report therefore explores strategies for tackling
FW currently used in London and São Paulo’s retail sector. It presents a
scoping review, used to identify and categorise retail FW interventions
worldwide, followed by the results of our document analysis to classify
interventions found in London and São Paulo. It also presents the
dissemination portion of our project, which illustrates these findings in
an accessible and legible storytelling tool for consumers and retailers.
... En este contexto, en la construcción social de la ciudad surgen importantes y complejas controversias sobre cuestiones socialmente vivas (QSV, por sus siglas en francés) (Legardez, 2006), que afectan a la vida de la ciudadanía y en las que se ponen de manifiesto diferentes posturas e intereses. Para ayudar a analizar y visibilizar este tipo de complejas controversias, desde la sociología, Latour (2007) propuso la cartografía de controversias como una herramienta educativa derivada de la Teoría del Actor-Red (Latour, 2005) que propone caracterizar a todos los que interactúan en una controversia y tienen un impacto dentro de una red determinada. Según esta teoría, los que intervienen en una controversia y pueden influir en ella son denominados actantes (personas, entidades, ideas, animales o cosas). ...
En este trabajo se plantea utilizar el enfoque de cartografía de controversias en el aula para explorar cómo los estudiantes identifican los aspectos más relevantes de la controversia sobre la cuestión socialmente viva de los cuidados en la ciudad, mediante la construcción de mapas de controversia. En cuanto a la metodología, se han analizado los mapas realizados por los grupos de estudiantes y se han elaborado diagramas Sankey para analizar las relaciones entre actantes. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el mapa de redes de actantes puede ser una herramienta visual adecuada para que los estudiantes se hagan conscientes de sus puntos de vista iniciales tanto a la controversia como de su complejidad, aunque en diferente grado, según el grupo al que pertenecen.
... Para enfrentar problemas complexos como a forma de pensar e aprender dos seres humanos é necessário abraçar incertezas e imprevisibilidades, interdependências, não-linearidades, desequilíbrios, bifurcações e a relação caos-ordem (Morin, 1998 (Latour, 2005), onde tudo que está a volta são atores (humanos e não-humanos, objetos e sujeitos, discursos, entre outros) formadores de redes de relações que se influenciam constantemente para a produção dinâmica das perceções sobre a realidade vivida. ...
A implementação de Bolonha perspetivou uma mudança de paradigma no ensino superior,
transitando de uma abordagem centrada no professor para uma abordagem centrada no
estudante e consequentemente na transformação gradual e das práticas pedagógicas, associada à
transformação digital das instituições de ensino superior.
Este capítulo tem como propósito identificar um conjunto de mudanças que o ensino superior
vem experimentando há vários anos, e que tem vindo a estabelecer a necessidade de transformar/
inovar os ambientes de ensino e aprendizagem, com foco nas suas dimensões pedagógica (P),
tecnológica (T) e de espaços físicos e digitais (E).
Abordam-se os princípios pedagógicos da aprendizagem ativa, associados à pedagogia digital,
elencando as principais metodologias ativas de aprendizagem, do ponto de vista do professor,
sugerindo práticas pedagógicas de implementação e, como estruturar e planear algumas destas
estratégias com a ajuda de tecnologias digitais e ainda, a necessidade de desenvolver novos
papéis e competências para os professores (aprender a ensinar) e para os estudantes (aprender a
aprender).
Neste âmbito serão também apresentadas algumas das implicações da inovação pedagógica nos
processos, metodologias e instrumentos de avaliação.
Em face da análise realizada, determina-se a relação entre as dimensões referidas, e de que forma
as instituições de ensino superior devem preparar-se para materializar um paradigma de ensino
e aprendizagem, alicerçado no desenvolvimento de novas competências pedagógicas (para
professores e estudantes); suportadas pelos ambientes digitais, em modelos personalizados de
aprendizagem, respondendo aos impactos e desafios da educação 4.0 e 5.0 no ensino superior.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Ensino superior; Pedagogia; Metodologias de aprendizagem ativas; Competências pedagógicas;
Competências académicas; Aprendizagem digital.
... )-y, de forma complementaria, en lo relativo a la capacidad de toma de decisiones, desde la consideración de los modos de organización y de las características de las prácticas en despliegue(Ascher, 2004; Castells, 2000;Hägerstrand, 1982). En este contexto, es esencial formular que desde la observación de la historia de los elementos tecnológicos, a partir de sus registros de actividad humana y no-humana(Mumford, 1961;Simondon, 1958; Wiener, 2019) y, en consecuencia, desde el cuestionamiento de su incidencia en los modos de relación de la especie humana con el medio ambiente(Latour, 2013) -en su rol de mediación en la práctica de escogencia racional y, por ende, a partir de la estructuración de conocimiento en un entorno de libertades por parte de individuos o en su participación, desde la construcción de agenciamiento, en manifestaciones del orden psicológico y/o sociológico en ámbitos de limitación(Hägerstrand, 1982;Simondon, 2005)-, es posible proponer unos lineamientos hacia una ...
El libro Áreas Perourbanas es un acercamiento conceptual aplicado a estudios de caso de tres ciudades latinoamericanas, cuyas zonas Perourbanas se exponen de manera permanente al incremento de sus vulnerabilidades
... Sie unterscheidet sich zu anderen Plattformen darin, wie die Produktionsmittel genau angeordnet, orchestriert (Hornborg 2014: 131), in ein Infrastruktur-Netzwerk überführt (Kitchin/Lauriault 2018;Turner u.a. 2006) oder versammelt werden (Latour 2005;Nadim 2016 Die frühere Vorstellung von einem Traffic -einem anonymen Verkehr von Klicks -wich der Vorstellung von personalisierten Kund:innen. Diese können mittlerweile ein Konto bei der Plattform anlegen und dort personalisiert Werbung erhalten. ...
Plattformen werden im gesellschaftlichen Diskurs häufig als maßgebendes Merkmal des digitalen Kapitalismus unserer Gegenwart genannt. Doch werden selten Einblicke in diesen Kapitalismus ermöglicht, die nicht nur als Berichte der Mitarbeitenden zu bewerten sind. Dennis Eckhardt führt in dieser Ethnografie Gesprächsnotizen und Praktiken von Mitarbeitenden der Plattformökonomie zusammen. Er zeigt damit, dass die digitale Ökonomisierung den Menschen entgegen gängiger Annahmen nicht überflüssig macht. Im Gegenteil sind wir selbst diejenigen, die mit Begeisterung neue Wertschöpfungsmodelle schaffen, indem wir unsere Bedürfnisse digitalisieren und damit neue Absatzmärkte in Form von E-Commerce-Märkten erschließen. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.de
... In order to do this, we must also be open to a range of methodological approaches. One particularly influential approach is that of new materialism, which includes the actor-network theory (e.g., Latour, 2007;Law, 2004) but also the ideas of Barad (2007), Ingold (2008) and Whatmore (2002), among others. These new materialist approaches deny any 'a priori ontological assumption of human superiority' and promise to rethink the social world and the place of people, animals and other actors within it (Taylor, 2011, p. 212). ...
... In this context, Pols (2008) has stressed the promise of approaches that are re-scriptive (rather than descriptive or prescriptive) and suggestive (rather than abstract and quiet), interfering in the practices studied and encouraging (self-)reflection on implicit notions of good care (Pols, 2008). Latour insisted that the researcher should continue to strive towards a nuanced description of the assembly of interest and matters of concern (Latour, 2005). Pols's work is inspired by this, but also by feminists STS scholars. ...
How researchers engage with their field and the consequences of different forms of engagement has been a long-running discussion within the social sciences and humanities. While some researchers argue that engaging and getting too close to the field of study can compromise ‘objectivity’ or ‘neutrality’, others warn that maintaining too much of a distance prevents the researcher from understanding and/or making suggestions to improve problematic or unethical conditions. This edited volume elaborates and expands on this discussion by developing an understanding of careful engagements as a generative mode of knowledge production. In one way or another, the chapters all discuss researchers’ footwork, ambitions, and tools for engaging carefully, as well as the frictions and problems that emerge.
... To elucidate enactments within the context of AI and LA in classrooms, the paper adopts a sociomaterial perspective, a theoretical framework rooted in relational epistemology (Bearman & Ajjawi, 2023;Dépelteau, 2013;Latour, 2007). Our conceptualisation of such enactments posits them as complex socio-technological phenomena characterised by dynamic interactions between human and non-human actors in the messy, multifaceted and energetic practices of classrooms (Fenwick & Landri, 2012). ...
This paper provides a critical examination of the domain of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, with a focus on the expectations and practical implications accompanying its integration into teaching. The expectations have been propelled by two interconnected concepts: (1) the potential for AI to automate pedagogical processes, replacing teachers in certain scenarios; and (2) the notion that teachers’ insights can be augmented through AI-based analysis. Drawing on two ethnographic studies in Swedish primary and secondary schools, this paper explores the enactments of pupils, teachers and two AI-based educational technologies. The aim is to demonstrate how automation and augmentation can emerge in teachers’ practice. Utilizing inspiration from a relational epistemological problematisation of socio-technical phenomena, the paper demonstrates how rather than automation and augmentation, AI in education is an act of symmation in which automation and augmentation is co-produced by the technology and teachers’ different hidden work, in this paper conceptualised as adaptations, experimentations, compensations and confirmations. The paper suggests that the study of symmation in relation to the teaching profession can be productive in further exploring the yet limited understanding of AI in educational practice.
... In summary, the socio-cyber-physical domains and their interactions as proposed by Rijswijk et al. (2021) are used here as basic heuristic tools to map the entities and interactions entangled in on-farm diversification. In addition, concepts of assemblage theory such historicity and unpredictable emergence of human and non-human interactions, as well as heterogeneity and relations with exteriority (Anderson et al., 2012;Brooks, 2021;Latour, 2013) can be deployed to analyse digitalisation more longitudinally and in-depth, by accounting for the above mentioned considerations in on-farm diversification. While some of the operational limitations of SCPS are not solved with this theoretical twinning, the combination with AT allows for some of its theoretical shortcomings to be overcome, namely the homogeneity and ontological separateness of systems and their parts (Spies and Alff, 2020), which especially in the case of on-farm diversification cannot be overlooked. ...
... Another theory that has been applied to understand implementation of technology is Actor network theory (ANT). This theory considers both human and non-human actors, for example technological artefacts) as actants with a role to play in the network (Latour, 2013). It is based on the notion that the actions of human or non-human actors are conciliated by the actions of other diverse actors (Iskanderov & Pautov, 2020). ...
Emerging technologies are disrupting the way accounting is practiced. The increased use of technology has not only affected the role of the accountant, but has also affected the regulation, technological knowledge and professional skills required to perform many key functions such as auditing and information security.
This study aims to identify the relevant knowledge, skills and abilities needed by accounting graduates seeking to join the accounting profession so that organisations can more fully leverage the benefits of emerging technologies in accounting. There have been speculations that the accounting profession will be replaced by automation and IT specialists. Therefore, developing graduates with the relevant skills, knowledge and abilities in this area will assist in ensuring the continuity and success of the profession.
Data will be collected using in-depth interviews with accounting managers, accounting graduates, practitioners, academics, and accounting professional bodies. This will be examined through the lens of socio-technical theory. The findings will be useful for accountants, academics, students, accounting professional bodies and accrediting bodies.
... Teori-teori yang bersifat makro, seperti teori naratif (Rappaport, 2000) dan psikologi kehidupan sehari-hari (Holzkamp, 2016) dapat menjadi pilihan-pilihan yang menarik dan memperkaya riset kualitatif di bidang psikologi. Penggunaan objek material, lokasi, dan elemen-elemen yang terkait dengan adat istiadat dapat diakomodasi dengan teori-teori dari ilmu sosial yang relevan, seperti Actor-Network Theory (Latour, 2005). Poin ini seyogyanya tidak dibaca bahwa Yulianto X peneliti memiliki keharusan menggunakan teori-teori tersebut, tetapi dibaca sebagai pentingnya memiliki keterbukaan dengan paradigma teoretis yang lain di luar teori-teori psikologi konvensional yang kerap kita pelajari. ...
Artikel ini merespons catatan editorial di Jurnal Psikologi Ulayat yang ditulis oleh Lestari (2021), yang mengadvokasi pentingnya memiliki tradisi kritis dalam melakukan penelitian kualitatif bidang psikologi di Indonesia. Dalam membangun gagasannya, penulis mendiskusikan; (1) mengapa tradisi kritis merupakan sebuah pendekatan yang penting untuk riset kualitatif bidang psikologi di Indonesia; dan (2) bagaimana kita dapat mengartikulasikan tradisi kritis dalam penelitian-penelitian kita. Berpijak pada konsep-konsep dalam riset ulayat seperti phronesis, kekerasan epistemologis, dan kekerasan ontologis, artikel ini mendiskusikan pentingnya peneliti dapat berkontribusi dalam menyelesaikan isu sosial melalui riset. Analisis-analisis dalam artikel ini didasarkan pada konteks sosio-historis dari bidang ilmu psikologi untuk menekankan pentingnya memiliki pluralisme pendekatan riset. Upaya untuk meninjau kembali konteks sejarah psikologi merupakan hal yang fundamental karena dapat membantu mengingatkan peneliti untuk menempatkan etnis ulayat sebagai subjek dan bukan objek penelitian. Di akhir bagian, penulis mendiskusikan enam cara untuk meningkatkan kualitas riset kualitatif yang dilakukan dengan etnis ulayat di Indonesia.
... An object is viewed as a non-living, non-connected entity existing within a closed loop system while a thing is understood as an assemblage of concerns constituting an open system. In this sense, we borrow from Heidegger (1975) and Latour (2005), that every thing is connected and related to each other, in that "[t]hings are not cut off from human relations, but rather are socio-material "collectives of humans and non-humans" through which "matters of concern" or controversies are handled" (Bannon and Ehn, ...
The current outsourcing of maintenance and the use of technological devices to automatically care for plants in buildings change the spatial experience between human office occupants and plants. This caretaker system distances people from plants, inclining us to regard them more as decorative objects. The relationship between humans and plants in a building is often unidirectional, with plants providing humans multiple benefits such as improved health and well-being, and increased worker productivity. In our human-plant interaction study, we developed a layer of care infrastructure within an office building that gives agency to people as a collective to interact with and take care of other non-human beings; that is, plants. In re-imagining mediated human-building interaction, we employed technology as an ambient mediator where people, plants and technology comprised the plant care system in a typical office building. A year-long design intervention was introduced within a typical office floor using artifacts (pots, shelves, and digital system) which we fabricated for the plants. From the results of an 8 week participation experiment together with data from qualitative interviews of 6 study participants, we identified five themes: Technology, Object/Thing, Infrastructuring, Commoning, and Care. Our analysis of these themes informs a care infrastructuring approach where both humans and plants become interdependent office co-inhabitants. By entangling with technology, care, and others, we present an infrastructuring layer to mediate human-building interactions with plants.
The article discusses the possibilities and limitations of using large language models (hereinafter referred to as LLM) to analyse quantitative data in sociological research. Also, attention is paid to the actor-network theory, according to which neural networks act as active participants of social interaction. It is noted that the usage of the LLM can be considered as an innovative process in the field of applied sociological research. The article demonstrates examples of the LLM application for quantitative methods of analysis on the basis of a survey dataset taken from open sources. Practical examples show how the LLM can be used to construct frequency and summary tables, calculate averages and conduct correlation analysis. The application of the LLM is seen as an innovative process that promotes the development of new methodological approaches. The authors analyse examples of the LLM usage in sociology and emphasise the need to build an innovative culture and develop methodological approaches to verify and correct the results. In addition, the authors highlight the importance of interpreting the LLM results in the context of sociological theory and practice. The article also discusses the role of the LLM in empowering the sociological research, especially in the areas of analysing big data and discovering hidden patterns. Finally, the authors suggest paths for future research in the application of the LLM in sociology, including the development of new methods and tools for integrating the LLM into the sociological research.
לאטור, שהלך השנה לעולמו, עסק רבות בשני העשורים האחרונים ב״גאיה״ – מין גלגול נוסף של תיאוריית הרשת המורכבת מסוֹכנים אנושיים ולא־אנושיים, המזוהה איתו; ואילו לנטון היה תלמידו של ג׳יימס לאבלוק, המזוהה עם השערת גאיה שלפיה כדור הארץ הוא מערכת כוללת ומתהווה שמתרחשת בה אבולוציה הדדית של אורגניזמים וסביבותיהם. כשם שהשערת גאיה כופרת בחלוקות הדיסציפלינריות של מדעי כדור הארץ, המאמר הוא ניסיון לשלב בין המדעים הפלנטריים למדעי האדם ולשאול על היחסים בין עולם הטבע לעולם הפוליטי, בלי להיענות לחלוקות המוכרות בין הטבעי למלאכותי או בין הכורח לחופש. לאטור ולנטון מתווכחים עם כמה מההנחות השכיחות לגבי גאיה: שהיא אורגניזם שלם, שהיא אחדותית ולכידה, שיש לה חוקים קבועים, כיווניות ותכליתיות, כלומר שיש להבינה מתוך מושגי הטבע המוכרים. תחת זאת הם מראים כיצד גאיה מאפשרת להרחיב את חלותו של התחום הפוליטי, ממלכת החירות, לכדי אקולוגיה של הטבע שבה פועלים סוכני חיים מסוגים שונים.
This chapter describes the arts and urban development project “The Garden Caretaker”, an interdisciplinary project that connects artistic practice, architecture, citizen involvement, urban development, and the multispecies perspective. The project takes place in Herlev, on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. Through its activities, “The Garden Caretaker” fosters connections among humans, non-humans, and their shared local environment. The project serves as a demonstrator site for the NEB lighthouse Desire—Designing the irresistible circular society initiative, exploring how fields of aesthetics, urban planning and biodiversity contribute to a greener, more inclusive urban transition.
In response to pressuring challenges such as climate change and the need for sustainable building and manufacturing, the Kalundborg demonstrator aims to develop innovative solutions grounded in education, inclusion, biology, and ecology. The experimentation conducted within the Desire project calls for a transdisciplinary approach for the learning environment, ensuring that graduates can work across educational levels and engage various stakeholders in co-creating innovative solutions. The city of Kalundborg aspires to develop a robust educational campus for about 1,250 students, researchers, teachers, entrepreneurs, and future job candidates. Located near the major Kalundborg biotech industry and just outside the city center, this campus is set to become a significant educational hub within biosolutions and biomanufacturing. This transformation highlights challenges such as the development of a shared vision, plans and programs for the future of the campus. Key challenges include fostering local citizen engagement, creating a vision for the sustainable educational campus that meets diverse needs, and ensuring long-term benefits for the city and its inhabitants. The experimentation conducted within the Desire project seeks to address these issues through comprehensive and inclusive development strategies, promoting sustainable urban development and community resilience.
The Ziepju 11 site in Riga, Latvia, is undergoing significant renovation as part of the Desire project, focusing on sustainable and inclusive urban development. Originally a Soviet-era dormitory, the building has been vacant since 2018. The Riga Energy Agency is spearheading the renovation, aiming to transform the site into social housing and community spaces, with a strong emphasis on circular economy principles. Key challenges include addressing the building’s poor energy efficiency, integrating the local community, and overcoming the post-Soviet mentality of passive citizenship. The experimentation tests innovative procurement formats and engages various stakeholders through workshops, focusing on creating a vibrant, inclusive community. These efforts also align with Riga’s broader sustainable energy and circular economy policies. The goal of the experiment is to develop scalable models for community engagement in public spaces and improve the city’s social housing system. Initial successes include engagement with social housing residents, children, and people with mental disabilities, offering insights into how physical and social spaces can be redesigned to promote sustainability, belonging, and active citizenship.
BTC City Ljubljana, a significant retail park in Slovenia, is an experimentation site in the Desire project. BTC, in collaboration with the CER-Sustainable Business Network, worked on experimenting with urban greening, biodiversity, and climate change adaptation. The project engages diverse stakeholders, including businesses, academia, and the local community, to co-create a sustainability strategy for BTC City 2025–2030. Key activities run under Desire include workshops, hackathons, and exhibitions, which foster collaboration and generate innovative solutions such as reducing carbon emissions and enhancing green spaces to combat the urban heat island effect in line with current EU policies. This chapter shows how the experimentation also implements concrete measures, including planting trees and developing green corridors to improve microclimate and biodiversity. Through its Green Star Sustainability Certification and a strong emphasis on stakeholder engagement, BTC City builds a collaborative network for its green transformation. The Desire project demonstrates how systemic collaboration, clear leadership, and community empowerment can drive meaningful environmental change, positioning BTC City Ljubljana at the forefront for the transition to urban sustainability.
This chapter presents the project Desire —Designing the Irresistible Circular Society—within the context of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) program, emphasizing how its goals align with the NEB’s core values of sustainability, inclusivity and aesthetics. As one of the six lighthouse projects funded under the NEB, Desire seeks to inspire a movement by developing a new school of thought, drawing inspiration from the original Bauhaus. Following a theoretical exploration of these guiding values, the chapter outlines the context and framework within which the Desire project operates. It highlights how the project translates NEB ideals into practice, shaping innovative and sustainable solutions to address contemporary societal challenges. The chapter concludes by introducing the concept of the “sites’ biographies”, which provide detailed accounts of the unique histories and contexts of the project's sites of experimentation. These biographies set the stage for the in-depth discussions featured in the following eight chapters of the book.
Gadehavegård is a social housing development area, owned by Danske Funktionærers Boligselskab (DFB) and located in Høje Taastrup, east of Copenhagen. This chapter explores how the Gadehavegård demonstrator is answering two main issues in the area: the need for renovation of the residential area and empowering current residents in the decision-making process for such a transformation. The activities of the Desire demonstrator highlighted several key learnings. A major focus is on redefining tendering processes by incorporating participatory design principles, based on local needs, particularly those of young people. This approach challenges traditional roles and ensures designs reflect community input. Architects are encouraged to apply these principles before the tendering process begins, supplementing cost-focused assessments with spatial quality assurance. The project also emphasizes the importance of prominent circularity and accessible green spaces to enhance well-being, integrating nature into the participatory process. Involving youth in co-design fosters empowerment and rethinks power dynamics in social housing transformations.
Focusing on the concept of social space in the writings of three sociologists, Georg Simmel, Robert E. Park, and Erving Goffman, this article examines the classic theoretical formulations of social spaces in the tradition of the Chicago School of Sociology. For Simmel and the Chicago School, the foundation of social spaces lies in the social interactions among actors, and social entities and structures emerge from these interaction processes. This theoretical tradition emphasizes the interdependence of physical space and social space, highlighting two featured assumptions about social space: endogeneity and temporality. It also focuses on the relationship between spaces and human emotions.
Affect theory, non-representational theory, and assemblage theory have been among the most impactful developments in the theoretical humanities in the wake of, and in reaction to, poststructuralism. These interlocking bodies of theory and critical practice call into question two concepts foundational for biblical hermeneutics, namely, interpretation and representation. In literary studies, the poststructuralist “death of the author” has been succeeded by a post-poststructuralist “death of the interpreter”. How might biblical exegesis be reimagined on the far side of this double demise? Non-representational theory, meanwhile, in tandem with affect theory, has dismantled traditional understandings of representation; this article argues that traditional biblical scholarship, epitomized by biblical commentary, is driven by a representation compulsion. Assemblage theory, for its part, more than any other body of thought, reveals the immense complexity of the act of reading, not least biblical reading—after which even explicit evocations of contemporary contexts in contextual biblical hermeneutics amount to skeletally thin descriptions. These and other related lines of inquiry impel the rethinking of academic biblical reading attempted in this article.
In this paper, I argue that power promised to England’s teachers by
the 2010 ‘Importance of Teaching’ white paper has rather played
out as a reformulation of methods of policymaking to more
indirect modes of government control. I trace the growth of
government control in English schools, promised front-line power
in 2010 and a rise in non-statutory guidance after this point.
Taking an actor–network theory approach to ethnographic data I
then describe how a school takes up one such non-statutory
educational initiative – ‘Maths Mastery’. Focusing on early stages
of the school’s adoption of the initiative, I trace associations of
actors which problematize existing practices for the teaching of
maths and how the initiative is imbued with authority in relation
to these. I argue that the ways in which certain actors – statutory
education policy and government funding – associate with the
‘optional’ initiative reveals a ‘back door’ control of teacher agency.
A survey of recent works of labor and environment reveal the centrality of hybridity to analyses of human and nonhuman natures. These are most apparent in analyses of labor, technology, and nature. While ways of knowing nature amongst the powerful have been oriented toward the ever-greater domination of workers and nonhuman nature, interspecies entanglements and solidarity erupt through the marginal, overlooked spaces. Taken together, the books included in this review suggest a way toward finding alternative, more just futures for living alongside nonhuman nature.
Cel pracy
Celem pracy jest analiza zachodzących, w sposób niezwykle dynamiczny, zmian w postrzeganiu społeczeństwa informacyjnego. Z jednej strony mamy do czynienia z olbrzymim postępem technicznym i technologicznym, który spowodowany jest automatyzacją i robotyzacją w kontekście IV rewolucji przemysłowej (Przemysł 4.0), a z drugiej gwałtownym rozwojem komunikacji interpersonalnej i korporacyjnej, w dobie społeczeństwa opartego na wiedzy, wykorzystującego różnorodne źródła informacji epoki konektywizmu.
Materiał i metody
Zastosowaną metodę pogłębionej analizy źródeł informacji, poprzez analizę porównawczą publikacji polskich i zagranicznych autorów, a także analizę wystąpień i publikacji na Kongresie Obywatelskim z 2022 r. Pomocniczo wykorzystano publikowane materiały i akty prawne Komisji Europejskiej.
Wyniki
Dokonana analiza porównawcza różnych źródeł informacji wykazała, że rozwój społeczeństwa informacyjnego odbywa się na wielu płaszczyznach, przy czym kierunki tego dynamicznego rozwoju dotyczą głównie wykorzystania nowych zastosowań technologii teleinformatycznych, a także znaczący rozwój wykorzystania rozwiązań z zakresu wirtualnej i rozszerzonej rzeczywistości oraz elementów sztucznej inteligencji i Internetu Rzeczy.
Wnioski
Na pytanie: dokąd zmierzamy, realizując idee społeczeństwa opartego na wiedzy, starało się już odpowiedzieć wielu autorów. Raporty Banku Światowego i IBM wskazują, że w wyniku gwałtownych przemian gospodarczych , najprawdopodobniej nastąpi: rozwój różnych form komunikacji werbalnej i wizyjnej pomiędzy pracownikami, pracownikami i maszynami (robotami humanoidalnymi i przemysłowymi - automatami), a także zastępowanie dotychczasowych form komunikacji międzyludzkiej poprzez komunikację z wirtualnymi avatarami pracowników.
Ageing is not what it used to be. Even if this is a world-wide trend (Lamb 2015), in what might be called Euro-America – a conceptual project, beyond a peculiar set of infrastructural modes of sociality, engaged in a developmentalist drive – the processes of growing old have indeed turned in the last decades into (i) the object of scrutiny of new health disciplines: dissecting and intervening the phenomenon of ageing; (ii) the target of a ‘grey’ market segment developing a wide variety of services and products, as well as into (iii) matters of concern and policy-making, developing these health and market agendas further by promoting fit lifestyles according to ‘active ageing’ agendas, producing interesting governmental subdivisions (‘young old’, ‘old old’, ‘third age’ or ‘fourth age’) having both embodied and economic effects (Lassen and Moreira 2014).
The study highlights the increasing diversity of digital and postdigital art along with its rising or even defining influence on various phenomena and spheres of sociocultural reality. Based on ideological attitudes and value orientations, the media reality, through the ontologization of digital and postdigital art, becomes a social model of understanding reality and social life, while organizing communication, interpretation of meanings, and translation of ideas in a special way. In counterpoint to the scientific, technocratic paradigm, which in many respects dominates the digital and postdigital realm, the digital and postdigital space simultaneously becomes an arena for the revival of archaic consciousness. The essential and content foundations and aspects of the digital and postdigital manifest the categorical, conceptual, and essential ideas of art in general. They interact with the social, cultural, political, as well as geographical and topological, environments to the point of creating new cultural, social, symbolic, and material phenomena, hybrid and transformed forms. The essence of beauty is accessed through representations, mediated by symbolic, semantic, and essential agents. The study addresses specific aspects of digital art from the standpoint of materialistic approaches, postmodern concepts, network theories, and social constructivism. Particular attention is paid to the ontologization of art objects in the framework of object-oriented philosophy. Art objects acquire their ontological status from their own authenticity and gain their reality from the outside. Digital and postdigital art combines the immanent with the transcendent, which makes its objects possible or necessary, perceivable or real. Digital and postdigital art is marked by duality and ambivalence, which form a holistic unity in the aspects of object-subject relations and the social and non-human sections of reality.
This article attempts to define and typologize the main principles for the design of Intelligent Music Performance Systems (IMPS). It presents a three-dimensional framework based on studies of proxemics combined with findings from AI design research. Each of these dimensions – embodiment, participation, and autonomy – is presented together with existing taxonomies, then integrated into an analytical framework. This framework informs the discussion of nine historical cases of IMPS from the 1950s to the present, to gain a refined understanding of their interactive design. The discussion leads back to three main tendencies in IMPS design – instruments, systems, and agents – and the article concludes by combining the proposed framework with ideas from Speculative Design Research.
La pratique graphique est un pan important de la recherche architecturale, permettant d'identifier et de faire évoluer ses tensions ontologiques. Cet article présente comment la conception de cartes postales participe à une enquête sur les imaginaires sociaux pris dans la transformation d'un lieu en friche. En croisant entretiens, pratiques graphiques et analyse sémiologiques, j'établis comment ce recours permet de considérer à la fois une pluralité des récits de ce lieu et les mécanismes de domination sociale qui s'y jouent. Ces approches tiennent pourtant de traditions théoriques opposées dans la définition des rapports entre architecture et politique. Les théories critiques, appuyées par la subversion du plan d'architecture, font face aux théories pragmatiques et leurs prolongements graphiques. Entre explication des rapports de pouvoir et explicitation socio-technique, ces cartes postales peuvent-elles contribuer à pointer une voie complémentaire, par l'évocation ?
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Graphic practises are an historical and constitutive part of architectural research. They allow to identify and transform ontological tensions within the field. This article presents how the design of postcards helps an investigation on the social imaginaries involved in the tranformation of a wasteland. By mixing interviews, graphic practises and semiological analysis, I establish how this helps to consider both the plurality of stories attached to this place and the social domination mecanisms at play. Yet, those approaches come from theoretical traditions opposed in their definition of the links between architecture and politics. Critical theories, accompanied by the subversion of the architectural plan, face pragmatic theories and their own graphical tools. Between the explanation of power relationships and the socio-technical explicitation, could those postcard contribute to point towards a complementary way, based on evocation ?
El artículo busca demostrar cómo el conocimiento técnico se transformó en una herramienta de construcción de consenso en la discusión de la política pública del Sistema de Transporte Público de Santiago. Se argumenta que dicho consenso se construyó en base a imaginarios sociales compartidos los cuales se manifiestan en los discursos de la autoridad y en la pauta de los medios de prensa escrita.
Science studies has often been against the normative dimension of epistemology, which made a naturalistic study of science impossible. But this is not to say that a new type of normativity cannot be detected at work inscience studies. This is especially true in the second wave of studies dealing with the body, which has aimed at criticizing the physicalization of the body without falling into the various traps of a phenomenology simply added to a physical substrate. This article explores the work of Isabelle Stengers and Vinciane Despret in that respect, and shows how it can be used to rethink the articulation between the various levels that make up a body.
Over the past two decades or so, historians of science have lamented the limitations of internalist history and celebrated the rise of contextual history. Historians of technology, however, have not accepted the location, by historians of science, of technology within the context of science. Historians of technology see an interaction, rather than contextual dependency. A few historians and sociologists of science and technology are now suggesting `networks' and `systems' as the preferred version of the interactive approach, with the interaction occurring not simply between science and technology, but also among a host of actors and institutions. Networks and systems eliminate many categories in favour of a `seamless web', which may lead to a new appreciation of the complex narrative style.
The identification of the genes responsible for certain serious diseases and the development of tests for identifying carriers of those genes help to put the individuals concerned in the forefront of ethical decisions. These decisions are unavoidable, especially when available knowledge and techniques have already been broadly disseminated. This article presents the case of a limb-girdle muscular dystrophy patient in Reunion Island who refuses to comprehend the lessons of genetics and to become part of the medical and associative networks that implement and diffuse that knowledge. His refusal is interpreted as the rejection of a form of agency and subjectivity, in which the individual is considered as an autonomous subject forced to choose between a number of pre-established options and responsible for the consequences of his choices. Using definitions of humanity and morality presented by François Jullien in his commentary on Mencius, the authors propose to consider that, by refusing, the patient is opting for a different form of morality and humanity. The article also shows how the interview situation constructs a situation that reduces the patient to silence.
L'adage Vox populi, vox Dei flotte au fil des discours, sans jamais couler ni suivre exactement les cours les plus rapides des paroles urgentes. La formule se trouve là, disponible, avec le parfum d'éternité que lui confère sa latinité, pimentée de sa forme anaphorique. Dans les discours contemporains, la formule est employée selon un mode distancié et ironique, dans un registre que la rhétorique de l'âge classique nomme « héroï-comique » et qui consiste à parler de choses ordinaires ou médiocres en termes pompeux : un simple succès commercial, un triomphe illusoire ou vain dans l'opinion, et de peu de portée, sera facilement glosé d'un Vox populi, vox Dei. Ce type d'emploi n'aurait de pertinence que pour une stylistique sociale, si l'adage n'avait une histoire fort longue et variée : le premier emploi connu se trouve dans une lettre d'Alcuin datée de 798. Le retour aux origines de la formule, outre qu'il offre l'occasion rare de saisir le moment de formation d'un lieu du langage qu'on pouvait supposer intemporel, a quelque chance de nous donner des éclairages neufs sur les théories politiques d'une époque où la documentation est bien rare, d'autant que, jusqu'au Moyen Age central, les occurrences de la formule ne semblent pas ironiques. L'adage, qu'il soit adopté ou rejeté, dit quelque chose sur la souveraineté du peuple.
This paper presents an ethnographic account of surgical operations as encounters of two disciplined bodies — a parcelled `patient-body', and an aggregated `surgeon-body'. It describes the practices of making bodies operable, of cooperating and of creating anatomical visibility by means of highly skilled manipulations and optical technology. The discussion relates features of surgical practice to two issues raised in science studies: (1) Ritual aspects of scientific work; how does a medical science deal with the life-world esteem for its object?; and (2) The relation of experience and representation; how do patients' bodies come to embody the properties of anatomical pictures? A constructivist interpretation is offered: the anatomical body is an accomplishment of the sculptural practice of operations.
This paper explores in some detail a semi-popular text written by Einstein to present his theory of relativity. Semiotic tools are used to compare what Einstein says about the activity of building spaces and times with what sociologists of science can tell us. Einstein's text is read as a contribution to the sociology of delegation. Once the drama of Einstein's argument has been reconstructed, it is possible to learn from his theory of relativity something about the classical problem of `relativity' in the STS field. A comparison is established between the notion of social context and that of the aether, and an argument is developed to lead us beyond `social' explanations. The goal of such a semiotic study is twofold: to allow the adaptation of the strong programme to the peculiar conditions of the theoretical sciences; and to find a vocabulary for an activity best defined as infra-physics.
ABSTRAC TThis paper analyses a major episode in contemporary biomedical research using a new semi-quantitative approach. In the late 1970s, immunologists began producing new kinds of antibodies targeting molecules on the surface of normal and malignant blood cells. These tools quickly transformed biomedical research in immunology and oncology-hematology. Laboratories worldwide produced thousands of these new reagents and reorganized the classification, diagnosis, and prognosis of diseases such as leukemia and the lymphomas. The rapid development of these reagents initially generated considerable confusion. To avoid the impending chaos, researchers in the field, officially supported by the World Health Organization and the International Union of Immunological Societies, launched an ongoing series of distributed workshops that led to the establishment of a nomenclature of antibody reagents and cell surface molecules. The First Workshop (1981-82) mobilized 54 research groups from 14 countries and resulted in the establishment of 15 antibody/ molecule categories. By the late 1990s the number of these categories had increased to more than 247 and the number of participating laboratories had risen to more than 500. Sociological analyses of this kind of large-scale collaborative research usually adopt one of two equally unsatisfactory alternatives: either they provide thick descriptions of selected sites, thus missing the figurational dimension of the collaborative network, or they attempt to account for figurational complexity by reducing it to a few quantitative indicators, thus destroying for all practical purposes the very phenomena under investigation. To avoid these two alternatives, we opted for a combination of ethnographic methods (interviews, content analysis) and a computer-based analysis of the more than 6000 antibodies examined during the first six workshops, using R ´
The Argument
It is often assumed that all sciences travel the path of increasing precision and quantification. It is also assumed that such processes transcend the boundaries of rival scientific disciplines. The history of the personal equation has been cited as an example: the “personal equation” was the name given by astronomers after Bessel to the differences in measured transit times recorded by observers in the same situation. Later in the nineteenth century Wilhelm Wundt used this phenomenon as a type for his experiments on reaction times. For historians of psychology, this has been taken to be an exemplary case where quantified laboratory science rescued astronomy by showing that this was really a psychological phenomenon measurable only in complication experiments. This paper challenges this story. Astronomers neither ignored, nor despaired of, the personality problem. Instead, the managers of the great observatories developed a new chronometric regime of vigilant surveillance of subordinate observers. The astronomers' solution was thus intimately connected with social and material changes in their way of life: a division of labor in the observatories, a network of observing sites, a mechanization of observation. The paper documents these changes and then presents a study of one case where managers, amateurs, and psychologists clashed for authority over the personality problem. Measurement is given its meaning when situated in specific contexts of styles of work and institutions. Disciplines give meanings to values, and often resist attempts by others to redefine these meanings or to gain authority over measurement. Quantification is not a self-evident nor inevitable process in science's history, but possesses a remarkable cultural history of its own.
This is a paper about the topological presuppositions that frame the performance of social similarity and difference. It argues that 'the social' does not exist as a single spatial type, but rather performs itself in a recursive and topologically heterogeneous manner. Using material drawn from a study of the way in which tropical doctors handle anaemia, it explores three different social topologies. First, there are 'regions' in which objects are clustered together, and boundaries are drawn round each cluster. Second, there are 'networks' in which distance is a function of relations between elements, and difference a matter of relational variety. These two forms of spatiality are often mobilized in social theory. However, we argue that there are other kinds of social space, and here consider the possible character of a third, that of 'fluid spatiality'. In this, places are neither delineated by boundaries, nor linked through stable relations: instead, entities may be similar and dissimilar at different locations within fuid space. In addition, they may transform themselves without creating difference.
What is the difference between heroin and methadone? Is this difference one of interpretation, where an 'opiate-like' substance is 'labelled' differently through social processes that arbitrarily describe methadone as 'legal' and 'therapeutic', and heroin as 'illegal' and 'harmful'? To study the nature of this difference, I follow two experiments in the United States and in France of methadone substitution, where medical practices attempt to replace heroin by methadone, and thereby to reduce the user's (illegal) drug use. In these trials, the experimenters ask precisely this question. The question of the nature of the difference between the substance's actions is further illustrated by the comparison between the substitution trials: when the experimenters describe methadone differently in different places and times, do they 'interpret' the drug differently, or is the drug itself different? I show that far too many elements vary from trial to trial to say that the 'interpretation' of the substance is all that varies. In order to explore the variation in detail, then, I draw on works about 'performance', and on the actor-network 'theory of action': what heroin and methadone do, but also also the very way in which they 'pass into action', is what varies in each trial. In the end, this question about difference is a question about action. In each trial, there is not from the start one substance with fixed or vague properties which one can then interpret in various manners. 'Substance' does not contain inherent actions from the start ('properties'). Rather, following the experimenters, it is possible to say that 'effects' are primary and that only at the end of the trial do the experimenters laboriously 'find substance' to effects.
Mandated measurement methods are required by regulatory agencies and other government groups. These methods exist for measuring
almost all physical, chemical, and biological phenomena. The methods have been culled from the literature, from the organizations
that write voluntary standards, and some have been developed by the agencies. Few provide adequate estimates of precision,
and fewer still provide any evaluation of interlaboratory bias. The societal costs of these poor measurements are large. Much
needs to be done to meet the physical and statistical requirements for establishing and maintaining dependable measurements.
Excepting those directly supported by the National Bureau of Standards, most of the nation's measurement systems are uncontrolled.