Non-human Actors Research Articles

Algorithmic Paranoia: Gig Workers' Affective Experience of Abusive Algorithmic Management

ABSTRACTAmidst the rapid rise of gig economy platforms, gig workers increasingly report feelings of mistrust, anxiety, and profound fear under opaque and abusive algorithmic management. This article introduces the concept of ‘algorithmic paranoia’ to capture the negative affective experiences stemming from workers' perceptions of algorithmic management as non‐transparent, arbitrary, and retaliatory. Drawing on the concept of organisational paranoia from sociology and organisation studies, we theorise how workers' adverse experiences breed mistrust and suspicion toward both human and nonhuman actors on the platform. This culminates in intense feelings of persecution and anticipations of harm, which workers strive to cope with through hypervigilance and self‐protective actions aimed at pre‐empting anticipated threats. Our study contributes to existing literature by emphasising the role of affect in workers' responses to algorithmic management, highlighting the self‐reinforcing dynamics among perceptions of abusive management, negative affective experiences, and preventive, self‐preserving actions. We base our findings on an abductive analysis of data from 53 in‐depth interviews with creative freelancers on gig economy platforms and conversations from an online community forum.

Human-Machine Engagement (HME): Conceptualization, Typology of Forms, Antecedents, and Consequences

Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in customer-facing settings are growing rapidly. The general shift toward robot- and AI-powered services prompts a reshaping of customer engagement, bringing machines into engagement conceptualizations. In this paper, we build on service research around engagement and AI, incorporating computer science, and socio-technical systems perspective to conceptualize human-machine engagement (HME), offering a typology and nomological network of antecedents and consequences. Through three empirical studies, we develop a typology of four distinct forms of HME (informative, experimenting, praising, apprehensive), which differ in valence and intensity, underpinned by both emotional (excitement) and cognitive (concern, advocacy) drivers. We offer empirical evidence which reveals how these HME forms lead to different cognitive and personality-related outcomes for other users (perceived value of HME, perceived risk, affinity with HME) and service providers (willingness to implement in services, perceived value of HME). We also reveal how outcomes for service providers vary with the presence and absence of competitor pressure. Our findings broaden the scope of engagement research to include non-human actors and suggest both strategic and tactical guidance to service providers currently using and/or seeking to use generative AI (GenAI) in services alongside an agenda to direct future studies on HME.

Multispecies ethnography: fostering equal relations in Hanjeli Tourism Village, Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia

ABSTRACT This research investigates the role of Hanjeli (Coix lacryma-jobi) as a key non-human actor in fostering interspecies relationships and green development in Hanjeli Tourism Village, West Java, Indonesia. The research examines how the cultivation and promotion of Hanjeli has transformed the village into a model of sustainable development, integrating green development principles with cultural heritage, ecological conservation and community resilience. Using a multispecies ethnographic approach, including in-depth interviews, participant observation, and art of noticing techniques, this research explores how Hanjeli shapes interactions between people and nature, social practices, and economic opportunities. Findings from this study reveal that Hanjeli functions not only as a plant, but also as an active participant in community life that influences socio-economic structures, supports cultural identity, and promotes sustainable tourism. The study argues that by recognizing the role of Hanjeli in this multispecies relationship, it can provide new insights into green development practices that value human and non-human contributions such as creating more inclusive, adaptive, and sustainable communities that benefit ecological systems and society.

Posthuman Ethics and Distributed Agency in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun

This article discusses posthuman ethics in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun by employing the concept of distributed agency. By examining the AI protagonist Klara, the study argues that Ishiguro redefines agency as a networked phenomenon involving both human and non-human actors, challenging traditional anthropocentric ethical frameworks. The novel suggests that ethical considerations in a posthuman world must account for this distributed agency, where human and AI entities co-create ethical dynamics. This study concludes that Ishiguro’s work not only critiques the limitations of human-centered ethics but also prompts a reevaluation of moral responsibility in a technologically mediated world. By positioning Klara and the Sun within the discourse of posthuman ethics, the article contributes to contemporary discussions on the ethical implications of AI and the evolving nature of agency.

Towards a method for understanding collaborative learning in makerspaces using dynamic sociotechnical networks

ABSTRACT This study’s objective was to discuss approaches to understanding learning in an educational makerspace by considering complex and dynamic interactions that take place there. Our investigation focusses on technical resources within these interactions – particularly how to gain a structural perspective on these dynamic interactions. We address two primary challenges: (1) conceptualizing makerspace activity as networks of human and nonhuman actors, and (2) capturing the structural dynamics of interaction in sociotechnical makerspace networks, as well as discussing how solving these challenges can help understand technology-mediated collaborative learning practices in the makerspace. We present potential approaches to yield a more granular and nuanced view based on video data on the interplay between collaborators and technical tools and materials, such as how to transform video data into structural data, as well as capture and represent dynamic networks. We discuss how these approaches can inform researchers about collaborative learning in makerspaces by discussing students’ sociotechnical ego-networks, changing roles and the use of sociotechnical structural data as background information in qualitative analysis. Furthermore, the paper examines our study’s broader implications for understanding makerspace networks, suggesting node-grouping strategies and sociotechnograms to simplify and name the display of sociotechnical interdependencies.

Advancing scientific literacy: Integrating nature of science and nature of scientific inquiry in teaching Griffith’s and Avery-MacLeod-McCarty experiments

The present study aims to design an instruction that engages nature of science (NOS) and nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI) learning objectives with the teaching and learning of important historical experiments taught around the world and presented in most biology textbooks such as those by Griffith and by Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty. The design process involves decisions about which NOS and NOSI aspects to teach and decisions about how to teach. With respect to the latter decisions, our preference is an explicit/reflective perspective used in an overarching inquiry-based science teaching and history of science instructional context. The proposed course is going to provide high school students meaningful and practical inquiry-based experiences through the use of simulated experiments and would help their teachers (a) illuminate several procedural aspects of the taught experiments (b) internalize the importance of teaching NOS and NOSI aspects (c) acquire an integrative understanding of the process of scientific inquiry and the product of that inquiry, namely scientific knowledge, and (d) portray science less as a body of knowledge and more as a creative process involving human and non-human actors. The potential benefits of our proposed instruction for learners’ scientific literacy are also discussed.

I trust (you) therefore I am! From trust to post-trust: Transforming social paradigms

This paper challenges the conventional belief that trust is an essential component of social cohesion, for example, in the context of climate change denial and post-truth politics. It argues that simply increasing trust or distrust does not address the underlying issues of contemporary societal challenges. This is because these efforts presuppose a ‘trusting subject’ at the heart of the problem. The paper examines the process of subjectification, exploring forms of modern subjectification and how they relate to trust, and how individuals become trusting subjects in relation to and within certain social frameworks. Introducing a new typology, it categorises trust into subjectifying, counter-subjectifying and post-subjectifying forms, revealing how trust both influences and is influenced by social dynamics and power structures. The conclusion advocates a ‘post-trust’ approach, urging a reimagining of relationships with nature and others. This approach emphasises the interconnectedness of human and non-human actors and calls for new forms of relationality and sensitivity to address global challenges effectively.

Michael Wirth’s Kunstbüchlein: Books of Arts and Weapons Magic in a Sorcery Trial from Seventeenth-Century Germany

Abstract How did men and magical objects interact in the early modern period, and with what consequences? This article seeks to answer these questions through a close reading of the trial for sorcery of an urban artisan named Michael Wirth, who was accused in 1663 of murdering his neighbour by magical means. The article foregrounds the role that Wirth’s Kunstbüchlein (books of arts) played in his practice of magic (in his case, a type of weapons magic aimed at ensuring his accuracy in musket-shooting) and in his acquisition of a reputation for malevolent sorcery in the eyes of some of his neighbours. In so doing, it analyses the competing claims made by different trial protagonists about Wirth’s relationship with, and use of, his books of arts, and explores how the books themselves participated in these meaning-making processes. The article furthers our understanding of the practice of weapons magic and the use of books of arts by urban artisans in the seventeenth century. It also contributes to ongoing debates about the gendering and material culture of magic in early modern Germany, and about the agency of human and non-human actors in networks of social practices.

Digital atmospheres of mental health apps: A new materialist exploration of the experience of managing mental (ill)health using an app

Apps are an increasingly commonplace source of support and authority for managing mental (ill)health symptoms. This article analyses their increasingly agential role in support practices through their capacity to reconfigure individual and collective understandings of mental health. New materialist research acknowledges the agency of both human and non-human actors and considers the on-going relations of bodies and technology within social contexts. We apply the concept of digital atmosphere to trace the material-affective forces constituting the experience of using a mental health app. Our findings demonstrate the multiplicity of ways people improvise with their use, situated within their own unique contexts and environments, and the influence of relationships on individual perceptions and engagements with the apps. Furthermore, we consider the different ways in which participants perceive their mental (ill)health, sometimes in fractious conflict with the apps. Finally, we highlight that features of for-profit apps can reshape understanding of mental (ill)health needs and perceptions of responsibility, resulting in the capacity for apps to be simultaneously disciplining and liberating. The findings provide insight of significant value to mental health policy and practice.

Visualising the school: a critical study on co-designing a Moodle-based learning management system

ABSTRACT Critical research on data visualisations in education has so far mostly focused on the representation of numeric data in dashboards or graphs. Consequently, the question of how schools are made visible and (re)enacted through visual structures on data-mediated interfaces more broadly – what we call Graphic Data Visualisations (GDV) – has remained under-researched. Addressing that research gap, this study specifically scrutinises the role of GDV as non-human actors within the design process of a Moodle-based learning management system (LMS) in four schools. Following a critical co-design approach, the potential of GDV to reflect on how the visual design shapes educational practices, and to adapt it according to pedagogical and organisational needs is explored. Focusing on ‘critical incidents’ in the design process, we found that local practices substantially influenced the data-based, visual enactment of a school through specific GDV. At the same time, the use of certain GDV enhanced a general critical engagement with datafication among school actors.

Muyu Raymi, the Seeds Festival: Indigenous Women’s Means to Sustain, Resist, and Rebuild

ABSTRACT Among the Raymis, the Indigenous celebrations of the Andes, the seeds festival Muyu Raymi has a unique path. It is a colorful one-day event that most explicitly exemplifies interculturalidad and the achievements of Indigenous Peasant politics at a local level in Ecuador. Nevertheless, Indigenous women’s active and committed involvement in the event is not sufficiently understood from the intersection of culture and politics. This work aims to identify the ways in which Indigenous women have managed to link themselves to Muyu Raymi and what Muyu Raymi shows about our understanding of interculturalidad. This work argues Muyu Raymi has its origins in the dawn of neoliberalism and remains connected to a long process of resistance led by Indigenous women. The findings are discussed through a lens of interculturalidad that highlights people’s ability to sustain, resist, and rebuild their ways of living. The analysis considers the existence of a relationship between human and non-human actants as explainer of social life; in this case, Indigenous women and the seeds. This work highlights the transformative potential of the women-seeds connections and their mixed strategies to resist and support systems of power, through a history that correctly attributes credit to women as history makers.

Rooted Bonds: Human-Plant Kinship With Indigenous Peoples in the Amazonia

As the Anthropocene epoch unfolds, humans must reckon with rapid environmental and climatic changes that endanger many peoples and life forms worldwide. To contend with these threatening events, anthropology has begun redefining perspectives that recognize nonhuman actors as having agency. This shift in perspective to reconsider what makes us human and our engagement with the living world can guide us to better understand how to form caring and nurturing relationships with our living environment. Anthropological thinkers should consider the role of nonhuman beings in their studies. This includes examining how intimacy, care, and kinship are formed among human and nonhuman actors. Moving away from binary views of biological and nonbiological kinship, known as fictive kinship, will make more space to form multispecies relationships with important living creatures we have historically, and politically, divorced ourselves from.

Consistency of Youth Identity Construction in Media Texts: Development and Adaptation of Actor-Network Theory for Empirical Media Research (Сase Study)

The formation of youth identity in communication is on the agenda of many areas of humanitarian knowledge. We analyzed communication within the framework of an educational media project, which resulted in the construction of the expected identity. In the course of the analysis, we used a conceptual model of communication that combines the stages of identity construction in interaction with the environment and the actions of actors from the standpoint of the methodology of actor-network theory. A three-dimensional model of communication is presented for the first time, where actors and actants change the communicative process by their affordances and resistance. The obtained results allow to delineate the necessary actions of human and non-human actors at each stage of communication and identity integration, giving the opportunity to justify a new theoretical direction in the study of the problems of identity construction through media communication. The methodology requires further testing, but there are already positive results. The tendency of actualization of urban identity of young people depending on the focus on interaction with the heritage of the city and according to the stages of communication, according to the conceptual model, has been established. The article is intended for specialists in mass communication and journalism, and will also be useful for those interested in the ontological turn in humanitarian knowledge, actor-network theory, discourse and media text analysis.

Exploring health inequities through the actor‐network theory lens

AbstractSocial theory plays an important role in the nursing discipline and nursing inquiry as it helps conceptually embed nursing in the larger picture of the social world. For example, a broad category of critical theory provides a unique lens for uncovering social conditions of inequity and oppression. Among the sociological theories, actor‐network theory (ANT) is an approach to research and analysis that has recently gained interest among nurse philosophers and researchers. Studies guided by ANT seek to understand phenomena of interest as constituted within the relationships between human and nonhuman actors to understand how care practices are co‐created/enacted and how they can be made more humane. In this paper, we describe the benefits of ANT for examining healthcare access for incarcerated individuals with life‐limiting illnesses accessing palliative care and for people using illicit drugs. We argue that attention to the materiality of care practices can contribute to efforts of advancing health equity for these groups.

Materialities of progressive curriculum reform: a case study of one kindergarten classroom

ABSTRACT Objective This study reviews the status of materials in curriculum and reform, as reflected in a network case study of curriculum in one kindergarten classroom in the United States. This paper focuses on the events leading up to and building upon one inquiry unit that became a focal point in promoting progressive curriculum reform at the school. Method Methods from Actor Network Theory are employed to attend to a wide cast of human and nonhuman actors, trace their mobilities, and map them into curricular networks. Data, collected over 9 months of one school year, included field notes, audio recordings of conversations, and images of classroom objects and arrangements. Results Three material assemblages—a closet, a bulletin board, and a curriculum timeline—are viewed as agents assisting in stabilizing the inquiry unit and sustaining further student-centred inquiries amidst competing curricular reforms and policies. Findings demonstrate how teachers may mobilize such assemblages to accomplish multiple objectives, as is necessary when navigating tensions from multiple parties or reform mandates. Conclusion This study contributes to scholarship conceptualizing the status of curriculum materials, with particular attention to their functionality at the nexus of both the micro-interactions of curriculum enactment and the macro-politics of educational reform.

Rethinking the Social Determination of Food in Chile Through Practices and Interactions of Actors in Food Environments: Nonexperimental, Cross-Sectional Study.

Food environments are crucial for promoting healthy and sustainable eating and preventing obesity. However, existing food environment frameworks assume an already installed causality and do not explain how associations in food environments are established or articulated, especially from an integrative and transdisciplinary approach. This research attempts to bridge these gaps through the use of Actor-Network Theory, which traces the relationship network between human (and nonhuman) actors in order to describe how these interact and what agencies (direct or remote) are involved. This study aims to explain the practices and interactions of actors in food environments in order to approach the problem of unhealthy eating with a transdisciplinary approach. This is a nonexperimental, cross-sectional study. Due to the complexity of the study phenomena, a mixed methods approach with 4 consecutive phases will be developed in Chile. Phase 1 involves a systematic literature review of food environment evidence since 2015, following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) protocol; phase 2 involves the application of a shortened version of the Nutrition Environment Measure Scale-Perceptions adapted to Chile (NEMS-P-Ch) in 2 neighborhoods with different socioeconomic levels; in phase 3, six focus groups in each neighborhood will be conducted to address social determinants such as gender, employment status, and migration; and in phase 4, participant observation and in-depth interviews will be used to analyze the direct and empirical exploration of the actors in their daily interaction with food environments. The triangulation and complementarity of the data will allow us to create a practical model about the practices and interactions of actors in their food environments, which reflects the complexity and transdisciplinary nature of the study. We have advanced in phases 1-3 of the study. In phase 1, a total of 109 manuscripts are being revised for data extraction. In phase 2, we applied the NEMS-P-Ch to 785 people, 49.4% (388/785) of whom belong to a low socioeconomic neighborhood. Participants from phase 2 are being contacted to participate in the focus groups (phase 3). By the end of July, we have conducted 6 focus groups with 5-11 participants. This study will provide a comprehensive understanding of how individuals interact with their food environments, offering deep insights into the factors influencing their food-related decisions. In addition, the study aims to develop a model that more accurately reflects reality by examining not only the food environments themselves but also the interactions among various stakeholders within these environments and their daily practices. The findings of this study will offer evidence-based insights to inform public policies tailored to the specific territories and communities under investigation or those with similar characteristics. DERR1-10.2196/62765.

The role of non-human actors in the acceptance of management accounting: the case of a Moroccan public establishment

Like private companies, public service establishments are seeking to improve their performance by adopting management control tools. However, their acceptance in this context raises specific challenges. Unlike the private sector, where profitability is often the main driver for the acceptance of such tools, the public sector has to deal with more complex organizational dynamics involving many actors. This article examines the reasons underlying the acceptance of a management control tool, in particular a management accounting system, in the Moroccan public sector. The research is based on a qualitative case study carried out in a Moroccan public establishment that recently introduced a management accounting system, using the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), also known as the translation theory, developed by Callon and Latour in the 1980s. Traditionally mobilized to analyze the innovation diffusion process, this approach is used in our research to study the pre-adoption, or ex-ante, phase of innovation introduction. The results of this study highlight the complex dynamics of management accounting acceptance in the Moroccan public sector, showing how non-human actors play a crucial role in the pre-adoption phase of management control instruments. Our research reveals the decisive influence of the tax variable, as a non-human actor, on the acceptance of the management accounting system. This link between taxation and management accounting is a significant contribution, particularly due to the lack of studies on legal and fiscal variables in management control. These results underscore the importance of considering both non-human and human actors equally in the translation process (generalized symmetry).

Explaining machine learning practice: findings from an engaged science and technology studies project

ABSTRACT The widespread use of machine learning (ML) models for decision-making raises critical concerns about transparency and accountability – to which an increasingly popular solution is ‘Explainable AI’ (XAI). Here, the object of explanation is technically complex models which are difficult or even impossible to explain. In contrast, this paper makes a call to de-centre models as the object of explanation and look towards the network of ‘machine learning practice’ that bring models into being, and use. We explore this term through an ethnographic study, conducted in collaboration with a large financial services company. Drawing on recent STS research, we ask: what would an explanation look like from a position that recognises the emergent and relational nature of machine learning practice, and how might this contribute to greater accountability and responsibility for ML in use? Inspired by the engaged programme in STS, we explore if and how approaching explanation through ML practice can be mobilised to intervene in how explanations are done in organisations. Our empirical analysis shows an ‘ecology’ of multiple, situated and intra-acting explanations for machine learning practice across a range of human and non-human actors in the company. We argue that while XAI is inevitably partial and limited, its value lies in establishing explanations as an imperative in contexts where ML is implicated in decision-making. Overall, our research suggests a need to widen and deepen the search for explanations and explore the opportunities for provisional, relational and collective interrogations over what can (and can’t) be explained about ML practice.

Student-to-Student Connections in Postdigital Networked Learning

AbstractAnalysing learning situations as entanglements of humans and things in networked learning links to contemporary topics that are at the forefront of the postdigital challenge. The literature broadly conceptualises researching networked learning through four different understandings of networks, as a network of people, as situations or contexts, as infrastructure, and as actant. In this study, we explored the fourth way of understanding networked learning by examining how students described their connections with other students while learning online. Using mediated discourse analysis, we analysed 12 student focus groups to gain insights into what supported their connections with other students, paying particular attention to the nature of the networks they engaged in. This led to the identification of six enablers of student-to-student connections: attention, access, collaboration, proximity, timely interaction, and purpose. We demonstrate how the networks described by students when providing accounts of their connections with others can be best described as networks of human and non-human actants. While current research acknowledges that learning is a result of the socio-material entanglements of physical, virtual, and human actants, it is limited in demonstrating how and why such networks are supportive of learning. Our study contributes by showing how the identified enablers and their interrelationships influenced the extent to which networks were found to be supportive of learning. As such, it also supports a more tangible way of articulating the relationship between networked learning and postdigital education.

Exploring datafied practices, imaginaries and digital state assemblages in South and South East Asia

This Special Issue aims to problematize past and current socio-technical imaginaries and datafication practices of the rapidly digitizing nation states in South and South East Asia, and gathers critical analyses of where the digital, government and power intersect. The papers in this issue emerge from a workshop on Governing Technologies: Exploring Datafied Practices, Imaginaries, and Digital State Assemblages in Asia convened in October 2022 by Monash University and University of Nottingham Malaysia, where the guest editors worked. The papers engaged with a number of questions that animate our current understandings of how technologies govern and are governed: Who are the (human and non-human) actors propelling these initiatives and new arrangements? What do their discourses around these imaginaries reveal about their ambitions, interests and conflicts? What role do communities and the people play in shaping, adapting and resisting digital plans and practices, and who decides? Providing an introduction to this Special Issue, this editorial presents a conversation amongst the three guest editors of the issue, where they reflect on some aspects of governing technologies as they play out in South and South East Asia, setting the stage for further engagement from the authors in this issue.