Non-human Elements Research Articles

Imaginaries in insurgent territories.

This article deals with forms of artist protest against the massive fires in the wetlands of the Paraná River delta. Citizens are fighting not only against the unbearable smoke but against the commodification of nature (Svampa, 2014). Around these events, a new wave of social environmentalism (Gutierrez & Isuani, 2014) organizations and actors have been configuring. The environmental movement comprises a variety of heterogeneous actors ranging from citizens, university students, left-wing political groups, conservationist activists, and feminists, who are attracting attention with massive acts of protests by which they express a repertory of new ‘languages of valuation’ (Martinez Alier, 2006). In this essay, we are looking at the artistic forms of protest by Thigra Collective which transgresses the nature/culture duality with their indicial-based (Peirce, 1973; Gell, 2016) signs - artworks and performance actions. By reflecting on Thigra’s performance work we want to show that anti-modern images and meanings are expressed in their artistic interventions by which the group breaks through modern ontologies (Latour, 2001; 2022). In addition, the artists’ work stages the association of human and non-human elements (Latour, 2001) by which they generate an intrusion of objects and performative action in the city’s everyday life.

Telluric geographies of the means of violence. On alterity, weapons, and space at the margins

This article provides a critical reading of the literatures on spaces at the margins of different polities and state/non-state forms of authority in political geography asking how infrastructures of violence are governed. In this ambit, weapons and military means have been poorly defined and conceptualised, while the ways they are actually governed (beyond a mostly instrumentalist perspective), as well as the effects this govern-mentality activity generates for the reproduction of (dis)orders at the margins, have not been directly investigated. Drawing from studies on biopolitical governmentality, and Roberto Esposito's conceptualization of the immunitary apparatus in particular, we explore how relations of alterity, as well as attendant political spaces, are terraformed through violence and infrastructures of governing weapons and military means. Our approach is attentive to the role of materiality and non-human elements in shaping socio-spatial relations but it highlights also how there exists a close link between (1) weapons and armed humans, (2) space, and (3) identity/alterity which is articulated via the act of governing infrastructures of violence. Building upon empirical insights from Myanmar's borderlands and frontiers, the paper shows that weapons and war-making are governed through infrastructures made of technical objects codifying violence materially, techniques of managing human-non-human entanglements, and rationalities. Conducting the conduct of violence contributes to reproduce the political space at the margins and to construct identity/alterity categories founded on the identification of less-than-human forms of life.

In the Trading Zone

In this article, we describe and discuss the negotiations and processes of carrying out a science curriculum-based research project with multiple stakeholders, including an 8th grade science teacher/soccer coach, and 24 student-participants from a middle school in the South-eastern United States. Drawing on the theoretical notion of trading zones, we focus on the negotiations, commitments, and collaborations that took place in order to: (a) teach science to Latino students in the context of an after-school soccer program, (b) develop curriculum and (c) carry out a research program in which both material things and physical spaces are recognized as central to this process. Our study presents these experiences and processes in relation to the characteristics of the human and non-human elements involved in this work. We conclude with a set of recommendations for pre-service and in-service science teachers developing science activities as part of a broader curriculum and teaching science to middle school students in multilingual, multi-ethnic, and multicultural settings.

Fragments Shored Against Ruins: Defragmenting India through the Gathering Storm

Travel between territories which exists contemporaneously is baffling in a psychogeographical sense. What had previously been considered as movement through indifferent space seems to be movement through time, into the future or into the past. The spatial assemblages within which these figures travel each have their own temporality, a rhythm that is produced and maintained by the processes that produce and maintain the human and nonhuman elements of the territory. Therefore travel narrative manifests itself as a narrative of space and difference and consequently travel writing as a format reflects an incessant surge of new concepts, new ways of seeing and being.. In this context, I argue that such an attempt is made by Harish Nambiar in his Defragmenting India: Riding a Bullet through the Gathering Storm, a travelogue narrative of a motorbike trip of the author and his friend across various states. Written in the dramatic backdrop of the 2002 Godhra riots, it provides an account of the various fault lines of Indian society quivering in the temblors that the communal riots of Gujarat sent across the nation. The book maps the urban consciousness of India by juxtaposing lives, issues and situations of educated and the uneducated, craftsman and conservationist, teacher and businessman, daughters and drunks from small towns and non-metro cities of India. It thus succeeds in capturing the undercurrents that flow through the life of a nation, community, city, families and individuals, simultaneously cutting across narrow divisive borders.

The atmospheric attunement of diversity interventions: learnings from a dance performance

ABSTRACT Since the start of diversity management in organizations, interventions have been primarily oriented toward altering individuals’ cognition, missing out on the potential of the embodied and materially mediated character of learning and interacting as experimented with in arts-based interventions. In this study, through ethnographically exploring a dance performance, whose main purpose is to create a community between a diverse cast and audience, we aim to rethink interventions around diversity. In particular, we turn to the notion of atmospheric attunement to investigate how, in this artistic context, a diverse group of people learns to relate differently. From this, we theorize two conditions of possibility for thinking differently about diversity interventions: (1) a sentient focus on atmospheric attuning that collectively connects embodied differences, and (2) the material mediation of nonhuman elements that enables the co-creation of these affirmative experiences. Together, both conditions suggest considering diversity intervention as a politics of affirmative experience.

Spread of the cycles: a feedback perspective on the Anthropocene.

What propelled the human 'revolutions' that started the Anthropocene? and what could speed humanity out of trouble? Here, we focus on the role of reinforcing feedback cycles, often comprised of diverse, unrelated elements (e.g. fire, grass, humans), in propelling abrupt and/or irreversible, revolutionary changes. We suggest that differential 'spread of the cycles' has been critical to the past human revolutions of fire use, agriculture, rise of complex states and industrialization. For each revolution, we review and map out proposed reinforcing feedback cycles, and describe how new systems built on previous ones, propelling us into the Anthropocene. We argue that to escape a bleak Anthropocene will require abruptly shifting from existing unsustainable 'vicious cycles', to alternative sustainable 'virtuous cycles' that can outspread and outpersist them. This will need to be complemented by a revolutionary cultural shift from maximizing growth to maximizing persistence (sustainability). To achieve that we suggest that non-human elements need to be brought back into the feedback cycles underlying human cultures and associated measures of progress. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'.

How cryptomarket communities navigate marketplace structures, risk perceptions and ideologies amid evolving cryptocurrency practices

Cryptomarkets are increasingly requiring users to purchase products with Monero (a ‘privacy coin’) to further obfuscate the digital trail of money compared to conventional cryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin). This is the first study to explore how cryptomarket communities are used to facilitate norms and behaviours to expedite these emerging cryptocurrency practices. Through a qualitative analysis of Monero threads in a Reddit cryptomarket community (3451 total posts), this research illustrates how online communities often underpin the adoption of new technologies in cryptomarkets. The findings reveal: how the online community functions, adapts, and fails to support cryptocurrency transitions; the appraisal and contestation of cryptocurrency risks; and the ideological drivers and symbolic resources used to align community practices to adopt Monero. This research contributes to an understanding of the processes that underpin the constant evolution of online illicit markets as human and non-human elements are constantly re-assembled.

The aesthetics of more-than-human design: speculative energy briefs for the Chthulucene

ABSTRACT This paper is a theoretical contribution to HCI that considers the more-than-human (MTH) as an intrinsic part of human–computer interaction design. In particular, it focuses on MTH as central to responses to the climate crisis as manifested in energy-demand reduction and smart meters. This is explored by expanding on the notion of the ‘design event’, defined aesthetically as the patterns or conformation of unfolding and becoming of heterogenous human and non-human elements. It is with this version of the design event that the MTH can be more directly and effectively engaged. We do this with reference to environmental problems as signaled by Haraway’s speculative future ‘the Chthulucene’ – a worlding for liveable futures. The paper views design briefs in HCI, and design more broadly, as problematics for exploring and determining aesthetic-possible pathways for invention, which necessarily involves MTH elements. Three interrelated design briefs are presented that propose how practitioners might go about addressing energy-demand reduction and metering and provide a set of guidelines on how to devise and write speculative more-than-human briefs. This, the paper argues, involves becoming sensitive to speculative MTH compositions where novel forms of ‘sense making’ orient alternative possibilistic – idiotic – relations to energy.

The profiles of Chinese university students’ learning experience in flipped classrooms: combining the self-reported and process data

ABSTRACT Drawing on student approaches to learning research, this study combined both self-reported and process data to examine: (1) the extent of the alignment between the self-reported and process data of the profiles of 179 Chinese university students’ learning experience in the flipped classrooms and (2) the contributions of the self-reported and process data of students’ learning experience to their academic performance. Two groups of students with contrasting learning experiences were identified. One group reported a more desirable learning experience (cohesive conceptions of learning theoretical mechanics, deep approaches in both face-to-face and online learning, and positive perceptions of both the human and non-human elements of the learning environments in the course). Another group had a poorer learning experience (fragmented conceptions, using surface approaches, and perceiving a lack of peer online interaction and not appraising online design of the course site). The students self-reporting better and poorer learning experiences, however, only differed in frequency of participation in the pre-lecture quizzes, demonstrating weak alignment between the self-reported and process data. The hierarchical regression analyses revealed that including both self-reported and process data significantly increased the variance explained in students’ academic performance.

Place as creative partner: placemaking with a university arboretum

ABSTRACT Conventional educational research often sidelines the role of physical environments, viewing them merely as settings. This study challenges this notion by exploring the symbiotic relationship between a university theater group and an arboretum. Through empirical ethnographic analysis, we investigate creativity and placemaking, emphasizing collaborative dynamics between human and non-human elements. Our findings reveal how imaginative engagement and literacy practices forge new connections with the environment, enriching sensemaking. This highlights the potential of integrating literary practices with environmental interaction. By reconceptualizing place as both a creative partner and a learning facilitator, we advance placemaking theories and refine methodologies for research in place-based and more-than-human learning.

Situational Analysis in Accounting Research

Objective: Revise and illustrate the Situational Analysis (SA) method and its theoretical and procedural assumptions to enable novel inductive inquiry in accounting studies.
 Method: We develop a theoretical essay on SA advances Grounded Theory, addressing the challenges of social life in the postmodern world. The essay focus on how accounting researchers can explore SA in diverse projects, especially those requiring multiple data about a particular phenomenon, allowing researchers to integrate action in different contexts. SA’s analytical stance is structured through maps, embracing the notion of empirical evidence to promote epistemic diversity and multivocality and recognize the importance of non-human elements in structuring social relations.
 Results: The paper presents an analytical alternative that is not limited to the micro, meso, or macro levels of events. Facing complexities, it provides relational views of ecologies of situations, repositioning research in individual, collective and discursive ways. With SA, a researcher can develop novel inquiry that challenges the status quo and unexplored facets of complex situations.
 Contributions: The paper explores and illustrates the potential of a qualitative method not yet familiar to accounting researchers, bridging the gap between post-modern perspectives on discourse and investigation of agency on complex phenomena involving accounting concepts and mechanisms.

MYeHALAL System Usage During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Proposing a Socio-Technical Model to Enhance the Certifier’s Role

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted Malaysian halal certification process. With lockdowns and travel restrictions in place, halal certification bodies have had to adapt to new ways of conducting inspections and audits. This has led to delays and backlogs in the certification process. The purpose of this study is to propose a socio-technical model that will enhance the role of the certifiers in the MYeHALAL system during the Covid-19 pandemic. The system aims to make halal certification more accessible in Malaysia. However, it appears that this endeavour is difficult to achieve, considering the discouraging acceptance of the users. The Covid-19 pandemic makes the halal application process even more difficult as not all halal certification application processes can be done online. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 halal applicants and 3 officers from the certification bodies. To develop the model, this study used Actor-Network Theory (ANT), a theory that allows for equal consideration of human (social) and non-human (technological) elements in one analysis. The socio-technical model is derived from identified issues that led to the revelation of the three actors or elements; applicants, technology and guidelines which have a major impact on the use of the MYeHALAL system. The model will highlight the important elements that the certifiers should emphasize to improve its organizational performance and promote more sustainable use of the system particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study provided new insight into enhancing the role of halal food certifiers by proposing a socio-technical model.

Graphic Novel Hamlet: Reaching Beyond Stage and Page

The persistence, abundance, and diversity of Shakespearean adaptations across many media shows Shakespearean narratives to be “successful replicators,” the terminology proposed by Bortolotti and Hutcheon (2007). In the past decade, many graphic novel adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays have been produced. While graphic novels have their own affordances that allow the Shakespearean plays to be assembled for “performance” on the page, at the same time they open up connotations that would not be available in a conventional stage performance. The conventions of the comic book allow storyworlds to be opened, worlds that reach beyond the page and stage, and that exist on different narrative, or diegetic, levels. At the same time, a graphic novel adaptation can highlight the ephemeral nature of performance and the fragile network of human and nonhuman elements that hold together a Shakespeare narrative in performance —whether this performance is on the stage or the page. This article will examine and compare three graphic novel adaptations of Hamlet: Hamlet (Manga Shakespeare) by Richard Appignanesi and Emma Vieceli (2007) (hereafter referred to as Manga Shakespeare); Hamlet (No Fear Shakespeare Graphic Novels) by Neil Babra (2008) (hereafter referred to as No Fear); and Shakespeare’s Hamlet by Nicki Greenberg (2010). Together these texts show that graphic novels can use comic book conventions to tap into the “agency of adaption” that is inherent in dramatic pretexts. When creating a stage performance, a director must make creative decisions that move outside the explicit instructions of a dramatic text. There is a similar but more complicated agency at work when a dramatic text is brought together as a performance on a page. Shakespearean adaptations bring their own particular joy and complexity, as the pretexts themselves serve as invitations to partake in an intense flux of meaning and mixed ontologies.

Students' learning in theory-based simulation: A socio-material study.

Simulation-based education (SBE) is crucial to prepare nursing students prior to their clinical learning experience. Theory-based simulation learning is increasingly important for analysing how students learn. This study describes and analyses how nursing students learn through simulation in the context of palliative care communication under a socio-material approach and explores the transfer of their knowledge and skills from simulation to clinical practice. Twenty-seven final-year nursing students in six groups participated in two simulated scenarios, followed by a debriefing and post-clinical focus groups to capture their reflections and learning. Fourteen of them joined the post-clinical focus groups after completing their clinical placements. Video recordings of the simulation, and the audio recordings from the debriefing, and post-clinical focus groups were transcribed and coded based on the human and non-human elements that were observed. These were triangulated with data collected through team participant observations, an analysis of the existing syllabi and curriculum, and a participant mapping exercise after the simulation. These various data sources illustrate how student learning and reflections took place. The three themes of student learning derived from the results and analysis were (1) students' expanded learning of health care communication through a socio-material approach in the context of palliative care; 2) students' discovery of the diverse and complex relations and interactions between humans and materials and (3) students' new perspectives on health care communication and the transfer of knowledge and skills through a socio-material approach in clinical practice. This study highlights how SBE can be further expanded using a socio-material approach to prepare students to learn beyond standardised and cognitively driven approaches and procedures. Student learning demonstrates that SBE may develop beyond high fidelity and standardisation to leave room for emergent learning and increased awareness in learning for students and teachers to optimise learning outcomes and competence.

Practicing Taichi together in the park: A case study of Taichiscape and older people's wellbeing

AbstractInspired by Gesler's notion of therapeutic landscapes, this paper proposes a new concept, ‘Taichiscape’, to demonstrate how older people obtain a sense of healing and wellbeing through the practice of group Taichi in the park. Based on extensive fieldwork with 42 older people between 2020 and 2021 in Tianhe Park in Guangzhou, China, the paper presents Taichiscape in three aspects: (1) From the physical aspect, the Chinese traditional health concepts of ‘becoming one with nature’ and the form of Yin‐Yang balance, allowing older people to maintain closeness and be immersed in the natural environment, rhythmically connecting with natural elements, and relaxing via flourishing positive affect (PA); (2) In terms of socialising, older people practice Taichi together to establish a synchronised rhythm in a spatiotemporal order and collectively create a positive social atmosphere, where they gain a sense of PA through belonging, self‐esteem and pleasure; (3) At the body level, through the rhythm of slowness, older people enjoy diverse and bodily sensations that temporally nurture their minds and souls and initiate the therapeutic process of embodied restoration. Theoretically, the healing power of Taichiscape is habitually, contextually, and temporally constructed through a dynamic creation between human and nonhuman elements. This work extends knowledge of therapeutic landscapes by underlining how slowness in Taichiscape can be seen as a sign of progress and an active pursuit of wellbeing, and older people's sense of control over their lives.

Re-conceptualizing the ideal homes in rural China: an actor-network theory approach

With the shift in relational ontology, the concept of home is interpreted as a dynamic and relational process, in which both human and non-human elements need to be valued. Adopting ANT (actor-network theory) as an approach, this article reveals the interactive relationship and translation process between urban-rural migrants and rural heterogeneous actors (including farmland, landscapes, local people, means of subsistence, and technological facilities) in the connection of ideal home networks. It involves three steps of translation between actors, namely problem presentation of key actors, enrollment and benefit granting by key actors, and negotiation of “obligatory passage points” (OPP) based on actors’ common goals. Based on a two-year qualitative research of 18 interviewees, this article demonstrates how migrants adapt to the countryside through enrollment and benefit granting, and how sustainability and recyclability become common interests and OPP for actors in homemaking. The article argues that ANT provides a descriptive focus on how rural life has transformed from a backward neighborhood or abstract nostalgia to a harmonious new home that blends traditional culture, ecological ideas, and modern technology in the context of China. The study also points out that in the process of translating interests between actors, the human-land relationship still shows complexity and instability. Future research needs to pay more attention to the role of government officials and governance policies in the building of home networks.

What if It Were Me? A Qualitative Exploratory Study of Emergency Nurses’ Clinical Decision Making Related to Obstetrical Emergencies in the Context of a Post-Roe Environment

IntroductionPrevious research describes a significant knowledge deficit in obstetrical care in emergency settings. In a post-Roe environment, additional medicolegal challenges are documented across the obstetrics and gynecology landscape, but an understudied care setting is the emergency department, where patients may present to a practice environment where there is limited or no obstetrical care available. It is unknown how emergency nurses make decisions around these types of presentations. The purpose of this study was to explore the clinical decision-making processes of emergency nurses in the care of patients with obstetrical emergencies in the context of limited or absent access to abortion care and the impact of those processes on patient care. MethodsQualitative exploratory approach using interview data (n = 13) and situational analysis was used. ResultsSituational mapping uncovered human elements comprised nurses, providers, pregnant people, and families; nonhuman elements comprised legislation, education, and legal understanding. Social worlds mapping included challenges of inexperience, conflict about clinical responsibility, uncertainty about the meaning of legislation, and passivity around implications for patient care. Positional mapping yielded both the overlapping discourses around the phenomenon of interest and the area of silence around abortion-limiting legislation. DiscussionWe found that emergency nurses in states with abortion care-limiting laws had significant self-reported deficits in both education and training around the management of obstetrical emergencies. In this sample, there was a surprising lack of awareness of care-limiting legislation and the clinical, ethical, and legal implications for both emergency care staff and for patients.

Ontology of Technique in Bruno Latour’s Thought

Bruno Latour’s line of thinking is marked by the Actor-Network Theory (ANT), which contemplates the relationships between humans, non-humans and other actors. Among the non-human elements are the technical artifacts or, in other words, technical objects. In Latour’s thought, this article aims to explain what concerns the ontology of such objects. Through the analysis of some of the texts that the author dedicated to this topic and by comparing it with Simondon’s ontology of technique, we arrive at the hypothesis that, in Bruno Latour’s line of thinking, the question of ontology does not directly apply to technical objects, but to the relations that establish them and by which they affect the other elements of the network.

Agency in entrepreneurship: preparing entrepreneurship theory for another view of context

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to explore how agency is distributed between human actors and nonhuman elements in entrepreneurship.Design/methodology/approachIt is based on an inductive longitudinal case study of a garden in a rural community in northern Sweden. The methodology includes an ethnography of the garden, spanning the course of 16 years, and a careful investigation of the entrepreneurial processes contained within it.FindingsThis article identifies and describes different practices to explain how agency is distributed between human actors and nonhuman elements in the garden's context. Three different practices were identified and discussed, namely “calling”, “resisting”, and “provoking”.Originality/valueAgency/structure constitutes a longstanding conundrum in entrepreneurship and context. This study contributes to the on-going debate on context in entrepreneurship, and introduces a posthumanist perspective—particularly that of distributed agency—to theorising in entrepreneurship. Rather than focussing on a human (hero)-driven change process, induced through the exploitation of material objects, this novel perspective views entrepreneurship as both a human and a nonhuman venture, occurring through interactions located in particular places and times. Coming from the agency/structure dichotomy, this article reaches out for elements traditionally established on the structure side, distributing them to the agency side of the dichotomy. As such, it contributes to an understanding of the agency of nonhuman elements, and how they direct entrepreneurship in context. This theoretical development prepares entrepreneurship theories to be better able to engage with nonhuman elements and provides example solutions for the ongoing climate crisis.

Ruch, dźwięk, motion capture: projekt „Musica Posthumana" w kontekście realizmu sprawczego Karen Barad

This article problematizes the interdisciplinary project Musica Posthumana in the context of Ka-ren Barad’s philosophy of agential realism. Using selected terminology proposed by the philoso-pher, the creators of the project describe the process of permeating the agency of the phenomena that comprise it and include reflection on the agency of non-human elements in the creative pro-cess. The motion capture technology used in the project will be analyzed through the prism of a research tool as understood by Karen Barad. Its status will be expanded from creating representa-tions to actively making sense and participating in the process of materializing relationships and meanings. The interlacing agency of the project’s sound, motion, and technological phenomena will be presented and described through intra-actions. The onto-epistemological status of the body in the technological environment will also be discussed. Key-words: agential realism, motion capture, Musica Posthumana, intra-actions, sound, dance, technology