Sociomaterial Entanglements Research Articles

Disrupting landscape: Enacting zones of socio-material entanglement for alternative futures

Emerging discussions frame sites of extraction as ‘zones of entanglement’, and this article considers the condition of mine closure and the decision-making processes around post-mining landscape planning as one of these zones. Focusing on the recently closed Leigh Creek coal mine in South Australia, this article compares the transformation of a specific area of the mining lease by nonhumans with the community consultation processes that occurred during the mine's closure. Drawing from Karen Barad's theory of Agential Realism with the concepts of ‘interaction’ and ‘intra-action’, this comparison considers the way in which discursive frameworks create enclosures that prevent individual community members from enacting their ambitions for the post-mining landscape. Framing nonhumans as agentic actors this paper presents their landscape transformation as an example of what can happen if actors act both below the threshold of company awareness and from within their own worldview. It similarly explores what happens if actors reject or are unable to engage in the dominant discourses that restrict final landscape possibilities. This paper proposes that actors using distributed agency to enact socio-material landscape change presents a methodological alternative to individualistic forms of landscape planning embedded within risk management and economic viability frameworks.

How impact measurement devices act: the performativity of theory of change, SROI and dashboards

Purpose This study aims to examine the role of devices in assessing the social impact of an organization. The study examines the effects of device and analyst expertise on the contents and conclusions of the report. Design/methodology/approach Six impact reports based on the same data from the same organization were compared to each other, to the charity data and to the devices used. Specific attention is paid to the role of the device’s sociomaterial form and discursive entanglements. Findings The six reports assessed the impact differently from each other and in ways that were consistent with the devices used. The devices performatively reconfigured the charity in impact reports through a series of omissions and misrepresentations which could be traced to the discourses hardwired into the devices themselves. The devices did not simply present the same impact assessment to different audiences or for different purposes, but (mis)represented the charity in specific ways aligned with the discursive entanglements. Research limitations/implications The performativity of sociomaterial impact devices has implications for how researchers approach the study of impact measurement. Practical implications In this study, faithful adherence to an impact device led to greater omissions and misrepresentations than less expert impact assessments. Analysts should be supported to identify biases in their devices and be aware of sorts of omissions and misrepresentations that may result. Faithful adherence may not be the mark of rigorous analysis. Originality/value Performativity of impact measurement devices is explored with a unique data set.

Fostering heterogeneous engineering through whole-class design work

ABSTRACT Background: Design problems have long attracted researchers’ attention for their potential to provide authentic learning opportunities. While we have methods for supporting students to learn through relatively simple engineering and design tasks, supporting students to address complex problems that they find and frame remains poorly understood. Designing for the real world presents opportunities to understand how heterogenous engineering practices emerge from students’ experiences, how problems are negotiated and reframed, and the forms of learning such experiences support. Descriptions of engineering practice often privilege technical aspects, where heterogeneous engineering emphasizes the active coordination of social and material dimensions as well. Methods: We present two cases from large, complex design projects: (1) a design-based research study in a school-based making space and (2) an extended participant observation in a design-build school. We used interaction analysis to characterize the forms of participation. Findings: We identified ways students negotiated social and material elements of design, how they coordinated these activities, and how the instructional environments contributed to developing heterogeneous practices. Contribution: Designers and materials both operated as agentive actors in dialogic conversations that coordinated the multitude of considerations involved in heterogeneous engineering. We argue for the importance of fostering sociomaterial entanglements to support learning in design.

The PLE as a framework for developing agency in lifelong learning

In this paper, we lay the foundations of the personal learning environment or PLE, its conception, cognitive and theoretical underpinnings, and implications for the design of pedagogical processes and learning ecosystems. We characterize the PLE as a technosocial reality that embodies the sociomaterial entanglement with which people learn as well as an approach that enacts contemporary ideas about how people learn. We argue that the learning ecology of the PLE and its disruptive educational character, position it as a framework that addresses the challenges of being in a continuous learning mode and empowers learners to direct their own learning and develop agency in lifelong learning. We envision the PLE as the core of a learning activity ecosystem that is diverse, personalized, social, adaptive, integrated, and transparent, enabling the creation of a network of learning that supports students as peers, creators and entrepreneurs, and agents of their own learning. We conclude with implications and challenges for future research and educational practice.

Exploring the embodied narrations of the city

PurposeThis study aims to explore how people bodily narrate and use collective memory to clarify their embodied experiences regarding a city which they memorise.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on 1,359 short stories collected by the online travel portal Visit Turku about ‘How the city feels’, the fine-grained embodied experiences of people are represented through descriptions of their feelings towards the city of Turku.FindingsBased on the analysis, two aspects through which the respondents narrated their embodied experiences of cities have been identified: (1) the sociomaterial entanglements with the city and (2) the humane relationship with the city.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to short stories acquired online, raising questions of anonymity and representativeness. Thus, these narrations are constructions which have to be interpreted as told by specific people in a certain time and place.Practical implicationsTourist agencies should pay attention to the value of looking at written stories as bodily materialisations of people’s experiences of city destinations. Understanding this would strengthen the cities’ competitiveness.Originality/valueBy empirically highlighting how people memorise a city through narrations, the study offers novel viewpoints on the embodied experiences in cities as well as the cultural constructs these narrations are based on, thus broadening our understanding of how cities become bodily entangled with us.

Business Analytics and Sociomateriality: A Study on the Practice of Revenue Management in an Airline Company

The aim of this article is to address the Business Analytics (BA) practice based on the sociomateriality approach within the Revenue Management (RM) context of an airline. The study proposes that BA is an active engagement process which is set between analysts and business managers according to their sociomaterial entanglement with analytical data and tools, which areused to generate new insights. The discussion is substantiated by the theoretical articulation of BA as applied to RM based on the sociomateriality approach, which acknowledges the synergetic interaction between human and material dimensions by keeping their distinction from intentionality. The empirical investigation followed a qualitative design supported by nonparticipatory observation, interview and document research, which were the data collection techniques. The collected data was analyzed through spiral analysis associated with a practices’ description and analyses framework. Results have supported the BA proposition by evidencing the human/material dimension entanglement to produce BA-practice specificities.

When method fails: walking as an alt-meth in a volatile context

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore why the use of a particular qualitative method, walking, failed in a given context, the Chile of contemporary unrest.Design/methodology/approachThe paper explores walking methodologies from a critical cultural perspective.FindingsThe article argues that context as socio-material entanglement, or people's relation to place, in a volatile situation, requires strong participatory engagement to enable productive outcomes and also that one can learn from the failure to generate such engagement.Practical implicationsThe article suggests that enhanced participant involvement in experimental design (here a walking event) is necessary when the situation on the ground is conflict-ridden. It also suggests that explicitly articulating one's outsider position may facilitate productive exchanges in volatile contexts. The article further suggests that failure of method is a neglected but useful topic in qualitative research.Social implicationsAlthough walking methodologies frequently claim to be participant-centered, they are not always organized in that manner. If they are not, they risk undermining the democratic potential of alt-meths that is of particular importance in volatile contexts.Originality/valueFailure of method is rarely reported on. The paper addresses that knowledge gap.

Organic Cachaça Production Strategy as Sociomaterial Practice

The main aim of this study is to investigate the effects of sociomateriality in the strategy for artisanal production of organic cachaça—a well-known Brazilian beverage—by means of the case study method. In addition to enabling reconstruction of the trajectory of the studied organisation and its insertion in the institutional context, this method was suitable for investigating sociomaterial practices, enabling identification of the effects of agency (material, biological and human) on the strategy for artisanal production of organic cachaça. The field research conducted was grounded on the postulates of the realist-constructivist ontology and the theory of strategy as practice, in combination with the sociomateriality approach. It was observed that the strategy for artisanal production of cachaça involves a sociomaterial entanglement and reciprocal agencies that encompass equipment, natural resources, knowledge, experience, learning, traditional knowledge, living beings and chemical elements. This study helps redefine the manner of thinking about and conducting studies on strategy as sociomaterial practices, especially by focusing on the interactivity between the social dimension of this practice and the material and technological framework that supports it.

Em-‘powering’ niche innovations: learning from cycling inequalities

ABSTRACT This paper aims to situate power in ‘niche innovations’ through an investigation of cycling inequalities in the city of Birmingham. Much research has focused on the sustainability and innovation potential of cycling. However, debates usually revolve around the power relations between cycling and the dominant automobility regime, thus ignoring the possible inequalities embedded within niches. This paper aims to contribute to such analyses by unfolding the multiple inequalities and relations of exclusion that can be embedded in the practice of cycling. Drawing on Mobilities research for the EPSRC Liveable Cities programme, it focuses on the car-dependent city of Birmingham, in order to explore cycling as a practice with various socio-material, infrastructural, political and economic entanglements that can embed, reproduce or generate new socio-spatial inequalities, processes of gentrification and immobilities. Through such analysis, this paper aims to situate power in examining niche innovations (see also). However, it also aims to underline that understanding and addressing such inequalities are central for not only locating cycling in the centre of developing a more sustainable mobility future, but also enabling a more sustainable future for cycling itself.

The pause/play button actor-network: lecture capture recordings and (re)configuring multi-spatial learning practices

ABSTRACTLecture recording is an increasingly common practice in UK universities, whereby audio, video, and multimedia content from lecture theatres can be captured and distributed online. Despite a large body of recent lecture capture literature, much of the empirical research adopts positivist paradigms, which overlooks the complex and unpredictable nature of teaching and learning. Addressing this knowledge gap, this exploratory case study adopts sociomaterial approaches, specifically perspectives from the domain of actor-network theory (ANT), to view learning technologies as complex assemblages involving heterogeneous human and non-human entities or actors.This paper explores the entanglements involved in enacting online pedagogy and learning across spatiotemporal dimensions using trace ethnography and visualisation mapping. Examining the student-led study practices revealed that multitasking and fluid task switching, between contrasting networks and spaces, was a significant activity during the playback of lecture recordings. Exploring an innocuous and ubiquitous practice, such as video pausing, affords nuanced perspectives into the sociomaterial entanglements involved in enacting study practices. Moreover, adopting multimodal sensitivities reveals how often overlooked modes, such as iconography, can become actors within an assemblage. This may offer new insights into how modes help produce or stabilise configurations and advance efforts in attending to the non-human within actor-networks.

Weird Exoskeletons: Propositional Politics and the Making of Home in Underground Bucharest

AbstractThe article explores the politics of life underground in Bucharest, Romania. It focuses on a tunnel passing under Bucharest's central train station, where a community of drug users and so‐called ‘homeless’ have made a long‐standing home, using a space that many others considered uninhabitable. Relying on extensive ethnographic observations and interviews undertaken within the tunnels, the article traces and illustrates the socio‐material entanglements characterizing life underground. It frames this assemblage of bodies, veins, syringes, substances and various relationships of power and affect, as a ‘propositional politics’ of home and life at the margins. Such a politics speaks of drug addiction and extreme marginalization, but also of a sense of belonging, reciprocal trust and care. In tracing such a politics, the article does not aim to romanticize the status of home in the underground or to treat it as the marginal antithesis of normative homeliness, but to reveal the ways in which an affirmative, self‐grounding politics of home emerges from the immanence of tunnel life within the fabric of the city. As such, the article contributes to debates around homing practices in conditions of uninhabitability and proposes a radical approach to the politics of life at the margins in the contemporary urban.

Sharing as sociomaterial practice: Car sharing and the material reconstitution of automobility

Sharing has become one of the buzzwords of contemporary urban life and scholarship, as cities and social lives are transformed by the share economy and collaborative consumption. This paper advances critical analysis of sharing economies through an investigation of the ways in which objects are mobilized in the practice of sharing. Drawing on an empirical base of 35 interviews conducted with Sydney residents using car sharing as a form of transport, we explicate the material entanglements that constitute car sharing in order to highlight the complex intersections of the object being shared, the constellations of objects brought into the orbit of the practice, and the code that flows through each. Bringing together a material-focused analysis into conversation with the concepts of share economies as both performed and hybrid, we advance the concepts of sharing as a set of socio-material entanglements. We argue that the divergent spatialities and temporalities of objects and humans both hold together and tear apart the experiences of sharing, which in turn underpins car sharing’s implications for the reconstitution of automobility.

Sociomaterial Quasi-objects: From Interface to Experience

In this paper, I examine design practices by contrasting the Cartesian view of separation with an ontological perspective and argue for a dynamic, multiple, and entangled world (namely, sociomateriality). In the digital era we live in, sociomateriality helps move design practices forward in order to embrace constant changes and re- configurations. The word interface manifests a worldview of separation. Researchers typically conceive an interface as belonging to an artifact; that is, the technology, the material. More so, [people] typically considers user interfaces as the layer that separates and connects the technology and the user, which enables interaction. I recognize the limitations of the well-established perspective of interface design and contrast two traditional HCI concepts (namely, usability and context) from a Cartesian versus a sociomaterial perspective. However, to embrace and capitalize on the emergent digital reality, we need a new vocabulary. I introduce helpful concepts that one can use when designing and talking about experiences, and I ground the concepts in a sociomaterial ontological perspective. The concepts and design approach presented in this paper invite and encourage researchers to focus on experiences as sociomaterial entanglements and re-configurations and not as separated social and material entities. By using Michel Serres’ (1980) term quasi-objects, I call attention to the complexity of sociomaterial entanglements that make up experiences and emphasize a holistic and inclusive design approach. In addition, introducing sociomaterial concepts, such as agential cuts and intra-actions, into the human-computer interaction domain invites researchers to think and act in new ways in the era of digitalized experiences. I examine the benefits of the sociomaterial design approach and present practical guidelines on how to approach experiential design with a sociomaterial take.

How material objects become urban things?

The purpose of this paper is to outline the qualities that objects must have to be suitable for urban theory; that is, for enabling urban theorists to better understand urban practices as socio-material entanglements. In doing so, I stress the importance of normative visions of the city that call for the critical import of assemblage and new materialism into a field that is constitutively concerned with values and differences. Objects are characterised as material relational entities and a series of concrete examples offer cues regarding ‘urban’ objects, enabling us to better understand urban practices as socio-material entanglements. The main claim is that urban theorists need to distinguish among objects in order to maintain their normative grip over the real world. They must resist radical ontological flatness and distinguish between objects that are capable of raising broader political concerns and others that are not.

A material politics of citizenship: the potential of circulating materials from UK Immigration Removal Centres

This paper introduces a materialist approach to Isin’s concept of ‘acts of citizenship’ to call for an attention to the lively and agential materials that mediate citizenship claims. It describes two ways in which materialism helps progress conceptualisations of citizenship. Firstly, it demonstrates the ways in which a materialist viewpoint forces a reconsideration of ‘acts of citizenship’ as undertaken by heterogeneous collectives, rather than them being the sole responsibility of human actors. Secondly, it suggests that, because acts of citizenship arise out of socio-material entanglements, they may exceed the apparent intentions of human subjects. This paper argues that materials are more than bystanders in claims to citizenship; they actively mediate and facilitate encounters through which political claims are made. This argument is developed through a detailed empirical study of the materials permitted to circulate from Immigration Removal Centres during a community exchange project organised by the charity Music in Detention.

White space and digital remediation of design practice in architecture: A case study of Frank O. Gehry

The digitalisation of architecture has intensified the entanglement of digital materiality and design practice due to the process of remediation, which comprises both conceptual and organisational processes. The analysis of remediation demonstrates the ways in which advanced technology enables architects to explore white spaces, defined as the open-ended, unmapped, in-between, and not yet realised territories of conceptual, organisational and physical spaces. Consequently, the process of remediation changes both design practices and the experience of physical spaces. This paper investigates the case of a leading architect, Frank O. Gehry, who has pioneered the digital remediation of architecture. The premise of this paper is that sociomaterial entanglement is an experience idiosyncratic to individual architects, who can escape the determinism of digital materiality by developing their unique digital tools. This paper also stresses the importance of power relations for the construction of digital materiality, which, in turn, influences design practices and innovation in architecture.

Modernizing the flow of blood: Biomedical technicians, working knowledge and the transformation of Swedish blood centre practices.

The early 1980s saw a 'paradigm change' in how donated blood was handled and used by blood centres, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. In Sweden, a five-year state-financed R&D programme initiated a swift modernization process, an alleged 'revolution' of existing blood centre practices. In this article, we use interviews and archival material to analyse the role of female biomedical technicians in this rapid technical and organizational change. In focus is their working knowledge, or savoir-faire, of blood, instruments and techniques. We give a detailed analysis of technicians' embrained and embodied skills to create safety in blood and its representations, handle contingencies and invent new procedures and techniques. These transformations are analysed as sociomaterial entanglements, where the doing and undoing of gender, sociomaterial practices, hierarchies of authority and expertise, and emotions are intertwined.

Strong versus Weak Sociomateriality

This rejoinder discusses the essay by Ramiller (2016) entitled "New Technology and the Post-human self: Rethinking Appropriation and Resistance" which aims at exploring the implications of a sociomaterial perspective for people's practical encounters with new information technologies. Our argument is based on our position within strong materiality, which in line with the essay acknowledges the materiality of the post-human self, but does not accept a dualist positon which separates the human and the technical, or as the author expresses it the 'user' and the 'system'. While we agree with the author that it is important to research how sociomaterial entanglements emerge and not just research those which exist, we maintain "strong" sociomateriality does not, as the author puts forward, represent an end point for the academic inquiry into IT appropriation, but indeed is a starting point.

The Intricacies of “Being Able to Work Undisturbed”: The Organization of Alluvial Gold Mining in Bolivia

ABSTRACTThis article on small-scale alluvial gold mining in Bolivia shows how cultural practices, social patterns, and institutions, policies and politics are connected to technologies, physical environments, infrastructure, and landscapes. It presents a detailed description of the techniques, material makeup, work organization, social organization, and the regional and national political setting of alluvial small-scale gold mining in northern Bolivia, and argues for an analytical approach that acknowledges the interlinking of sociocultural and physical dimensions. To do so, the article is built of scale-ascending sections: Starting with a detailed description of the micro-operations on the pontoons on which the work takes place, followed by a theoretical exploration of the idea of sociomaterial entanglements, the argument proceeds to address the relations between the “inhabitants” of the pontoons and the nearby village that is their home, the miners’ organization (a cooperative), and the more macro setting in which this cooperative developed. The titles of the sections therefore allude to increasingly large scales. The closing section merges the various scales and summarizes the argument.

Machine baptisms and heroes of the underground

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to apply the theory of sociomateriality to exhibit how the social and material are entangled and (re)configured over time and in practice in a particular organization of study.Design/methodology/approach– The authors conduct an ethnographic case study of the North-South metro line project in Amsterdam and use the methods of participant-observation, in-depth interviewing and a desk study.Findings– The authors showcase the process of sociomaterial entanglement by focussing on the history and context of the project, the agency and performativity of the material and sociomaterial (re)configuration via ritual performance. The authors found the notion of performativity not only concern the enactment of boundaries between the social and material, but also the blurring of such boundaries.Research limitations/implications– Sociomateriality theory remains difficult to grasp. The implication is the need to provide new lenses to engage this theory empirically.Practical implications– The authors provide a multi-layered lens for organization researchers to engage sociomateriality theory at a contextual, organizational and practice level.Social implications– Insights from a historical and contextual perspective can help practitioners to become aware of the diverse and dynamic ways in which social and material entities are entangled and (re)configured over time and in practice.Originality/value– The authors provide a unique empirical account to exhibit the entanglement and (re)configuration between the social and material in a particular organization of study. This paper studies a tangible organizational setting whereas prior research in sociomateriality mainly focussed on routines in IT and IS. Finally, the authors suggest the ethnographic method to study sociomaterial entanglement from a historical and contextual perspective.