James Leach and Lee Wilson (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262027168
- eISBN:
- 9780262322492
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027168.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
Subversion, Conversion, Development explores alternative cultural encounters with and around information technologies, encounters that counter dominant, Western-oriented notions of media consumption. ...
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Subversion, Conversion, Development explores alternative cultural encounters with and around information technologies, encounters that counter dominant, Western-oriented notions of media consumption. We include media practices as forms of cultural resistance and subversion, ‘DIY cultures’, and other non-mainstream models of technology production and consumption. The contributors—leading thinkers in science and technology studies, anthropology, and software design—pay special attention to the specific inflections that different cultures and communities give to the value of knowledge. The richly detailed accounts presented challenge the dominant view of knowledge as a neutral good—that is, as information available for representation, encoding, and use outside social relations. Instead, we demonstrate the specific social and historical situation of all knowledge forms, and thus of the technological engagement with and communication of knowledges. The chapters examine specific cases in which forms of knowledge and cross-cultural encounter are shaping technology use and development. They consider design, use, and reuse of technological tools including databases, GPS devices, books, and computers, in locations that range from Australia and New Guinea to Germany and the United States. Contributors: Laura Watts, Gregers Petersen, Helen Verran, Michael Christie, Jerome Lewis, Hildegard Diemberger, Stephen Hugh-Jones, Alan Blackwell, Dawn Nafus, Lee Wilson, James Leach, Marilyn Strathern, David Turnbull, Wade Chambers.Less
Subversion, Conversion, Development explores alternative cultural encounters with and around information technologies, encounters that counter dominant, Western-oriented notions of media consumption. We include media practices as forms of cultural resistance and subversion, ‘DIY cultures’, and other non-mainstream models of technology production and consumption. The contributors—leading thinkers in science and technology studies, anthropology, and software design—pay special attention to the specific inflections that different cultures and communities give to the value of knowledge. The richly detailed accounts presented challenge the dominant view of knowledge as a neutral good—that is, as information available for representation, encoding, and use outside social relations. Instead, we demonstrate the specific social and historical situation of all knowledge forms, and thus of the technological engagement with and communication of knowledges. The chapters examine specific cases in which forms of knowledge and cross-cultural encounter are shaping technology use and development. They consider design, use, and reuse of technological tools including databases, GPS devices, books, and computers, in locations that range from Australia and New Guinea to Germany and the United States. Contributors: Laura Watts, Gregers Petersen, Helen Verran, Michael Christie, Jerome Lewis, Hildegard Diemberger, Stephen Hugh-Jones, Alan Blackwell, Dawn Nafus, Lee Wilson, James Leach, Marilyn Strathern, David Turnbull, Wade Chambers.
James Leach and Lee Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262027168
- eISBN:
- 9780262322492
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027168.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
Certain epistemologies, politics, and metaphysics are built into mass produced technological offerings. Apparently neutral seeming tools carry normative principles, and are built on unexamined ...
More
Certain epistemologies, politics, and metaphysics are built into mass produced technological offerings. Apparently neutral seeming tools carry normative principles, and are built on unexamined assumptions about social relations. This chapter argues for comprehending the situated-ness of design by attending to how these assumptions and interests are exposed by the use, and the repurposing, of technologies in differing social and historical situations. As many of the examples detailed in the volume refer to cross-cultural appropriations, subversions, or unexpected (re)-uses of technologies, we discuss the specific treatment of knowledge in different social and cultural contexts, and the effects of particular Euro-American assumptions about knowledge and communication on the design of ICTs. The chapter discusses the potential of anthropology and ethnography as modes of approaching and understanding the design and use of technologies, and makes a strong argument, through examples from Papua New Guinea and the US, for the specificity of technology and design as emergent in particular social relations and forms.Less
Certain epistemologies, politics, and metaphysics are built into mass produced technological offerings. Apparently neutral seeming tools carry normative principles, and are built on unexamined assumptions about social relations. This chapter argues for comprehending the situated-ness of design by attending to how these assumptions and interests are exposed by the use, and the repurposing, of technologies in differing social and historical situations. As many of the examples detailed in the volume refer to cross-cultural appropriations, subversions, or unexpected (re)-uses of technologies, we discuss the specific treatment of knowledge in different social and cultural contexts, and the effects of particular Euro-American assumptions about knowledge and communication on the design of ICTs. The chapter discusses the potential of anthropology and ethnography as modes of approaching and understanding the design and use of technologies, and makes a strong argument, through examples from Papua New Guinea and the US, for the specificity of technology and design as emergent in particular social relations and forms.
