105 research outputs found
Techno Anthropology:A new move in science and technology studies
Get PDFInaugural lecture, Ph.D Torben Elgaard Jensen, professor with special responsibilities in techno anthropology and science and technology studies. The lecture addresses three questions: First, what is the unique approach that STS developed in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s? Second, what is the significance of the enormous growth of STS scholarship that took place in the following 2-3 decades? And third, what are the challenges today for an STS field that has come of age? Finally, the lecture offers reflections on the promises of the new techno anthropology study programme
Straddling, Betting and Passing:The configuration of user involvement in cross-sectorial innovation projects
No full textBruno Latour:Hybride tanker i en hybrid verden
No full textDenne bog er en introduktion til den franske sociolog og filosof Bruno Latour. Bogen er en indføring i Latours forfatterskab og de discipliner, han har beskæftiget sig med og medvirket til at udvikle – f.eks. STS (Science, Technology, Society) og ANT (aktør-netværks-teori). Bogen tager afsæt i en af Latours grundlæggende antagelser, nemlig at det ikke giver mening at betragte natur og kultur som adskilte fænomener – hvilket ikke desto mindre ofte bliver gjort. Denne antagelse har vigtige konsekvenser inden for f.eks. natur- og samfundsvidenskaberne, fordi de objekter, man arbejder med, hverken kan betragtes som helt igennem naturlige eller socialt konstruerede. Tværtimod må vi ifølge Latour anerkende, at fænomener som ”videnskabelige kendsgerninger” og ”samfundsmæssig orden” opstår i et komplekst netværk, hvor naturlige og kulturelle elementer væver sig ind i hinanden. Opgaven bliver her at identificere disse netværk og rekonstruere deres måder at opstå på. Bruno Latour er i dag en af Europas mest nyskabende og indflydelsesrige socialteoretikere, og denne bog er den første danske introduktion til hans forfatterskab og analysemetode. Anders Blok er ph.d.-studerende på Institut for Sociologi, Københavns Universitet. For tiden er han gæsteforsker på Harvard University, USA. Torben Elgaard Jensen er lektor ved Institut for Planlægning, Innovation og Ledelse, DTU
The Algorithm Game: A study of how danish students perceive and navigate algorithms on short video platforms
No full textThis thesis explores how Danish high school students experience and interpret algorithms on short video platforms, as well as how they perceive and attempt to influence both the videos they are shown and their own engagement with the platforms. Guided by a phenomenological approach, this study uses ethnographic methods, including mobile ethnography and interviews, to collect empirical data from six Danish high school students. The theoretical framework was derived from Science, Technology, Society studies, in particular the concept of multistability and intentionality from postphenomenology as well as blackboxing and programs & anti-programs from Actor-Network-Theory. Grounded Theory inspired an inductive and iterative approach to processing data. The findings show that the students have varying degrees of algorithmic awareness, and their knowledge is primarily shaped by personal experience rather than formal education. They primarily use short video platforms for entertainment, relaxation and passing time, but often describe the experience as unproductive or emotionally draining, especially after prolonged sessions. The students often engage with short videos impulsively, without consciously deciding to, and occasionally lose track of time and place while scrolling. The students attempt to manage their usage through various strategies with varying success, and their ability to do so depends on factors such as self-discipline, time of day, and social environment. Students actively attempt to influence their content feeds through actions such as liking, commenting, and following. They are aware that the algorithm recommends videos based on their interactions, generally sharing similar ideas although having differing views on specific actions that the algorithm reacts to. Most students view algorithms critically, acknowledging their persuasive power and potential risk of creating echo chambers
The politics of user friendly: A Techno-Anthropological investigation of the role(s) of UX in cultivating infrastructure in a Danish medical company
No full textThis thesis sets out to explore the role(s) of UX in the development and establishment of information infrastructure in DMC, a Danish pharmaceutical company. UX professionals constitute an important link between technology and users, yet the prevalent framing of UX work seems to reduce it to a straightforward, mechanical, and uncomplicated endeavor. With infrastructure studies as our analytical lens, we challenge this impression and examine more closely the infrastructuring work carried out by UX professionals as they contribute to the complex socio-technical task of cultivating working infrastructures. Conceptualizing infrastructure as a complex actor-network encompassing a plethora of heterogenous actors, the thesis employs the notion of infrastructural inversion to explore the practical-political process of establishing an information infrastructure in DMC and investigates the ‘battles’ taking place in the process. Based on our analysis, we identify four roles enacted by the UX team. First, they act as a rescue team, summoned to repair infrastructural breakdowns. As negotiators, they build and negotiate relations between different configurations of human and non-human actors, often with the aim of helping users appropriate less-than-optimal infrastructure. As strategists, they employ tactics to maximize the impact on their work and intervene in change initiatives to fend off infrastructural crises. Finally, they engage in activist work to establish UX as a ‘golden standard’ in infrastructural change processes. Based on these roles, we argue that UX professionals can act as central change agents in the establishment and cultivation of infrastructure, and we suggest that foregrounding and leveraging these ‘invisible’ modes of infrastructuring work can potentially lead to more effective and inclusive infrastructural change processes
Giving (re)birth to a digital maternity record: An ethnographic study of vulnerability, care practice, and technology
No full textExpedition hidden things: A techno-anthropological study of scientific practice, technological experimenting and knowledge production on a scientific research expedition
No full textEt forskningsskib stævner ud fra Grønlands kyst d. 10.10.2013 på ekspedition for at undersøge, hvordan gasser udveksles mellem havet og atmosfæren. Det store spørgsmål er, hvordan koncentrationerne af gas i atmosfæren forandrer sig i storme på over 15 m/s. Hvordan det praktisk skal være muligt at måle koncentrationerne af disse gasser, der gemmer sig i vandet og luften, når bølgerne er op til 15 meter høje, er det andet store spørgsmål. Forskerne har dog væbnet sig med både gamle metoder, som de ved virker ved de lave vindstyrker, og nye metoder og instrumenter, der er bygget til formålet, og som skal stå deres prøve. Ekspeditionens deltagere består af 11 forskere, 24 besætningsmedlemmer og 1 tekno-antropologistuderende, som sammen har knap 6 ugers sejlads foran sig, hvor de skal jagte storme.Spoler vi tiden tilbage til august 2013, sad jeg (føromtalte tekno-antropologistuderende) og skrev mails til diverse forskningsinstitutioner, der arrangerer videnskabelige ekspeditioner, for at få plads på et skib, således at jeg kunne udføre et studie af denne form for forskning. Mit incitament var fornemmelsen af, at den videnskabelige ekspedition var blevet overset i Science and Technology-Studies (STS), som ellers har studeret flere tekno-videnskabelige sites. Antropologier af ekspeditioner har ofte haft til formål at analysere, hvordan forskere beviste deres passion for videnskab ved at tage ud i ekstremer med risiko for sygdom og død, for at få sig et omdømme og opnå opmærksomhed og opbakning omkring deres forskning. Disse etnografier har dog ofte handlet om antropologers egne felt-ekspeditioner (fx klassikeren om Bronislaw Malinowskis oplevelser på Trobrianderne (Malinowski 1961)). Et par uger inde i august lykkedes det mig at få adgang til felten; en ekspeditionskoordinator fra University-National Ocenaographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) fandt en plads til mig på en ekspedition til Nordatlanten med skibet R/V Knorr på forskningsprojektet HiWinGS, som var et forskningsprojekt om klimamodeller og gasudveksling mellem havet og atmosfæren. Der var en ledig køje, så hvis forskningslederen, Byron, ville lade mig deltage, var den hjemme. Jeg skrev til ham, og det var i orden. Min ambition i dette speciale er at argumentere for, at man ser den videnskabelige ekspedition som et særligt forskningsmæssigt site, hvor der gælder andre regler og praksisser end andre sites.Exploring the scientific expedition – reflections of hidden work and hidden actors in scientific productionScience studies have often been equated with the study of one particular site, namely the laboratory. Science studies scholars are clearly well aware that other locations such as conferences, journals, expeditions or lecture halls play important roles, but science studies nevertheless tend to be written from the perspective of the laboratory. The purpose of this paper is to explore scientific practices from the perspective of a less described site of science, namely the expedition. The paper is based on a six-week anthropological study conducted onboard a research vessel crossing the North Atlantic. The study follows the hidden and unmanageable objects of the expedition, such as gas in the atmosphere and the ocean, bubbles, storms and climate. It also accounts for the various types of expected and unexpected work and collaboration that takes place between participating scientist and the vessel staff. In more general terms, the study explores the types of work and relations that are established on board the vessel and in relation to non-present scientific sites, such as the home laboratory and the future conferences. On this basis, the study reflects on the topology of the scientific expedition and on the relation between practices and actors that are sometimes hiding and sometimes visible. I conclude that the scientific expedition is a techno-scientific site that has to be explored neither as an experiment nor a laboratory nor a fieldtrip but in its own right. Key words: scientific expedition, hidden practices, hidden actors, anti-translation, association collective, validation, instrumental alliance
An investigation of how Standard Operating Procedures are practiced in Novo Nodisk DFP Bagværd
No full textThe Fablab - The New and The Old Laboratory
No full textFablabs og makerbevægelsen har i de seneste år fået en del opmærksomhed, både i offentligheden, medierne og akademiske kredse. Specielt fablabs, som digitale fabrikationslaboratorier har vundet momentum og spreder sig i øjeblikket ud over hele verden med stor succes. Disse værksteder eksisterer som kreative samlingspunkter for folk der ønsker at skabe fysiske produkter ud fra deres ideer ved hjælp af højteknologiske fabrikationsmaskiner.Dette speciale bygger på en undren omkring hvorfor fablabs har valgt at bruge laboratoriebegrebet og undersøger derfor hvordan et fablab kan forstås som et laboratorium i lyset af teori om det naturvidenskabelige laboratorium indenfor det videnskabelige område Science and Technology Studies (STS).Den empiriske undersøgelse er udført som et etnografisk feltstudie på et specifikt fablab, Fablab Nordvest, beliggende i Københavnsområdet. Den følgende analyse tager udgangspunkt i nøglebegreber i laboratoriestudierne fra STS feltet i en analysestruktur der følger den sekventielle proces i et naturvidenskabelige laboratorium fra input til transformation og output for at forstå processerne der finder sted i et fablab.Fra den efterfølgende diskussion af hvordan fablab’et kan ses som et laboratorium i forhold til det klassiske naturvidenskabelige laboratorium kan det konkluderes at selvom de to laboratorier har mange ligheder er de også fundamentalt forskellige. De adskiller sig fra hinanden i forhold til hvilket output de producere og hvad deres generelle intentioner er, og som følge deraf er også de interne processer struktureret forskelligt.Fablab’et kan med sin diverse og eksperimenterende tilgang modsat det naturvidenskabelige laboratorium der fokuserer på produktion af videnskabelige artikler igennem en videnskabelig proces, ses som en nyfortolket udgave at det klassiske laboratorium. Denne nye type laboratorium er kalibreret til nutiden og specielt makerbevægelsen der har som mål at omdanne ideer til konkrete fysiske produkter.Fablabs and the maker movement have in recent years received a great deal of attention from the public, media and in academia. Fablabs as laboratories for digital fabrication are gaining momentum and successfully spreading across the world. These workshops exists as creative hubs where people can realise their ideas into physical products with high-tech fabrication machines.This thesis is based on a wonder about why fablabs have chosen to use the laboratory notion and hence it is investigated how fablabs can by seen as laboratories when applying theory about the natural scientific laboratory derived from Science and Technology Studies (STS).The empirical investigation is realised through an ethnographic field study of a designated fablab, Fablab Nordvest, located in the metropolitan area of Copenhagen. The further analysis of the empirical data applies key approaches from previous laboratory studies from the field of STS in a framework consisting of a sequential progression of inputs, transformations and outputs in the natural scientific laboratory to further understand fablab processes.From the subsequent discussion of how the fablab can be seen as a laboratory in relation to the classic laboratory in natural science it is concluded that the two laboratories although having some similarities also are fundamentally different. They differ in relation to outputs and their general intentions and hence also the structure of the internal processes.The fablab as a diverse and experimental laboratory can contrary to the natural scientific laboratory that focuses on production of scientific articles through concrete scientific procedures be viewed as a new version of the classic laboratory. This new type of laboratory is a laboratory calibrated for modern times and especially the interests of the maker movement that seek to realise their ideas into concrete physical products
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