digitalSTS: A Field Guide for Science & Technology Studies

Janet Vertesi; David Ribes

Book

digitalSTS

A Field Guide for Science & Technology Studies

Janet Vertesi and David Ribes
With contributions by: Laura Forlano , Alexandre Camus , Dominique Vinck , David Ribes , Nerea Calvillo , Daniela K. Rosner , Christina Dunbar-Hester , Xaroula (Charalampia) Kerasidou , Luke Stark , Stéphane Couture , Steven J. Jackson , Anita Say Chan , Camilla A. Hawthorne , Carla Ilten , Paul-Brian McInerney , David Nemer , Padma Chirumamilla , Winifred R. Poster , Steve Sawyer , Ingrid Erickson , Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi , Ranjit Singh , Chris Hesselbein , Jessica Price , Michael Lynch , Elena Parmiggiani , Eric Monteiro , Doris Allhutter , Brit Ross Winthereik , James Maguire , Laura Watts , Carl DiSalvo , Janet Vertesi , Guillaume Latzko-Toth , Johan Söderberg , Florence Millerand , Steve Jones , Nick Seaver , Marisa Leavitt Cohn , Yanni Loukissas , Daniel Cardoso Llach , Anders Kristian Munk , Axel Meunier , Tommaso Venturini , Juan Salamanca and Mathieu Jacomy

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2019

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About this book

New perspectives on digital scholarship that speak to today's computational realities

Scholars across the humanities, social sciences, and information sciences are grappling with how best to study virtual environments, use computational tools in their research, and engage audiences with their results. Classic work in science and technology studies (STS) has played a central role in how these fields analyze digital technologies, but many of its key examples do not speak to today’s computational realities. This groundbreaking collection brings together a world-class group of contributors to refresh the canon for contemporary digital scholarship.

In twenty-five pioneering and incisive essays, this unique digital field guide offers innovative new approaches to digital scholarship, the design of digital tools and objects, and the deployment of critically grounded technologies for analysis and discovery. Contributors cover a broad range of topics, including software development, hackathons, digitized objects, diversity in the tech sector, and distributed scientific collaborations. They discuss methodological considerations of social networks and data analysis, design projects that can translate STS concepts into durable scientific work, and much more.

Featuring a concise introduction by Janet Vertesi and David Ribes and accompanied by an interactive microsite, this book provides new perspectives on digital scholarship that will shape the agenda for tomorrow’s generation of STS researchers and practitioners.

Author / Editor information

Janet Vertesi is assistant professor of sociology at Princeton University and the author of Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams, and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars. David Ribes is associate professor in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering and director of the Data Ecologies Lab at the University of Washington.

Reviews

"Winner of the Olga Amsterdamska Award, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology"

"This delightful collection of thought-provoking essays, case studies, and research findings creates a coherent story out of the disparate threads that have helped animate digital science and technology studies. digitalSTS is an essential volume, helping junior scholars get their bearings while also enabling reflexivity among those deeply immersed in this field."—danah boyd, principal researcher at Microsoft Research, founder of Data & Society, and author of It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens

"A dazzling collection of STS writing and thinking—an indispensable handbook for the next generation of science and technology studies."—Paul N. Edwards, author of A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming

"Science and technology studies (STS) is one of the most exciting new interdisciplinary fields in the academy. This indispensable collection by leading young STS scholars examines digital technologies, methods, and networks. Global in scope, well-crafted with introductions to different sections, and brimming with deep insights, this timely book is set to become a classic."—Trevor Pinch, Cornell University

"This volume addresses the growing intersections of STS with sites and practices shaped by digital technologies, assembling a diverse but concentrated collection of researchers and approaches in a single source. It will be a tremendously valuable starting place for readers interested in the field and a continuing resource for research and teaching."—Lucy Suchman, Lancaster University, UK

Topics

General Interest

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface: The digitalSTS Community Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Materiality
Introduction Laura Forlano Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Unfolding Digital Materiality: How Engineers Struggle to Shape Tangible and Fluid Objects Alexandre Camus and Dominique Vinck Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
The Life and Death of Data Yanni Loukissas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
Materiality Methodology, and Some Tricks of the Trade in the Study of Data and Specimens David Ribes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Digital Visualizations for Thinking with the Environment Nerea Calvillo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
Gender
Introduction Daniela K. Rosner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
If “Diversity” Is the Answer, What Is the Question? Understanding Diversity Advocacy in Voluntaristic Technology Projects Christina Dunbar-Hester Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
Feminist STS and Ubiquitous Computing: Investigating the Nature of the “Nature” of Ubicomp Xaroula (Charalampia) Kerasidou Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
Affect and Emotion in digitalSTS Luke Stark Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
The Ambiguous Boundaries of Computer Source Code and Some of Its Political Consequences Stéphane Couture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
Global Inequalities
Introduction Steven J. Jackson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Venture Ed: Recycling Hype, Fixing Futures, and the Temporal Order of Edtech Anita Say Chan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Dangerous Networks: Internet Regulations as Racial Border Control in Italy Camilla A. Hawthorne Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	178
Social Movements and Digital Technology: A Research Agenda Carla Ilten and Paul-Brian McInerney Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	198
Living in the Broken City: Infrastructural Inequity, Uncertainty, and the Materiality of the Digital in Brazil David Nemer and Padma Chirumamilla Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
Sound Bites, Sentiments, and Accents: Digitizing Communicative Labor in the Era of Global Outsourcing Winifred R. Poster Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
Infrastructure
Introduction Janet Vertesi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Infrastructural Competence Steve Sawyer, Ingrid Erickson and Mohammad Hossein Jarrahi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Getting “There” from the Ever-Changing “Here”: Following Digital Directions Ranjit Singh, Chris Hesselbein, Jessica Price and Michael Lynch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	280
Digitized Coral Reefs Elena Parmiggiani and Eric Monteiro Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	300
Of “Working Ontologists” and “High-Quality Human Components”: The Politics of Semantic Infrastructures Doris Allhutter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	326
The Energy Walk: Infrastructuring the Imagination Brit Ross Winthereik, James Maguire and Laura Watts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	349
Software
Introduction Carl DiSalvo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	365
From Affordances to Accomplishments: PowerPoint and Excel at NASA Janet Vertesi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	369
Misuser Innovations: The Role of “Misuses” and “Misusers” in Digital Communication Technologies Guillaume Latzko-Toth, Johan Söderberg, Florence Millerand and Steve Jones Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	393
Knowing Algorithms Nick Seaver Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	412
Keeping Software Present: Software as a Timely Object for STS Studies of the Digital Marisa Leavitt Cohn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	423
Visualizing the Social
Introduction Yanni Loukissas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	447
Tracing Design Ecologies: Collecting and Visualizing Ephemeral Data as a Method in Design and Technology Studies Daniel Cardoso Llach Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	451
Data Sprints: A Collaborative Format in Digital Controversy Mapping Anders Kristian Munk, Axel Meunier and Tommaso Venturini Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	472
Smart Artifacts Mediating Social Viscosity Juan Salamanca Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	497
Actor-Network versus Network Analysis versus Digital Networks: Are We Talking about the Same Networks? Tommaso Venturini, Anders Kristian Munk and Mathieu Jacomy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	510
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	525
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	529
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	539

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

May 7, 2019

eBook ISBN:

9780691190600

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Main content:

568

Other:

75 b/w illus. 1 table. 4 maps.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691190600

eBook ISBN: 9780691190600

Keywords for this book

Technology; Infrastructure; Instance (computer science); Actor–network theory; Designer; Engineering; Website; Software; Scientist; Sociotechnical system; Narrative; Human–computer interaction; Ontology (information science); Database; Science; technology and society; Computer; Interaction; Collaboration; Information science; Computation; Digital media; Result; Sociology; Social relation; Social science; Requirement; Computer science; Digital data; Digital artifact; Social construction of technology; Uncertainty; Case study; Finding; Email; Computer scientist; Algorithm; Technoscience; Affordance; Surveillance; Employment; Customer; Participant; Information technology; Thought; Software system; Interaction design; Telecommunication; Theory; Design; Ubiquitous computing; Information infrastructure; User interface; Knowledge economy; Experiment; Spreadsheet; Machine learning; Ethnography; Governance; Educational technology; Suggestion; Calculation; Participant observation; Conceptualization (information science); Cyberinfrastructure; Publication; Rhetoric; Metadata; Cartography; New media; Feminist technoscience

Audience(s) for this book

College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;General/trade;

digitalSTS

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data