Social Practices and Dynamic Non-Humans

Description

The robots are coming! So too is the ‘age of automation’, the march of ‘invasive’ species, more intense natural disasters, and a potential cataclysm of other unprecedented events and phenomena of which we do not yet know, and cannot predict. This book is concerned with how to account for these non-humans and their effects within theories of social practice. In particular, this provocative collection tackles contemporary debates about the roles, relations and agencies of constantly changing, disruptive, intelligent or otherwise 'dynamic' non-humans, such as weather, animals and automated devices. In doing so contributors challenge and take forward existing understandings of dynamic non-humans in theories of social practice by reconsidering their potential roles in everyday life. The book will benefit sociology, geography, science and technology studies, and human- (and animal-) computer interaction design scholars seeking to make sense of the complex entanglement of non-human phenomena and things in the performance of social practices. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Dynamic Non-humans in a Changing World (Yolande Strengers, Cecily Maller)....Pages 1-21 Front Matter ....Pages 23-23 Thriving in the Anthropocene: Understanding Human-Weed Relations and Invasive Plant Management Using Theories of Practice (Jennifer Atchison)....Pages 25-46 Seeing Wood for the Trees: Placing Biological Processes Within Practices of Heating and Harvesting (Jenny Rinkinen)....Pages 47-62 ‘Dynamic’ Non-human Animals in Theories of Practice: Views from the Subaltern (Paula Arcari)....Pages 63-86 Dynamic Bodies in Theories of Social Practice: Vibrant Materials and More-than-Human Assemblages (Cecily Maller)....Pages 87-107 Mobile Drinking: Bottled Water Practices and Ontological Politics (Gay Hawkins)....Pages 109-128 Immersed in Thermal Flows: Heat as Productive of and Produced by Social Practices (Elspeth Oppermann, Gordon Walker)....Pages 129-148 Front Matter ....Pages 149-149 Displacement: Attending to the Role of Things in Theories of Practice Through Design Research (Ron Wakkary, Sabrina Hauser, Doenja Oogjes)....Pages 151-171 How Software Matters: Connective Tissue and Self-Driving Cars (Janine Morley)....Pages 173-192 Automated Artefacts as Co-performers of Social Practices: Washing Machines, Laundering and Design (Lenneke Kuijer)....Pages 193-214 Robots and Roomba Riders: Non-human Performers in Theories of Social Practice (Yolande Strengers)....Pages 215-234 Automation, Smart Homes and Symmetrical Anthropology: Non-humans as Performers of Practices? (Kirsten Gram-Hanssen)....Pages 235-253 Back Matter ....Pages 255-264