Entering a Risky Territory: Space in the Age of Digital Navigation

November, Valérie; Camacho-Hübner, Eduardo; Latour, Bruno

doi:10.1068/d10409

Cited by 130 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 58 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Online applications for data analysis and visualisation, that is, enable dynamic, and arguably 'topological' renderings of controversy (November and Latour, 2010;Scharnhorst and Wouters, 2006 (Callon et al, 1983;Leydersdorff, 1996). In order to map the 'frame expansions' on technology occurring in controversies, they produced visualisations of the unfolding relations between heterogeneous actors and terms caught up in public controversy.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

On Some Uses and Abuses of Topology in the Social Analysis of Technology (Or the Problem with Smart Meters)

Marres

2012

Theory, Culture & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines different ways in which topological ideas can be used to analyse technology in social terms, arguing that we must become more discerning and demanding as to the limits and possibilities of topological analysis than used to be necessary. Topological framings of technology and society are increasingly widespread, and in this context, it becomes necessary to consider topology not just as a theory to be adopted, but equally as a device that is deployed in social life in a variety of ways. Digital technologies require special attention in this regard: on the one hand, these technologies have made it possible for a topological imagination of technology and society to become more widely adopted; on the other hand, they have also enabled a weak form of topological imagination to proliferate, one that leaves in place old, deterministic ideas about technology as a principal driver of social change. Turning to an empirical case, that of smart electricity metering, the article investigates how topological approaches enable both limited and rigorous 'expansions of the frame' on technology. In some cases, topology is used to imagine technology as a dynamic, heterogeneous arrangement, but 'the primacy of technology' is maintained. In other cases a topological approach is used to bring into view much more complex relations between technological and societal change. The article ends with an exploration of the topological devices that are today deployed to render relations between technological and social change more complexly, such as the online visualisation tool of tag clouding. I propose that such a topological device enables an empirical mode of critique: here, topology does not just help to make the point of the mutual entanglement of the social and the technical, but helps to dramatize the contingent, dynamic and non-coherent unfolding of issues IntroductionIt is hard to overestimate the importance of topology, loosely defined, to the development of social studies of technology in recent decades. Topological ideas have been a significant source of inspiration for several different approaches, and can be recognized in the idea of the inter-relatedness of technology and society.These approaches have done much to help dismantle the idea that technology and society occupy different domains. Thus, now classic contributions to the social studies of technology have proposed the concept of a hybrid network, or heterogeneous 'assemblage', which is variously composed of social, technical and natural entities, as our best chance at understanding the role of technology in social life (Callon, Law and Rip, 1986;Latour, 1988;Haraway, 1994). These studies reference uses of topology in the sciences, from mathematics to theoretical physics, in particular the analytic category of 'entities-in-relation', proposing that social studies of technology should follow these other fields: they too should adopt this topological notion as their primary category of analysis.But something seems to have changed, which req...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

On Some Uses and Abuses of Topology in the Social Analysis of Technology (Or the Problem with Smart Meters)

Marres

2012

Theory, Culture & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Instead, one has to navigate through successive signposts using interactive devices. This can be explained further by following critical cartography, and by turning to a navigational approach to the understanding of maps that is fundamentally different with regard to its notion of representation (NOVEMBER et al 2010). This puts an emphasis on a constructivist approach to map theory echoing de Certeau and Lefebvre who consider space not as fixed, but as the outcome of a negotiation process between naturalising strategies and opposing tactics (FINK 2012).…”

Section: What Does Technology Do?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…And nowadays the cartographic image is just one visualisation among many. For example, while planning a route or navigating through space printing out a map remains one option, using a list of directives poses another (NOVEMBER et al 2010). This goes along with the challenge to extend the view on map use by general questions concerning the broader institutional culture of geomedia.…”

Section: From Isolated Tests To Situated Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Uses of Geomedia: An Object-Centered and Situated Approach

Abend¹

2013

GI_Forum 2013 – Creating the GISociety

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Media rich geographical environments and mobile Geomedia are suspected to change the way we encounter cartographic material. Thereby, commercial geomedia such as Google Earth promise to work as devices that not only facilitate the access to geographical material, but provide interactive platforms that makes it easier to handle and comprehend spatial relationships, and, at the same time, reconfigure our understanding of space and location. The paper argues that these developments demand an overall shift from the fixed functional approach of map use studies to a more dynamic view on geomedia usage that becomes inevitable through new practices such as geobrowsing. This claim is reviewed, drawing on Science and Technology Studies, and, in particular their research branch Actor-Network-Theory, to give further insights in the handling of geomedia, against the backdrop of the sociotechnical context in which the objects influence our everyday encounters with the outside world.

show abstract

“…November et al 2010). Digital map users are not just reading maps, but are also to a far greater extent constantly influencing the shape and look of the map itself.…”

Section: Where Was I?mentioning

confidence: 99%