Using social media in the workplace raises a number of issues for any occupation. In this article... more Using social media in the workplace raises a number of issues for any occupation. In this article, we report the findings of a study that investigated how social media are used in a field of health work. The study uses semi-structured interviews conducted by telephone with 15 participants working in communicable disease in Australia. We identified several key features shaping the use of social media. These included the sociomaterial aspects of the workplace (to what extent employees were provided with access to and allowed to use the Internet), the affordances of social media technologies (fast and real-time communication and sharing, opportunities to easily connect with peers as well as the public, and the casual tone of interactions), tacit norms and assumptions about professional behavior and social media (whether social media are considered to be appropriate tools to use for work and how they should best be used), the specific nature of people’s work (how sensitive, stigmatized, contentious, or political were the diseases they focused on), and the nature of people’s own experiences (how other social media users responded to them, what value they perceived they gained from using social media for work, and the types of networks they were able to establish). The findings of this study highlight the importance of context when considering how people use social media in the workplace.
Introduction In this chapter, we report on how an interdisciplinary project – combining expertise... more Introduction In this chapter, we report on how an interdisciplinary project – combining expertise in science and technology studies (STS) and design – that explored, amongst other things, the ways in which community was 'made' through energy. Thinking of energy as a heterogeneous assemblage that entailed, in this instance, energy policy, funding opportunities, social and technological innovations, information flows, as well as the 'stuff' of energy (e.g. photons, electrons, ground heat, wind-power), we begin to trace the emergence of distinct 'communities' and their interrelations. However, we do not see this as a simple 'representational' project in which we charted this emergence. Rather, the research we conducted self-consciously contributed to this process of emergence. Indeed, we designed a technological device – the Energy Babble – to fold into this emergence, to interject a certain 'playfulness' that, hopefully, afforded this process of emergence new or unexpected avenues and openings. On this score, we see our methodology as performative. However, the performativity in which we have engaged is one that, rather than 'close down' the enactment of the social (the community) aspires to 'open up', or invent that 'social'.
ABSTRACT In this paper we examine the work of bioethics in the enactment of medically drugged bod... more ABSTRACT In this paper we examine the work of bioethics in the enactment of medically drugged bodies by focusing on the development of an oral pre-exposure chemo (drug) prophylaxis for preventing HIV, called PrEP. Our aim is to show how the operationalisation of bioethics to ...
ABSTRACT In this article we explore how two enactments of HIV – the UN’s AIDS Clock and clinical ... more ABSTRACT In this article we explore how two enactments of HIV – the UN’s AIDS Clock and clinical trials for an HIV biomedical prevention technology or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) – entail particular globalizing and localizing dynamics. Drawing on Latour’s and Whitehead’s concept of proposition, and Serres’ call for a philosophy of prepositions, we use the composite notion of pre/pro-positions to trace the shifting topological status of HIV. For example, we show how PrEP emerges through topological entwinements of globalizing biomedical standardization, localizing protests against PrEP trials and globalizing ethical principles. We go on to examine how our own analysis manifests a parallel topological pattern in which we deploy a globalizing argument about the localizing of the globalizing found in the AIDS Clock and the PrEP trails. Finally, we consider how the movement of ‘topology’ into the social sciences might itself benefit from a topological treatment.
Page 1. The Sacrifice How Scientific Experiments Transform Animals and People by Lynda Birke, Arn... more Page 1. The Sacrifice How Scientific Experiments Transform Animals and People by Lynda Birke, Arnold Arluke, and Mike Michael Purdue University Press Page 2. Page 3. The Sacrifice Page 4. New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond Alan M. Beck, series editor Page 5. ...
Abstract: This paper looks at the attitudes that scientists hold toward their use of animals, and... more Abstract: This paper looks at the attitudes that scientists hold toward their use of animals, and at some implications for the welfare of laboratory animals. The framework for this analysis is recent changes in the law regulating the use of animals in British science. We ...
The notion of the 'core set' usually refers to that group of scientists involved in the... more The notion of the 'core set' usually refers to that group of scientists involved in the eventual resolution of a given technical controversy. Drawing upon actor-network theory, we suggest that such core sets, especially at science/public interfaces, are, in fact, constituted from generalized ...
In this article, we sketch a ‘manifesto’ for the ‘public understanding of big data’. On the one h... more In this article, we sketch a ‘manifesto’ for the ‘public understanding of big data’. On the one hand, this entails such public understanding of science and public engagement with science and technology–tinged questions as follows: How, when and where are people exposed to, or do they engage with, big data? Who are regarded as big data’s trustworthy sources, or credible commentators and critics? What are the mechanisms by which big data systems are opened to public scrutiny? On the other hand, big data generate many challenges for public understanding of science and public engagement with science and technology: How do we address publics that are simultaneously the informant, the informed and the information of big data? What counts as understanding of, or engagement with, big data, when big data themselves are multiplying, fluid and recursive? As part of our manifesto, we propose a range of empirical, conceptual and methodological exhortations. We also provide Appendix 1 that outlines three novel methods for addressing some of the issues raised in the article.
Xenotransplantation (the transplantation of animal organs or tissues into humans), has been subje... more Xenotransplantation (the transplantation of animal organs or tissues into humans), has been subject to controversy from the outset. While debate rages as to its viability and efficacy, and serious concerns are expressed regarding, on the one hand, the medical risks that attach to it, and, on the other, animal welfare, less attention has been paid to the social implications of this biomedical innovation. This paper considers how advocates tacitly draw on a series of tropes that assume a particular unproblematic social future in which xenotransplantation is seen to operate seamlessly. By comparison, we explore the dystopic dimensions of this future – dimensions which include dramatically invasive forms of mass surveillance and discipline. Drawing on published material and interviews with various actors involved in the development, regulation and criticism of xenotransplantation, we unravel and critique the implicit ‘dys-tropes’ of the social and the self that underpin our projected xenotranplantational future.
This paper attends to the processes through which neuroscience and the neuro are enacted in a spe... more This paper attends to the processes through which neuroscience and the neuro are enacted in a specific context: a translational neuroscience research group that was the setting of an ethnographic study. The paper therefore provides a close-up perspective on the intersection of neuroscience and translational research. In the scientific setting we studied, the neuro was multiple and irreducible to any particular entity or set of practices across a laboratory and clinical divide. Despite this multiplicity, the group’s work was held together through the ‘promise of porosity’ – that one day there would be translation of lab findings into clinically effective intervention. This promise was embodied in the figure of the Group Leader whose expertise spanned clinical and basic neurosciences. This is theorized in terms of a contrast between cohesion and adhesion in interdisciplinary groupings. We end by speculating on the role of ‘vivification’ – in our case mediated by the Group Leader – in rendering ‘alive’ the expectations of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Using social media in the workplace raises a number of issues for any occupation. In this article... more Using social media in the workplace raises a number of issues for any occupation. In this article, we report the findings of a study that investigated how social media are used in a field of health work. The study uses semi-structured interviews conducted by telephone with 15 participants working in communicable disease in Australia. We identified several key features shaping the use of social media. These included the sociomaterial aspects of the workplace (to what extent employees were provided with access to and allowed to use the Internet), the affordances of social media technologies (fast and real-time communication and sharing, opportunities to easily connect with peers as well as the public, and the casual tone of interactions), tacit norms and assumptions about professional behavior and social media (whether social media are considered to be appropriate tools to use for work and how they should best be used), the specific nature of people’s work (how sensitive, stigmatized, contentious, or political were the diseases they focused on), and the nature of people’s own experiences (how other social media users responded to them, what value they perceived they gained from using social media for work, and the types of networks they were able to establish). The findings of this study highlight the importance of context when considering how people use social media in the workplace.
Introduction In this chapter, we report on how an interdisciplinary project – combining expertise... more Introduction In this chapter, we report on how an interdisciplinary project – combining expertise in science and technology studies (STS) and design – that explored, amongst other things, the ways in which community was 'made' through energy. Thinking of energy as a heterogeneous assemblage that entailed, in this instance, energy policy, funding opportunities, social and technological innovations, information flows, as well as the 'stuff' of energy (e.g. photons, electrons, ground heat, wind-power), we begin to trace the emergence of distinct 'communities' and their interrelations. However, we do not see this as a simple 'representational' project in which we charted this emergence. Rather, the research we conducted self-consciously contributed to this process of emergence. Indeed, we designed a technological device – the Energy Babble – to fold into this emergence, to interject a certain 'playfulness' that, hopefully, afforded this process of emergence new or unexpected avenues and openings. On this score, we see our methodology as performative. However, the performativity in which we have engaged is one that, rather than 'close down' the enactment of the social (the community) aspires to 'open up', or invent that 'social'.
ABSTRACT In this paper we examine the work of bioethics in the enactment of medically drugged bod... more ABSTRACT In this paper we examine the work of bioethics in the enactment of medically drugged bodies by focusing on the development of an oral pre-exposure chemo (drug) prophylaxis for preventing HIV, called PrEP. Our aim is to show how the operationalisation of bioethics to ...
ABSTRACT In this article we explore how two enactments of HIV – the UN’s AIDS Clock and clinical ... more ABSTRACT In this article we explore how two enactments of HIV – the UN’s AIDS Clock and clinical trials for an HIV biomedical prevention technology or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) – entail particular globalizing and localizing dynamics. Drawing on Latour’s and Whitehead’s concept of proposition, and Serres’ call for a philosophy of prepositions, we use the composite notion of pre/pro-positions to trace the shifting topological status of HIV. For example, we show how PrEP emerges through topological entwinements of globalizing biomedical standardization, localizing protests against PrEP trials and globalizing ethical principles. We go on to examine how our own analysis manifests a parallel topological pattern in which we deploy a globalizing argument about the localizing of the globalizing found in the AIDS Clock and the PrEP trails. Finally, we consider how the movement of ‘topology’ into the social sciences might itself benefit from a topological treatment.
Page 1. The Sacrifice How Scientific Experiments Transform Animals and People by Lynda Birke, Arn... more Page 1. The Sacrifice How Scientific Experiments Transform Animals and People by Lynda Birke, Arnold Arluke, and Mike Michael Purdue University Press Page 2. Page 3. The Sacrifice Page 4. New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond Alan M. Beck, series editor Page 5. ...
Abstract: This paper looks at the attitudes that scientists hold toward their use of animals, and... more Abstract: This paper looks at the attitudes that scientists hold toward their use of animals, and at some implications for the welfare of laboratory animals. The framework for this analysis is recent changes in the law regulating the use of animals in British science. We ...
The notion of the 'core set' usually refers to that group of scientists involved in the... more The notion of the 'core set' usually refers to that group of scientists involved in the eventual resolution of a given technical controversy. Drawing upon actor-network theory, we suggest that such core sets, especially at science/public interfaces, are, in fact, constituted from generalized ...
In this article, we sketch a ‘manifesto’ for the ‘public understanding of big data’. On the one h... more In this article, we sketch a ‘manifesto’ for the ‘public understanding of big data’. On the one hand, this entails such public understanding of science and public engagement with science and technology–tinged questions as follows: How, when and where are people exposed to, or do they engage with, big data? Who are regarded as big data’s trustworthy sources, or credible commentators and critics? What are the mechanisms by which big data systems are opened to public scrutiny? On the other hand, big data generate many challenges for public understanding of science and public engagement with science and technology: How do we address publics that are simultaneously the informant, the informed and the information of big data? What counts as understanding of, or engagement with, big data, when big data themselves are multiplying, fluid and recursive? As part of our manifesto, we propose a range of empirical, conceptual and methodological exhortations. We also provide Appendix 1 that outlines three novel methods for addressing some of the issues raised in the article.
Xenotransplantation (the transplantation of animal organs or tissues into humans), has been subje... more Xenotransplantation (the transplantation of animal organs or tissues into humans), has been subject to controversy from the outset. While debate rages as to its viability and efficacy, and serious concerns are expressed regarding, on the one hand, the medical risks that attach to it, and, on the other, animal welfare, less attention has been paid to the social implications of this biomedical innovation. This paper considers how advocates tacitly draw on a series of tropes that assume a particular unproblematic social future in which xenotransplantation is seen to operate seamlessly. By comparison, we explore the dystopic dimensions of this future – dimensions which include dramatically invasive forms of mass surveillance and discipline. Drawing on published material and interviews with various actors involved in the development, regulation and criticism of xenotransplantation, we unravel and critique the implicit ‘dys-tropes’ of the social and the self that underpin our projected xenotranplantational future.
This paper attends to the processes through which neuroscience and the neuro are enacted in a spe... more This paper attends to the processes through which neuroscience and the neuro are enacted in a specific context: a translational neuroscience research group that was the setting of an ethnographic study. The paper therefore provides a close-up perspective on the intersection of neuroscience and translational research. In the scientific setting we studied, the neuro was multiple and irreducible to any particular entity or set of practices across a laboratory and clinical divide. Despite this multiplicity, the group’s work was held together through the ‘promise of porosity’ – that one day there would be translation of lab findings into clinically effective intervention. This promise was embodied in the figure of the Group Leader whose expertise spanned clinical and basic neurosciences. This is theorized in terms of a contrast between cohesion and adhesion in interdisciplinary groupings. We end by speculating on the role of ‘vivification’ – in our case mediated by the Group Leader – in rendering ‘alive’ the expectations of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Introduction In this chapter, we report on how an interdisciplinary project – combining expertise... more Introduction In this chapter, we report on how an interdisciplinary project – combining expertise in science and technology studies (STS) and design – that explored, amongst other things, the ways in which community was 'made' through energy. Thinking of energy as a heterogeneous assemblage that entailed, in this instance, energy policy, funding opportunities, social and technological innovations, information flows, as well as the 'stuff' of energy (e.g. photons, electrons, ground heat, wind-power), we begin to trace the emergence of distinct 'communities' and their interrelations. However, we do not see this as a simple 'representational' project in which we charted this emergence. Rather, the research we conducted self-consciously contributed to this process of emergence. Indeed, we designed a technological device – the Energy Babble – to fold into this emergence, to interject a certain 'playfulness' that, hopefully, afforded this process of emergence new or unexpected avenues and openings. On this score, we see our methodology as performative. However, the performativity in which we have engaged is one that, rather than 'close down' the enactment of the social (the community) aspires to 'open up', or invent that 'social'.
This is the story of a set of computational devices called Energy Babbles. The product of a colla... more This is the story of a set of computational devices called Energy Babbles. The product of a collaboration between designers and STS researchers, Energy Babbles are like automated talk radios obsessed with energy. Synthesised voices, punctuated by occasional jingles, recount energy policy announcements, remarks about energy conservation made on social media, information about current energy demand and production, and comments entered by other Babble users.
Developed for members of UK community groups working to promote sustainable energy practices, the Energy Babbles were designed to reflect the complex situations they navigate, to provide information and encourage communication, and to help shed light on their engagements with energy policy and practice. This book tells the story of the Babbles from a mix of design and STS perspectives, suggesting how design may benefit from the perspectives of STS, and how STS may take an interventionist, design-led approach to the study of emerging technological issues.
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Papers by Mike Michael
that investigated how social media are used in a field of health work. The study uses semi-structured interviews conducted by
telephone with 15 participants working in communicable disease in Australia. We identified several key features shaping the
use of social media. These included the sociomaterial aspects of the workplace (to what extent employees were provided with
access to and allowed to use the Internet), the affordances of social media technologies (fast and real-time communication
and sharing, opportunities to easily connect with peers as well as the public, and the casual tone of interactions), tacit norms
and assumptions about professional behavior and social media (whether social media are considered to be appropriate
tools to use for work and how they should best be used), the specific nature of people’s work (how sensitive, stigmatized,
contentious, or political were the diseases they focused on), and the nature of people’s own experiences (how other social
media users responded to them, what value they perceived they gained from using social media for work, and the types of
networks they were able to establish). The findings of this study highlight the importance of context when considering how
people use social media in the workplace.
that investigated how social media are used in a field of health work. The study uses semi-structured interviews conducted by
telephone with 15 participants working in communicable disease in Australia. We identified several key features shaping the
use of social media. These included the sociomaterial aspects of the workplace (to what extent employees were provided with
access to and allowed to use the Internet), the affordances of social media technologies (fast and real-time communication
and sharing, opportunities to easily connect with peers as well as the public, and the casual tone of interactions), tacit norms
and assumptions about professional behavior and social media (whether social media are considered to be appropriate
tools to use for work and how they should best be used), the specific nature of people’s work (how sensitive, stigmatized,
contentious, or political were the diseases they focused on), and the nature of people’s own experiences (how other social
media users responded to them, what value they perceived they gained from using social media for work, and the types of
networks they were able to establish). The findings of this study highlight the importance of context when considering how
people use social media in the workplace.
Developed for members of UK community groups working to promote sustainable energy practices, the Energy Babbles were designed to reflect the complex situations they navigate, to provide information and encourage communication, and to help shed light on their engagements with energy policy and practice. This book tells the story of the Babbles from a mix of design and STS perspectives, suggesting how design may benefit from the perspectives of STS, and how STS may take an interventionist, design-led approach to the study of emerging technological issues.