Papers by Andrea Schikowitz
The Sociological Review
This article develops an empirically grounded frame for analysing varieties of alternativeness, u... more This article develops an empirically grounded frame for analysing varieties of alternativeness, using the case of such collaborative housing groups in Vienna (so-called Baugruppen) which aim to overcome the commodification of housing as well as the standardisation in social housing provision. Through experimenting with alternative ways of organising and living together they strive for social and political change. Taking inspiration from literature on commoning and alternative spaces, the article draws on French pragmatist sociology as well as post-actor-network theory (ANT) and assemblage approaches to focus on relational practices and different kinds of commonality as a basis for collective action. It analyses varieties of alternativeness as relational constellations by tracing how different groups compose commonality amongst each other, and how they relate to various actors. In doing so, it contributes to a situated understanding of the relations and relational practices that sust...
Science & Technology Studies
Living labs and Reallabore are policy attempts to provide infrastructures for societal transforma... more Living labs and Reallabore are policy attempts to provide infrastructures for societal transformation towards sustainability. They attempt to do so through facilitating experimental modes of societal learning and innovation in inter- and transdisciplinary environments. We suggest that building and maintaining such infrastructures includes simultaneously relying on continuity by following conventions of knowledge production and allowing for contingency as a resource for surprise. Both are necessary, inevitably prompting a “constitutive tension”. Based on a pilot study of two living labs on urban mobility in Austria, we ask how specific labs inscribe continuity and contingency into their infrastructures. Our analysis shows that the living labs attempted to connect to diverse communities, providing a source for contingency. At the same time, however, we observe a tendency to mitigate contingency when the production of outcomes is at risk. Based on the discussion of this exploratory cas...
Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience
This visual essay draws on an autoethnographic study to present snapshots of mundane academic pra... more This visual essay draws on an autoethnographic study to present snapshots of mundane academic practice during the pandemic, using these to reflect on care and care practices within academia. Our approach is inspired by a “pinboard” (Law 2007): we use an echo of the two-dimensional space the pinboard offers to present our material through logics of juxtaposition and resonance, rather than attempting to craft a linear argument.
Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook, 2021
Different contemporary developments are challenging the notion of a rather exclusive and lasting ... more Different contemporary developments are challenging the notion of a rather exclusive and lasting belonging of individual researchers to the one disciplinary community into which they had been socialised, to which they subsequently contribute, and which they reproduce. In turn, the very meaning of community is challenged when there is a perpetual exchange of community members. This chapter deals with how researchers with diverse and dynamic relations to different collectives develop a self-understanding of what it means to be a good researcher, i.e. what the normative ideals are that they should strive for. It is empirically analysed how researchers who engage in transdisciplinary research occasionally or regularly narrate, adopt, translate, resist, and combine the different imaginations of being a good researcher that they encounter. The sensitizing concept of ‘choreography’ is proposed to analyse the identity work done under conditions of multiple and flexible belongings that is he...
Bureaucracy and Society in Transition, Sep 27, 2018
Multiple shades of grey: Opening the black box of public sector executives' hybrid role identitie... more Multiple shades of grey: Opening the black box of public sector executives' hybrid role identities. Comparative Social Research, 33, 157-176.
Community and Identity in Contemporary Technosciences. Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook, 2021
Handbuch Transdisziplinäre Didaktik
Journal of Responsible Innovation
GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society
Science, Technology, & Human Values, 2016
GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society
Higher Education, 2013
Over past decades we have witnessed considerable debate questioning the capacity of contemporary ... more Over past decades we have witnessed considerable debate questioning the capacity of contemporary research to address the challenges posed by complex societal developments. As a consequence the need for rethinking cultures and practices of knowledge production has moved high on the policy agenda, in particular in areas like natural resource management or more broadly speaking sustainability issues. In this context transdisciplinarity has become one of the key-notions standing for more openness towards and engagement with non-scientific actors all along the process of knowledge production. While there is much debate on the broader issue and programmes are put in place little is known about the research realities in contexts where different kinds of actors -scientists and societal actors -are to be engaged in knowledge production. This paper will focus on early stage researchers and how they manage to reconcile the demands of transdisciplinarity with other normative demands in contemporary research such as accountability, mobility and the rigid "career-scripts" defining access to more stable positions. Using the concept of "epistemic living spaces", which addresses how researchers see their room for epistemic and social manoeuvre within research, the paper thus explores the possibilities and limits of contemporary research structures to accommodate this alternative way of producing knowledge and addresses issues of responsibility towards younger researchers.
The Journal of Deliberative Mechanisms in Science, 2012
If we take the rhetoric of recent academic and policy discourse at face value, crossing disciplin... more If we take the rhetoric of recent academic and policy discourse at face value, crossing disciplinary and institutional boundaries and engaging extra-scientific actors in the production and distribution of knowledge has become a kind of 'gold standard'. This is particularly true for fields like sustainability research, which is supposed to address the complexity of so-called 'grand challenges' of contemporary societies. Investigating the projects of a funding scheme for participatory sustainability research, this paper explores how researchers frame participatory research practices in their prospective narrations in research proposals and in their retrospective reflections in the framework of interviews. Thereby we focus on their stories about (1) the overall value of participation, (2) the roles allocated to different actors, (3) the temporal organization of participation as well as the (4) spatial dimension of collaboration. Building on this analysis, the paper concludes that even though participatory research programs create new possibilities, they remain limited in scope as they operate in an environment in which this kind of cross-boundary work does not fit the established standards. This strongly limits any form of "collective experimentation" and new ways of learning in sustainability research and beyond.
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Papers by Andrea Schikowitz