Description
Book SynopsisThe 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.
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Dynamic non-humans in a changing worldPART I: Nature, materiality and processesChapter 2 Thriving in the Anthropocene: understanding human-weed relations and invasive plant management using theories of practiceChapter 3 Seeing wood for the trees: placing biological processes within practices of heating and harvestingChapter 4 ‘Dynamic’ non-human animals in theories of practice: views from the subalternChapter 5 Dynamic bodies in theories of social practice: vibrant materials and more-than-human assemblagesChapter 6 Mobile drinking – bottled water practices and ontological politicsChapter 7 Immersed in thermal flows: heat as productive of and produced by social practicesPART II: Technologies, automation and performativityChapter 8 Displacement: attending to the role of things in theories of practice through design researchChapter 9 How software matters: connective tissue and self-driving carsChapter 10 Automated artefacts as co-performers of social practices: washing machines, laundering and designChapter 11 Robots and Roomba riders: non-human performers in theories of social practiceChapter 12 Automation, smart homes and symmetrical anthropology: non-humans as performers of practices?.
