Search Results (14)

Since architectural education has been integrated into academic campuses, the design studio has become its most prominent pedagogical approach. However, in the last three decades, advances in computer-aided design (CAD) and online communication led to the development of virtual design studio (VDS) formats, which gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic. VDS and physical design studio (PDS) are characterized by different sociomaterial environments, each offering unique learning opportunities. This study examines how these environments influence learning processes, analyzing two desk critique sessions—one conducted in a VDS and the other in a PDS. Our data, comprising video recordings and on-site observations, were analyzed and interpreted through a sociomaterial lens. The findings indicate that PDS facilitates more spontaneous interactions, allowing for the communication of complex ideas and better addressing misunderstandings compared to VDS, which is constrained by the limitations of digital communication platforms. This research provides both theoretical and pedagogical contributions. Theoretically, it demonstrates how architectural concepts emerge through sociomaterial interactions, framing architectural learning as material practice. In addition, it illustrates the role of sociomaterials in communicating complex ideas and shaping collaborative learning processes. Pedagogically, the findings emphasize the importance of creating rich sociomaterial environments that effectively support intended learning processes. Full article

To clarify how the interaction of socio-material and human factors impacts the implementation of sustainable workplace routines, we developed the identity and practice interdependence model and then applied it to empirical data collected from a major Brazilian steel-producing facility. This qualitative exploratory study examined the model’s assumption that employee identity construction principles (e.g., self-esteem, self-efficacy, distinctiveness, continuity) and elements of practices (e.g., materials, meanings, competencies) provided by organizations directly impact routines and also interact in a continuous, interdependent process. Company documents, on-site observations, and data from three focus group sessions with a total of thirty employees from all levels were examined. A deductive reflexive thematic analysis was carried out on the data using Atlas.ti v 8. The results show that the model allows for the identification of the factors and their interactions, providing insights into how greener routines are created, accepted, resisted, maintained, and/or altered. When changes in practice elements can provide a path towards satisfaction of identity principles, rather than threats, there is good engagement in more sustainable routines. Employees seeking satisfaction of identity principles also take initiative, addressing practice elements that can allow for improved routines. Organizations/companies can apply some of the insights that this model provides to facilitate changes towards more sustainable work routines. Full article

Citizen science has established itself as an important approach to the co-production of knowledge and public participation in scientific research. Combined with digital technologies and online tools, the approach has been celebrated as a path toward the democratization of science. However, only a few studies have investigated the role digital technologies play in shaping interactions between people and nature. Additionally, the role of context in shaping online and face-to-face participation in citizen science projects has yet to receive much attention. This article takes a citizen science initiative in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest in the state of São Paulo as an illustrative case of the emergence of unanticipated consequences of digital technologies. The emergence of a socio-material practice of animal identification through a popular instant-messaging app is described, allowing a better understanding of the role of digital technologies and the context framing citizen participation in challenging environments. Full article

Transitioning towards more sustainable food products, such as plant proteins, requires a change in practice by several actors in the agrifood system. Change of this kind involves everyday choices about what food to produce, sell, prepare, and eat. Inspired by science and technology studies (STS) thinking, we investigate how such choices are influenced by socio-material practices of valuing. We use the case of fresh grain legumes for human consumption to explore how valuing is simultaneously affected by and shapes the agrifood system. Through interviews with 24 actors in the Danish agrifood system, we identify valuing parameters ranging from taste, nitrogen fixation, durability, and nutrition to price. The study reveals differences regarding what and how actors value depending on the actors’ position in the agrifood system and how the fresh grain legumes travel from field to plate. Where values conflict, we observe how some valuing practices have the power to exclude others and thereby prevent specific enactments of the fresh grain legumes. We argue that looking for valuing practices can help us understand how agrifood systems come into being, and that valuing differently can represent active involvement, both academically and practically, in encouraging change in the agrifood system. By using STS-thinking, the study brings novel insights about barriers towards more plant-based diets and contributes to the diversification of theoretical perspectives on sustainable transitions. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed educational and qualification experiences among young people. When the pandemic spread in 2020, schools worldwide were required to switch to remote learning. Through a qualitative multi-method, partly mobile, in-situ research approach, we accompanied pupils in the final year of their secondary education as they prepared for and finalized their school-leaving exams to investigate the following questions: What did pupils’ socio-material-technological learning spaces look like during this period? How did they adapt their digital media practices to cope with learning remotely? How did their situatedness in these learning spaces influence their learning experiences? Building on existing research in the field of digital and children’s geographies as well as learning spaces, through a combined content and narrative analysis, this article situates pupils’ learning spaces and experiences of graduating during the pandemic in the context of family relations, socio-material home spaces, polymediated learning environments and the accessibility of outdoor spaces. We debate the wide spectrum of media practices—ranging from indulgence in digital media, to balanced media use, to attempting to withdraw from using digital media—used by pupils to navigate through inextricably entangled socio-material-technological spaces during the pandemic. The further digitization of education prompted by the pandemic must be used in ways that empower pupils to engage in responsible and active use of digital media, thus allowing them to become mature and resilient digital participants in society. Full article

There is an overlooked similarity between three classic accounts of the conditions of object experience from three distinct disciplines. (1) Sociology: the “inversion” that accompanies discovery in the natural sciences, as local causes of effects are reattributed to an observed object. (2) Psychology: the “externalization” that accompanies mastery of a visual–tactile sensory substitution interface, as tactile sensations of the proximal interface are transformed into vision-like experience of a distal object. (3) Biology: the “projection” that brings forth an animal’s Umwelt, as impressions on its body’s sensory surfaces are reconfigured into perception of an external object. This similarity between the effects of scientific practice and interface-use on the one hand, and of sensorimotor interaction on the other, becomes intelligible once we accept that skillful engagement with instruments and interfaces constitutes a socio-material augmentation of our basic perceptual capacity. This enactive interpretation stands in contrast to anti-realism about science associated with constructivist interpretations of these three phenomena, which are motivated by viewing them as the internal mental construction of the experienced object. Instead, it favors a participatory realism: the sensorimotor basis of perceptual experience loops not only through our body, but also through the external world. This allows us to conceive of object experience in relational terms, i.e., as one or more subjects directly engaging with the world. Consequently, we can appreciate scientific observation in its full complexity: it is a socio-materially augmented process of becoming acquainted with the observed object that—like tool-use and perceiving more generally—is irreducibly self, other-, and world-involving. Full article

The implementation of healthcare policies in healthcare organizations is a pivotal issue for managers. They generally require a change in professional practices. In previous work, we developed the Integrative Framework for Implementation of change in Nursing Practices (IFINP) to support implementation initiatives for such change in nursing practices. We aimed to assess the generalizability of IFINP in other organizational settings and explore links between strategic and socio-material factors during implementation. We used a comparative qualitative case study at three French hospitals to assess the implementation of certification procedures. Data were collected from 33 semi-structured interviews with managers and nurses. Narratives reflecting actions and interactions were extracted and deductively analyzed using IFINP components. The results showed that the framework was flexible and captured the different aspects of implementation actions and interactions at the three hospitals. Strong interferences were identified between mobilization mechanisms and strategic elements. Interferences were observed mostly between ‘reflexive monitoring and work articulation’, and ‘reflexive monitoring and sense-making’ mechanisms. Leadership was integrated into the different mechanisms, especially the ‘translation’ mechanism. The IFINP facilitated a greater understanding of strategic elements and associated relationships with social and material factors during implementation. It helps to provide a clear definition of the managers’ role when implementing new nurse practices. Full article

The teachings of Eihei Dōgen Zenji (1200–1253) emphasize a non-instrumental orientation to zazen as “practice-realization”, which might be described as a single movement of purposeful action and actualization of aims. Yet the question remains, if zazen is not in some sense a set of clearly defined steps toward specific ends, exactly how are its benefits manifested, and why would Dōgen place such an elusive approach at the centre of practice? In the following, I will discuss how Dōgen’s conception of practice does not necessarily function as a prescriptive methodology leading to specified results, but might better be described as an orientation to everyday experience that facilitates a comprehensive integration of physical and perceptual interactions within shared environments. Any sense of the utility or benefit of zazen is inseparable from reference to these relations within specific contexts of practice. Exploring close parallels between Dōgen’s conception of universal self (jiko) and gestalt theory, particularly as it is referenced in ecophilosophy and sociomaterial practices literature, suggests ontological and ethical implications of “practice-realization” from contemporary secular perspectives. Full article

Owing to blockchain characteristics such as transparency, traceability, and disintermediation, blockchain technology has been widely employed in sustainable supply chain management. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of blockchain technology in the supply chain. Although most companies have realized the importance of blockchain technology, they often lack understanding of how to plan, measure, cultivate, and improve their own blockchain operation capabilities. Academic research has insufficiently explored the connotations and internal structure of blockchain operation capabilities and does not provide a clear understanding of how to transform blockchain operation capabilities to produce effective performance. In this context, we proposed a concept of blockchain operation capabilities for first time. We took the perspectives of the resource-based view and sociomaterialism theory, based on IT capabilities, big data analysis capabilities, and existing blockchain supply chain research, and explored the relationship between blockchain operation capabilities and competitive performance. We then constructed a hierarchical model for blockchain operation capabilities. To test our proposed research model, we used an online survey to collect data from 1206 firm managers with blockchain technology supply chain experience. The results showed that blockchain operation capabilities has a positive impact on supply chain integration and competitive performance, while supply chain integration has a strong mediating effect on the blockchain operation capabilities and competitive performance relationship. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Full article

Involving older people through co-design has become increasingly attractive as an approach to develop technologies for them. However, less attention has been paid to the internal dynamics and localized socio-material arrangements that enact this method in practice. In this paper, we show how the outcomes that can be achieved with user involvement often pertain to learning, but their content can differ significantly based on how the approach is implemented in practice. Combining explorative, qualitative findings from co-design conducted in four countries (Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden), we illustrate how different types of learning occurred as design workshops engaged the experiences and skills of older people in different ways. Our findings make visible how learning can be a core outcome of co-design activities with older adults, while raising awareness of the role of the power relations and socio-material arrangements that structure these design practices in particular ways. To benefit from the full wealth of insights that can be learned by involving older people, deeper knowledge is needed of the implicit features of design, the materials, meanings, and power aspects involved. Full article

With the debate on climate change, topics of diet change and the reduction of animal products have become increasingly important in both public and academic discourses. However, sustainable ICT studies have so far focused on individual aspects, in particular investigating the criticized persuasive design approach. We argue for a broader perspective on the role(s) of ICT, one that helps in identifying opportunities to support consumer practice transformation, beyond motivational aspects. Based on retrospective interviews with 16 vegans, we argue to understand practice transformation as co-evolution of practices and ICT artefacts, as this perspective helps to understand how tensions arising from complex entanglements of practices, socio-material contexts, and communities can be resolved. Rather than a motivational process, we observe various roles of ICT artefacts co-evolving with practices: Ranging from initial irritation, to access to information about vegan practices, to the learning of vegan food literacy, to the negotiation of a vegan identity, and vegan norms at the intersection of the ‘odd’ and the ‘norm’. Full article

Sustainability science is marked by a quarter century of conceptual and methodological development. Based on innovative approaches, such as transformative transdisciplinarity, sustainability science makes the claim to contribute solution-oriented knowledge to sustainable development. Despite successful expansion and promising experiences, there are limitations to be considered. This article argues that the multisensorial reality of human life in socio-material practices has not been adequately captured in sustainability science. Theoretical approaches addressing the sensoriality and corporality of human existence as well as methodological approaches of ethnography and arts-based research to access relevant human dimensions beyond the cognitive are discussed, and the perspective of sensory sustainability science is sketched. Full article

This study uses a sociomaterial practice theoretical lens to explore the learning processes and outcomes of non-professional menders emerging through their participation in communal mending workshops. Recent years have witnessed an emergence of repair workshops that seek to provide an alternative to the make-take-waste paradigm dominating the fast fashion industry in most Western countries. The paper is based on three months of extensive fieldwork in six repair workshops in two cities in New Zealand (Auckland and Wellington). Thirty-five in-depth interviews, eight follow-up surveys and field notes from participant observations were used to collect data. A triangulation of the methods and open coding helped identify three types of learning streams from the data: material learning, communal learning, and environmental learning. The learned outcomes aided in equipping participants with knowledge of how to mend, extend use of existing garments, address alternatives to garment disposal, create feelings of caring, self-reliance and empowerment in communities, and differentiate between good- and bad-quality garments. In this way, communal workshops help users to be more proactive in providing sustainable local solutions to global ecological problems and create diversified learning around sociomaterial and ecological aspects of garments and their use. This could potentially create awareness of the importance of buying better and more durable garments in the future to keep them longer in use. Full article

Can religious epistemology aid in the transformation of the world to the same effect as Marxist Theory? Utilizing an approach derived from Louis Althusser’s isolation of the radical implications of the epistemological break of Karl Marx, from his Feuerbachain theological thought to a materialist epistemological tradition, we probe the relationship between the mystical intent of Christian theology and the appearance of praxis as a category derived from the Marxist lexicon, within the modus cogitans of Latin American theology of liberation. We problematise the transcendentalism that liberation theology places on social practice, in its retention of a spiritualist Weltanschauung as the preeminent framework for the critique of socio-historical reality. Far from being a materialist-transformative “epistemological break” from orthodox theology, this putative theology of revolution is thus exposed as being a brand of a Hegelian theosophy, which is discontinuous with the dialectical understanding of the socio-material basis of human relations that emerges around Marxist Theory, namely praxis. Our leitmotif is therefore a claim that political theology, qua theology in general, and the Latin American Theology of Liberation in particular, have a limited efficacy as a theoretical tool for socio-political transformation, due to its inherent transcendentalist and rationalistic orientation. Full article