Welcome to a K3 seminar with Alicia Smedberg, PhD student in Interaction design. The title of the talk is:<\/p>\n
Modalities of Agency within Infrastructuring Processes<\/em><\/p>\n It will take place on Wednesday, February 6, at 10.15-12.00 in The K3 Open Studio, NIC 0541, Niagara, and it will be Alicia\u2019s 30 percent PhD seminar. Pelle Ehn, professor emeritus in Interaction design, will function as discussant.<\/p>\n Below you will find an abstract for the talk. If you would like to read Alicia\u2019s text before the seminar, please mail her: alicia.smedberg@mau.se<\/a>.<\/p>\n Abstract:<\/p>\n This Ph.D. centers around the issue of agency <\/em>within Participatory Design (PD). While the issue of agency bares relevance almost anywhere we look – and is inseparable from questions of power and governance; structure and solidarity; and from acting <\/em>(regardless of how and why we act) – it holds particular bearing to the democratic principles of PD.<\/p>\n Over the past 18 months I have been conducting an inquiry into the particular issues that arise within infrastructuring processes spanning across the public and civic sectors. Through an on-going presence in two long-term projects (Amiralstaden<\/em> and The Do-Think-Tank<\/em>), and two fixed-term projects (Livskonceptet,<\/em> and a case study around wind turbines and landownership in Orkney) I have sought to identify traits of agency. Questions of how and when to act, and of equal importance, when not <\/em>to act, require strategies that cannot be contained by a universal rule but must be the result of a repertoire of sensitive approaches towards the practitioner\u2019s situation. Within the 30% seminar, as well as within this Ph.D. as a whole, I seek to exemplify, with the support of anecdotes from the case studies, three modalities of agency: illumination, sensitization, and emancipation<\/em>. While I have taken to the habit of speaking about these three modalities as a journey or a trajectory (to highlight the constant movement they encompass), it is important to note that neither agency nor emancipation is a fixed state that can be reached.<\/p>\n The seminar will provide a summary of the 30% text: In its initial half it attempts to map out the very bedrock of the project: its disciplinary position; its ontology, epistemology and methodology; its methods. In doing so I hope to afford the reader an insight into the how <\/em>and why <\/em>I have partaken in my case studies. The case studies will then be elaborated on briefly, followed by a discussion and reflection on future directions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to a K3 seminar with Alicia Smedberg, PhD student in Interaction design. The title of the talk is: Modalities of Agency within Infrastructuring Processes It will take place on Wednesday, February 6, at 10.15-12.00 in The K3 Open Studio, NIC … Continue reading