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A socio-material ecology of the distributed self

Enquist, Henrik LU (2008) In Design Philosophy Papers
Abstract
When distributed to different artefacts, the self appears in a multitude of shapes, characterized not only by its materiality but also by the necessity to preserve at least an illusion of a core self. The experience of a continuous evolution of these overlapping “selves”, many of which are materialized together with others’ overlapping selves, cannot be captured by traditional design approaches, nor can ethical aspects and conflicts of the right to express yourself through artefacts. This article, with its empirical basis in an interdisciplinary EU funded project, PalCom, is an attempt to test both ecological concepts and relationships and sociological (actants, actor-network-theory) ones. No meaningful separations are observed between the... (More)
When distributed to different artefacts, the self appears in a multitude of shapes, characterized not only by its materiality but also by the necessity to preserve at least an illusion of a core self. The experience of a continuous evolution of these overlapping “selves”, many of which are materialized together with others’ overlapping selves, cannot be captured by traditional design approaches, nor can ethical aspects and conflicts of the right to express yourself through artefacts. This article, with its empirical basis in an interdisciplinary EU funded project, PalCom, is an attempt to test both ecological concepts and relationships and sociological (actants, actor-network-theory) ones. No meaningful separations are observed between the human ecology and sociology and the artefactual ones. Instead, it is the whole system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular situatedness that is meaningful to pinpoint and elaborate.



In this text, the notion of the distributed self will be discussed. By this I mean the way artefacts are included in the study of an individual. There are many things to be considered when thinking of the socio-materiality of this distributed self. Here, two different approaches are tested, separately and intertwined: a sociological and an ecological. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
metaphor, artifacts, actor-network-theory, health care, use case, ICT
in
Design Philosophy Papers
issue
2
publisher
Copyright 2008 published Team D/E/S, Qld, Aust.
ISSN
1448-7136
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
9ba1d3c6-dcc9-4aed-8c8b-ef4820f56827 (old id 1292841)
alternative location
http://www.desphilosophy.com/dpp/dpp_journal/journal.html
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 09:38:06
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:54:29
@article{9ba1d3c6-dcc9-4aed-8c8b-ef4820f56827,
  abstract     = {{When distributed to different artefacts, the self appears in a multitude of shapes, characterized not only by its materiality but also by the necessity to preserve at least an illusion of a core self. The experience of a continuous evolution of these overlapping “selves”, many of which are materialized together with others’ overlapping selves, cannot be captured by traditional design approaches, nor can ethical aspects and conflicts of the right to express yourself through artefacts. This article, with its empirical basis in an interdisciplinary EU funded project, PalCom, is an attempt to test both ecological concepts and relationships and sociological (actants, actor-network-theory) ones. No meaningful separations are observed between the human ecology and sociology and the artefactual ones. Instead, it is the whole system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular situatedness that is meaningful to pinpoint and elaborate.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
In this text, the notion of the distributed self will be discussed. By this I mean the way artefacts are included in the study of an individual. There are many things to be considered when thinking of the socio-materiality of this distributed self. Here, two different approaches are tested, separately and intertwined: a sociological and an ecological.}},
  author       = {{Enquist, Henrik}},
  issn         = {{1448-7136}},
  keywords     = {{metaphor; artifacts; actor-network-theory; health care; use case; ICT}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  publisher    = {{Copyright 2008 published Team D/E/S, Qld, Aust.}},
  series       = {{Design Philosophy Papers}},
  title        = {{A socio-material ecology of the distributed self}},
  url          = {{http://www.desphilosophy.com/dpp/dpp_journal/journal.html}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}