<p>How is space conceptualized? The question is central to subject theory in human geography. In the present dissertation, this issue is actualized in discussions of the virtual, space, and an ontology of becoming. The point of departure is that in human geography, as well as in the general discourses in society, a science fiction-like conception of the virtual has been dominant. The virtual is understood as another reality and as an absolute space. Predominant perceptions of the space and the virtual are problematized in Space in Becoming, and based on analyses of complex sets of ideas grounded in actor-network theory and Deleuzian geophilosophy, an alternative approach is formulated. The aim is to provide an enhanced conceptual understanding of space and the virtual. In order to fulfill the aim, three tasks are performed. Firstly, the prevalent conception of the virtual is presented. Secondly, a conception of space grounded in an ontology of becoming is constructed and defined, expressed in three postulates. Thirdly, the importance of the ontology of becoming and the postulates for the conception and conceptualization of space are discussed in relation to subject theory in human geography. Since the present work centers on treatment of concepts and ideas, a postulate method was selected. The postulate method also makes argumentation and discussion on theoretical and analytical levels possible. The outcome of the project is formulated in three postulates – actants do space, assemblages fold space, and the virtual is a real dimension of space. Accordingly, the main contribution to the conceptual understanding of space and the virtual is the construction and specification of the three postulates. The notion of the virtual as an ontological dimension emerges, with direct implications for the conception and conceptualization of space. The ontology of becoming offers an alternative point of departure, a different perspective on the virtual, and thereby also on virtual geography. This is further elucidated by returning to the point of departure for the dissertation project. The postulates contribute to subject theory in human geography by providing an alternative point of departure for future theoretical research and the formulation of new theories. Accordingly, the particular conception of space expressed in the three postulates brings a challenge in terms of both method and vocabulary.</p>

Ever since the computer was introduced some 50 years ago, its role in society has been increasing. From being a tool for scientists and technicians, the computer has become a concern for everyone. Different actors engaged in introducing — or denouncing — this technology, have used many strong words for winning others to the cause. The high symbolic value tied to computers and information technology has made the rhetoric used to "sell" these very explicit. This discourse, the language and arguments used, is the object of study in the dissertation. When it became clear that computers could be used also for rationalising administration, the Swedish government started to investigate how this could be done. In the 1960s, this became one of the first big computerisation projects in Sweden. It turned out to be a controversy between two different ways of organising a big administrative system: national contra regional/local or hierarchical contra decentralised. It also turned out to bee a "war" between the suggested computer makes that should equip the County Computer Centres. In the late 70s, when the "PC revolution" was only beginning, the Luxor ABC 80 computer became the best selling micro in Sweden, outscoring TRS-80, Apple II and Commodore PET many times. From 1978 to 1986 Luxor ABC computers were by far the most used personal computers. A decade later, in the early 1990s, the info-highway hype struck Sweden. Giving politicians arguments for a new wave of computerisation, but now less based on technology and more directed towards the use of "information superhighways" which the development within IT had made possible. These three instances in Swedish computing history form the historical background for this study of computer rhetoric, of the discourse that evolves when a new technological frame is being introduced in society. The social construction of artefacts is an outcome of communication between people. Therefore the language used by different actors in the various "texts" they produce is of vital interest if we want to understand technology and our relationship with it. But it is also true that technology helps to set the frames of our minds. A rhetoric of technology must take this relation into account. / The electronic version of the printed dissertation is a corrected version where all spelling and grammatical errors are corrected.

How is space conceptualized? The question is central to subject theory in human geography. In the present dissertation, this issue is actualized in discussions of the virtual, space, and an ontology of becoming. The point of departure is that in human geography, as well as in the general discourses in society, a science fiction-like conception of the virtual has been dominant. The virtual is understood as another reality and as an absolute space. Predominant perceptions of the space and the virtual are problematized in Space in Becoming, and based on analyses of complex sets of ideas grounded in actor-network theory and Deleuzian geophilosophy, an alternative approach is formulated. The aim is to provide an enhanced conceptual understanding of space and the virtual. In order to fulfill the aim, three tasks are performed. Firstly, the prevalent conception of the virtual is presented. Secondly, a conception of space grounded in an ontology of becoming is constructed and defined, expressed in three postulates. Thirdly, the importance of the ontology of becoming and the postulates for the conception and conceptualization of space are discussed in relation to subject theory in human geography. Since the present work centers on treatment of concepts and ideas, a postulate method was selected. The postulate method also makes argumentation and discussion on theoretical and analytical levels possible. The outcome of the project is formulated in three postulates – actants do space, assemblages fold space, and the virtual is a real dimension of space. Accordingly, the main contribution to the conceptual understanding of space and the virtual is the construction and specification of the three postulates. The notion of the virtual as an ontological dimension emerges, with direct implications for the conception and conceptualization of space. The ontology of becoming offers an alternative point of departure, a different perspective on the virtual, and thereby also on virtual geography. This is further elucidated by returning to the point of departure for the dissertation project. The postulates contribute to subject theory in human geography by providing an alternative point of departure for future theoretical research and the formulation of new theories. Accordingly, the particular conception of space expressed in the three postulates brings a challenge in terms of both method and vocabulary.

This study documents the problematic translator-publisher relationship in the case of the English translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s Le deuxième sexe. The socio-historical investigation of the case study demonstrates that the 1953 translation was complicated by several factors: the translator’s lack of philosophical knowledge, the editor’s demands to cut and simplify the text, the publisher’s intention to emphasize the book’s scientific cachet, and Beauvoir’s lack of cooperation. The investigation focuses on two aspects: the translator’s subservience and the involvement of multiple actors. Primarily concerned with the interaction between the translator and other actors, this study seeks answers that require investigation into historical documents and the work of other scholars critical of The Second Sex. In this enquiry, more than one hundred letters between the translator, H. M. Parshley, and the publisher, Knopf, are thoroughly analyzed. The study combines Bruno Latour’s and Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological concepts in order to provide a more detailed and encompassing examination within the context of Translation Studies. The letter correspondence is the primary evidence on which the study’s conclusions are based. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

This study documents the problematic translator-publisher relationship in the case of the English translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s Le deuxième sexe. The socio-historical investigation of the case study demonstrates that the 1953 translation was complicated by several factors: the translator’s lack of philosophical knowledge, the editor’s demands to cut and simplify the text, the publisher’s intention to emphasize the book’s scientific cachet, and Beauvoir’s lack of cooperation. The investigation focuses on two aspects: the translator’s subservience and the involvement of multiple actors. Primarily concerned with the interaction between the translator and other actors, this study seeks answers that require investigation into historical documents and the work of other scholars critical of The Second Sex. In this enquiry, more than one hundred letters between the translator, H. M. Parshley, and the publisher, Knopf, are thoroughly analyzed. The study combines Bruno Latour’s and Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological concepts in order to provide a more detailed and encompassing examination within the context of Translation Studies. The letter correspondence is the primary evidence on which the study’s conclusions are based. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

L’obiettivo di questo lavoro è la ricostruzione di un oggetto mediale di cui ormai in Rete si sono perse le tracce: il webcinema, il cinema creato, realizzato e distribuito attraverso la Rete. Esso nasce e si sviluppa in una fase pionieristica del web tra la seconda metà degli anni novanta e i primi anni del XXI secolo, in un periodo segnato dalla sviluppo della tecnologia dello streaming che consentirà la trasmissione di contenuti sonori e audiovisivi attraverso la Rete, ridefinendo il concetto del web stesso da collezione di testi a flusso di informazioni audiovisive, l’euforia della net economy e lo scoppio della bolla delle dot-com. Per analizzare questo fenomeno ibrido, di cui la teorizzazione coeva è scarsa e di cui la Rete sembra essersi dimenticata, adottiamo l’approccio metodologico della Actor-network Theory che ci permetterà di investigare i veloci cambiamenti, l’instabilità e l’eterogeneità propria dei media digitali. Con l’analisi del case history verrà evidenziata la complessa relazione esistente tra dimensione tecnologica e dimensione sociale che nel caso dei media digitali è improntata a momenti di apertura nei confronti della innovazione e di stabilizzazione e definizione di determinati modelli d’uso. / Aim of this work is the reconstruction of a forgotten media by the Net: webcinema, cinema created specifically for viewing on the Internet. It is born and it develops in a pioneering phase of the web between the second half of the Nineties and first years of XXI century, in a period marked from the development of the streaming technology allowing the transmission of sound and audiovisual contents through the Net, redefining quite the concept of the web from collection of texts to audiovisual informational flux, net economy hype and the collapse of the dot-com bubble. In order to analyze this hybrid media object, barely studied by the contemporaneous scholarship and forgotten by the Net, we use the Actor-network theory approach that will allow to investigate the rapid changes, the instability and the heterogeneity of digital media. The case history will underline the complex relation between technological dimension and social dimension that digital media modellize in an opening approach versus innovation and a stabilization one versus some certain user models.

This report focuses on social networks surrounding visual music, a sub-field of audiovisual experimental art in which hearing and seeing intersect, often through the music-oriented manipulation of abstract imagery and audio-visual synchronization. The discussion evolves from my fieldwork in Los Angeles, where I interacted with artists, archivists, publishers, institutions, software developers, and scholars. Taking into account Howard Becker's notion of art world, Pierre Bourdieu's ideas of cultural and economic capitals, and Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, I try to understand how these groups have been trying to establish visual music-networks. Although elements of visual music have been present in various media and artistic trends (color organs, abstract films, VJing-DJing, etc.), the field's history and premises are still little known, in part because the very term 'visual music' is a contested one. Due to its entertainment/cultural industries, Los Angeles is a place where multiple processes of high tech differentiation coexist; since the 1930s the city's technocultural environment (from film production to academic programs on computer animation) has lured artists interested in visual music. Not surprisingly, the city holds the only two institutions directly related to visual music in the country. I navigate through this field by considering some intersections between science, art, and technology. / text

Le sujet de la gestion du risque m’a toujours interpelée, surtout après que j’ai vécu deux ouragans et un tremblement de terre dévastateurs au Salvador. Bien qu’on ait assez écrit sur le sujet en le reliant souvent aux changements climatiques, on ne sait pas comment les organisations gouvernementales et civiles vivent cette gestion du risque au quotidien. À partir d’une étude ethnographique de la Commission de la protection civile de la Mairie de Tecoluca au Salvador, j’observais les processus qui se mettent en place dans la recherche et l’analyse des facteurs structuraux causant les situations de vulnérabilité. Pour ce faire, j’adoptais une approche basée sur l’étude des interactions, mobilisant les théories de la cognition distribuée et de l’acteur réseau. Comme je le montre, la gestion du risque, vue comme un processus participatif, se caractérise, d’une part, par la coopération et la coordination entre les personnes et, d’autre part, par la contribution d’outils, de technologies, de documents et de méthodes contribuant à la détection de risques. Ceci exige la mobilisation de connaissances qui doivent être produites, partagées et distribuées entre les membres d’un groupe à travers les divers artéfacts, outils, méthodes et technologies qu’ils mobilisent et qui les mobilisent. À ce sujet, la théorie de la cognition distribuée permet d’explorer des interactions qui se produisent au sein d’un groupe de travail en se focalisant sur ce qui contribue à l’acte de connaitre, conçu comme une activité non pas seulement individuelle, mais surtout collective et distribuée. Par ailleurs, la théorie de l’acteur-réseau me permet, quant à elle, de montrer comment dans l’exécution de cette tâche (la gestion du risque), la contribution active d’acteurs non humains, tant en soi qu’en relations avec les acteurs humains, participe de l’activité de détection et de prévention du risque. / The subject of risk management has always interested me, especially after I lived through two hurricanes and a devastating earthquake in El Salvador. Although there is a lot of literature on this subject, often linked to the question of climate change, we do not know how governmental and civil organizations deal with risk management on a daily basis. Based on an ethnographic study of the Civil Protection Commission of the mayoralty of Tecoluca, El Salvador, I observed processes that are taking place in the research and analysis of structural factors causing situations of vulnerability. To do this, I adopted an approach based on the study of interactions, involving the theory of distributed cognition and actor-network theory. As I show, the risk management seen as a participatory process is characterized, on one side, by the cooperation and coordination of individuals and, on the other side, by the contribution of tools, technologies, materials and methods that contribute to the detection of risk. This requires the mobilization of knowledge that must be produced, shared and distributed among the members of a group through the various artefacts, tools, methods and technologies that they mobilize and that mobilize them. In this regard, the theory of distributed cognition allows me to explore the interactions that occur within a working group by focusing on what contributes to the act of knowing, an activity is not just individual but also collective and distributed. Moreover, the actor-network theory allows me to show how in the execution of this task (risk management), the active contribution of non-human actors, both by themselves and in relation to human actors, participates in activities of detection and risk prevention.

The doctoral thesis deals with a methodological problem of analyzing photography. The argumentation is built on assumption that analysis of a content of a medium (in this case: photography) alone is unable to reveal important social and political aspects of the medium. Therefore an integral analysis of medium and its context is indispensable. Combination of approaches used in communication and media studies, philosophy, and art history lets to define the notions of dispositif and medium, which lead to construction and operationalization of a model of medium dispositif. The model is used for research and analysis of power relations around photographical discourse in Lithuania in 1960s–1980s. Research material gathered while interviewing relevant actors in the field and analyzing visual and textual archives lets to define the dispositif of photography of the time period chosen as the a particular actor-network. The analysis reveals how the network of art photography developed, how it became stable and irreplaceable, what was its impact on specific mode of use of photography, so called photo-art, and formation of common photographical style, The School of Lithuanian Photography. The institutional role of Society of Art Photography, its interaction with communicational conventions (eg. Social Realism), philosophical statements, and the whole photographical discourse are taken into particular account. The analysis and combination of different elements, constituting photographical... [to full text] / Disertacijoje sprendžiama kompleksiškos fotografijos analizės metodologijos problema. Remiamasi prielaida, kad analizuojant vien medijos (šiuo atveju fotografijos) turinį, neįmanoma atskleisti svarbių socialinių ir politinių medijos aspektų. Todėl siekiama analizuoti pačią mediją kartu su jos kontekstu. Derinant komunikacijos bei medijų mokslų, filosofijos ir menotyros prieigas suformuojamos dispozityvo ir medijos sampratos, kurias jungiant sukonstruojamas ir operacionalizuojamas medijos dispozityvo modelis. Šis modelis yra taikomas Lietuvos fotografijai XX a. septintajame–devintajame dešimtmetyje analizuoti ir diskursą formavusiems galios santykiams atskleisti. Pasitelkiant interviu su fotografijos veikėjais ir fotografijų bei tekstinių šaltinių interpretaciją išanalizuojamas pasirinkto laikotarpio fotografijos dispozityvas, kuris apibrėžiamas kaip veikėjas-tinklas. Disertacijoje atskleidžiama, kaip formavosi fotografijos meno tinklas, kaip jis tapo stabiliu ir nepakeičiamu, kaip jis konstravo ir reguliavo specifišką fotografijos vartojimo būdą – fotomeną ir vientisą stilių – Lietuvos fotografijos mokyklą. Analizuojant ir jungiant skirtingus fotografijos medijos elementus, siekiama parodyti priežastingumo ryšius tarp estetinių, politinių ir socialinių fotografijos aspektų. Disertacijoje nagrinėjamas institucijos (Fotografijos meno draugijos) vaidmuo bei jos sąveika su komunikacinėmis konvencijomis (pvz., socrealizmo stiliumi), filosofinėmis nuostatomis ir fotomeno diskursu.

Climate change has often been framed as a global issue but slow progress in the global climate negotiations and an increasing need to plan for local adaptation have made it increasingly salient to also discuss the potential of other arenas for climate policy and knowledge production. This dissertation analyzes the interplay between science and policy at the international regional level based on a study of an assessment of the impacts of climate change in the Arctic. In this case, the regional arena brought new actors into climate knowledge production and policy with an increased emphasis on the complexity of social and cultural impacts of climate change among indigenous peoples. The dissertation also shows how the structure of regional political cooperation played a role in highlighting the Arctic as a bellwether for global change. Meanwhile, the political negations that were linked to the regional climate impact assessment were ruled by the same political dynamics and policy positions as the global climate negotiations. The process illustrates how the structure of international cooperation can influence knowledge production about climate change. The dissertation emphasizes the role of vertical interplay among political regimes and how new arenas can make an assessment salient, credible, and legitimate to different actors. It also highlights the political dimensions of focusing on particular spatial scales and governance levels in climate knowledge production and policy. / Klimatförändringarna har ofta gestaltats som en global fråga, men bristen på politiska åtgärder och ett ökande behov att anpassa samhället efter nya klimatförhållanden har gjort det alltmer angeläget att även undersöka vilka möjligheter ett regionalt perspektiv kan öppna för såväl klimatpolitik som kunskapsproduktion. Med utgångspunkt från en studie av en kunskapssammanställning av hur klimatförändringarna påverkar Arktis, analyserar avhandlingen samspelet mellan vetenskap och politik i ett internationellt regionalt samarbete. Studien visar att det regionala sammanhanget gav nya aktörer möjlighet att delta i både den internationella klimatpolitiken och kunskapsproduktionen om klimatförändringar. Det ledde bland annat till en betoning på att det fysiska klimatet är en av många faktorer som påverkar hur Arktis urbefolkningar kommer att drabbas av klimatförändringarna och att även kulturella och sociala faktorer spelar stor roll. Avhandlingen visar också på hur bilden av Arktis som en väckarklocka för de globala klimatförändringarna har vuxit fram ur strukturen för det politiska regionala samarbetet. De politiska förhandlingar som var kopplade till kunskapssammanställningen var däremot färgade av samma intressekonflikter som de globala klimatförhandlingarna. Processen illustrerar hur strukturerna för internationellt samarbete kan påverka kunskapen om klimatförändringar. Avhandlingen lyfter särskilt fram hur nya arenor för politiskt samarbete och det vertikala samspelet mellan politiska regimer på olika nivåer kan göra kunskap om klimatet angelägen, trovärdig och legitim för olika aktörer. Avhandlingen betonar också det finns politiska dimensioner i den skala man väljer för att studera klimatförändringarna.