The evaluation of creative participatory community projects remains a controversial issue in politics, policy and the arts, its focus sharpened by the reality or rhetoric of austerity. Despite the recent plethora of policy documents and reviews there is little consensus about how projects should be evaluated or what constitutes good evidence about the impact on individual and collective wellbeing of ‘being creative’. This research set out to develop and trial feasible and effective evaluations for small to medium sized projects in the West Midlands of the UK based on field research into how impact is produced. Through mainly qualitative research in diverse contexts it was able to identify a range of conditions in projects reflecting the interrelationship of creativity and participation in which positive impact could be maximised. The research sought to theorise the impact of these conditions using elements of Actor Network Theory and Freire’s concept of praxis, concluding that impact is likely to be incremental, partial and non-linear. Central to this theorisation was the synthesis of evidence about the impact of creativity and embodied making on thinking, affect and a sense of agency, with ideas about how people change, producing a new evidence-based theory of change. In a practice-led approach, new creative methods were trialled in which data produced by participants had aesthetic as well as communicative value and the evaluation process itself contributed to positive impact. While it was possible to evaluate aspects of this impact through episodic interventions, field trials showed that it was more effective to develop a systemic evaluation strategy. Such a strategy needed to be participatory and integrated into project planning, in order to respond to the stochastic systems creativity inevitably provokes. This proved to offer two advantages: the potential to engage many stakeholders, not just as respondents but also as agents actively defining and measuring evaluation outcomes; and the potential for reflection about impact as process rather than outcome. These findings were then implemented in a number of projects, including trials of the Arts Council UK’s developmental Children and Young People’s Quality Principles. The method has been identified as ‘improving the conversation’ amongst partners, stakeholders and artists who can re-position themselves as active agents of evaluation rather than mere respondents, using the tropes, practices and materials of their own professional practices.

Hybridity, as it is currently understood in the Peace and Conflict Studies (PCS) and International Relations (IR) literature, is defined by the complex interactions between ‘the liberal peace' and ‘the local'. However, under this theoretical liberal-local rubric, the ways in which power is practiced has already been determined; how resistance is expressed and the forms it assumes have already been established. While it has yielded numerous important insights into how power circulates and resistance manifests in peacebuilding operations, the theoretical approach conceals other significant dynamics which escape detection by ‘the liberal peace' and ‘the local'. However, these undetected dimensions of hybridity comprise the very processes that emerge in ways which destabilise the boundaries between ‘the liberal peace' and ‘the local' and reshape the contours of the emerging post-liberal peace. Instead of accepting the liberal-local distinction which defines this theoretical hybridity, this thesis advances an alternative methodological approach to exploring the tensions at play in peacebuilding projects. Rather than deploying theoretical distinctions in order to explain or understand complex hybrid processes, this thesis develops a methodological strategy for exploring the tensions between how actors design a peacebuilding project and how that project changes as actors work to translate that project into complex, everyday living sites (Callon, 1986; Law, 1997; Akrich, 1992). This tension is expressed as practical hybridity. The process of practical hybridity unfolds as the concrete material changes, modifications, and adaptations that emerge as actors appropriate and contingently translate organised practices in new ways and for different purposes. Through an ongoing process of practical hybridity, the boundaries and distinction which define the distinction between ‘the liberal peace' and ‘the local' become increasingly unstable. Amidst this instability, the practices which characterised ‘the liberal peace' are becoming stretched into a post-liberal peace. Drawing on the work of Richmond (2011a; Richmond & Mitchell, 2012), Latour (1987b; 1988; 2004), and Schatzki (2002), and based on over five months of field research, this this thesis traces the process of practical hybridity at play during the implementation and evaluation of a peacebuilding project in Liberia. I participated as a research assistant on a Randomised Control Trial (RCT), implemented by a small research team under the auspices of the Oxford University's Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE). The team was assessing the impact of a legal empowerment programme managed by The Carter Center: the Community Justice Advisor (CJA) programme. As the CSAE's evaluation of the CJA programme unfolded, many dynamics associated with theoretical liberal-local hybridity surfaced; however, it also became apparent that this theoretical formulation obscured important dimensions which were reshaping what peacebuilding practice is in the process of becoming in the emerging post-liberal world.

Le thème de notre recherche porte sur l'oral 3 de l'épreuve d'agrégation externe d'éducation physique et sportive, à travers laquelle nous avons étudié le statut et la place de la vidéo dans la formation des agrégés. Nous avons choisi d'utiliser le cadre de la sociologie des sciences et techniques développée par Madeleine Akrich, Bruno Latour et Michel Callon (1992), afin de répondre à notre question de départ. Une des hypothèses principales est qu'il y aurait une chaîne de traduction constituée par un réseau permettant d'engager un changement dans la façon d'utiliser l'outil vidéo en fonction des compétences attendues pour enseigner l'EPS. Ce changement serait initié par un traducteur. Afin de reconstituer le réseau existant permettant de réaliser la traduction, c'est-à-dire la conduite du changement, nous avons réalisé des entretiens auprès des membres de jury de l'oral 3, du président de jury de l'agrégation en poste entre 2003 et 2006, d'un inspecteur général en éducation physique et sportive, des directeurs de l'ENS Cachan section EPS, des agrégatifs en EPS de l'ENS Cachan, ainsi que des enseignants formateurs à cette épreuve. Ces entretiens ont été complétés par la passation d'un questionnaire sur place à Fontainebleau, entre 2004 et 2007 afin de comprendre comment ces futurs agrégés utilisent la vidéo et la place qu'ils lui accordent durant cette épreuve. Ainsi l'analyse de ces données permet d'exposer les différentes étapes pour comprendre comment s'élabore la traduction. / Our research deals with one of the oral examinations of the Physical Education "agrégation externe" studying the status and importance of video in the trainee teachers's training. We have chosen to use the Science and Technology studies framework developed by Madeleine Akrich, Bruno Latour and Michel Callon (1992) in order to answer our initial question. One of the main hypothesis being the fact that there would be translation links constitutes by a network which enables to start a change in the way of using the video tool according to the skills which are expected in the teaching of Physical Education. This change would be initiated by a translator. In order to piece together the way the translation is being carried out by the translation, that is to say to chieve to change, we interviewed the Oral 3 jury, the president of the jury from 2003 to 2006, a chief Education Officer in Physical Education, headmasters and students of the Cachan Ecole Normale Supérieure in Physical education. These people were interviewed in Fontainebleau from 2004 to 2007 thanks to a questionnaire in order to know how the students used the video and how important the video was to them during this roal examination. Therefore, the analysis of these data enable us to present the different steps leading to a better understanding of how the translation is achieved.

The following thesis will merge the field of legal studies with the field of Science, Technology, and Society, and will focus on issues surrounding the gun control debate. The goal is to ultimately bring new light to this hot- button legal topic through the use of STS scholarship. STS tools and theories, which have previously been absent from most gun control discussions, have much to contribute to the discourse in terms of motivating the need for gun control, fully understanding the user-gun relationship, breaking down misconceptions about the technology and its role in society, and further understanding the complex societal network within which guns exist in America. This will begin first with a discussion of the legal history and background of firearms in the United States, and will be followed by an STS analysis of technological agency and somnambulism as they can be applied to guns. Following this, the Actor Network in which firearms in America are imbedded will be explored, in order to better understand why they have been so difficult to regulate. Although this thesis will be heavily policy and law-focused, the aim is not to propose any specific new policy, but instead to use STS to conceptualize gun issues from a new perspective that will allow misconceptions and blockades to be confronted head-on.

Studien utgår från aktör- nätverksteori (actor-network theory, ANT) och baseras på litteraturstudier och intervjuer med rektorer och förstelärare. I studien beskrivs nätverken som uppstår runt försteläraruppdraget, vilka krafter som påförs och deras interaktion.  I studien har efterfrågats rektorers och förstelärares beskrivning av försteläraruppdraget och hanteringen av det som ett led i identifikationen av aktörer som påverkar det komplexa uppdraget. Aktörer är mänsklig eller icke-mänsklig, konkret eller abstrakt och påverkas av eller påverkar andra aktörer i det nätverk som avses. ”An actor is what is made to act by many others” (Latour, 2005, s. 46). Försteläraruppdraget karaktäriseras av ett samspel och interaktion mellan ett flertal fysiska, tekniska och sociala aktörer där inga symmetriska relationer råder eftersom en aktörs karaktär inte är given på förhand, erhåller den karaktären i det sammanhang den både uppträder i och bidrar till att forma eller omforma. Varje aktör blir ett resultat av sina relationer och det sammanhang den blir en del av, och något som inte påverkar ett sammanhang för någon annan aktör kan inte heller ses som en (Latour, 2005).   Min förhoppning är att denna studie ska bidra till en ökad förståelse för den komplexitet försteläraruppdraget innebär för både rektorer, förstelärare, blivande förstelärare och lärarkollegor. Det är ett omdiskuterat och mångfacetterat uppdrag som syftar till påverka elevers kunskapsinhämtning och förändra lärarprofessionens rykte och förbättra den framtida rekryteringen. / To be a first teacher or have a first teacher assignment, what is the difference? This thesis is based on data from interviews with Swedish first teachers and principals, and is investigating the asymmetric, constantly moving and reforming network of the first teacher reform. Connections, transformations and translations are being made, causing the network to reform.  By using an actor-network theory (ANT) the thesis presents traces of the first teacher reform and illuminates different actors and their connection in order to follow the actor, based on concepts from Latour and Law. This repertoire has enabled the work with capturing the ongoing processes between different actors within the network.    The study concludes that even though teachers would like the assignment to be more ruled and regulated, most of them benefit for their own personal development as well as for the pupils development.

Esta dissertação teve como objetivo descrever, à luz da obra de Bruno Latour, as construções de natureza e sociedade pelas redes de humanos e não-humanos da ciência das mudanças climáticas em São Paulo. As mudanças climáticas estão no olho do furacão de um dos debates científicos e sociopolíticos mais importantes da atualidade pelo risco que representam às antigas classificações das ciências modernas, que distinguem totalmente os domínios do humano e do natural. Este estudo buscou contribuir para o avanço teórico e etnográfico nas áreas de mudanças climáticas, da antropologia da ciência e da tecnologia, dos estudos sociais de ciência e tecnologia (science studies). O projeto teve início com o mapeamento da rede paulista de pesquisadores de mudanças climáticas dedicados à produção, ao desenvolvimento e ao uso da modelagem climática computacional, assim como o levantamento bibliográfico de antropologia e história das ciências e das ciências das mudanças climáticas. A partir da seleção de entrevistas com alguns informantes mapeados e da leitura do material bibliográfico levantado, o trabalho realizou uma discussão, seguindo a teoria do ator-rede, da história das classificações de humano e natural em risco na ciência de mudanças climáticas e uma discussão dos diferentes elementos e relações sociotécnicas produzidos e que a compõem. / This study concerns a description of nature and society production, according to Bruno Latour, in the human and non-human networks of climate change science in Sao Paulo. Climate change is at the eye of the storm in one of the most important scientific and sociopolitical debates of our time, due to the risks it presents to the old classifications of modern science, which distinguish the human and natural dominions. This study aimed at promoting developments in anthropological theory and ethnography in the fields of climate change, anthropology of science and technology, science studies, and actor-network-theory. The research started with mapping the network of climate change scientists in Sao Paulo dedicated to the production, development, and use of computer climate models and with selecting the literature concerning anthropology and history of science and climate change science. Based on interviews of mapped researchers and the selected literature, this study discusses following actor-network-theory the history of human and natural classifications at risk in climate change science and the different sociotechnical elements and relations that compose it and are produced by it.

Este trabalho pretende analisar os aspectos do trabalho voluntário de tradução e, em qual medida, ele interfere nas relações socioculturais e sociedade. Para tanto, tomaremos como objeto de estudo um grupo de tradutores voluntários que atuam na Organização Não-Governamental Soka Gakkai Internacional. Como se pretende estudar os agentes que participam desse processo, como parte de uma estrutura social, utilizaremos a teoria de actor-network de Bruno Latour (2005). Com o intuito de analisar a função e o desenvolvimento dos tradutores voluntários envolvidos no processo, sua experiência pessoal e profissional e suas relações socioculturais, utilizaremos a noção de habitus discutida por Pierre Bourdieu (1972; 1990; 2003). Com base nos estudos preliminares, pressupõe-se que os atores que desenvolvem esse trabalho voluntário de tradução compartilham princípios e disposições semelhantes, ou seja, possuem basicamente os mesmos habitus e negociam as regras que regem o seu trabalho de acordo com a prática, e não partindo da teoria. Finalmente, busca-se confirmar a premissa de que, para o grupo em questão, os valores que permeiam o seu trabalho, a despeito da recompensa financeira, agregam novas características ao trabalho de tradução, sob uma concepção mais humanista e social. / This article aims to analyze translation as volunteering work as long as to what extent it influences socio-cultural relations and society. Thus, the object of our study is a group of volunteers who work as translators for the Non-Governmental Organization Soka Gakkai International. As we intend to study the agents who participate in this process, considering them to be part of a social structure, the empirical data are discussed against the background of the Actor-Network-Theory by Bruno Latour (2005). We also intend to analyze the role and development of the volunteering translators involved in the process, their background and socio-cultural relations, which will be framed in terms of Pierre Bourdieus concept of habitus (1972; 1990; 2003). Based on preliminary studies, we may argue that the actors who take part in this translation volunteering work share similar principles and dispositions, that is, they have the same habitus and their starting point is not the theory, but they negotiate the rules of translation according to their practice. Finally, we intend to confirm the hypothesis that, for this group, the value of their job is beyond the financial reward, and bring new characteristics to translation.

L'objet de cette thèse est d'analyser l'émergence d'un objet technique, un portail numérique de produits de formation, en identifiant tous les actants qu'un tel projet a mobilisés et en tentant de saisir la logique de leurs interactions pour en dégager les différentes configurations sociotechniques qui se succèdent, les lois ou les régularités qui les rendent représentatives d'un processus d'innovation technique. À partir d'une enquête de terrain fortement inspirée d'une démarche ethnographique, cette recherche dresse l'inventaire de douze portails numériques qui se sont succédés entre 1998 et 2008 dans les Universités de Grenoble et décrit dans le même mouvement les acteurs, leurs positions (convergentes ou contradictoires), les différents points de vue en présence et les enjeux politiques, techniques, économiques, etc.Empruntant le concept d'objet-frontière pour englober cet ensemble d'environnements numériques successifs et communs à un territoire universitaire, l'étude donne une importance aux objets dans l'action et offre une méthode de compréhension des points d'association et de rupture entre les différents actants mobilisés. L'objectif est de modéliser les interactions qui s'établissent à chaque nouveau « prototype » de portail et qui traduisent des chaînes d'associations (techniques, économiques, politiques et d'utilisation) faisant apparaître différents réseaux.En référence à la théorie de l'acteur-réseau, l'analyse des processus de fabrication des portails consiste à identifier les mécanismes à l'œuvre dans les mouvements générateurs de ces réseaux. Cette sociologie conduit à porter un regard particulier sur le portail, considéré comme la résultante d'une combinaison d'associations entre des actants humains et non-humains. Le portail est alors une mise en forme des relations d'entités hétérogènes sociales et techniques. Pour comprendre ces mécanismes de construction, d'ajustement ou de stabilisation des liens entre les entités du réseau, la démarche consiste, dans un premier temps, en partant de l'historique des douze portails, à transposer l'ensemble des données observées dans un espace topographique (schémas, tableaux) et d'y faire figurer les relations qui se nouent entre les différents actants par la médiation de l'objet technique.Cette mise en scène des douze réseaux, à partir de l'objet technique en tant que point de repère des transformations successives de l'objet-frontière, permet dans un second temps de réaliser une analyse de la structure des réseaux, c'est-à-dire de l'ensemble des données et des agencements entre ces données qui structurent un espace. L'analyse consiste alors à interpréter la structure obtenue pour rendre compte des agencements particuliers. Pour chacun des douze portails, cette recherche met en lumière des structures particulières de réseaux et des propriétés spécifiques de constitution, de déformation et de disparition auxquelles sont soumis ces collectifs hybrides. Le rapprochement itératif et méthodique entre ces structures permet de les classer en trois ensembles distincts : les réseaux autocentrés, les réseaux coopératifs et les réseaux ouverts. Ces derniers révèlent des propriétés spécifiques, notamment : - que la compétition symbolique ou économique est une force structurante du réseau ; – que l'objet technique est un composant dont la plasticité dépend davantage de la structure du réseau que de ses caractéristiques techniques ; – que le potentiel d'action d'une entité (c'est-à-dire sa capacité à créer de la différence au sein du réseau) est lié à sa capacité à établir des associations. L'ensemble de ces propriétés traduit des processus d'innovation qui amènent à questionner le modèle de l'innovation de P. Flichy quant à la distinction des deux cadres dans l'objet-frontière et le modèle de la traduction quant à son principe de symétrie. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the emergence of a technical object - a digital portal for training products - by identifying all actors that such a project has mobilized and trying to grasp the logic of their interactions to define the various socio-technical configurations laws or regularities that make them representative of a technical innovation process. From a field survey strongly inspired by an ethnographic approach, this research provides an inventory of twelve digital portals that succeeded between 1998 and 2008 at the Universities of Grenoble while describing actors and their positions (converging or contradictory), the different point of view, and the political, technical and economic stakes.Borrowing from the boundary object concept to include this set of successive digital environments common to a university territory study gives importance to objects in action and provides a method of understanding of the association and breaking points between mobilized actors. The objective is to model the interactions established for each new "prototype" portal, which represent chains of associations (technical, economic, political and usage) thus revealing different networks.With reference to the theory of the actor-network, this analysis of the design process of portals aims to identify the mechanisms at work in generating these networks. This sociology implies taking a particular look at the portal, considered as the result of a combination of associations between human and non-human actors. The portal is there by shaped by the heterogeneous social and technical relationships of the actors who designed it.To understand these mechanisms of construction, adjustment or stabilization of the links between network entities, the approach starts with an historical overview of the twelve portals in order to transpose all of the observed data into a topographical space (diagrams, tables) and to include the relationships established between actants through the mediation of the technical object.This presentation of the twelve networks, which considers the technical object as a landmark of successive transformations of the boundary object, then makes it possible to perform an analysis of the network structure, that is say of the set of data and and how the relationships between this data structure a space. The analysis then consists in interpreting the resulting structure to account for special relationships. For each of the twelve portals, this research highlights specific network structures and specific properties of the constitution, deformation and loss that these hybrid collectives are subject to. The iterative and systematic connection between these structures can be classified into three distinct groups: self-centered networks, collaborative networks and open networks. These groups reveal specific properties, including: - symbolic or economic competition is a structuring force of the network; - the technical object is a component whose plasticity depends more on the structure of the network than on its technical characteristics; - the action potential of an entity (that is to say its ability to create difference within the network) is related to its ability to establish associations.All of these innovation processes lead us to question the P. Flichy model of innovation regarding the distinction of the two boundary object frameworks and in the model of the actor-network in its principle of symmetry.

Karolinska Institutet (KI) är en kunskapsintensiv organisation som bedriver världsledande medicinsk forskning. Här blir frågor kring ägande och makt centrala då produktion av vetenskap är en bransch där det finns mycket prestige och ekonomiskt kapital att vinna. Utifrån läsning av kandidatuppsatser som gjorts på KI bildades ett intresse för att lyfta betydelsen av maktens påverkan på det vetenskapliga arbetet. Syftet med studien har varit att utöka förståelsen för hur makt manifesteras inom och mellan forskargrupper på KI. Detta har gjorts genom en kortvarig etnografisk studie under en veckas tid, då vi följt en forskargrupp i deras dagliga arbete. För att kunna styrka våra observationer har även material från tidigare studier gjorda inom samma fält, tillgodogjorts i samråd med handledaren. Forskningsfrågorna som studien utgått från är hur manifesteras makt inom och mellan forskargrupper samt vilken roll spelar kapital som valuta och medlare vid manifestation av makt. För att besvara våra forskningsfrågor har vi tillämpat Bruno Latours Actor-Network Theory (ANT) samt Pierre Bourdieus koncept kring olika kapitalformer. Genom vår observation kunde vi se hur teorierna kunde sammanföras för att förklara hur makt manifesteras och vilka aktörer som kom att spela stor roll i detta avseende. Resultatet av studien visar på att hur makt manifesteras mellan människor, till stor del formas av de så kallade icke-mänskliga aktörerna som finns inom det specifika fältet som studeras. Dessa aktörer menar vi främst är byggnadens utformning, den vetenskapliga och tekniska utrustningen, hyror och publikationer. Avslutningsvis har vi kunnat se att makt manifesteras genom att analysera den cykliska återinvesteringen av kapital.

Ce travail de thèse vise tout d'abord à comprendre comment se construisent les dispositifs de Gestion des Ressources Humaines (GRH) inter-organisationnelle. Il cherche, ensuite, à en évaluer la portée effective. Pour ce faire, deux dispositifs innovants sont étudiés à la lumière de la Théorie de I' Acteur-Réseau (Collon, 1986 ; Akrich et al., 2006 ; Latour, 2006). Le premier, Alliance, rassemble des grandes entreprises du bassin d'emploi lyonnais. Il a pour but de développer la mobilité inter-entreprises de ses salariés. Le second est un programme de GPEC collective mis en place par la grappe d'entreprises stéphanoise Mécaloire, au profit de ses PME membres. Nos résultats tendent à confirmer la tendance, déjà observée, de territorialisation de la GRH. Le territoire est alors vu comme un intermédiaire capable d'agréger des acteurs aux motivations diverses, et de fluidifier leurs échanges. La place des relations interpersonnelles, du temps et du droit à l'erreur apparaît comme centrale dans le processus d'émergence des dispositifs de GRH inter-organisationnelle. Dix rôles clefs d'acteurs, présents dans ce processus, sont révélés. L'importance des acteurs non­humains est soulignée. Les résultats effectifs des dispositifs sont enfin comparés aux ambitions d'origine affichées. Un constat d'échec est dressé. Il apparaît que les bénéficiaires des dispositifs ne sont pas les salariés initialement ciblés. Plusieurs explications sont avancées. Nos résultats contribuent ainsi, modestement, à l'enrichissement du champ de recherche propre à la GRH inter-organisationnelle (ou GRH Territoriale). Ils permettent également de questionner la pertinence du cadre théorique de l'acteur-réseau et d'en proposer des pistes d'enrichissement. Ils permettent enfin, d'un point de vue opérationnel, d'identifier les facteurs clefs de succès et freins potentiels à la mise en place de dispositifs de GRH inter-organisationnelle. / This PhD's aim is to understand how inter-organizational HRM devices are developed and to provide an evaluation of their actual results. To this point, two innovative devices are studied in the light of the Actor-Network Theory (Collon, 1986; Akrich et al., 2006; Latour, 2006). The first one, Alliance, brings together major companies of the Lyon area, aiming to develop inter-firm mobility of employees. The second is a collective GPEC program (strategic workforce planning) set up by the Mécaloire cluster for the benefit of its members: SMEs from the Saint-Etienne area. Our results tend to confirm the trend of HRM territorialisation, where the territory appears as an intermediary in uniting actors with different motivations, and facilitating their exchanges. It also highlights that allowing interpersonal relationships, time, and trial and error are all crucial in the emergence process of inter-organizational HRM devices. Ten key roles in this process are revealed. The importance of non-human actors is emphasized. As the device's efficiency is compared with the original ambitions, it appears that beneficiaries are not those who were initially targeted. Several explanations are stated. Our results thus contribute, modestly, to the enrichment of the inter-organizational HRM (or Territorial HRM), question the relevance of the actor-network theory framework and provide enrichment tracks. From an operational point of view, key factors of success and potential obstacles to the development of inter-organizational HRM devices are updated.