This thesis is concerned with acknowledging farm animals and their co-presence in the more-than-human space of the livestock farm, and with accounting for them responsibly in sustainability debates. The enrolment of farm animals as actors in political agendas for environmental sustainability, and farm animal welfare suggests that there are new ways of seeing and being with farm animals that permit their relational presence and recognise their subjectivity. Indeed geographers have in recent years acknowledged animals and their relations with humans, and they have begun to recognise the nature of animal subjectivies. However, within the fundamental rethinking of animals that has been provoked by these discussions, I suggest that farm animals have remained relatively invisible. Occupying ethically confusing terrain, farm animals have nonetheless been visible in a set of philosophical positions regarding their moral status, yet these debates present a rather confusing picture in which the farm animal as an individual is conspicuous by its absence. In seeking to redress the invisibility of farm animals within these debates, and recast them in relation to humans and the broader farm ecology, this thesis attempts to set out an epistemological and methodological framework through which farm animals might become visible as individual fleshy beings. Drawing on the concept of agricultural stewardship and new agendas in farm animal welfare science, it makes use of new methodological tools that have emerged in the social sciences to conduct a relational study of the livestock farm; a study in which farm animals themselves participate. It also considers how the divisions that have been constructed between humans, farm animals and the environment can be reconfigured as a more unified political science of the livestock farm.

This thesis focuses on the relationships between agency, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and people with disability (in various ages). The aim has been to create an understanding by describing and analysing, and as such, to develop knowledge of how people with disabilities experience agency, ICT, and disability in their everyday lives. The frame of reference is inspired by disability studies, feminist studies and science and technologies studies (STS). The empirical material was collected in, Norrbotten (Sweden’s northernmost region) and Muscat (the capital area of the Sultanate of Oman) by an autobiographical account, audio-visual material, drawings, interviews, observations, and reading of textual documents. The thesis consists of six papers. The main findings outline that agency, ICT, disability, and gender are part of intra-actions between material entities (such as bodies, technologies, etc.) and practices. The thesis also explores that disability in Sweden and Oman are understood in a variety of ways. Additionally, it presents that the combination of the notions of interference with situated knowledges can contribute with alternative methodological insights about the interference of disability, gender, ICT, the participants’ and researchers’ experiences and understandings to make accountable knowledge claims. Moreover, the thesis presents that material entities (bodies and technologies) and practices are part of different modes of ordering disability which bear effects on the lives of people with disabilities. It additionally disentangles that materialities such as the Internet intra-act with other material entities (for instance, bodies) and practices which enact various forms of agency which bear effects on the everyday lives of people with disability and their ways to participate. Finally, the thesis outlines some implications that an intra-acting understanding of the use of Internet can contribute with in research which focuses on disability, participation, and agency.

This study presents an analysis of the processes of representation and translation involved in the practice of the Validation des Acquis de l’Expérience (VAE), or Recognition of Prior Experiential Learning, in a French University. This analysis is based on a qualitative research using semi-structured interviews with VAE candidates, advisers and academic staff, and recorded interactions between candidates and their advisers, and the validation juries. The research was at first influenced by the life history and educational biographies perspective (Josso 2001; Dominicé 2002; Pineau 2002), which privileged a dialogic approach. This has led to the decision to let the candidates tell their story of ordering struggle, where the resistance, dissidence and controversies circulate within and around the VAE ‘object’. This study is interested in the ordering modes enacted through the VAE and their relational effects with subjectivities. The analysis draws on Callon’s (1986) four moments of translation, as a way to give an initial frame of reference for the research. It presents the actors’ voices in a sequence of accounts, disrupted by the researcher’s running commentaries. It also focusses on the role the portfolio plays in ‘ordering’ the heterogeneous elements of the candidates’ lives, subjecting them to a form of ‘disciplinary writing’ through ‘technologies of the self’, whereby subjectivities are mobilised into specific modes of ordering. It analyses how the VAE becomes a stabilized network (Star 1991), insisting on speaking with a unitary voice, erasing the multiplicity of selves and the messy realities of the candidates’ lives, until the heterogeneous elements of the network escape again. Finally the study seeks to investigate further the recognition of heterogeneity, the possibility of multiplicity of cultures and agencies, multiple identities.

Comprendre le mode d’existence de l’organisation est certainement l’un des plus grands défis que se sont donnés les chercheurs qui s’intéressent à ce domaine d’étude. La littérature nous présente ainsi plusieurs images, métaphores et perspectives qui, combinées, dressent un portrait hybride de ce type de collectif. Je propose, dans cette thèse, de reconnaître et exploiter ce caractère hybride de l’organisation en partant d’une réflexion centrée sur l'espace. En m’inspirant particulièrement des travaux de la géographe Doreen Massey (1999, 2005), le concept d'espace auquel je souscris est celui d’un espace ouvert et dynamique (qui incorpore le temps), basé sur une relationalité matérielle et hétérogène, supposant des acteurs humains et non humains en interaction. L'espace peut donc être compris comme la coexistence d’ontologies hétérogènes, ce que Massey (2005) nomme une coexistence de trajectoires comme stories-so-far. Il s’agit ici d’une vision performative de l’espace organisationnel qui est constitué dans la relation de trajectoires distinctes qui coexistent, se rencontrent, s’affectent, entrent en conflit ou coopèrent (Massey, 1999). Je postule que pour assurer une certaine continuité et cohérence dans la coexistence de trajectoires hétérogènes, un travail d’alignement et d’ordonnancement est mis à l’oeuvre, et ce, par le suivi d’une trajectoire principale — ce que je nomme une trajectoire scriptée. Suivre cette trajectoire permet ainsi à l’organisation de s’étendre, de se rendre présente dans le temps et dans l’espace, sans pour autant perdre son identité : to be here and there at the same time, now and then at the same place. À partir de cette définition de l’espace, je propose d’« espacer l’organisation », et plus particulièrement d’« espacer » Explora, un programme d’éducation non formelle du gouvernement du Chili visant la diffusion et la valorisation de la science et de la technologie. Cette proposition est double : elle renvoie aux pratiques d’espacements — des pratiques hybrides, collectives et situées — des agents organisationnels (dans ce cas, aux pratiques des agents d’Explora impliqués dans l’organisation d’un projet, celui de la Semaine de la science 2006),mais aussi à une pratique de recherche. « Espacer l’organisation » veut donc dire déployer ces espaces pleins, déplier l’organisation, accroître la série des simultanéités-successions pour ainsi créer plus d’espace-temps. / To understand the organization’s mode of being is certainly one of the most important challenges faced by researchers who are interested in this field of study. The literature presents several images, metaphors and perspectives which, combined, draw up a hybrid portrait of this type of collective. In this dissertation, I propose to recognize and exploit this hybrid character by starting from a reflection on space. Inspired especially by the work of the geographer Doreen Massey (1999, 2005), the concept of space to which I subscribe is that of an open and dynamic space (which incorporates time), based on a material and heterogeneous relationality, which supposes human and nonhuman actors in interaction. Space can thus be understood as the coexistence of heterogeneous ontologies, what Massey (2005) calls a “coexistence of trajectories as stories-so-far”. It is then a performative vision of organizational space which is constructed through the relation of distinct trajectories that coexist, meet, affect each other, enter in conflict or cooperate (Massey, 1999). I argue that to guarantee a certain form of continuity and coherence in the coexistence of heterogeneous trajectories, a work of alignment and ordering is put at work, and this, by the following-up of a main trajectory — what I call a scripted trajectory. By following this trajectory the organization can then extend itself, making itself present in time and space, without loosing its identity: it can be “here and there at the same time, now and then at the same place.” Starting from this definition of space, I propose to “space the organization,” and more specifically to “space” Explora, a non formal educational program of the Chilean government, which aims to diffuse and promote science and technology. Spacing an organization implies a double proposal: it refers to the spacing practices — hybrid, collective and situated practices — enacted by organizational agents (in this case, Explora’s agents implicated in the organization of a project, that of the Science week 2006), but also to a research practice. “Spacing the organization” consists of deploying these full spaces, unfolding the organization, and increasing the series of simultaneities-successions in order to create more space-time.

Comprendre le mode d’existence de l’organisation est certainement l’un des plus grands défis que se sont donnés les chercheurs qui s’intéressent à ce domaine d’étude. La littérature nous présente ainsi plusieurs images, métaphores et perspectives qui, combinées, dressent un portrait hybride de ce type de collectif. Je propose, dans cette thèse, de reconnaître et exploiter ce caractère hybride de l’organisation en partant d’une réflexion centrée sur l'espace. En m’inspirant particulièrement des travaux de la géographe Doreen Massey (1999, 2005), le concept d'espace auquel je souscris est celui d’un espace ouvert et dynamique (qui incorpore le temps), basé sur une relationalité matérielle et hétérogène, supposant des acteurs humains et non humains en interaction. L'espace peut donc être compris comme la coexistence d’ontologies hétérogènes, ce que Massey (2005) nomme une coexistence de trajectoires comme stories-so-far. Il s’agit ici d’une vision performative de l’espace organisationnel qui est constitué dans la relation de trajectoires distinctes qui coexistent, se rencontrent, s’affectent, entrent en conflit ou coopèrent (Massey, 1999). Je postule que pour assurer une certaine continuité et cohérence dans la coexistence de trajectoires hétérogènes, un travail d’alignement et d’ordonnancement est mis à l’oeuvre, et ce, par le suivi d’une trajectoire principale — ce que je nomme une trajectoire scriptée. Suivre cette trajectoire permet ainsi à l’organisation de s’étendre, de se rendre présente dans le temps et dans l’espace, sans pour autant perdre son identité : to be here and there at the same time, now and then at the same place. À partir de cette définition de l’espace, je propose d’« espacer l’organisation », et plus particulièrement d’« espacer » Explora, un programme d’éducation non formelle du gouvernement du Chili visant la diffusion et la valorisation de la science et de la technologie. Cette proposition est double : elle renvoie aux pratiques d’espacements — des pratiques hybrides, collectives et situées — des agents organisationnels (dans ce cas, aux pratiques des agents d’Explora impliqués dans l’organisation d’un projet, celui de la Semaine de la science 2006),mais aussi à une pratique de recherche. « Espacer l’organisation » veut donc dire déployer ces espaces pleins, déplier l’organisation, accroître la série des simultanéités-successions pour ainsi créer plus d’espace-temps. / To understand the organization’s mode of being is certainly one of the most important challenges faced by researchers who are interested in this field of study. The literature presents several images, metaphors and perspectives which, combined, draw up a hybrid portrait of this type of collective. In this dissertation, I propose to recognize and exploit this hybrid character by starting from a reflection on space. Inspired especially by the work of the geographer Doreen Massey (1999, 2005), the concept of space to which I subscribe is that of an open and dynamic space (which incorporates time), based on a material and heterogeneous relationality, which supposes human and nonhuman actors in interaction. Space can thus be understood as the coexistence of heterogeneous ontologies, what Massey (2005) calls a “coexistence of trajectories as stories-so-far”. It is then a performative vision of organizational space which is constructed through the relation of distinct trajectories that coexist, meet, affect each other, enter in conflict or cooperate (Massey, 1999). I argue that to guarantee a certain form of continuity and coherence in the coexistence of heterogeneous trajectories, a work of alignment and ordering is put at work, and this, by the following-up of a main trajectory — what I call a scripted trajectory. By following this trajectory the organization can then extend itself, making itself present in time and space, without loosing its identity: it can be “here and there at the same time, now and then at the same place.” Starting from this definition of space, I propose to “space the organization,” and more specifically to “space” Explora, a non formal educational program of the Chilean government, which aims to diffuse and promote science and technology. Spacing an organization implies a double proposal: it refers to the spacing practices — hybrid, collective and situated practices — enacted by organizational agents (in this case, Explora’s agents implicated in the organization of a project, that of the Science week 2006), but also to a research practice. “Spacing the organization” consists of deploying these full spaces, unfolding the organization, and increasing the series of simultaneities-successions in order to create more space-time.