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Sustainability responds to crises of ecology and human development and the relationships between them. Sustainability cannot be adequately described using disciplinary categories arising from the modern dichotomy between nature and culture. Sustainability research requires a methodology that reflects the reality of its subject. This thesis presents material semiotics as a methodology for sustainability research. Material semiotics refers to the work of actor-network theorists and latter developments of alternate spatial metaphors for material relationality. Actor-network theory is a methodology that describes human and non-human actors in the same terms. It follows actor through networks of material relationships that they constitute and are constituted by, depicting heterogeneous objects without recourse to prior categories of nature or culture. The description of material relationships in fluid and regional, as well as network, spaces expands the descriptive power of material semiotics to include Others and to better represent complexity. The Oil Mallee Project is a case study of sustainability in the Western Australian wheatbelt. Indigenous eucalypts, oil mallees, are planted on land that was cleared for agriculture. The above ground biomass can be processed for eucalyptus oil, electricity and activated carbon, and the rights to carbon stored in the extensive mallee roots, or in unharvested trees, can be sold. The Project responds to a number of sustainability issues, including ozone depletion, land degradation, climate change and rural decline. This thesis follows the actors that comprise the Oil Mallee Project to describe its complexity, multiplicity and sustainability. Qualitative interviews with actors in the Project and the wheatbelt provided the primary data, which is supported by documentary material. Three contingent phases can be identified in the history of the Oil Mallee Project – eucalyptus oil industry, dryland salinity management, and greenhouse response. The Project has persisted because it is simultaneously a regional, network and fluid object. Mallees grow well in the tough conditions of the wheatbelt. Mallees can be integrated with existing networks of industrial agriculture. The Project has achieved contingent stability in policy documents and the networks of scientific research. The fluidity of the Project has enabled it to change shape and identity in response to threats and opportunities, and as relationships break and form, without complete disruption. Specific humans have been central heroes in different phases of the Project. The mallees themselves are the only actors that have been consistently central to the identity of the Project. Sustainability requires knowledge of the relationships between humans and non-humans that constitute the multiple crises of ecology and human development. Sustainability is the re-ordering of those relationships in ways that make possible ecological integrity and human fulfilment. Material semiotics is a methodology for knowing sustainability in ways that reveal the possibilities for such re-orderings.

Zugl.: Mannheim, Universiẗat, Diss., 2007.

Master of Science / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering / Faryad Darabi Sahneh / A significant number of processes we observe in nature can be described as a spreading process; any agent which is compelled to survive by replicating through a population, examples include viruses, opinions, and information. Accordingly, a significant amount of thought power has been spent creating tools to aid in understanding spreading processes: How do they evolve? When do they thrive? What can we do to control them? Often times these questions are asked with respect to processes in isolation, when agents are free to spread to the maximum extent possible given topological and characteristic constraints. Naturally, we may be interested in considering the dynamics of multiple processes spreading through the same population, examples of which there are no shortage; we frequently characterize nature itself by the interaction and competition present at all scales of life. Recently the number of investigations into interacting processes, particularly in the context of complex networks, has increased. The roles of interaction among processes are varied from mutually beneficial to hostel, but the goals of these investigations has been to understand the role of topology in the ability of multiple processes to co-survive. A consistent feature of all present works -- within the current authors knowledge -- is that conclusions of coexistence are based on marginal descriptions population dynamics. It is the main contribution of this work to explore the hypothesis that purely marginal population descriptions are insufficient indicators of co-survival between interacting processes. Specifically, evaluating coexistence based on non-zero marginal populations is an over-simplistic definition. We randomly generate network topologies via a community based algorithm, the parameters of which allow for trivially controlling possibility of coexistence. Both marginal and conditional probabilities of each process surviving is measured by stochastic simulations. We find that positive marginal probabilities for both processes existing long term does not necessarily imply coexistence, and that marginal and conditional measurements only agree when layers are strongly anti-correlated (sufficiently distinct). In addition to the present thesis, this work is being prepared for a journal article publication. The second portion of this thesis presents numerical simulations for the Adaptive Contact - Susceptible Alert Infected Susceptible model. The dynamics of interaction between an awareness process and an infectious process are computed over a multilayer network. The rate at which nodes "switch" their immediate neighbors (contacts) when exposed to the infection is varied and numerical solutions to the epidemic threshold are computed according to mean-field approximation. We find two unexpected cases where certain parameter configurations allow the epidemic threshold to either increase above or decrease below the theoretical limits of the layers when considered individually. These computations were performed as part of a separate journal article that has been accepted for publication.

This is a study of architectural competitions as they engage with the design practices of architects within the UK and Europe. Since only one firm or one design emerges at the end, and the project programme exists prior to the submissions, there tends to be a gap between programme and practice, past and future, language and situation. It is the aim of this research to investigate what changes in our understanding of architectural practice when we acknowledge that architects work to linear programmes and submit deliverables within the set of relations that make up the competition. In conducting this research I address a gap in the social scientific understanding of architectural practice. While ethnographies of architectural studios have described the way design emerges through an interplay of humans and nonhumans, formats or structures like the competition have not yet become analytical categories in the ethnographic literature. To bridge what seems like a gap between the immaterial world of the competition and the material world of the studio, I draw from actor-network theory to view the competition as a set of relations that include objects and practices. Considering the technology of the competition, I follow five different strands of research. I identify the matters of concern that architects talk about when they talk about competitions; examine the documents involved in administering a competition; follow an atelier at an architectural school where students participate regularly in competitions; observe the Office of Metropolitan Architecture prepare a concept design; and visit an exhibition of submissions. Here I describe the ways in which competitions come together within the practice of architects. This study makes three contributions. First, the study adds to our understanding of architecture as a set of relations, rather than a stable identity. The second contribution has to do with language and practice, demonstrating that ‘big’ categories like ‘building’ nevertheless act within collectives of architects, clients, contractors and so on. A final implication is for methods. Since certain categories exist between sites, organising the activity of actors in different offices across what might be hundreds of miles, ethnographic fieldwork on architecture can become fragmented and multi-sited. The implications of the architectural competition for an ethnographic understanding of architectural practice, then, are to see more and ‘bigger’ collectives within the lives of architects.

An anthropological study of urban practice, this thesis contributes a nuanced understanding of the role of visual art in regeneration. Inspired by the experiential philosophy of Dewey (1934), we have traced the effects mobilised by art as part of urban transformation. The literature of cultural policy and ‘culture-led regeneration’ (Vickery, 2007), discusses art as physical artworks, in support of development; or as socially-engaged practice, in support of social renewal. Through tracing the movements of all the actors involved, our research goes beyond explanation in support of policy targets. We have described what happens in practice, on its own terms. To account for a range of professional perspectives, the research included four empirical studies at different proximities to practice: an exploratory study embedded in art practice; eighteen in-depth interviews with a range of art and regeneration professionals; sixteen in-depth interviews with practitioners of an Urban Regeneration Company (URC) case study; and a six-month ethnography of the same URC case. Accounting for the agency of humans and non-humans (Latour, 2007a), our explications took close account of the effects produced by the associations of urban relationships, between: engineers, planners, construction workers, and artists; as well as plans and drawings, objects, materials, concepts, ideas and natural elements. Through tracing actors at the ‘microscopic’ (Geertz, 1973) scale, we did not observe art as ‘works’, but the way art works as a driver for re-imagining the urban. In practice, we see regeneration not as buildings or communities, but as a continuous process of re-shaping human-physical relationships. As part of this relational network, art ‘mediates’ (Hennion, 1997) participation, collaboration and reflection on the ambitions of regeneration: producing new ideas for urban possibilities. The effects are produced through the continuous associations between ‘inner’ (human) and ‘outer’ (physical) materials. These material associations meld to create a neutral platform for professionals to shift from their usual remit; to re-consider the ‘big picture’ from a new perspective. Regeneration is an active part of the political landscape. As a catalyst for urban imagination, rather than deliver policy objectives, art re-shapes them. Through tracing practice this research contributes new understandings to the study of art and regeneration. By revealing urban networks through tracing art, rather than explaining regeneration as physical or social, we have made a contribution to urban studies by describing the micro movements of regeneration as a relational practice. As a contribution to art studies, through tracing how art works in regeneration, we have produced nuanced descriptions of how art ‘mediates’ action and reflection in and on urban practice. As a contribution to policy and practice, we have articulated the role of visual art in regeneration as: mediating emergent imaginings; re-shaping rather than delivering objectives. As a tool for the policies of the time, ‘regeneration’ has a shelf-life. As an articulation of the role of art as a catalyst for collaboration in support of positive urban transformation, the findings of this study continue to be relevant.

Especially since the publication of Hernando De Soto’s book The Mystery of Capital in 2000, there has been a great deal of scholarship on the relationship between property rights and economic growth. There is fairly broad consensus among policy makers and many academics that secure property rights have a wide range of benefits but significantly less agreement on what impedes secure property rights in developing countries, what types of rights work best and under what circumstances, or how to improve the situation in developing countries. Through a case study of land institutions and reform in the Greater Accra Region of Southern Ghana this thesis examines the complexities of overlapping and often contradictory land tenure regimes. Actor Network Theory is used to analyze the role of the various actors, including humans, organizations, and material actors, like documents. I argue that although the system of land rights institutions in Ghana is extremely complex, one of the main challenges is a relatively simple one: the materiality of the documents, and the related costs of producing, storing, managing, and maintaining them., Despite attempts by the state, with the support of the World Bank, to codify existing land relations, transaction costs have not been dramatically reduced. The result is a complicated environment of institutional pluralism, in which the documents involved in registration have taken on a life of their own, where users must recruit these material actors to support their land claims if they wish to have their rights protected. This process of producing and collecting documents to support their land claims can be costly for landholders, in terms of both time and money. In this way, the centrality of documents can be burdensome for landholders, but also creates interesting opportunities for landholders to mobilize land documents in unconventional ways in order to support their claims and seek protection for their rights to land. Especially since the publication of Hernando De Soto’s book The Mystery of Capital in 2000, there has been a great deal of scholarship on the relationship between property rights and economic growth. There is fairly broad consensus among policy makers and many academics that secure property rights have a wide range of benefits but significantly less agreement on what impedes secure property rights in developing countries, what types of rights work best and under what circumstances, or how to improve the situation in developing countries. Through a case study of land institutions and reform in the Greater Accra Region of Southern Ghana this thesis examines the complexities of overlapping and often contradictory land tenure regimes. Actor Network Theory is used to analyze the role of the various actors, including humans, organizations, and material actors, like documents. I argue that although the system of land rights institutions in Ghana is extremely complex, one of the main challenges is a relatively simple one: the materiality of the documents, and the related costs of producing, storing, managing, and maintaining them., Despite attempts by the state, with the support of the World Bank, to codify existing land relations, transaction costs have not been dramatically reduced. The result is a complicated environment of institutional pluralism, in which the documents involved in registration have taken on a life of their own, where users must recruit these material actors to support their land claims if they wish to have their rights protected. This process of producing and collecting documents to support their land claims can be costly for landholders, in terms of both time and money. In this way, the centrality of documents can be burdensome for landholders, but also creates interesting opportunities for landholders to mobilize land documents in unconventional ways in order to support their claims and seek protection for their rights to land.

In this Thesis I will examine technology adoption by analyzing how different organizations come to interpret a technology as a specific kind of innovation based on a certain set of criteria. The kind of innovation an organization interprets a technology to be effects how quickly the organization will adopt that technology. To analyze how organizations come to interpret technologies as a specific kind of innovation I will construct a model. I will utilize the Actor-Network Theory from Science and Technology Studies as the framework to combined theories regarding technology adoption from other disciplines. This new model of technology adoption will be able to address the individual weakness of each theory that I use, and at the same time build on the strengths of the Actor-Network Theory. I will conclude my thesis by testing my new model using an event study from econometrics. Using the surrogate measure of the stock market to represent consumers, the event study will allow me to gauge if the kind of innovation a technology is interpreted as affects the rate of its adoption. / Master of Science

In this dissertation I argue that creativity should be understood as a situated and distributed process. As I develop my approach to understanding creativity over the course of this dissertation, three core claims emerge: 1) that the creative powers of particular agents are constituted within the concrete circumstances (both social and material) in which they are situated, 2) that the creative process itself unfolds across networks of associating actors, and 3) that these networks of associating actors include nonhumans of diverse sorts as active participants in the creative process. Understanding the creative process in this way distinguishes my approach from the ways in which creativity has traditionally been understood, which I argue are marked by a deep Cartesianism. This Cartesianism manifests itself in the way that creativity is predominantly studied and conceived of as a cognitive process that occurs within the minds of individuals. Because creativity is seen to occur within the minds of individuals, and because these minds are seen to function autonomously of their context, there is a resulting lack of attention to how the creative process is shaped by and extended out into the material and social environment. Furthermore, because creativity is understood to be solely a manifestation of human agency and human intentions, the active role of nonhumans in the creative process has not been taking into account. Drawing upon literature within feminist epistemology, cognitive science, science and technology studies, disability theory, and situated action theory, I argue that to better understand creativity, we must consider the creative process as it occurs within particular social and material environments, as it is distributed across diverse networks of actors, and as it is shaped in essential ways by nonhuman actors. It is only by considering creativity in its context, out in the world and in the interactions between things, that we can get an adequate understanding of the creative process. / Philosophy

I have explored spaces, where negotiations of border transgressions take place and where issues of technology and politics mingle. We meet a diversity of actors in the world of information technology (IT): political texts, people and technology participating in numerous sociomaterial relations. Time is the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium, 2000. Years, when IT occupied the western world and created its own fuzzy discourse. Years, when IT stole the biggest newspaper headlines and years, when IT became a mundane everyday part of our work practices. Years, when we learned to live in heterogeneous worlds. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Actor-Network Theory and After (ANTa) provide analytical and methodological perspectives when working with the empirical material. I present a chronological exposé of some of the key concepts of ANT and ANTa. I also discuss how the classical ANT perspective has changed during the last few years from being a theory of networks to become a methodological and analytical approach to other kinds of spaces such as fluid and fire. The heart of the thesis consists of six empirical cases. My aim of writing stories of information technology has been to investigate the black box of information technology. Investigating includes also efforts of opening. Concepts that are taken for granted, such as the very notion of information technology in my case, can be explored, questioned, transgressed, blurred and opened up. Each of the diffracted stories is specific and unique, with its own actors, context, location and situatedness. But the stories are also connected through ANT, and feminist technology and technoscience studies. Case number one, ‘Discourses and Cracks – A Case Study of Information Technology and Writing Women in a Regional Context ’, is about a project, where questions concerning discourses of information society with a special focus on citizenship are discussed and where global and national politics are translated to local and situated practices. Case number two, ‘Translating and Negotiating Information Technology ’, consists of two main parts. The fi rst one is about a regional library project. The analysis of the project is based on the classical Actor Network Theory (ANT) approach that invites the study of the heterogeneous and negotiable shaping of IT. The second part is about librarians developing web-based services. The analysis is inspired by the later development of ANT (called ANTa in the thesis) in order to include more invisible actors, relations and negotiations. Case number three, ‘Negotiating Information Technology: Politics and Practices of The Public Sector Web Production’, is about work practices of a municipal web developer, through which creation of sociotechnical relations of everyday information technology practices is analysed and also mirrored to national and local IT politics. Case number four, ‘Making e-Government Happen – Everyday Co-Development of Services, Citizenship and Technology’, is presenting the same web developer as in the third case, but now his everyday practices are connected with an expanded and wider circuit of co-constructors of information technology. The text is a co-production of a multidisciplinary research group aiming to describe, analyse and problematise connections when creating practices, where technology and society collaborate. Case number fi ve, ‘Citizenship at the Crossroads of Multiple Layers of Sociotechnical Relations’, enrols technology as an active actor in the construction of citizenship in an IT context in Sweden. The perspective emphasising the active agency of non-humans both enhances and challenges the Scandinavian approach of systems development by suggesting a direction towards a cyborgian approach towards technology design. Case number six, ‘Between Stability and Instability – a Project about e-Democracy ’, takes its point of departure from a small-scale project having as its goal the development of e-democracy in a municipal context. In the text the focus is on the stabilisation processes in shaping the technology (‘e’) and democracy parts of the project. I also discuss what kinds of spaces exist in between (the hyphen in e-democracy) and ask if integration between technology and democracy is possible as a whole. Finally, my intention is to step further into stories and practices not yet existing. Inspired by the French philosopher Michel Serres, I introduce the fi guration of an angel as a cartographer, intermediator and (co-) constructor of sociomaterial relations. Angels are needed to sew the separate fi elds of technology, politics and everyday practices to a rich seamless tapestry. They are the ‘artful integrators’ (Suchman).