This thesis enters the context of smallholder agriculture communities in the developing world. It explores the potentials of biochar and what biochar systems could bring to the smallholder communities while simultaneously bringing environmental benefits. It then acknowledges the challenges of diffusion –the spreading of an unfamiliar innovation. It seeks to answer the question of what will make diffusion of biochar systems more successful in the smallholder context, fixating on the characteristic of compatibility as well as the role local community members can play in making a new biochar system more visible to the rest of the communities.

The object of this study was to assess the influence of native language, as a principal cultural characteristic, one users’ behavior when using a web-based e-commerce application. The study expands on previous research by comparing English and Russian users. The research also considered demographic data to assess additional factors that influence behavior and task performance. The research design encompassed an online shopping application with two different navigation menus. One menu was based on the action-object model and the other was based on the object-action model. The user interface was created in two different languages (Russian and English). This study suggests that language, as a cultural indicator, has a direct relationship to user satisfaction and performance in e-commerce web applications.

La seconde moitié du XXe siècle donna lieu à un accroissement des tentatives de redéfinir en termes opérationnels divers domaines de l'activité sociale tant scientifique, militaire, administratif ou industriel. Ces tentatives tirèrent parti des innovations scientifiques et techniques de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, puis de la généralisation de l'automatique. Cette thèse en propose une sociologie historique, menée à partir du cas particulier de l’archéologie. Ce domaine scientifique fait alors l’objet d’efforts accrus de disciplinarisation et de professionnalisation. C’est également le cas des mathématiques appliquées puis de l’informatique : cette étude porte précisément sur les rapports établis à l’intersection de ces trois domaines. En France, au cours des années 1950 et 1960, les innovations méthodologiques et conceptuelles y ont été particulièrement importantes. Pourtant, par la suite, leur réception s’est révélée relativement mineure. En archéologie, les innovations relatives aux mathématiques appliquées, à la formalisation du langage et à l’automatique n’ont pas donné lieu au développement d’une spécialité fondée sur le calcul. Cette situation contraste avec celle d’autres disciplines ou d’autres pays, et ceci alors même que les redéfinitions théoriques et méthodologiques de la « New Archaeology » anglophone se diffusaient à l’échelle internationale. La thèse explore les cas de trois entreprises collectives, menées respectivement autour de Georges Laplace, Jean-Claude Gardin et Jean Lesage, entre France, Espagne et Italie. Ces cas sont complétés par ceux d’un ensemble d’acteurs ayant été à la fois ingénieurs et archéologues. D’un point de vue général, cette étude porte sur les statuts cognitifs et sociaux des contributions méthodologiques dans l’activité scientifique. Trois modèles de relations entre spécialistes d’un domaine scientifique et spécialistes des sciences formelles sont identifiés et décrits. Les transformations entraînées par l’introduction des mathématiques et de l’automatique dans la division du travail et la distribution des formes de reconnaissance sont analysées. La réception de ces propositions méthodologiques est discutée à l’aune de différents facteurs et modèles de l’innovation scientifique. Ce sont, au final, des éclairages nouveaux sur le développement de l’archéologie de sauvetage puis préventive et sur la genèse des recours aux technologies « numériques » en sciences de l'homme qui sont proposés.L’analyse tire parti de 82 entretiens, 23 fonds d’archives et de plusieurs jeux de données bibliométriques (pré-existants ou constitués pour cette étude). En écho aux travaux pris pour objets, cette thèse entend également être une proposition et une illustration d’un usage possible de la formalisation et de l’informatique en sciences sociales. Fondées sur l’emploi d’un wiki et les principes de la programmation lettrée et de la reproductibilité des analyses, les architectures documentaire et démonstrative de cette étude font elles-mêmes l’objet d’une analyse. / During the second half of the 20th century, attempts were made to operationally redefine various social activities, including those related to science, the military, administration and industry. These attempts were aided by scientific and technical innovations developed in the Second World War, and subsequently by the increase in use of automation in various domains. This Ph.D. thesis addresses these attempts from a sociohistorical perspective, focusing on the specific case of archaeology. During this period, the domain of archaeology underwent a process of disciplinarisation and professionalisation. The same occurred in applied mathematics and then computer science: this thesis focuses on the relationships between these three domains. In France, during the 1950's and 1960's, there were significant methodological and conceptual innovations. Their subsequent scientific recognition, was, however, relatively minor. In archaeology, innovations related to applied mathematics and automatics did not lead to the emergence of an archaeological speciality based on computation. This situation was in striking contrast to what happened in other scientific domains and in archaeology in other countries, where new theoretical and methodological Anglophone definitions in ‘New Archaeology’ were spreading worldwide.This thesis explores three collective attempts to redefine the conceptual and methodological basis of archaeology, led by Georges Laplace, Jean-Claude Gardin and Jean Lesage, across France, Spain and Italy. These cases are completed by other people who had significant careers in both engineering and archaeology. In general, this thesis studies a scientific activity by investigating the cognitive and social aspects of peoples’ methodological contributions. Three models of the relationships between experts in a scientific domain and experts in an applied science (here mathematics and computing) are empirically identified and described. The effects of introducing mathematical and automation procedures on the division of labour and the distribution of recognition are analysed. The success or failure of the methodological propositions are discussed with reference to several factors and models of scientific innovation. This thesis generates new information on the development of rescue and preventive archaeology and on the use of digital technologies in human sciences.The analysis draws on 82 interviews, 23 archives and several bibliometric datasets (extracted from pre-existing databases or constructed for the purpose of this research). Mirroring the archaeological propositions under study, this research also intends to illustrate the possible use of computing and formalised procedures in social sciences. The documentation and demonstrative principles underlying this work, implemented by using Wiki, the methods of literate programming and reproducible research, are themselves analysed.

<p>Since the late 1970s, biomedical researchers have heavily invested in the development of portable insulin pumps that allow people with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) to carry several days-worth of insulin to be injected on an as-needed basis. That means fewer needles and syringes, making regular insulin injections less time consuming and troublesome. As insulin pump use has become more widespread over the past twenty years among people with T1D, the social and cultural effects of using these medical devices on their everyday experiences have become both increasingly apparent for individuals yet consistently absent from social and cultural studies of the disease.</p><p><br></p><p>In this dissertation, I explore the technological, medical, and cultural networks of insulin pump treatment to identify the role(s) these biomedicalized treatment acts play in the structuring of people, their bodies, and the cultural values constructed around various medical technologies. As I will show, insulin pump treatment alters people’s bodies and identities as devices become integrated as co-productive actors within patient-users’ biological and social systems. By analyzing personal interviews and digital media produced by people with T1D alongside archival materials, this study identifies compulsory patterns in the practices, structures, and narratives related to insulin pump use to center chapters around the productive (and sometimes stifling) relationship between people, bodies, technologies, and American culture.</p><p><br></p><p>By analyzing the layered and intersecting sites of insulin pump treatment together, this project reveals how medical technologies, health identities, bodies, and cultures are co-constructed and co-defined in ways that bind them together—mutually constitutive, medically compelled, cultural and social. New bodies and new systems, I argue, come with new (in)visibilities, and while this new technologically-produced legibility of the body provides unprecedented management of the symptoms and side-effects of the disease, it also brings with it unforeseen social consequences that require changes to people’s everyday lives and practices. </p>

Biologische Evolutionstheorie erklärt die sukzessive Veränderung von Arten durch Vererbung und wurde erstmalig von Charles Darwin umfassend formuliert. Die Rezeption durch die Genderforschung umfasst diskursanalytische Studien und die Methodenkritik feministischer Biowissenschaftler_innen. Konkrete Bezugspunkte stellen dabei die sexuelle Selektion, naturalisierende Thesen der Soziobiologie und der evolutionären Psychologie sowie die Rolle des Essentialismus in der Evolutionstheorie Darwins dar.

In der hier vorliegenden Promotionsschrift wird ein von der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie inspirierter ethnographischer Forschungsansatz angewandt, um, ausgehend von dem Setting des Studiokurses an einer spanischen Architekturschule, aufzuzeigen, wie Architekt:innen die disziplinären Logiken der Architekturausbildung und in weiterer Instanz die Schnittstelle zwischen Ausbildung und professioneller Praxis problematisieren und aus der Disziplin selbst heraus neu verhandeln. Hierbei wird beschrieben, (1) wie die Einheit von Architekturausbildung und der Bauwelt/Baupraxis aufgebrochen wird, (2) wie der Begriff des Grundproblems in der architektonischen Gestaltung selbst problematisiert wird und, (3) wie in der architektonischen Produktion, (lokale) sozio-politische Themen, die agency von nicht-menschlichen Akteur:innen und die ethische Verantwortlichkeit von Architekt:innen für die gebaute Umwelt, neue Relevanz gewinnen. Basierend auf einer ethnographischen Feldforschung (zwischen 2017-2019), wird in dieser Dissertation eine neue Konzeptualisierung von Architektur vorgestellt: die ‚Architektur als theoretische Praxis‘. Diese eröffnet neben der ‚Architektur als Form‘ und der ‚Architektur als Entwurfspraxis‘ eine weitere Betrachtungsebene von Architektur, welche es ermöglicht die architektonische Produktion jenseits des Entwurfs von Gebäuden und Bauelementen zu untersuchen und aufzuzeigen, wie Architekt:innen in Gestaltungsprozessen Konzepte und Diskurse selbst bauen und so als Teil ihrer sozio-materiellen Praktiken umsetzen. Dadurch werden Parallelen zwischen der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie und der ‚Architektur als theoretische Praxis‘ diskutiert und aufgezeigt, wie beide als (unterschiedliche) Formen einer „Anti-Theorie“ definiert werden können. / This dissertation explores from an actor-network theory inspired ethnographic research approach how architects do, challenge and problematize the disciplinary logics of architectural education and, in a further instance, the intersection between architectural training and the professional practice. Taking the studio courses at a Spanish architecture school as starting point, this ethnographic case study describes (1) how the unity of architectural education and building practices is suspended, (2) how the concept of the fundamental problem in architecture is problematized by architectural design practices, and (3) how (local) socio-political issues, the agency of non-humans and the ethical accountability of architects for the built environment gain new relevance in architectural production. Based in ethnography research (between 2017-2019), this dissertation presents a new conceptualization of architecture: the ‘architecture as theoretical practice’. In comparison to an ‘architecture as form’ and an ‘architecture as design practice’, this new conceptualization opens up the possibility to examine architectural production beyond the design and construction of buildings and reveals how architects build or materialize concepts and discourse as part of their socio-material practices. Consequently, parallels between actor-network theory and 'architecture as theoretical practice' are discussed by showing how both of them can be defined as (different) forms of ‘anti-theory’.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the use of technology on students’ mathematics achievement, particularly the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) mathematics results. Eleven schools within the Miami-Dade County Public School System participated in a pilot program on the use of Geometers Sketchpad (GSP). Three of these schools were randomly selected for this study. Each school sent a teacher to a summer in-service training program on how to use GSP to teach geometry. In each school, the GSP class and a traditional geometry class taught by the same teacher were the study participants. Students’ mathematics FCAT results were examined to determine if the GSP produced any effects. Students’ scores were compared based on assignment to the control or experimental group as well as gender and SES. SES measurements were based on whether students qualified for free lunch. The findings of the study revealed a significant difference in the FCAT mathematics scores of students who were taught geometry using GSP compared to those who used the traditional method. No significant differences existed between the FCAT mathematics scores of the students based on SES. Similarly, no significant differences existed between the FCAT scores based on gender. In conclusion, the use of technology (particularly GSP) is likely to boost students’ FCAT mathematics test scores. The findings also show that the use of GSP may be able to close known gender and SES related achievement gaps. The results of this study promote policy changes in the way geometry is taught to 10th grade students in Florida’s public schools.

The City of Holyoke, Massachusetts is one of many aging, industrial cities striving to revitalize its economy based on the promise of increased digital connectivity and clean energy resources. But how do you renovate 19th century mills to meet the demands of the information age? This architectural study explores the potential impact of sensing technologies and information networks on the definition and function of buildings in the 21st century. It explores the changes that have taken place in industrial architecture since 1850 and argues for an architecture that supports local relationships and environmental awareness. The author explores the industrial history of Holyoke, appraises emerging uses of sensing technologies and presents a thorough narrative of her site analysis and conceptual design of a digital fabrication and incubation center within an existing textile mill.