abstract: This document builds a model, the Resilience Engine, of how a given sociotechnical innovation contributes to the resilience of its society, where the failure points of that process might be, and what outcomes, resilient or entropic, can be generated by the uptake of a particular innovation. Closed systems, which tend towards stagnation and collapse, are distinguished from open systems, which through ongoing encounters with external novelty, tend towards enduring resilience. Heterotopia, a space bounded from the dominant order in which novelty is generated and defended, is put forth as the locus of innovation for systemic resilience, defined as the capacity to adapt to environmental changes. The generative aspect of the Resilience Engine lies in a dialectic between a heterotopia and the dominant system across a membrane which permits interaction while maintaining the autonomy of the new space. With a model of how innovation, taken up by agents seeking power outside the dominant order, leads to resilience, and of what generates failures of the Resilience Engine as well as successes, the model is tested against cases drawn from two key virtual worlds of the mid-2000s. The cases presented largely validate the model, but generate a crucial surprise. Within those worlds, 2008-2010 saw an abrupt cultural transformation as the dialectic stage of the Resilience Engine's operation generated victories for the dominant order over promising emergent attributes of virtual heterotopia. At least one emergent practice has been assimilated, generating systemic resilience, that of the conference backchannel. A surprise, however, comes from extensive evidence that one element never problematized in thinking about innovation, the discontent agent, was largely absent from virtual worlds. Rather, what users sought was not greater agency but the comfort of submission over the burdens of self-governance. Thus, aside from minor cases, the outcome of the operation of the Resilience Engine within the virtual worlds studied was the colonization of the heterotopic space for the metropolis along with attempts by agents both external and internal to generate maximum order. Pursuant to the Resilience Engine model, this outcome is a recipe for entropic collapse and for preventing new heterotopias from arising under the current dominant means of production. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology 2013

This thesis addresses a problem in the literature on technology transfer of understanding the local appropriation of knowledge. Based on interpretive and analytic traditions developed in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and ethnomethodology, I conceptualise technology transfer as involving communication between discursive communities. I develop the idea of 'performance of community' to argue that explanations of research and technology, and readings of those explanations, are sites for the elaboration of the identity of a discursive community. I explore this approach through a case study in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). I focus on what I call 'explanatory practices', that is practices of describing, identifying and explaining Al, and trace the differences in these practices, according to location, context and audience. The novelty of my thesis is to show the pervasiveness of performance of community within these explanatory practices, through showing the differences in the claimed identity and significance of Al, associated with different locations, contexts and audiences. I draw out some of the implications of my approach by counterposing it to a theory of technology transfer as the passing of neutral units of information, which I argue is implicit in a complaint made by Al vendors that the Al marketplace had been damaged by overselling or hype. In particular, I show that disclaimers of hype (more than the perpetration of it) had always been associated with the marketing of Al. More generally, my claim is that it is politically important to understand that neutral information is not available even as an ultimate standard, and that the local appropriation of knowledge is not an aberration to be controlled, but a component of both successful and unsuccessful communication between discursive communities.

This dissertation applies object-oriented rhetorics and posthuman philosophies to environmental policy deliberation in order to help bridge gaps between policy makers, scientists, and citizens. For environmental policy scholars the non-credentialed expertise of local, or indigenous stakeholders is valued as possessing technical, objective merit that can improve the development and implementation of environmental policies. However, the utilization of stakeholder expertise in environmental policy faces serious challenges in terms of finding common grounds for communication within complex techno-social systems, of overcoming deep cultural differences and perceptions, and grave ethical issues of access and power. This dissertation develops two case studies of marine fisheries policy debates using theories of material ontology to detail the process of how the expertise of ordinary citizens develops within the context of environmental policy and how that expertise might be better utilized. By employing object-oriented rhetorical theories to trace material agency through the Snook and Gamefish’s (SGF) stakeholder integration programs in Florida’s Spotted Seatrout and Common Snook fishery debates, this dissertation argues that a material ontology of expertise offers a means of assessing the quality of lay-publics’ non-credentialed expertise. This dissertation suggests that an enriched since of what material objects are capable of rhetorically helps us develop tangible, actionable tools for environmental policy studies. By understanding expertise in terms of the accretion of material experiences, policy makers and scholars might more easily evaluate and utilize the expertise of environmental policy stakeholders

Thalassaemia is a blood disorder prevalent amongst the Cypriot population because of genetic, ecological, and social reasons. Although a successful prevention system has been in place since the early 1980s, approximately 650 thalassaemia patients still live on the island whose births preceded the given system. For my fieldwork I spent a year in Cyprus with the PanCyprian Thalassaemia Association (PTA) – a patients group which acts as the main channel of politicisation for thalassaemia patients in Cyprus. By organising events such as conferences, fundraisers and workshops, the PTA strives to maintain the awareness of thalassaemia in the Cypriot public sphere. The association also maintains an agonistic yet healthy relationship with the Cypriot state. Thalassaemia treatment in Cy-prus is provided by public healthcare and, since its foundation in 1973, the PTA has won several skirmishes against the state on issues such as a more reliable blood supply, better provision of medicines, and more hospital space for patients. In addition, the PTA has forged numerous alliances with national and international organisations, patient associa-tions and scientific research bodies which have a decisive say in how thalassaemia comes to be enacted on a Cypriot and global level. Throughout the thesis I focus on the tactics the PTA uses to politically activate thalassaemia. As I argue, activating illness entails mak-ing discernible political dimensions of illness which previously evaded, or were left unac-counted, by public and governmental perceptions. In addition, through the anthropologi-cal analysis of PTA case studies, I develop tactics of my own by which patient associa-tions can activate illness. Through an ethnography and at the same time conceptual de-velopment of tactics, the thesis aims to fruitfully reconcile the ontology and politics of illness.

If new build nuclear reactors are built in the UK they will provide a large low carbon thermal resource that can be recovered for heating services through heat networks (district heating). There are however questions about the geographic location of nuclear sites relative to heating demand and public/user interpretations of a potentially controversial technology to consider. This thesis includes three research themes that explore these issues. The first is an assessment of potential non-technical barriers to nuclear heat network development. The second is a focus group approach to studying local resident responses to nuclear heat network technology both as potential users, and as public groups. The third theme considers the technical potential for a heat network connecting the Hartlepool nuclear site to local heating demand centres. The research finds that there is potential for nuclear heat networks to take 70,000 existing users off the natural gas in the Hartlepool area. Following series of expert interviews it finds no non-technical barriers that would be unique to nuclear heat networks as opposed to other heat network types. It also suggests that the technology could be acceptable to local residents if it is framed as a local resource that benefits the local area. These findings indicate that there could be similar potential at Heysham and Oldbury nuclear sites.

abstract: Smart technology is now pervasive in society and has partnered with people on every level, yet its social and cultural implications are easily overlooked by the majority. In this thesis, I work on building a silent partnership between humans and smart technology and creating smart devices/systems as silent partners by revealing the complexity of smart technology and tackling the current issues of unilateral transparency, a lack of negotiation, and the dynamic of the sense of control. This work draws on varied fields such as critical cultural studies, science and technology studies (STS), media studies, information studies, sociology, psychology, and design and consists of three main themes: materiality, politics, and affect. In addition, I utilize theoretical frameworks such as posthumanism, actor-network theory (ANT), assemblage, materialism, and affect theory to analyze the underlying factors and relationships among human and nonhuman actors such as technology companies, governments, engineers, designers, users, as well as infrastructure, algorithms, and smart devices/systems. Finally, I offer four roles to rethink smart technology (an actor, a fluid, a peer, and a silent partner) and propose 15 design principles to redesign smart devices/systems as silent partners. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Communication Studies 2020

abstract: By way of combining the methodological practices of autoethnography and informal anarchist analysis of social movements, this project establishes anarchist autoethnography as a way of navigating the unavoidable and irreconcilable tensions between academic research and the ethical commitments of anarchists. By way of this method, I explore some of my interventions – as an anarchist – during the Occupy movement in Phoenix, Arizona from October, 2011 through until mid-2012. I explore the internal movement conflicts that arise when certain individuals, factions and political tendencies attempt to homogeneously define the interests of a heterogenous social movement that happens to employ anarchist principles of organization and includes the participation of anarchists. I focus on the conflicts around decision-making processes, the debates about nonviolence, and attitudes towards policing. Beyond analyzing some of my experiences in Occupy Phoenix, and doing so transparently as an anarchist, I additionally explore how the underlying connection between utopianism and the techniques of maintaining urban social orders shape the experience of movements in cities. I find that the moral strategies of left activists very often mirror the dualist ideologies of utopian urban planners, thus reproducing statist ways of seeing. Against the movement managers of the left, who I argue ultimately end up helping to reproduce the social order of cities, I turn at the end towards an exploration of historical Luddism as exemplars of sabotage. In framing anarchism and Luddism as accomplice tendencies that seek to subvert social order so as to preserve autonomy in capitalist states, I carefully distinguish neoluddism as a separate and undesirable approach to questions of technology and techniques of social control. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Justice Studies 2020

abstract: This dissertation explores the contemporary politics of global transformation: the ways biological expertise and economic rationalities are positioned as agents of governance in the face of emerging global crisis. It examines visions for a new bioeconomy that are offered in response to impending global crisis. Leaders point to calculations of global population growth and resource depletion to predict future crises and call for a new bioeconomy as a pillar of sustainable and “good” governance. Focusing on visions and practices of bioeconomy-making in the U.S. and Brazil, the dissertation examines bioeconomy discourse as a response to global crisis and a framework of global governance that promises resource abundance and human wellbeing. Bioeconomy discourse makes visible shared notions of how the world is and how it should be that animate the world-making practices of bioeconomy. The dissertation analyzes the bioeconomy as simultaneously a product of existing institutional and nationally situated values and rationalities, and a significant site of performative novelty. It is an effort to reformulate existing projects in the biosciences—from technology regulation to market formation—and establish new rationalities of governance in the name of producing thoroughgoing transformations to both the global economy and to life itself. Framing existing scientific and economic rationalities as suppressed and misdirected in their power to govern, bioeconomy proponents envision a novel order derivable from the proper conjugation of biological and economic rationalities. Through the lens of bioconstitutionalism, the dissertation elucidates how national, scientific and public rights and responsibilities are coproduced in relation to a sociotechnical imaginary of vital conjuring. Underwritten by the imaginary of vital conjuring, visions of a future transformed promise that abundance and order can be called up from a tangle of crisis and decay. The imaginary of vital conjuring marries a vision of the technological potential of biological life and the forms of economy capable of unlocking that potential. This vision of bioeconomy, the dissertation argues, is a vision of governance: of the right relationships between state, citizen and science. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology 2020

To be successful citizen science projects need to do two key things: (1) they need to meaningfully engage the public and they must also provide people with the tools, expertise, and/or training needed to participate in rigorous research that can be used by the scientific community. In some ways, these requirements are potentially at odds. Emphasis on rigor and expertise risks excluding members of the public who do not feel qualified to participate in esoteric or technically difficult scientific research. Conversely, projects that eschew rigorous methods in favor of wider participation might lead to bad data that cannot be used to draw any meaningful conclusions to expand scientific understanding. How then do those who are aiming to design successful citizen science programs create tools and processes that facilitate both active engagement and meaningful scientific results for perceived non-expert researchers? This paper uses a case study of the Outsmart Invasive Species Project (Outsmart) to explore how visual media shape the experiences of citizen scientists participating in a data collection project. Outsmart uses visual media such as photographs and videos to train users in identifying invasive species, and asks them to submit their own location-tagged pictures to a central database for review by a trained research team. Using ethnographic field observation, we focused on how visual media serve to improve engagement in non-expert Outsmart users by building confidence and expertise. Our work can provide guidance to other citizen science projects in how to best use visual media to empower citizens and improve scientific outcomes.

Les technologies de captage, transport et stockage du CO2 ont pour finalité de capter le CO2 issu des industries afin de le stocker géologiquement et ainsi, réduire l impact de ces activités sur le réchauffement climatique. L Axe-Seine (Paris Le Havre) est un territoire très industrialisé et fortement émetteur de CO2. Dans ce territoire, les décideurs locaux envisagent l utilisation des technologies de CTSC afin de réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre. L objectif de notre recherche est de comprendre les futurs possibles de ces technologies dans l Axe-Seine. Dans cette perspective, cette thèse analyse tout d'abord le fonctionnement des technologies de CTSC dans une approche de sociologie des sciences et des techniques et les promesses technoscientifiques initiales associées à ce dispositif technique. Ensuite, cette recherche examine les dynamiques socio-spatiales de la vallée de la Seine concernant l'environnement. Enfin, cette thèse par une exploration des récits relatifs aux technologies de CTSC par les promoteurs de ce dispositif technique et des parties prenantes locales, identifie les hybridations potentielles entre ce dispositif technique et les dynamiques socio-spatiales de l'Axe-Seine. Ainsi est-il possible de décrire les futurs possibles des technologies dans l'Axe-Seine. Par ailleurs, dans cette recherche nous questionnons également la place des sciences sociales au côté des sciences de la vie et de la matière dans la dynamique de l'innovation technologique. / Carbon Capture and Storage enables industrial facilities to capture their CO2 emissions in order to geologically store it and then reduce their impact on global warming. The Seine Waterway Axis (from Paris to Le Havre) counts a lot of industrial facilities emitting huge quantities of CO2. From 2006 local stakeholders of this territory are willing to develop CCS to a commercial scale in order to reduce CO2 emissions.In our research we aim to understand potential futures of CCS technology in the Seine Waterway Axis. In this Phd thesis we first analyse initial technoscientific promises related to Carbon Capture and Storage in using Science and Technology Studies theoretical framework. Then we focus on the Seine Waterway Axis territorial dynamics regarding sustainable development. Finnaly, we focus on narratives related to Carbon Capture and Storage in the Seine Waterway Axis in order to identify hybridations between CCS implementations and territorial dynamics. These cross analysis will enable us to describe potential future of CCS establishment in the Seine Waterway Axis.