Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses of the stabilisation of an urban environmental sensor system called ELM as a sociotechnical system.

Paper long abstract:

This paper undertakes an initial analysis of the stabilisation of an urban environmental sensor system called ELM. ELM is being implemented as part of the YorkSense project, a collaboration between the environment and sociology departments at the University of York. A commercial product marketed by Perkin Elmer, the ELM sensor is a lamp post based modular unit that records air pollution (e.g. nitrogen dioxide, VOCs, ozone), temperature and humidity, and noise levels. The implementation has been far from smooth, with various problems encountered, including those in relation to negotiating their installation, the appropriate positioning of the sensors that meet both technical and social needs, and problems faced in terms of the multiple and often conflicting readings gained from individual units. This paper will focus primarily on these latter issues, and in doing so reveal what the Science and Technology Studies scholar John Law calls the 'hinterland' of the sensors - those accumulated sociotechnical factors that undermine a simplistic technological focus. In particular, we will use the issue of calibration of the NO2 readings as a lever to reveal the social construction and negotiation of 'good' readings, and contrast these with the public facing data presentations of data by Perkin Elmer. By uncovering the active processes of determining the correct and right readings, and the accompanying practices, complexities, and multiplicities of the device, we will contribute to the programmable city debate by prioritising the sociology and social psychology of urban environmental monitoring devices as sociotechnical systems.