Paper short abstract:

The paper addresses abductive sensemaking in design synthesis informed by the domestication of technology approach. It discusses the design relevance of understanding how heterogeneous actors are implicated across units of analysis in processes of domestication and their heterogeneous underpinnings.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores how abductive sensemaking in design synthesis may be informed by domestication of technology. Addressing design-use relationships in the context of domestication is far from new (Oudshoorn and Pinch 2003/2008). Yet, inquiry into possible interrelationships, between insights into everyday practices of engaging with artifacts and design as a situated practice, has yet to be broached in earnest, utilizing analytical and methodological repertoires pertaining to domestication. From its origins in consumption studies, the appropriation of domestication theory into STS has extended its analytical reach, with regard to (socio)materiality and reciprocal transformations of artifact vis-à-vis concrete settings of use. (Lie & Sørensen 1996) Moreover, this is so, in terms of 'use' not necessarily delimited in any narrow sense, but also broader forms of engagement, through multiple units of analysis that domestication affords. (Sørensen 2006)

The paper addresses heterogeneous underpinnings that constitute domestication, as a venue into exploring and sensemaking how actors are implicated in relation to its processes. In so doing, an abductive approach is taken to generating and synthesizing insights (Kolko 2010) from design materials as pertain to domestication. Informed by actor-network orientations of "an actor is a network, and a network is an actor" (Callon 1991), the framing and reframing of actors engaged in and with design, be they human or otherwise, serve as an interesting site for exploration. Intended as a conceptual paper, the contribution will draw also on concrete empirical material from research into activities of (and of otherwise relevance to) design.