Postphenomenological Methodologies: New Ways In Mediating Techno-Human Relationships

✍ Scribed by Jesper Aagaard, Jan Kyrre Berg Friis, Jessica Sorenson, Oliver Tafdrup, Cathrine Hasse (Editors, Contributors)

• Publisher: Lexington Books/The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 295
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This edited volume is the first publication to tackle the issue of researching human-technology relations from a methodological postphenomenological perspective. While the ‘traditional’ phenomenology of the 20th century, with figures like Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, provided valuable insights into the formal structures of essence, being and embodiment, etc. their mode of philosophizing mostly involved abstract ‘pure’ thinking. Although rooted in this tradition, the postphenomenological approach to the study of human-technology relations emphasizes the “empirical turn” and interdisciplinary work in the field of philosophy – and reaches out to other disciplines like anthropology, education, media studies, and science and technology studies (STS). The contributors discuss what it means for the field of postphenomenology to be empirically based and what kind of methodology is required in order for researchers to go out and study human-technology relations in this perspective. In many disciplines, methodology refers to the analytical approach taken – e.g. the analytical concepts you employ to make an analysis; in postphenomenology, these might include concepts such as multistability, variation, or mediation. In a discipline like anthropology, it also refers to reflections over the methods researchers use to approach an empirical field. Methods can include interviews of different kinds, participant observations, surveys, and auto-ethnography. Furthermore, methodology can include ethical issues tied to doing research in an empirical field. These practical aspects are not separate from, but rather connected to, theoretical approaches. This book ties together the methods, ethics, and theories of postphenomenology in a groundbreaking volume on methodology. With postphenomenological studies of education, digital media, biohacking, health, robotics, and skateboarding as points of reference, the authors of this volume, in twelve chapters, provide new perspectives on what a comprehensive postphenomenological research methodology must consist of.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Postphenomenological Methodologies......Page 2
Postphenomenological Methodologies: New Ways in Mediating Techno-Human Relationships......Page 4
Copyright page......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Foreword......Page 8
An Introduction toPostphenomenological Methodologies......Page 12
Educational Technologies......Page 28
Introduction......Page 30
Postphenomenology and its Methods......Page 31
Toward a Postphenomenology of Practice......Page 38
Conclusion......Page 47
References......Page 48
Introduction......Page 54
Working Through and With Things: Media and Epistemic Objects......Page 55
Methodological Consequences......Page 64
References......Page 68
Entering the Portal......Page 72
The Wall-Window: Non-Reductive Attentional Split......Page 73
The Portal: Experiential Transportation......Page 74
Postphenomenological Methodology......Page 81
Conclusion: The Ethics of Attention......Page 84
References......Page 86
Self-Tracking and Imaging Technologies......Page 90
Introduction......Page 92
From Bodily Self-Understanding to Actions within the Network......Page 94
Context: Biohacking......Page 95
The Collapsed Metaphor......Page 97
The Maker Approach Postphenomenologically Understood......Page 103
Conclusion......Page 106
References......Page 107
Service Interfaces in
Human-Technology Relations......Page 110
Services, Postphenomenology, and Self-Tracking Technologies......Page 112
Intersubjectivity in
Human-Technology Relations......Page 116
Experiencing DirectLife’s Service Interfaces......Page 119
Conclusion......Page 124
References......Page 126
From Camera Obscura to fMRI......Page 130
Free Will Debates and Brain Imaging Technologies......Page 131
Brain Imaging Technologies as Functional Evidence?......Page 134
The Technically Mediated Self......Page 137
Recognizing the Mediating Role of Imaging Technologies and Reinterpreting “Free Will”......Page 143
References......Page 145
Robotic Technologies......Page 150
Introduction......Page 152
Old Questions and New Technologies: Material Hermeneutics of Paleoanthropological Research......Page 154
Old Dreams and Talking Tools: Social Robots Mediate the Stage......Page 159
Conclusion: Technical Mediation, Alterity, and Knowing......Page 168
Notes......Page 169
References......Page 171
Introduction......Page 178
Transfer of Technology......Page 179
Silbot—The Travelling Robot......Page 184
Beyond “Program 1”......Page 187
Toward a Postphenomenological Anthropology: Human Instability......Page 188
A World of . . . ?......Page 190
Closing Remarks......Page 191
Notes......Page 192
References......Page 193
General Methodological Issues......Page 196
Why It Takes Both Postphenomenology and STS to Account for Technological Mediation......Page 198
Postphenomenology......Page 201
STS Accounts of Technology......Page 204
On the Difference between the Notions of Interpretive Flexibility and Multistability......Page 207
Three Arguments for Amalgamation......Page 209
The Case of LOVE Park......Page 216
Conclusion......Page 221
Notes......Page 222
References......Page 223
Introduction......Page 226
The Empirical and Phenomenological Turn: Describing and Understanding Technological Mediation......Page 227
Ordinary Technological Mediation as an Ethical Issue......Page 231
Virtue Ethics and Technologies of the Self......Page 234
Technoethics of Ordinary Mediation: Three Principles to Start With......Page 238
References......Page 240
Introduction......Page 244
Philosophy of Technology......Page 245
Postphenomenology, Praxis, and the Empirical Turn......Page 246
Variation and Multistability......Page 249
Macro-perception and Culture......Page 252
Micro-perception and Embodiment......Page 253
Relational Ontology......Page 254
Mediation......Page 255
Material Hermeneutics......Page 256
Digital Hermeneutics as Material Hermeneutics......Page 259
References......Page 263
Introduction......Page 268
Classical Phenomenology......Page 271
Participant Observation......Page 273
Learning to Align......Page 277
Studying Variation in Mediation......Page 279
Studying Multistabilities......Page 281
Conclusion......Page 282
References......Page 283
Index......Page 286
List of Contributors......Page 292

✦ Subjects

Postphenomenological Methodologies, Techno-Human Relationships