Bodies, technologies and action possibilities: when is an affordance?

Borrowed from ecological psychology, the concept of affordances is often said to offer the social study of technology a means of re-framing the question of what is, and what is not, ‘social’ about technological artefacts. The concept, many argue, enables us to chart a safe course between the perils of technological determinism and social constructivism. This article questions the sociological adequacy of the concept as conventionally deployed. Drawing on ethnographic work on the ways technological artefacts engage, and are engaged by, disabled bodies, we propose that the ‘affordances’ of technological objects are not reducible to their material constitution but are inextricably bound up with specific, historically situated modes of engagement and ways of life

From repair to enhancement : the use of technical aids in the field of disability

International audienc

Biting midges (Ceratopogonidae: Culicoïdes) in Belgium: a comparison between indoor and outdoor trapping in cattle and sheep farms.

peer reviewedaudience: researcher, professionalBluetongue, a vector born disease of ruminants, was identified for the first time in Northern Europe in 2006. The vectors are insects of the family Ceratopogonidae, genus Culicoides. In Belgium, no recent data were available about the biology of these insects including their feeding habits and behaviour. The present study was carried out in order to evaluate the indoor and outdoor activity of these Diptera in 5 different cattle or sheep farms in 2008. Two sheep and 3 cattle farms were selected in the Province of Luxembourg, Belgium. In each farm 2 Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute (OVI) traps were installed respectively inside and outside the animal accommodation. Trapping was carried out twice a week from 17:00 until 24:00.The collecting vials were replaced every hour. A portable suction trap (BackTrap® U.S.A) was used twice on each visit to collect midges on the animals. In each farm the study was carried out for 6 successive weeks, 2 farms being monitored together. The study began on July 28th and ended on November 30th 2008. A total of 2591 culicoides were trapped. A majority of those (88.76%) were trapped indoors whereas 10.03% were trapped outdoors and 1.21% directly on the animals. The ambient temperature had a marked effect very few culicoides being trapped below 13°C. Three main species or species complex were identified both indoors and outdoors: C. obsoletus/scoticus, C. dewulfi, C. chiopterus. They represented 98.93% and 85.03% indoors and outdoors respectively. On the animals only C. obsoletus/scoticus and C. dewulfi were found

Re-thinking patient motivation in clinical rehabilitation encounters: insights from different theoretical perspectives

We use analytic pluralism to analyze a data excerpt from the medical rehabilitation of an inpatient with spinal cord injury and his physical therapist to examine how the concept of motivation is used in clinical practice. We employ three theoretical perspectives to explore ways of understanding this concept: social determination theory, phenomenology, and narrative inquiry. We present and argue for multiple ontologies as a new forward to understanding complex human phenomena such as motivation