Respecifying Standardisation in Geographical Research: The Work of Street-Interviewing

In this article the problem of standardisation in geographical research is reviewed by focussing on one episode of standardised social scientific research, namely the street interview or respectively the face-to-face delivery of a questionnaire in a public space. The central aspect of the paper is a detailed inquiry into a corpus of video data showing researchers investigating how people perceive comfort in open urban spaces by means of a questionnaire used in ad hoc street interviews. Constitutive features of standardised interviewing are described by carefully examining the front end of a chosen interview. Using detailed transcriptions and video stills of this episode, the article shows how an interviewer establishes contact with passers-by and prepares to start asking questions. I argue that the analysis of interaction between interviewer and respondent are necessary to circumvent the qualitative/quantitative debate, and to understand social scientific and geographical cultures of measuring and standardisation

Making Time in Maintenance Work

In engaging technologies and the built environment within the social sci- ences, there increasingly have been appeals to examine the intricacies of time and temporalities in our collective interactions with science and technology more thoroughly. This seems particularly relevant when we consider the rhythms, cycles, rituals, (a)synchronicities, and time horizons of infrastruc- tural configurations. Studying repair and maintenance practices reveals how temporal properties of infrastructure are not only conceptually relevant in understanding socio-material relations, but also of very practical concern to members of society engaging in such relations

Making Time in Maintenance Work

In engaging technologies and the built environment within the social sci- ences, there increasingly have been appeals to examine the intricacies of time and temporalities in our collective interactions with science and technology more thoroughly. This seems particularly relevant when we consider the rhythms, cycles, rituals, (a)synchronicities, and time horizons of infrastruc- tural configurations. Studying repair and maintenance practices reveals how temporal properties of infrastructure are not only conceptually relevant in understanding socio-material relations, but also of very practical concern to members of society engaging in such relations

‘A tall storey…but, a fact just the same’: The Red Road highrise as a black box

The advent of state-sponsored mass highrise housing in the post-war period brought into view a range of issues about the role of technology in everyday life. This paper draws on approaches in the study of science and technology in order to deepen our understanding of the socio-technical aspects of such highrise housing, past and present. We elaborate this thinking empirically by examining a 1960s highrise development, Red Road, Glasgow. The paper examines the inaugural phase of development, and the most recent phase of ‘redevelopment’, the first stage of which is demolition. The paper extends existing accounts of residential highrises generally, and Red Road specifically, as well as elaborating an alternate analytical framework for understanding highrise and supertall dwellings

Architecture competition : project design and the building process

xi,179halaman;bibliografi;ilustrasi;indek

Architecture competition : project design and the building process

xi, 171 p.: ill.; 23c

Bâtiments en flux ::le travail relationnel des concierges sur les infrastructures d’habitation

Prises dans de multiples flux de relations sociotechniques, nos habitations sont des infrastructures relationnelles cousues de multiples manières à l’environnement matériel et humain. L’approche ethnographique du travail des concierges montre comment s’opère cette couture, notamment à travers les interventions de réparation et de maintenance qui relient et reconfigurent nos infrastructures de logement en permanence. Contre la tentation de réduire le travail des concierges à des tâches isolées, l’approche relationnelle des infrastructures résidentielles permet de mieux saisir leur contribution essentielle à l’habitabilité et à la durabilité des infrastructures. La première section de l’article développe conceptuellement cet enjeu relationnel en insistant sur l’ancrage géographique des infrastructures, qui requiert de les aborder non pas comme des objets standards mais comme des espaces toujours situés. La collecte des données empiriques s’appuie sur une analyse ethnométhodologique et vidéo-ethnographique d’interactions et de routines sociotechniques de quatre types de concierges en Suisse alémanique. La deuxième section propose une immersion dans le travail des concierges en montrant comment s’organise leur travail au quotidien et comment en retour leur travail reconfigure les bâtiments. La troisième section contient une discussion théorique sur la dimension relationnelle des infrastructures en abordant le bâti résidentiel non pas comme un objet statique mais comme un flux permanent d’ajustements et d’expérimentations. La quatrième section apporte une illustration empirique montrant comment les concierges concourent à ordonner ces flux sociotechniques agissant comme des médiateurs entre un ordre social et un ordre technique. Tout en rappelant quelques concepts clefs de l’article (« provincialisation », « relationnalité » des infrastructures), la conclusion souligne le rôle (micro-)politique des concierges, dont le travail revient à gouverner les comportements d’autrui tout en veillant à la cohabitation pacifique entre humains et hon-humains.Caught up in multiple flows of socio-technical relations, our dwellings are relational infrastructures sewn in multiple ways to the material and human environment. The ethnographic approach to the work of caretakers shows how this sewing takes place, particularly through the repair and maintenance interventions that constantly link and reconfigure housing infrastructures. Against the temptation to reduce the work of caretakers to isolated tasks, the relational approach to residential infrastructures allows us to better understand their essential contribution to the habitability and sustainability of infrastructures. The first section of the paper develops this relational conceptualization by emphasizing the geographical anchorage of infrastructures, which requires to approach them not as standard objects but as always situated spaces. The collection of empirical data is based on an ethnomethodological and video-ethnographic analysis of interactions and socio-technical routines of four types of caretakers in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The second section proposes an immersion in the work of caretakers by showing how they organize their daily work and how their work in turn reconfigures buildings. The third section contains a theoretical discussion on the relational dimension of infrastructures by approaching the residential building not as a static object but as a permanent flow of adjustments and experiments. The fourth section provides an empirical illustration showing how caretakers contribute to ordering these socio-technical flows, by reminding, updating or adjusting the norms of use, thus acting as real mediators between a social order and a technical order. While recalling some of the article’s key concepts (“provincialisation”, “relationality” of infrastructures), the conclusion underlines the (micro-)political character of caretakers, whose work amounts to governing the behaviour of others and ensuring peaceful cohabitation between humans and hon-humans