Emerging practices of making/production - as a research topic

1. 2017 PhD SUMMER SCHOOL
CONCEPTS AND CONTEXTS OF
DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Cindy Kohtala, Postdoctoral researcher
Espoo Mini Maker Faire
October 2015

2. Emerging practices of
making/production
ISSUES AND INTERVENTION CONTEXTS
Fablab Amersfoort
August 2016

3. recommended reading.
tricks on how to get to
the essence of your topic
(not to over-romanticize
or over-emphasize the
‘new’ and ‘emerging’
characteristics of the
phenomenon you are
studying)

4. Even war is
‘emerging.’
And with
emerging
phenomena,
with projects
that unfold,
there is a
history.

5. Helsinki Hacklab
May 2015
What of the history of the
movement do you need to know
and explain?
Relatedly, you need to observe
how the ‘marginal’ and emerging
meet the mainstream and
institutional.
How do things and practices
become infrastructure?

6. DISCOURSE
IDEALS
VISIONS
FRAMINGS
IDEOLOGIES
IMAGINARIES
à REPRESENTED PAST
à DESIRED FUTURE
Aalto Fablab
2013

7. mass fabrication:
transformed supply
chains, elimination of
embodied energy of
redundant
intermediaries
mass customization:
less pre-consumer waste,
greater potential for
re-manufacturing,
“eco-guiding” configurators
for consumers
bespoke fabrication:
localized production
and lower transport
emissions, less
product replacement
personal fabrication:
localized production,
higher environmental
impact per unit but
overall lower volumes
(than MP and MC)
ENVIRONMENTAL
BENEFITS
exploit user/consumer input
exploit
scale
exploit
modularization
exploit small
and local
ensure quality for
attachment, satisfaction
exploit learning
opportunities
Kohtala, Cindy. 2015. ‘Addressing
Sustainability in Research on
Distributed Production: An Integrated
Literature Review’. Journal of Cleaner
Production 106: 654–668.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.039.
How researchers
conceive the future
of distributed
production and its
sustainability
issues.

8. Kohtala, Cindy, and Sampsa Hyysalo. 2015.
‘Anticipated Environmental Sustainability of
Personal Fabrication’.
Journal of Cleaner Production 99: 333–344.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.093.
And there are
sustainability
issues. How will
you study them?

9. Trashlab
October 2014
ETHNOGRAPHY

10. What is
observable?
Formulate your
research question
according to what
you can access and
what information /
knowledge / data
you can glean.

11. Analysis is not only ‘coding’. Use many
methods: diagrams, narratives, descriptive
overviews – to know your data and its main
themes.
Coding is useful for knowing what is in
your data and finding things in it – but use
coding – don’t let coding rule and
debilitate you.

12. mainstream books (that happen to be based on research).
Don’t only cite these claims – go to the studies cited.

13. please please don’t:
Cite ‘should be’ as ‘is’.

14. please please don’t:
Cite ‘should be’ as ‘is’.
Cite (only) the blah blah blah. What studies is the blah blah blah
based on?

15. please please don’t:
Cite ‘should be’ as ‘is’.
Cite (only) the blah blah blah. What studies is the blah blah blah
based on?
Misrepresent studies and overgeneralize findings on SCP. Check
the product category, demography, study aim....

16. please please don’t:
Romanticize. Don’t use the same ‘gush’ ‘ihana ihana’ tone as
mainstream books.

17. please please don’t:
Romanticize. Don’t use the same ‘gush’ ‘ihana ihana’ tone as
mainstream books.
Catalogue and inflate. Don’t choose only a few niche examples
as ‘cases’ (usually overused anyway) and expect them to
represent something significant. Be explicit about your case
choice and what it represents/doesn’t represent.

18. please don’t:
Avoid getting your hands into your data. Analysis is not (only)
about a rigorous set of codes defined beforehand. Coding is just
a way to get to know what is in your data and find it easily. Write
descriptive overviews. Make diagrams (Clarke 2005) and
mindmaps. Get hints on ways to analyse from Qualitative Data
handbooks.

19. please don’t:
Avoid making memos or notes about data collecting or analysis.

20. please don’t:
Avoid making memos or notes about data collecting or analysis.
Hide your data or analysis process in papers. Spell it out.

21. do:
Formulate your research question according to what you are
actually studying and able to study. What can you access?

22. do:
Formulate your research question according to what you are
actually studying and able to study. What can you access?
Choose your terminology ‘xx’ according to the field you are
aligning with. Be clear and honest with yourself: when I am
studying xx, what does that mean in terms of data collecting,
and how do I observe it in my data?

23. do:
Be creative (in a way that is researchable). What designerly ways
will deliver data and knowledge? Design interventions /
experiments? Workshops?

24. do:
Be creative (in a way that is researchable). What designerly ways
will deliver data and knowledge? Design interventions /
experiments? Workshops?
Be clear and explicit about what ‘sustainability’ is. Choose a
definition and principles. Use better, more exact phrases
(transition to a more sustainable society, less negative
environmental impact, more equity in access to resources...).

25. do:
Be clear to yourself about what you are studying. The
‘sustainability’ of a system, or participants’ beliefs about the
sustainability of the system? Principles for a Circular Economy or
how this group encountered/defined barriers and opportunities
for transition to a circular economy? Keep this distinct.

27. HCI, Science and Technology Studies,
design research
hacker identity
care and maintenance (of community)
qualitative data:
interview study of hacker projects
19-month ethnography in a hackerspace
analysis of issues in a forum listserv
lens of care ethics

28. HCI, Science and Technology Studies,
design research
hacker identity
care and maintenance (of community)
qualitative data:
interview study of hacker projects
19-month ethnography in a hackerspace
analysis of issues in a forum listserv
lens of care ethics
Mota: Social Shaping of Technology
comparative analysis of the ethoi, practices
and implications of the broadcast and
distributed approaches
original account of the origins, practices and
characteristics of the European and North
American DIY hardware communities:
1) analytical descriptions of the maker,
hackerspaces and open source hardware
communities, as well as of their cultural
origins and histories;
2) a study of their ethos and motivations;
3) an analysis of their technological design
and dissemination practices;
4) and an examination of how their practices
enable citizen participation in the shaping of
technologies
data: literature review, ethnographic
methods, first person accounts, and the
analysis of documents and technological
artifacts

30. Symbolic Interactionism
ethnographic data
interviews
‘expert’ participatory design
workshop
literature review
how sustainability is
represented
how ’sustainable’ can this
phenomenon be

31. Design Research, Interaction Design,
Participatory Design
opening of production
What kind of co-production practices
are emerging in the opening of
production?
To what kind of (alternative) futures do
they relate? Which of them may move
forward as possible presents?
How can design be at play in co-
production practices as a matter of
making possible presents?
commons, commoning,
infrastructuring
Symbolic Interactionism
ethnographic data
interviews
‘expert’ participatory design
workshop
literature review
how sustainability is
represented
how ’sustainable’ can this
phenomenon be

32. Use diagrams to map your
literature and positioning.
This is useful for yourself and
your readers.

33. Explain and
justify your
methods.
Why these
ones – and
not others?

34. functionalist,
instrumentalist,
objectivist
interpretivist,
constructionist,
constructivist
MACRO
unit of analysis
conceptualizations
propositions
MICRO
unit of analysis
experiments
materializations
visions
scenarios
models
frameworks
technical experiments critical making experiments
design experiments
RESEARCH THROUGH DESIGN
RESEARCH ON DESIGNRESEARCH FOR DESIGN
descriptions,
interpretations of
phenomena
narratives
ethnographic accounts
surveys
interviews