Cultural Probes as a People-Oriented Method

Author(s):  
Connor Graham ◽  
Mark Rouncefield

This chapter reflects on some of the methodological aspects of the use of cultural probes (or probes) and the extent to which they constitute a people-oriented method. The authors review different kinds of probes, documenting and analyzing two separate deployments—technology probes and informational probes—in a care setting. They suggest that probes, when deployed in this fashion, reflect a “post-disciplinary” era of “messy” data and a shift of attention beyond “the social” to greater concern with individual variation, personal aggregated datasets in technology design, materiality, and the visual. The authors also suggest that in an era of big data, through considering everyday development in terms of personhood, everyday technology and practice, probes can play an important role in providing insights concerning the product of people-oriented programming and, potentially, its process.

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-52
Author(s):  
Connor Graham ◽  
Mark Rouncefield

This paper discusses some methodological aspects of the use of Probes as a people-oriented method. Different kinds of Probes are reviewed and two separate deployments are documented–Technology Probes and Informational Probes–in a care setting. The authors argue that Probes reflect a post-disciplinary era and a shift of attention beyond ‘the social’ to concerns with individual variation, materiality and the visual in technology design. It is suggested that in an era of ‘everyday development’, Probes can play an important role in providing useful insights concerning the product and potentially the process of programming-type work.


Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802098100
Author(s):  
Mark Ellison ◽  
Jon Bannister ◽  
Won Do Lee ◽  
Muhammad Salman Haleem

The effective, efficient and equitable policing of urban areas rests on an appreciation of the qualities and scale of, as well as the factors shaping, demand. It also requires an appreciation of the factors shaping the resources deployed in their address. To this end, this article probes the extent to which policing demand (crime, anti-social behaviour, public safety and welfare) and deployment (front-line resource) are similarly conditioned by the social and physical urban environment, and by incident complexity. The prospect of exploring policing demand, deployment and their interplay is opened through the utilisation of big data and artificial intelligence and their integration with administrative and open data sources in a generalised method of moments (GMM) multilevel model. The research finds that policing demand and deployment hold varying and time-sensitive association with features of the urban environment. Moreover, we find that the complexities embedded in policing demands serve to shape both the cumulative and marginal resources expended in their address. Beyond their substantive policy relevance, these findings serve to open new avenues for urban criminological research centred on the consideration of the interplay between policing demand and deployment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Michael Weinhardt

While big data (BD) has been around for a while now, the social sciences have been comparatively cautious in its adoption for research purposes. This article briefly discusses the scope and variety of BD, and its research potential and ethical implications for the social sciences and sociology, which derive from these characteristics. For example, BD allows for the analysis of actual (online) behavior and the analysis of networks on a grand scale. The sheer volume and variety of data allow for the detection of rare patterns and behaviors that would otherwise go unnoticed. However, there are also a range of ethical issues of BD that need consideration. These entail, amongst others, the imperative for documentation and dissemination of methods, data, and results, the problems of anonymization and re-identification, and the questions surrounding the ability of stakeholders in big data research and institutionalized bodies to handle ethical issues. There are also grave risks involved in the (mis)use of BD, as it holds great value for companies, criminals, and state actors alike. The article concludes that BD holds great potential for the social sciences, but that there are still a range of practical and ethical issues that need addressing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 89-90 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 102-115
Author(s):  
Natalia Evstafyeva ◽  
◽  
Irina Wagner ◽  
Yulia Grishaeva ◽  
◽  
...  

The article deals with methodological aspects of the development of ecological culture of schoolchildren in a multicultural educational environment. The authors identify two acute problems in modern society – multiculturalism and ecology. The Russian Federation is a multicultural country. Multicultural education is aimed at preserving the diversity of Russian society, carries the potential and tool for protecting ethnic and national communities in a multi-ethnic Russia, promotes the integration of all territorial-economic, political and national-cultural communities into a single Russian nation, allows a person to adapt to a multicultural world, helps a person understand himself and the people around him and promote the social role of a cultural person in society. The authors consider the relationship between multiculturalism and ethnopedagogy, identify the main pedagogical approaches and principles of development of multicultural education. The article notes the importance of integration of two significant areas in education and in the world - ethnology and ecology. Together they make an ethno-cultural module and an eco-cultural module which form the values for the society sustainable development. The possibility of using the technology of project activity through the implementation of ethno-ecological projects of students is considered. The authors note that ethnoecological projects on the dominant activity of students can be of different directions: research, educational, creative or practical ones. The most effective way to work on projects is through the implementation of a system of eco-oriented multicultural project weeks. Authors pay an important attention to the projects aimed at studying the ethnoecological traditions of the native land, the peculiarities of its geography, climate, natural landscape, flora and fauna, reflected in folklore, folk crafts, cults, rituals, holidays, legends, myths, etc.


2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenhong Chen ◽  
Anabel Quan-Haase

The hype around big data does not seem to abate nor do the scandals. Privacy breaches in the collection, use, and sharing of big data have affected all the major tech players, be it Facebook, Google, Apple, or Uber, and go beyond the corporate world including governments, municipalities, and educational and health institutions. What has come to light is that enabled by the rapid growth of social media and mobile apps, various stakeholders collect and use large amounts of data, disregarding the ethics and politics. As big data touch on many realms of daily life and have profound impacts in the social world, the scrutiny around big data practice becomes increasingly relevant. This special issue investigates the ethics and politics of big data using a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches. Together, the articles provide new understandings of the many dimensions of big data ethics and politics, showing it is important to understand and increase awareness of the biases and limitations inherent in big data analysis and practices.


Author(s):  
Lil Martha Arrieta Arvilla

ResumenEl objetivo de este artículo es presentar los aspectos teórico-metodológicos y los resultados de una investigación sobre la construcción de los sujetos en el discurso del presidente de ColombiaÁlvaro Uribe Vélez (2002-2010). En esta se propone evidenciar la orientación social del discurso y el uso de procedimientos que instauran un ethos de credibilidad en la sociedad, y que seconstituyen en mecanismos de control y de legitimación del poder. Lo anterior a partir de la descripción de las tonalidades valorativas y los actos de habla, categorías inscritas en la propuesta de dinámica enunciativa de Martínez, María Cristina (2002, 2005).Palabras clave: Análisis del discurso político, ethos, representación, poder, tonalidadesAbstractThe aim of this paper is to present the theoretical-methodological aspects and results of a research study about the construction of subjects in the speeches of President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia(2002-2010). The purpose is to evidence the social orientation of speech and the use of procedures that establish an ethos of credibility in the society, constituted by control mechanisms and legitimationof power. This is done through the description of the appreciative tonalities and speech acts, categories, defined in the declarative dynamic proposal of Martinez, Maria Cristina (2002, 2005).Key words: Analysis of political speeches, ethos, representation, power, appreciative tonalitie 


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