Postphenomenological Methodologies

Edited by Jesper Aagaard; Jan Kyrre Berg Friis; Jessica Sorenson; Oliver Tafdrup and Cathrine Hasse - Foreword by Don Ihde - Contributions by Jesper Aagaard; Catherine Adams; Ciano Aydin; Lasse Blond; Jan Kyrre Berg Friis; Michael Funk; Cathrine Hasse; Mo

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.

Foreword - Don IhdeIntroduction - Jesper Aagaard, Jan Kyrre Berg Friis, Oliver Tafdrup & Cathrine HassePart I: Educational TechnologiesChapter 1: Doing Postphenomenology in Education - Catherine Adams and Joni TurvilleChapter 2: Inviting and Interacting: Postphenomenology and the Microsociology of Education - Tobias RöhlChapter 3: Entering the Portal: Media Technologies and Experiential Transportation - Jesper AagaardPart II: Self-Tracking & Imaging TechnologiesChapter 4: Human Technology Relationships in the Digital Age: The Collapse of Metaphore in Biohacking - Moa PetersénChapter 5: Service Interfaces in Human Technology Relations: A Case Study of Self-Tracking Technologies - Fernando SecomandiChapter 6: From Camera Obscura to fMRI: How Brain Imaging Technologies Mediate Free Will - Ciano AydinPart III: Robotic TechnologiesChapter 7: Paleoanthropology and Social Robotics: Old and New Ways in Mediating Alerity Relations - Michael FunkChapter 8: Lost in Translation? Getting to Grips with Multistable Technology in an Apparently Stable World - Lasse Blond & Kasper SchiølinPart IV: General Methodological IssuesChapter 9: Why it Takes both Postphenomenology and STS to Account for Technological Mediation: The Case of LOVE Park - Robert RosenbergerChapter 10: Describing and Valuing Technological Mediation: From Postphenomenological Bridgeheads to Technoethical Outposts - Michael PuechChapter 11: Technological Mediation and Socio-Cultural Variability - Arun Kumar TripathiChapter 12: Studying the Telescopes of Others: Towards a Postphenomenological Methodology of Participant Observation - Cathrine Hasse