Bodies, Technologies and Action Possibilities When is an Affordance?

被引:112
作者
Bloomfield, Brian P. [1 ]
Latham, Yvonne [1 ]
Vurdubakis, Theo [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Lancaster, Dept Org Work & Technol, Lancaster LA1 4YX, England
来源
SOCIOLOGY-THE JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH SOCIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION | 2010年 / 44卷 / 03期
关键词
affordances; body; disabilities; sociomateriality; technology; TEXTS;
D O I
10.1177/0038038510362469
中图分类号
C91 [社会学];
学科分类号
030301 ; 1204 ;
摘要
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.
引用
收藏
页码:415 / 433
页数:19
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