Defining and Shaping Third Spaces
Co-Ability through the Coming Together of Solid Bodies : Arguments by Means of a New Synthesis of Objects and Bodies
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Renata Dezso-Dinnyes
The purpose of this proposal is to discover convincing arguments by means of a new synthesis of objects and bodies, as well as to seek ways of presenting design culture as an integrative discipline that allows researchers to formulate new questions for the field. The proposal accommodates a design approach to understand the intercorporeality between disabled recipients and design technology, focusing on practice to theory links (with emphasis on understanding the complex social phenomenon of stigmatised identities). The design process data were further analysed by using an interpretive approach to prove a grounded theory. The research was conducted in a context characterised by the changing character of disability and the nature of solid bodies coming together. What happens when instead of the body normative organisation, the body could be considered as diversative and be fluidly multiplied? Can it create a new nomad energy exchange between entities? Also, can it create new productive and innovative existence by not using normative functions, and by using normative "Body Schema" only? Does the launch of inorganic technology automatically mean the deconstruction of the subjective self? Our understanding of the actors involved will be deepened if normative power is not exercised. Thus, not only their personal experiences will be brought into the project, but also the social forces will provide a rich array of research opportunities. The aim is to understand the network between organic and inorganic bodies better, to achieve an improvement in the contemporary complexities of human life.
Social Impact of Gaming in India
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Divya Mc Millin
What is the social impact of gaming in developing economies such as India? This paper seeks to address this question through the case study of the League of Extraordinary Gamers in Bengaluru, India through four phases of fieldwork spanning 2013-17. The theoretical concept of Thirdspace allows us to explore more fully, the process by which young media users in India leverage their connectivities and technology options to produce a “place” they can habit meaningfully and powerfully. The first phase of fieldwork in 2013 in Bengaluru, one of the first cities to be digitized, revealed significant upheavals in the city with the installation of fiber optic cables throughout. It was that summer that LXG was established, necessitating fieldwork in summer 2015 when the gaming industry achieved a dramatic spike. Analysis of LXG campaign strategies and marketing materials, as well as interviews continued in early 2016, both with shoutcasters and marketers in Bangalore as well as developers in Seattle and Bellevue, Washington, where the most popular games are developed. The final phase of fieldwork was conducted in summer 2017, where visits to four private universities in the city and interviews and participant observation at LXG, filled in the gaps on media preferences and gaming habits. Thinking through gaming centers and streaming programming as Thirdspace advances our understanding of how new technologies can engender notions of global citizenship and local agency.
Online Coaching: Leveraging Technology for Professional Development of Teachers
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gregory MacKinnon, Delise Williams, Terry Ann Marsh Roberts, Yvonne Jones
Communication technologies were accessed to offer online coaching to literacy teachers in six Caribbean countries. Expert coaches provided professional advice to teachers as they taught in public school classrooms. Using a mixed methods action research methodology, the efficacy of the coaching system was evaluated as a reasonable cost effect alternative to onsite visits. Field notes, surveys, interviews and focus groups were reviewed in an iterative fashion in order to offer thematic assessment and potential improvements to the system.
Hookup Apps and the End(s) of Community
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Greg Goldberg
Critics have faulted Grindr and similar "hookup apps" for commodifying social relations; instead of treating potential partners as "human beings," Grindr users are thought to treat each other as objects to be consumed and disposed of at whim. In other words, what ought to be a community or collective of users is instead a market. In this paper, I draw from the so-called "antisocial thesis" in queer theory to critique this valuing of communal and collective relations. I propose that the market-like relations established through apps like Grindr may in fact be politically desirable insofar as they thwart the desire to know, speak for, and act in the interest of others – a tendency that may appear altruistic but has annihilative ends. I also consider the implications of these market-like relations on the establishment and maintenance of identity.
