Synthetic Situations in the Internet of Things
The proliferation of distributed digital technologies in contemporary enterprise challenges the understanding of situated action. This paper revisits this notion in the era of Big Data and the Internet of Things. Drawing upon longitudinal studies within t
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Department of Computer and Information Science, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway {parmiggi,eric.monteiro}@idi.ntnu.no 2 NTNU Social Research, Trondheim, Norway [email protected]
Abstract. The proliferation of distributed digital technologies in contemporary enterprise challenges the understanding of situated action. This paper revisits this notion in the era of Big Data and the Internet of Things. Drawing upon longitu‐ dinal studies within the offshore oil and gas industry, we empirically expand upon Knorr Cetina’s “synthetic situation” to encompass data-intensive work where people are not co-located with the physical objects and phenomena around which work is organized. By highlighting the performative nature of synthetic situations in the Internet of Things – where phenomena are algorithmically enacted through digital technologies – we elaborate upon the original formulation of synthetic situations by demonstrating that (i) algorithmic phenomena constitute the phenomena under inquiry, rather than standing in for physical referents; (ii) noise is irreducible in algorithmic phenomena; (iii) synthetic situations are productive rather than reductive. Finally, we draw brief methodological implications by proposing to focus on the material enactment of data in practice. Keywords: Synthetic situation · Performativity · Algorithmic phenomena · Internet of Things
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Introduction
Few notions in social informatics have been as cherished and influential as that of “situ‐ ated action” [1]. The notion of situated action underscores the inherent contingencies of how work practices, very much including use of technology, unfold. The notion has been crucial in debunking deterministic influences [2]. That action is situated is accord‐ ingly firmly established. What remains unclear, however, is where, how, and when the situation influences action. What, exactly, is a “situation”? This question is increasingly pressing as modern work practices are growing more information-saturated and dependent on interconnected and interacting heterogeneous information and communication technologies (ICTs) – such as networks of remote sensors, gadgets, and artefacts – going under the banner of the Internet of Things (IoT), generating vast amounts of quantified datasets (Big Data) [3]. The increased prominence of mediated information (sensor data, images, visualizations, algorithm calculations) transforms the conditions for work [4], particularly in data-saturated settings such as the
© IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2016 Published by Springer International Publishing AG 2016. All Rights Reserved L. Introna et al. (Eds.): IS&O 2016, IFIP AICT 489, pp. 215–228, 2016. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-49733-4_13
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oil and gas industry [5]. Focusing on how situated actions are shaped through distributed, interacting, and remote technologies, implies a shift of analytical focus towards perform‐ ativity, namely on the way assemblages of tools, concepts, and expectations that we use in order to act on and
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