Technical Action Cluster
The Technical Action Cluster explores how everyday, seemingly trivial technical processes – such as techniques, technologies, and the objects they produce – can disrupt human endeavors. They also experiment with ways to resolve these disruptions.
Vision and Scope
Unforeseen technical challenges affect project managers across all fields, whether it’s European policymakers crafting legislation, bureaucrats implementing it, agricultural scientists introducing sustainable techniques, infrastructure planners working on disaster reduction, or even a child learning to ride a bicycle. Success often hinges on the fine details of how actions interact with materials and how these interactions fit into broader political and economic systems.
These dynamics are frequently overlooked. Through activities like ethnography, participant observation, and operational sequence mapping (a socio-technical recipe for analyzing actions), they aim to reveal and address these hidden complexities. Their goal is to develop and share a clear technical perspective, enhancing research efforts both at CSPS and in broader collaborations.
Activities
The Technical Action Cluster engages in a variety of activities aimed at fostering collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and critical thinking around technical actions. Key initiatives include a speaker series focused on technical actions from an anthropological, ethnographic, or technographic perspective and workshops with prominent figures in the field.
For more information, or if you’re interested in getting involved, please reach out to Stephanie Ketterer (stephanie.ketterer@wur.nl) or Geoffrey Hobbis (geoffrey.hobbis@wur.nl).
Centre for Space, Place and Society 