(Re)sewing with wireless : an inquiry into the infrastructural mediation practices ; (Re)coudre avec du sans fil. Enquête sur des pratiques de médiation infrastructurelle

Open Access

Abstract

This dissertation is concerned with a longitudinal study of a computer network technology referred to as the Commotion wireless MESH software, and the assemblages of actants that come into contact with it (such as people, objects, organizations, discourses, etc.). I argue that this apparatus produces different versions of itself that uniquely relates the concepts of agency, infrastructure and the Commons because it explicitly claims to be both technical and political within different socio-historical folds. By assuming such an overt political stance, it invites us to think through the notion of mediation in a new light (infrastructural mediation). My research methods reflect different interpretations of this software by seeking to understand whether this wireless mesh network technology represents a compromise solution to redefining the forces that constitute telecommunications infrastructure and its hold on the social bond. To do so, my dissertation expands on a particular ethnographic path which, "by the middle", attempts to understand the ways in which the existence of a socio-technical system is established. I argue that the establishment of a socio-technical apparatus does not amount to pulling it out of thin air, but rather to make it become what it is. The findings reflect the successive trials and errors that go into this process of developing a sociotechnical and mediatic form that has yet to be recognized, while also shoring up the constitutive elements of a mediation process between the Commons and telecommunications infrastructure. ; La thèse repose sur une étude longitudinale d'une technologie de réseau émergente (le logiciel MESH Commotion) et des agencements d'actants qui l'entourent (personnes, objets, organisations, discours, etc.). Ce dispositif, parce qu'il revendique explicitement qu'il est politique au sein de différents plis socio-historiques, produit différentes versions de lui-même qui articulent de manière singulière les notions d'agentivité, d'infrastructures et de biens communs. Par ...