[Air-L] "Construction" of Users

[EduAustin Alliance]

Thanks so much for this email.

The eBay research galvanizes some theories that I have long debated with
others.

The "soft determinism" explanation of 'the medium is the message' theories
always seem hokey to me. Yet, User-centric design has brought so much value
to software design. It has been difficult to explain to people in the
software industry the deterministic aspects of the product design choices
they make.

McLuhan never used the word 'determinism' and he never argued against human
agency. All of that was added as follow-on critique.

I really like how the 2001 paper brings it all together. It shows the
limits of the benefit that user-centric design can bring. And shatters the
myth that user-centric design is universal or democratic.

It brings the entire Software Design industry back to square 1 - back to
"the medium is the message."

Really helpful stuff, thanks again,
BishopZ





On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 5:17 PM, Michele White <mwhite at michelewhite.org>
wrote:

> Hi Folks,
> I agree that Woolgar's work and the varied conceptualizations of gendered
> scripts are key in conceptualizing and studying the notion of users. I
> redeploy Woolgar's "Configuring the User" in Michele White, Buy It Now:
> Lessons from eBay (Duke University Press, 2012). I also propose reasons for
> using and rethinking the conception of spectatorship and trouble
> understandings of users in The Body and the Screen: Theories of Internet
> Spectatorship (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006). I think the relationship
> between and thinking across media/film theories and STS work, which is
> briefly addressed in How Users Matter, is also key to these interrogations.
>
> Best,Michele
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