Sigrid Kannengießer

Bio: Sigrid Kannengießer is an academic researcher from University of Bremen. The author has contributed to research in topics: Datafication & Sustainability. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 26 publications receiving 86 citations.

Acting on Media: Influencing, Shaping and (Re)Configuring the Fabric of Everyday Life

Abstract: Computerization, digitalization and datafication are by far no neutral or self-dependent occurrences. They are, to a large degree, co-determined by heterogeneous actors who reflect about, construct, configure, manipulate or even control media. The contributors to this issue put the spotlight on these actors and investigate how they influence, shape and (re)configure broader social constellations. Instead of exploring what people do with media , the articles focus on the many ways individuals, civil society initiatives, corporations and social movements act on media . The notion of acting on media denotes the efforts of a wide range of actors to take an active part in the molding of media organizations, infrastructures and technologies that are part of the fabric of everyday life. Therefore, by conceptualizing acting on media as a form of political action, the issue aims to contribute to ongoing discussions on the media practice paradigm.

Repair Cafés as Communicative Figurations: Consumer-Critical Media Practices for Cultural Transformation

Abstract: Repair Cafes are new events in which people meet to work together on repairing their objects of everyday life such as electronic devices, textiles or bicycles—media technologies being among the goods which are brought most often to these events. In this chapter, results of a qualitative study are presented in which Repair Cafes have been analyzed from a perspective of media and communication studies. Choosing this approach, the focus of the study was on the people repairing media technologies as well as the organizers of the events. Following a figurational perspective, the actor constellation, the frames of relevance as well as the communicative and media practices are analyzed. Thereby, not only the mediated communication processes were defined as media practices but also the act of repairing media technologies itself. Understanding these repairs as media practice, it is argued that the term media practice has to be understood in a broad sense in media and communication studies, not only taking into account what people do with media content but also what they do with media technologies.

Reflecting and acting on datafication – CryptoParties as an example of re-active data activism:

Abstract: CryptoParties are events in which people meet to pass on their knowledge or to learn about encrypting online communication and digital media technologies or safe Internet browsing. While some peopl...

Engaging with and reflecting on the materiality of digital media technologies: Repair and fair production:

Abstract: How do people think about and engage with the materiality of digital media technologies and thereby try to transform the devices and society? The article discusses this question by presenting the r...

Fair media technologies: innovative media devices for social change and the good life

Abstract: Efforts to produce social change are often connected to the aim of creating the good life. Against the background of the current ecological crisis and climate change as well as exploitive globalization processes, I argue in this article that the good life is currently connected to sustainability, which not only implies ecological aspects but also economic and social ones. In this article, the research question looks at how both companies and users of media technologies can contribute to social change in general and sustainability in particular through media innovation. To answer this question, the results of a qualitative study are discussed in which the Fairphone was analyzed as a case study for media innovation. The Fairphone is a smartphone which is supposed to be produced under fair working conditions using sustainable resources. Putting the focus on the Fairphone, innovative production and appropriation processes that materialize in fair media technology are taken into account. The article contributes to research in the field of media innovation (in technology, production and appropriation) in general and media innovation with respect to social change, the good life and sustainability in particular.

On Imagined Communities

Abstract: Benedict Anderson’s deservedly famous thesis about the origins and nature of modern nationalism turns around the central notion of an “imagined community.” This category provides him with a matrix out of which one can apprehend-theoretically and historically-the different variants of nationalist discourse formulated over the last two hundred years. We will refer, in the brief comments that follow, to three basic dimensions structuring the fabric of Anderson’s argument: 1) the presuppositions implicit in the notion of an “imagined” community; 2) the kind of substitutability or solidarity which is required to be a member of such a community; 3) the kind of relationship that is established between such a community-which is by definition finite or limited-and its outside. Before that, however, let us describe the main features of Anderson’s thesis.

Feminism과 범죄 연구

Abstract: Jill Mathews discusses some of the hard questions between marxism and feminism. She a r gue s that mar x i sm is patriarchal at its core. Marx, she says, analysed the masculine e c o n o m y a n d c a l l e d i t universal . She chal lenges modern concepts of women and work and Illustrates that it is not only housework which is i g n o r e d b y t he l a b o u r movement but most of the work of women that earns income and produces commodities and services for sale. Her solution is a politics which puts women first.

The qualitative interviews

Abstract: As previously indicated, the author will also conduct qualitative expert interviews in the empirical research process of this master thesis. The interviews will be carried out in a second step, after the qualitative media analysis has been carried out. In addition to that, the interviews give the author the possibility to confront experts with the results of the qualitative media analysis and gain background information referring to the strategies of image developers in the United Arab Emirates in a cultural perspective.

Pioneer communities: collective actors in deep mediatisation:

Abstract: The aim of this article is to draw attention to the phenomenon of media-related pioneer communities. The maker, quantified-self and open data movements have made clear how much an analysis of such ...

Social Enterprise Emergence from Social Movement Activism: The Fairphone Case

Abstract: Effectuation theory invests agency—intention and purposeful enactment—for a new venture creation in the entrepreneurial actor(s). Based on the results of a 15-month in-depth longitudinal case study of Amsterdam-based social enterprise Fairphone, we argue that effectual entrepreneurial agency is co-constituted by distributed agency, the proactive conferral of material resources and legitimacy to an eventual entrepreneur by heterogeneous actors external to a new venture. In the context of social movement activism, we show how an effectual network pre-committed resources to an inchoate social enterprise to produce a material artefact because it symbolised moral values of network members. We develop a model of social enterprise emergence based on these findings. We theorise the role of material artefacts in effectuation theory and suggest that, in the case, the artefact served as a boundary object, present in multiple social words and triggering commitment from actors not governed by hierarchical arrangements.