It has been claimed that the natural sciences have abstracted for themselves a 'material world' set apart from human concerns, and social sciences, in their turn, constructed 'a world of actors devoid of things'. While a subject such as archaeology, by its very nature, takes objects into account, other disciplines, such as psychology, emphasize internal mental structures and other non-material issues.

This book brings together a team of contributors from across the social sciences who have been taking 'things' more seriously to examine how people relate to objects. The contributors focus on every day objects and how these objects enter into our activities over the course of time. Using a combination of different theoretical approaches, including actor network theory, ecological psychology, cognitive linguistics and science and technology studies, the book argues against the standard notion of objects and their properties as inert and meaningless and argues for the need to understand the relations between people and objects in terms of process and change.

Contents: Introduction, Alan Costall and Ole Dreier. Intentionality and the Functionality of Things: The case of the recalcitrant prototype, Beth Preston; Use plans and artefact functions: an intentionalist approach to artefacts and their use, Pieter E. Vermaas and Wybo Houkes. Things in the World of the Child: Autism and object use: the mutuality of the social and material in children's developing understanding and use of everyday objects, Emma Williams and Linda Kendell-Scott; Object use in pretend play: symbolic or functional?, Ágnes Szokolszky; Culture, language and canonicality: differences in the use of containers between Zapotec (Mexican indigenous) and Danish children, Kristine Jensen de López. Transformation and Things: The cognitive biographies of things, David de Léon; The woman who used her walking stick as a telephone: the use of utilities in praxis, Hysse Birgitte Forchhammer; Politics of things: the interplay of design and practice in a design workshop with children, Estrid Sørensen. Organization and Things: Working with material things: from essentialism to material-semiotic analysis of sociotechnical practice, Finn Olesen and Randi Markussen; Words and things: discursive and non-discursive ordering in a networked organization, Steven D. Brown and David Middleton; Learning to do things with things: apprenticeship learning in bakery as economy and social practice, Klaus Nielsen; Urban makings and the formalization of informal settlements, Gustavo Ribeiro. Indexes.

About the Editor: Alan Costall is Professor of Ecological Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, UK. Ole Dreier is Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Reviews: ‘There is growing consensus that human beings are inextricably interwoven with the artefacts and cultural practices that jointly constitute the unique medium of human life. This stimulating collection of essays provides a wealth of examples that embody this insight in a wide variety of settings. Costall and Dreier have organized a giant step forward toward the reintegration of the human sciences.’
Michael Cole, University of California, USA

‘From psychology and linguistics to architecture, archaeology and material culture studies, the orthodoxy that isolated human minds confront a world of inert and meaningless objects is being challenged. This book takes up the challenge, showing how agency and intentionality arise as properties of the very relations that people set up in their lifelong, practical engagement with the things around them. The book is a must for anyone concerned with how things are designed, made and used.’ Tim Ingold, University of Aberdeen, UK

'…I found this book to be interesting…would provide you with some foundational ideas.' Journal of Occupational Science

'…insightful contributions to the growing body of academic work taking things more seriously and rethinking how people relate to objects.'
Cultural Geographies

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Full contents list

Introduction

Index