Article ID: CBB179730775

Theorizing Affordances: From Request to Refuse (2016)

unapi

As a concept, affordance is integral to scholarly analysis across multiple fields—including media studies, science and technology studies, communication studies, ecological psychology, and design studies among others. Critics, however, rightly point to the following shortcomings: definitional confusion, a false binary in which artifacts either afford or do not, and failure to account for diverse subject-artifact relations. Addressing these critiques, this article demarcates the mechanisms of affordance—as artifacts request, demand, allow, encourage, discourage, and refuse—which take shape through interrelated conditions: perception, dexterity, and cultural and institutional legitimacy. Together, the mechanisms and conditions constitute a dynamic and structurally situated model that addresses how artifacts afford, for whom and under what circumstances.

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Authors & Contributors
Yuanzhi Li
Con Diaz, Gerardo
Derui Tan
Kohlrausch, Martin
Fangtao Zhang
Mingwu Zhang
Concepts
Technology
Social sciences
Artifacts
Archaeology
Anthropology, prehistoric
Psychology
Time Periods
20th century
Prehistory
20th century, late
20th century, early
Stone age
19th century
Places
United States
China
Middle and Near East
Papua New Guinea
Xinjiang Region (China)
Ukraine
Institutions
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
RAND Corporation
UNESCO
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