Article ID: CBB963558947

Negotiating attachments to plastic (December 2021)

unapi

Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in the office and warehouse of an organic wholesaler in Germany, this article presents a trans-sequential analysis of an innovation that aimed to reduce the use of plastic wrap. During the analytical reconstruction of the innovation process, the substitution of plastic wrap turned out to be a precarious process of negotiating attachments to plastic. Against this background, innovation is not simply about the implementation and substitution of technology by human actors, but about negotiating attachments that humans have towards objects within socio-technical assemblages. Drawing on actor-network theory and the sociology of attachment, the article highlights the dynamic interplay between persistence and problematization of plastic wrap, which characterizes the innovation process. This interplay is seen along several steps during the innovation process: from (1) the problematization of plastic dependency to (2) the mobilization of alternatives, to (3) resistance against measures to be implemented and (4) the enforcement of reusable strings as technological substitution and (5) to conclusive retrospection on the innovation process. The trans-sequential analysis shows that ‘getting rid of something’ might be an imperfect approach to dealing with unsustainable object relations. Instead, withdrawing is a double-sided process of detaching and attaching, removing constraints and building new ones.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB963558947/

Similar Citations

Article Sarah Komasová; (February 2022)
Airport security as translation through division and movement (/isis/citation/CBB426371173/)

Article Christelle Gramaglia; François Mélard; (2019)
Looking for the Cosmopolitical Fish: Monitoring Marine Pollution with Anglers and Congers in the Gulf of Fos, Southern France (/isis/citation/CBB276214571/)

Article Martin Anfinsen; (December 2021)
Between stability and change: Tensions in the Norwegian electric mobility transition (/isis/citation/CBB881981826/)

Article Mandy de Wilde; (November 2021)
“A Heat Pump Needs a Bit of Care”: On Maintainability and Repairing Gender–Technology Relations (/isis/citation/CBB932272197/)

Article Sarah Pink; Juan Francisco Salazar; Melisa Duque; (2019)
Everyday mundane repair: Banknotes and the material entanglements of improvisation and innovation (/isis/citation/CBB927398238/)

Article Diana Pardo Pedraza; (2020)
Artefacto Explosivo Improvisado: Landmines and rebel expertise in Colombian warfare (/isis/citation/CBB843315955/)

Article Annekatrin Skeide; (January 2022)
Music to My Ears: A Material-semiotic Analysis of Fetal Heart Sounds in Midwifery Prenatal Care (/isis/citation/CBB433803030/)

Article Vertesi, Janet; (2014)
Seamful Spaces: Heterogeneous Infrastructures in Interaction (/isis/citation/CBB001421194/)

Article Jakob Raffn; Frederik Lassen; (2021)
Politics of Nature: The board game (/isis/citation/CBB033346411/)

Article Marianne de Laet; Annelieke Driessen; Else Vogel; (December 2021)
Thinking with attachments: Appreciating a generative analytic (/isis/citation/CBB485499768/)

Article Marres, Noortje; (June 2013)
Why political ontology must be experimentalized: On eco-show homes as devices of participation (/isis/citation/CBB539904307/)

Article Latour, Bruno; (April 2013)
Biography of an inquiry: On a book about modes of existence (Discussion) (/isis/citation/CBB031241284/)

Article Catherine Heeney; (January 2017)
An “Ethical Moment” in Data Sharing (/isis/citation/CBB939267013/)

Article Antti Silvast; Mikko J. Virtanen; (2023)
On Theory–Methods Packages in Science and Technology Studies (/isis/citation/CBB283295216/)

Article Annalisa Pelizza; (August 2021)
Identification as translation: The art of choosing the right spokespersons at the securitized border (/isis/citation/CBB561779418/)

Authors & Contributors
Lin, Wen-yuan
Mandy de Wilde
Juan Francisco Salazar
Moats, David
Mélard, François
Hon-Ngen Fung
Concepts
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Actor-network theory
Ethnography
Technological innovation
Materiality
Users of technology
Time Periods
21st century
Places
Taiwan
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Colombia
Poland
Norway
Greece
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment