Socio-Technical Practices of Digital Technology and Innovation

本研究探讨了新兴技术如何被用来调解社会、政治和经济关系，以及它们正在构建的各种技术未来。它侧重于生产和跨区域分发数字技术的非国家行为者的社会技术实践。该项目将资助本科生和研究生在科学与技术研究方面的培训。这将有助于公众了解人工智能、面部识别、物联网等如何融入日常世界。研究结果将引起创新和技术政策制定者、技术用户和教育工作者的兴趣。该研究主要通过多地点人种学以及话语分析、焦点小组和人工制品分析进行。它试图回答以下问题：1)谁在人工智能、计算硬件和数据流（特别是在国家资助的活动之外）的设计、制造和分发方面处于最前沿？2)控制这些过程的社会技术实践是什么？研究人员将研究将特定技术与消费者联系起来的商业活动，包括建立跨区域数据流的软件和硬件。它将专注于积极构建和传播个人/消费技术的企业家、制造商、制造商和投资者网络，以及那些在农业和金融创业生态系统中工作的人。这项研究有助于STS在技术政治以及数字技术和关键计算研究历史方面的学术研究。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research addresses how new and emerging technologies are used to mediate social, political, and economic relations, and the kinds of techno-futures they are building. It focuses on the socio-technical practices of non-state actors who produce and distribute digital technologies across regions. The project will fund training for undergraduate and graduate students in Science and Technology Studies (STS). It will contribute to the public’s understanding of how AI, facial recognition, Internet of Things, etc. are becoming embedded into the everyday world. The findings will be of interest to innovation and technology policy makers, technology users, and educators.The research is conducted primarily through multi-sited ethnography along with discourse analyses, focus groups, and artifact analyses. It seeks to answer the questions: 1) who is at forefront in the design, manufacture, and distribution of AI, computing hardware, and data flows, particularly outside state-sponsored activities? and 2) what are the socio-technical practices governing these processes? Researchers will examine the commercial activities linking specific technologies to consumers, including the constellation of software and hardware that establish cross-regional data flows. It will focus on networks of entrepreneurs, makers, manufacturers, and investors who actively build and circulate personal/consumer technologies as well as those working in the startup ecosystem of agriculture and finance. The research contributes to STS scholarship on techno-politics as well as histories of digital technology and critical computing research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.