Grids:Remote support infrastructures: Difference between revisions

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While Lisa Wade assumes that grids always have a serving position for society, the previous definition is neutral in its judgement on whether the intention or impact of those grids are designed or put into place to serve society, or at least a certain social group.  
While Lisa Wade assumes that grids always have a serving position for society, the previous definition is neutral in its judgement on whether the intention or impact of those grids are designed or put into place to serve society, or at least a certain social group.  


While studying the nature of grid there is a strong impossibility to disconnect them from their relation with the participants. Without participants, there is no grid. A grid cannot exist without its initiators, actors, and participants. This relation between participants and grids is described as the grid/group theory by several anthropologists.  
While studying the nature of grids there is a strong impossibility to disconnect them from their relation with the participants. Without participants, there is no grid. A grid cannot exist without its initiators, actors, and participants. This relation between participants and grids is described as the grid/group theory by several anthropologists.  


==The Grid/group theory==  
==The Grid/group theory==  

Revision as of 16:21, 13 February 2017

In 2017 Hackers&Designers will focus on the thematic thread and the process of going ‘off-the grid’, – a crucial societal topic and ongoing discussion at stake in both design/art and developer practices. To be able to reflect on the roles, meanings and impacts of the different grids we are navigating on as hackers and designers, this first article will give an overview of the nature of different grids, what they are, what they can be, where they come from, and what their impact is on our work- and personal environments. This introductory article will be a very broad examination of what ‘a grid’ can mean to our social interactions. After this submersion into the world of grids, the following articles will have a case based way to approach the ‘wild’ grid with experimental curiosity and will be based on the outlines of this introduction.

When looking up ‘grids’ in the Cambridge Dictionary [1] we find that a grid is ‘a pattern or structure made from horizontal and vertical lines crossing each other to form squares.’ Since going off-grid for sure doesn’t mean stepping out of a graphical structure, a more clear explanation for the grids we can go on or off can be found in anthropologic studies and literature about cultural motives and infrastructures.

Sociologist Lisa Wade describes these grids in her book “Gender” [2] as “persistent patterns of social interaction aimed at meeting the needs of a society that can’t easily be met by individuals alone”. Grid systems are there to provide a structure or connection between several people to be able to do things more efficiently, than we would be able when we would handle them alone. Sociologists also tend to call these grids institutions and distinguish five main grids in our society: education, family, religion, polity, and economy. The problem with these big institutions is that once they are established, it’s almost impossible for an individual to step out from them and they are not always set up with the goal of meeting the needs of a society.

A more accurate description of what grids can be was formulated by Shaun Hargreaves Heap and Angus Ross in “Understanding the enterprise culture” [3]: [A grid is]‘The set of rules which govern individuals in their personal interactions. Strong or “high” grid means strongly defined roles which provide a script for individual interaction.’ While Lisa Wade assumes that grids always have a serving position for society, the previous definition is neutral in its judgement on whether the intention or impact of those grids are designed or put into place to serve society, or at least a certain social group.

While studying the nature of grids there is a strong impossibility to disconnect them from their relation with the participants. Without participants, there is no grid. A grid cannot exist without its initiators, actors, and participants. This relation between participants and grids is described as the grid/group theory by several anthropologists.

The Grid/group theory

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Grids for Hackers&Designers

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Grids and their impact

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Going on and off the grid

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outro