Figure : Concept and Method

This open access book shows how figures, figuring, and configuration are used to understand complex, contemporary problems. Figures are images, numbers, diagrams, data and datasets, turns-of-phrase, and representations. Contributors reflect on the history of figures as they have transformed disciplines and fields of study, and how methods of figuring and configuring have been integral to practices of description, computation, creation, criticism and political action. They do this by following figures across fields of social science, medicine, art, literature, media, politics, philosophy, history, anthropology, and science and technology studies. Readers will encounter figures as various as Je Suis Charlie, #MeToo, social media personae, gardeners, asthmatic children, systems configuration management and cloud computing – all demonstrate the methodological utility and contemporary relevance of thinking with figures. This book serves as a critical guide to a world of figures and a creative invitation to “go figure!” Preface Acknowledgements Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures 1: Introduction: Figure, Figuring and Configuration Introduction Part 1: Figure Part 2: Figuring Part 3: Configuration Part 4: Go Figure! Coda References 2: The Work That Figures Do Introduction Auerbach: Figuration as Tropic Device Foucault’s Figures as Objects and Targets of Power Haraway’s Figurations as Spaces to Inhabit An Agenda for the Study of Figuration: Figures and Affect When Figures No Longer Hold Conclusion References 3: In “The Cloud”: Figuring and Inhabiting Media Milieus Introduction: Media Figure Figure, Inhabitation Mediated Worlds: Milieus and Non-representability In “The Cloud” Conclusion: Indeterminate Linings References 4: Figure to Ground: Felicity Allen Interviewed by Celia Lury 5: The Research Persona Method: Figuring and Reconfiguring Personalised Information Flows Challenges to Understanding Personalised Information Flows Situating the Persona as a Research Device Configuring the Research Persona: Methodological Considerations Three Examples of Research Personas What the Research Persona Opens Up Conclusion References 6: Engines, Puppets, Promises: The Figurations of Configuration Management Introduction Figuring Configuration Management Smart Intentional Infrastructure Figuring Infrastructure Mythologies, or Why Figure Configurations? References 7: Figuring Molecular Relapse in Breast Cancer Medicine Introduction Background to ‘An Exploratory Breast Lead Interval Study’ (EBLIS) Inhabiting Cancer’s Figures Conclusion References 8: The Gardener and the Walled Garden Introduction A Letter, Jayne Smith (2019) “I’d like to know what they’ve done with my stuff” (Jayne, 2018 interview) Walled Gardens Walled Garden 1: The Tissue Bank Walled Garden 2: RADICAL Trial Walled Garden 3: Patient Records A Changing Landscape: from Walled Gardens to Data Flows Grumpa Conclusion References 9: Data Through Time: Figuring Out the Narrative Self in Longitudinal Research Introduction Section 1: Longitudinal Studies and Quantitative Representations of Individuals’ Lives Reconstructing the Individual Within Longitudinal Cohort Studies Big Stories and Small Stories Section 2: Opportunities and Challenges for Longitudinal Research Provided by Self-tracking Self-tracking and the ‘Quantified Self’ The Potential Use of Self-tracking in Longitudinal Studies (Figure and Ground) Conclusions References 10: Figuring Out Exposure: Exploring Computational Environments and Personalisation in Interdisciplinary Air Pollution Research Introduction ‘Person-Centred Environments’ ‘Experimental Entanglements’: The Wearable Sensors Study Configuring Environmental Health ‘Pathways’ Negotiating Participation in Research (Personal) Data Frictions Conclusions References 11: Figures of Speech: Stuck in the Middle with ‘People Like You’ Introduction Pronominalism Figures of Speech Stuck in the Middle References 12: Ubiquitous Surveillance and Data Selves References 13: Figuring Accompaniment: The Creation of Urban Spaciousness Something Else Besides Urban Gathering and Arrangements Figuring the Extensions Concluding the Surrounds References This open access book shows how figures, figuring, and configuration are used to understand complex, contemporary problems. Figures are images, numbers, diagrams, data and datasets, turns-of-phrase, and representations. Contributors reflect on the history of figures as they have transformed disciplines and fields of study, and how methods of figuring and configuring have been integral to practices of description, computation, creation, criticism and political action. They do this by following figures across fields of social science, medicine, art, literature, media, politics, philosophy, history, anthropology, and science and technology studies. Readers will encounter figures as various as #jesuischarlie, #MeToo, social media personae, gardeners, asthmatic children, systems configuration management and cloud computing. Each chapter demonstrates the methodological utility and contemporary relevance of thinking with figures. This book serves as a critical guide to a world of figures and a creative invitation to "go figure!" Celia Lury is Professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick. She has a long-standing interest in the ways in which "live" methods contribute to the enactment of social worlds. Her most recent book is Problem Spaces: How and Why Methodology Matters (2020). William Viney is a research fellow in the Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London, as part of the project "People Like You": Contemporary Figures of Personalisation. His most recent book is Twins: Superstitions and Marvels, Fantasies and Experiments (2021). Scott Wark is a research fellow for the Wellcome-funded project, "People Like You": Contemporary Figures of Personalisation. He is based at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick. His main research focus is on online culture