Introducing Messy Realities: the Secret Life of Technology

Professor Trisha Greenhalgh and Dr Gemma Hughes discuss what assistive living technologies are and how they can be researched. They have a conversation which ranges from a Zimbabwean Bush Pump (referring to de Laet and Mol, 2002) to Trish’s elephant bike. They discuss symbolic and cultural meanings of assistive living technology, naturalistic and ethnographic methods for studying technologies-in-use and post-actor network theory. Gemma introduces Jozie Kettle and Beth McDougall from the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford who explain how they involve the Museum Collections as catalysts for conversations with the public.