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  3. 4. The Activist Potential of Postmodern Phenomenology of Technology
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4. The Activist Potential of Postmodern Phenomenology of Technology

  • Robert Rosenberger (author)
Chapter of: Phenomenology and the Philosophy of Technology(pp. 97–120)
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Title4. The Activist Potential of Postmodern Phenomenology of Technology
ContributorRobert Rosenberger (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0421.04
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0421/chapters/10.11647/obp.0421.04
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightRobert Rosenberger
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-10-16
Long abstract

In this chapter, Robert Rosenberger suggests that one of the implicit or explicit tasks of a phenomenological philosophy of technology should be to contribute to the goals and aims of political activism. In this sense, his chapter concurs with more general developments in the phenomenology tradition towards a critical or activist phenomenology. He argues that postphenomenology provides a fruitful starting-point for an activist phenomenology because it proves three avenues that can be mode directly relevant to political debates in general and political activism in specific: (1) the notion of technological mediation enables to understand how the political context as well as the relevant political actors are co-shaped by technological developments, (2) the notion of multistability helps revealing the alternative ways in which technologies can be used other than their dominant stability, and (3) by investigating how our perception in general is mediated by the hidden political assumptions of the technologies that we use routinely.

Page rangepp. 97–120
Print length24 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Locations
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PDFhttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0421/chapters/10.11647/obp.0421.04Landing pagehttps://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0421.04.pdfFull text URL
HTMLhttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0421/chapters/10.11647/obp.0421.04Landing pagehttps://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0421/ch4.xhtmlFull text URLPublisher Website
Contributors

Robert Rosenberger

(author)

Robert Rosenberger is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and is currently serving as the President-Elect of the Society for Philosophy & Technology. His research in the philosophy of technology explores the habitual relationships people develop with everyday devices, with applications in design and policy. This includes lines of research into the driving impairment of smartphone usage, the educational advantages of computer-simulated frog dissection, the roles of imaging devices in scientific debates, and the critique of hostile design and architecture (especially anti-homeless design). His edited and co-edited books include Postphenomenological Investigations: Essays on Human-Technology Relations (Lexington Books, 2015), Postphenomenology and Imaging: How to Read Technology (Lexington Books, 2021), and the interview book Philosophy of Science: 5 Questions (Automatic Press / VIP, 2010). His polemical mini-monograph is entitled Callous Objects: Designs against the Homeless (University of Minnesota Press, 2017).

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