Revealing Relations - Dis-Positions: Troubling Methods and Theory in Sts by Anne Beaulieu Paperback

Book Synopsis

Available open access digitally under CC BY-NC-ND licence.

Do our tools for knowing about the world actually obscure important knowledge?

This book uncovers how knowledge infrastructures--including satellite tracking, climate models, machine learning and citizen science apps--shape our understanding of contemporary crises. Rooted in logics of resource assessment, these systems often reinforce extractive thinking, even when intended to protect.

Beaulieu calls for a radical focus on relations to reimagine liveable futures: from monitoring and measuring to fostering connection, care and interdependence.

Drawing on science and technology studies and feminist critique, this book offers tools for transforming data practices, designing more responsive interfaces and building better infrastructures of survival.

Review Quotes

'Let Anne Beaulieu guide you through the study of knowledge infrastructure, and you'll learn how, against the odds, data and models can enable us to connect more deeply.' Noortje Marres, University of Warwick.' Noortje Marres, University of Warwick

'Anyone concerned about the status of knowledge in our datafied times should read Revealing Relations, an urgent plea for transforming our knowledge infrastructures towards justice and accountability.' Sebastián Ureta, Universidad Católica de Chile

'Beaulieu offers a deeply inspiring and urgently needed rethinking of knowledge infrastructures to enable plural forms of knowing, and keep futures open.' Jürgen Renn, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

About the Author

Anne Beaulieu is professor of Knowledge Infrastructures for Sustainability at the Copernicus Institute, Faculty of Geosciences, at Utrecht University in The Netherlands. Her work contributes to shaping better knowledge infrastructures, especially those dedicated to climate and ecology.