Interaction for design: a theoretical framework for contextual collaboration

Abstract

This thesis explores a range of contiguous issues in ontology, epistemology, philosophy, language, and psychoanalysis for developing an ontological device towards the understanding of interaction in communicative and collaborative contexts of heterogeneous (in)dividuals. It marks a further stage in the authors' project of developing an approach that would point a way of understanding the various dilemmas and dichotomies bequeathed by old-style positivist, modernist and the radical postmodern theories and thus, propose an alternative way of understanding reality, and gaining knowledge about it through a continuum of interaction. The theoretical approach, presented in this thesis, will potentially lead us to new philosophical inquiry. We argue that our aim is not to solve historically unresolved problems in a teleological manner, but to understand them through identifying ways to pluralistically coexist with them by increasing our capacity towards articulating new non-logocentric practice of inquiry. Throughout this thesis we attempted to provide a thorough review of the major philosophical tenets of our age regarding the ways that knowledge constitution leads us to the understanding of interaction, communication, and collaboration. By critically observing them, and with a purpose to identify their main competing ideologies, our aim was to reverse this assumption and outline an ontological critical framework that places knowledge at the centre of interaction, while interaction remains closely related to it. This type of knowledge is not the absolute positivistic knowledge, but a rational and socially determined knowledge that is fragmented but still continuous and important for the development of our society and culture. As it has been suggested, this type of interaction, through an ontological contextualisation of the personal, the social, and the material, reconfigures the determination of theory and knowledge in terms of a transitive and circular theorisation of reality between the foundational and the reflexive paradigmatic narratives that emerge in every historical era. In comparison to the traditional models of determinism, the proposed framework of (de)construction is never fully achieved as an actual reality, but remains as a symbolic process that attempts to 'ground' representational speculation in knowledge and everyday practice. Of course, this is not a simplistic monist formulation of understanding reality and developing knowledge through interaction. What is proposed in this framework, is that non-deterministic collaborative interaction consists to a continuous development of quasi-representational means towards describing reality. Therefore, by contrasting the practices of objective and hermeneutic empiricism, we propose a speculative ontological framework that provides us with a reflexive understanding of knowledge. We support that this framework succeeds to provide the means towards a dialectical conception of interaction through the analysis of the (in)dividual, the (con)text - where an interactive activity is taking place -, the process of the activity itself, as well as to include in the (con)text the metaphysically desirable final goal. In reflecting upon possible future research and application directions for the theories and methods reviewed in this thesis, the scope is both diverse and far-reaching. The (de)constructive framework and the proposed multi-methodology can be extended and applied in socio-technical realms of human activity that include, collaborative design and collective networks of design practice, mass-collaboration in online communities, collaborative virtual environments, organisational contexts, and contexts of social interaction etc.

Αντικείμενο της διατριβής αποτελεί η διερεύνηση των θεωρητικών και μεθοδολογικών προσεγγίσεων που συμβάλλουν στην κατανόηση για την επίτευξη της αλληλεπίδρασης, της επικοινωνίας, και της συνεργασίας σε κοινωνικό-τεχνολογικά πλαίσια εφαρμογής. Η παρούσα διατριβή εστιάζει στην εισήγηση ενός συστημικού οντολογικού πλαισίου βασισμένου στην περικείμενη συσχέτιση ψυχολογικών, κοινωνικών και υλικών παραγόντων και σκοπεύει στην ανάλυση και την περιγραφή των διεργασιών της αλληλεπίδρασης, της επικοινωνίας, και της συνεργασίας. Ο απώτερος στόχος της διατριβής είναι η περιγραφή ενός μη-τελεολογικού (απο)δομητικού οντολογικού πλαισίου για την πλουραλιστική συγκρότηση πολύ-μεθοδολογιών που συμβάλλουν στην ανάδειξη της αλληλεπίδρασης σε περιβάλλοντα ή (περι)κείμενα σχεδίασης (το περιβάλλον το οποίο ερμηνεύεται βάσει της κειμενικότητας του). Τα βασικά θέματα που διερευνώνται στην παρούσα διατριβή μπορούν να συνοψιστούν σε: α) Εισαγωγή στις βασικές θεωρίες αναπαράστασης της γνώσης και της πραγματικότητας (οντολογία - επιστημολογία), β) Ανάλυση των βασικών θεωριών αλληλεπίδρασης, κοινωνικής επικοινωνίας (social communication), και συνεργασίας (collaboration), γ) Εισήγηση του οντολογικού μετά-ερμηνευτικού πλαισίου της (απο)δόμησης, δ) Ανάλυση των εννοιών της δημιουργικότητας και της σχεδίασης βάσει του πλαισίου (απο)δόμησης, ε) Εφαρμογή του θεωρητικού πλαισίου (απο)δόμησης για την παραγωγή πολύ-μεθοδολογιών αλληλεπίδρασης σε (περι)κείμενα σχεδίασης.