[Paper Review] The nested materiality of environmental monitoring

Elena Parmiggiani, Eric Monteiro|arXiv (Cornell University)|Mar 19, 2018

Information Systems Theories and Implementation26 references3 citations

TL;DR

This paper introduces the concept of 'nested materiality' to analyze how environmental monitoring in remote marine environments—specifically on the Norwegian Continental Shelf—is shaped by interconnected, evolving infrastructures of sensors, communication systems, and analytical tools. It reveals that environmental data are not neutral but co-constituted by distributed material arrangements, challenging the idea of technology as a black-boxed tool and emphasizing the dynamic, sociomaterial processes behind real-time subsea monitoring in harsh conditions.

ABSTRACT

Present knowledge about the marine ecosystem on the Norwegian Continental Shelf towards the Arctic is sparse. These areas are vast, remote and subject to harsh weather conditions. We report from a three-year case study of an ongoing effort for real-time, subsea environmental monitoring by an oil and gas operator. The facts about the subsea environment are anything but neutral; they are intrinsically caught up with the material means by which they are known. The marine ecosystem is monitored through a network of sensors, communication links, visualisation and analysis tools. Our concept of nested materiality draws heavily on perspectives in sociomateriality but highlights (i) the distributed and interconnected infrastructure of the material means (as opposed to artefact-centric) and (ii) in-the-making (as opposed to black-boxed) technology.

Motivation & Objective

• To understand how environmental data in remote marine environments are materially produced rather than passively observed.
• To challenge the notion of technology as a neutral or black-boxed tool in environmental monitoring.
• To examine the distributed, interconnected infrastructure that enables real-time subsea monitoring in harsh conditions.
• To highlight the in-the-making nature of technological systems in shaping environmental knowledge.
• To advance sociomaterial theory by emphasizing materiality as nested, dynamic, and relational rather than artifact-centric.

Proposed method

• Conducting a three-year ethnographic case study of an oil and gas operator's real-time subsea environmental monitoring system.
• Analyzing the interplay between sensors, communication links, visualization tools, and data analysis platforms as a distributed technological infrastructure.
• Applying sociomateriality theory with a focus on materiality as distributed and in-the-making, rather than fixed or artifact-centered.
• Tracing how environmental facts emerge through the ongoing, embodied practices of monitoring and the material arrangements supporting them.
• Using empirical data from field operations to illustrate how technological systems are co-constituted with ecological knowledge.
• Framing the analysis around the idea that material means of observation are not external to knowledge but integral to its production.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 How are environmental facts about the marine ecosystem produced through material infrastructures in remote, harsh environments?
• RQ2 In what ways does the distributed nature of monitoring technologies shape the knowledge they generate?
• RQ3 How does the in-the-making quality of technological systems affect the stability and neutrality of environmental data?
• RQ4 Why do traditional views of technology as a neutral tool fail to capture the complexity of real-time subsea monitoring?
• RQ5 How does the concept of nested materiality better explain the sociomaterial dynamics of environmental monitoring than artifact-centric models?

Key findings

• Environmental data from the Norwegian Continental Shelf are not objective facts but are materially co-produced through complex, distributed infrastructures of sensors, communication systems, and analytical tools.
• The monitoring system's material arrangements are not static or black-boxed but continuously negotiated and reconfigured in practice.
• The concept of nested materiality reveals that technological systems are embedded in multiple layers of material and social relations, shaping what counts as 'known' about the marine environment.
• The study demonstrates that the same data can be interpreted differently depending on the specific configuration of material means used in their collection and analysis.
• The case study shows that technological infrastructure is not a transparent conduit for data but actively participates in constructing environmental knowledge.
• The findings challenge the neutrality of environmental monitoring by showing that material arrangements are constitutive of ecological facts rather than merely instrumental.