ABSTRACT
This chapter forms a bridge between the more empirical chapters preceding and the more analytically focused chapters that comprise the remainder of the book. To deepen the analyses begun in Chapter 5, this chapter uses the same headings, and either continues to work from the situations detailed before, or brings in additional examples from the PrintAbility project in order to enrich the arguments presented. Concepts such as boundary objects, the difficulty of defining “technical” work, the expertise of users, and the embeddedness of values and assumptions in designed objects and systems are all at issue in this chapter. Broadly, the arguments in this chapter can be summarized as: context matters, and conditions of production influence opportunities for use. Two new subjects are also introduced: labour and infrastructure, and users-producers. These headings act as a connector and a lead-in to the subject matter of Chapters 7 and 8, which focus particularly on the role of users in production (Chapter 7) and the importance of an infrastructural view of labour (Chapter 8).
