Falco, Elena;
(2024)
A technosocial epistemology of Wikipedia.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
The project is composed of an empirical and a theoretical part, which inform each other iteratively. I used a mixed-methods approach for the empirical research, drawing tools from science and technology studies and platform studies. Specifically, I have conducted interviews with members of the Wikipedia community – both volunteers, and employees of Wikipedia’s publisher, the Wikimedia Foundation; analysed community pages and technical documentation published by Wikipedia or the Foundation; explored the historical and ideological connections between Wikipedia and its major intellectual predecessors: traditional encyclopaedias, Ayn Rand and the Free and Open Source Software movement. From a theoretical point of view, I have drawn concepts from empirically informed, contemporary philosophy of technology, such as postphenomenology, value sensitive design, and adjacent work. The upshot of my thesis is twofold, and consists of some empirical findings, and theoretical contributions. The empirical findings consist in showing how values are operationalised through the design of Wikipedia’s coded infrastructure, and describing the ideological roots of Wikipedia’s design. I also conceptualise en.wikipedia.org as a site of epistemic debate, which is carried out by those who contribute code to the website, through the code they write. From a theoretical standpoint, I propose to complicate the current story told by approaches such as values in design and value sensitive design, by highlighting the role of the artefact itself in the process of embedding. I propose to conceptualise the values embedded in design as co-constructed by the artefact itself and its designers, and to keep into account how the materiality of complex artefacts can influence trade-offs and relationships between values.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | A technosocial epistemology of Wikipedia |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Science and Technology Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200488 |
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