Modern mundane life is brimming with a variety of data-driven technologies that are supposed to augment the practices they are involved in. As humans bring these technologies into their lives in a process of domestication, they tame them and are simultaneously influenced by their presence. In combining domestication research and an empirical analysis of current, digital, and interconnected media, this issue examines the process of taming with an emphasis on practices. The contributions in this issue explore the use of digitally connected media such as vacuum robots, smart speakers, drones, and kitchen appliances with reference to the domestication paradigm from interdisciplinary perspectives including media studies, sociology, anthropology, and human-computer interaction.

Autorentext

Tim Hector (M.A.) works as a research assistant at the Collaborative Research Center 1187 »Media of Cooperation« in the project »Un/desired Observation in Interaction: Smart Environments, Language, Body and Senses in Private Homes« at Universität Siegen. He did a PhD in applied linguistics on the linguistic domestication of voice assistants in private homes. His research is focussed on media linguistics, conversation analysis and linguistic praxeology.
David Waldecker (Dr.) is a sociologist and an academic librarian in training at Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt. He was a post-doc at the Collaborative Research Center 1187 »Media of Cooperation«, Universität Siegen, and published his dissertation on Adorno in the recording studio in 2022.
Niklas Strüver (M.A.) is a PhD candidate at the Collaborative Research Center 1187 »Media of Cooperation« at Universität Siegen. His research is focussed around the sociology of technology and his dissertation explores the sociotechnical relations of voice assistants.
Tanja Aal is a research assistant at the Collaborative Research Center 1187 »Media of Cooperation« at Universität Siegen. Here she works in the project A05: »The Cooperative Creation of User Autonomy in the Context of the Ageing Society«. In her doctoral she focusses on (digital) inclusion of vulnerable human and non-human actors by using the Design Justice Framework.