STS methods Lab: Making Information Matter

Whether recorded, recoded or unregistered, information shapes our present and our becoming. In her book Mareile Kaufmann analyzes how information matters, how it is material and lively.  She develops a theory about how we can understand making, information and matter together. This theory is translated into a concrete method for grasping how information is made and re-made, and continues to materialize. The book applies this method to study information life cycles in different surveillance-heavy environments, ranging from the police office to the school yard. A thorough understanding of such information life cycles is necessary for scholars to trace the politics and the ethos of making information matter; to discuss how information should matter and identify openings for making information matter differently.