How artifacts afford : the power and politics of everyday things / Jenny L. Davis.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- A brief history of affordances -- Politics and power -- Mechanisms of affordance -- Conditions of affordance -- Affordances in practice -- Conclusion.

"The term "affordances," at least in the design literature, was popularized in Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things. He brought affordances to design studies to address human-machine interactions. In recent years, the concept has picked up considerable steam as the study of computer mediated communication (CMC) and information communication technologies (ICTs) have become firmly entrenched in the academic canon. How ArtIfacts Afford is about the social dynamics of technology. It is about the ways that ethics, values, and interests are built into technological objects and how these objects take shape through interaction with human subjects. More specifically, this book is about technological affordances. Formally, affordances are defined as "the 'multifaceted relational structure' between an object/technology and the use that enables or constrains potential behavioral outcomes in a particular context". That is, affordances mediate between the features of a technology and the outcomes of engagement with that technology. Technologies don't make people do things, but instead, push, pull, enable, and constrain. Affordances are how objects shape behavior for socially situated subjects"-- Provided by publisher.