Mutually Making the Conditions of Mutual Making : An Introduction

Abstract

The “varieties of cooperation” empirically investigated in this volume shed light on historical formations, essential foundations, stabilisations and consequences of mutual accomplishments in cooperative practices. Considering the histories of technological artefacts and infrastructures, such as the passport or the pneumatic tube system, as well as the current use of widespread everyday media practices, such as video conferences, air travel or domestic IT applications, we understand cooperation in a broad and yet very specific sense: as any form of mutual makings, in which common goals, means or procedures have to be achieved in concrete practices of concerted activities. On the one hand, the individual contributions of the volume cover different notions and concepts of cooperation in diverse fields of study: from the mundane cooperation of everyday life to collective endeavours within specific domains and institutions. On the other hand, they share a focus on the practices of making cooperation possible through cooperatively creating the conditions for cooperation itself. Seeing cooperative media as both a condition and a consequence of cooperation, the volume sheds light on a general feature of media, technologies and instruments that both enable and constrain the collaboration between heterogeneous social worlds, with and without consensus