Olsen, Wallace C. (author / Staff Assistant, Library Operations Division, National Agricultural Library, Technical Information Systems) and Staff Assistant, Library Operations Division, National Agricultural Library, Technical Information Systems
Format:
Conference paper
Publication Date:
1981
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 76 Document Number: C03993
Notes:
In: Agricultural information to hasten development : Proceedings of the VIth World Congress of the International Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists, held at the Philippine International Convention Center, Manila, Philippines; 3-7 March 1980. Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines : Agricultural Libraries Association of the Philippines; Agricultural Information Bank of Asia, 1981. p. 107-111
13 pages, via Online Journal, This paper contributes to our understanding of farm data value chains with assistance from 54 semi-structured interviews and field notes from participant observations. Methodologically, it includes individuals, such as farmers, who hold well-known positionalities within digital agriculture spaces—platforms that include precision farming techniques, farm equipment built on machine learning architecture and algorithms, and robotics—while also including less visible elements and practices. The actors interviewed and materialities and performances observed thus came from spaces and places inhabited by, for example, farmers, crop scientists, statisticians, programmers, and senior leadership in firms located in the U.S. and Canada. The stability of “the” artifacts followed for this project proved challenging, which led to me rethinking how to approach the subject conceptually. The paper is animated by a posthumanist commitment, drawing heavily from assemblage thinking and critical data scholarship coming out of Science and Technology Studies. The argument’s understanding of “chains” therefore lies on an alternative conceptual plane relative to most commodity chain scholarship. To speak of a data value chain is to foreground an orchestrating set of relations among humans, non-humans, products, spaces, places, and practices. The paper’s principle contribution involves interrogating lock-in tendencies at different “points” along the digital farm platform assemblage while pushing for a varied understanding of governance depending on the roles of the actors and actants involved.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 120 Document Number: C13694
Notes:
Located in J Evans Library, Proceedings of the Vith World Congress of the International Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists: "Agricultural Information to Hasten Development". Held at Phillipine International Convention Center, Manila, Philippines, 3-7 March 1980
