The Socio-Material Construction of Users: 3D Printing and the Digitalization of the Prosthetics Industry

This book explores the intricate connections that link the current digitalization of manufacturing to our daily lives and identities as members of highly technologized societies.

Based on extensive research on the prosthetics industry in Germany, the US, Canada, and Haiti, the author analyzes the sociomaterial construction of users, by demonstrating the ways in which the introduction of 3D printing changes how artificial limbs are designed, manufactured, distributed, and used. Critically examining the capacity of digital technologies to afford greater diversity of user roles, enable the inclusion of marginalized groups, and increase user participation in the innovation process, the author presents a theory of user construction that sheds light on the dynamic relationship between industrial digitalization and the future of use.

An empirically grounded and conceptually informed study, The Sociomaterial Construction of Users will appeal to researchers in the fields of sociology, science and technology studies, and organization studies, as well as readers interested in 3D printing and the digitalization of society.

David Seibt is a post-doctoral research associate at the Institute of Sociology, Technical University of Berlin, Germany.