i3 seminar “Analysis of online participation” will welcome

Julia Velkovska and Moustafa Zouinar

Relationships to “conversational” machines

Living with voice assistants at home

Julia Velkovska is a researcher at the SENSE laboratory (Sociology and Economics of Networks and Services) of Orange Labs and associate researcher at the Center for the Study of Social Movements (CEMS-IMM) à l’EHESS.

Moustafa Zouinar is a researcher at the SENSE laboratory of Orange Labs and Associate Professor, Cnam (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers)

Paper to read in preparation for the session:

Julia Velkovska et Moustafa Zouinar, en collaboration avec Clair-Antoine Veyrier (2020). Les relations aux machines « conversationnelles ». Vivre avec les assistants vocaux à la maison. Réseaux, 220-22(2-3) : 47-79.

Abstract: This article makes an empirical contribution to the sociology of conversational artificial intelligence by presenting a video-ethnographic research on the everyday use of voice assistants in twenty-two French households over a span of three years. The results belie the ideas conveyed in the public space by the proponents of these devices, who consider the interactions with them as natural conversations, thus obfuscating the complexity of real uses. We suggest describing these interactions as ‘simulacrum’ of conversation that creates an “illusion of conversation” as well as an “illusion of intuitiveness”, which are sources of interactional problems. We highlight the significant “work” that users make to discover and interact with these devices. This research highlights a new facet of user’s work characteristic of the proliferation of voice services: that of managing and coordinating multiple conversational agents. This user work makes up the invisible side of relationships with conversational machines. The article also describes the appropriation processes that gradually establish voice assistants in everyday activities and routines. It identifies the forms of transformation of practices and the social inscription of these machines within family groups, characterized by an asymmetry of uses.

To receive the texts and indicate your attendance at this seminar session, please register here. 

i3 seminar “Analysis of online participation”

The “Analysis of Online Participation” (APeL) seminar aims to develop reflection on approaches to the use of data about the online usage and participation. The seminar is a place for researchers from various backgrounds to meet and exchange knowledge, practices and know-how. At each session, the seminar guests present and discuss the “making of” of one of their researches: construction of the survey, specificities of the data engineering implemented, tools for capturing / building corpora, analysis strategies and tools used, etc

Information and registration

The seminar is open to all. Please register here to participate in this session.

Date: June 3, 2021, from 10:30 to 12:30

The session will be held (in French) by videoconference.

Contact: Alexandre Mallard, Valérie Beaudouin or Cécile Chamaret

Find out more about the program and the rules of the seminar

Photo sources: Julia Velkovska, CEMS-IMM EHESS – Moustafa Zouinar, CNAM.