Micro-credentialing as making and doing STS

Abstract

In this paper I tell stories of collaborative design work, developing research micro-credentials suitable for Indigenous community-based researchers working in their home communities in North East Arnhem Land, Australia. These credentials are coming to life within growing micro-entrepreneurial economies that are beginning to take root within Aboriginal communities in northern Australia. While there is significant critique of these forms of economy and the socio-technical infrastructures through which they extend, here I set my inquiry down amidst the mundane practices of community research services design, and particular moments or ‘turning points’ in the emerging life of these technologies. I inquire into the arrangements and practices of these initial design activities, proposing such work as ‘making and doing STS’ and reflecting on this form of STS empirics.