1 Introduction
2 Studying need anticipation
David | Is in his fifties and lives with his wife and two children aged seven months and six years. |
Charles | Is in his fifties and lives with his wife and two daughters aged 13 and 16. |
Tina | Is in her fifties and lives with her husband and 22-year-old daughter. |
George | Is in his fifties and lives with his wife. |
Mark | Is in his twenties and lives with his partner. |
Liana | Is in her twenties and lives with her partner. |
Brenda | Is in her thirties and lives with her partner. |
Harry | Is a gentleman in his eighties living alone. |
The ‘in vivo’ work (Garfinkel 2002) of observation and discussion with participants was essential to understanding the intersubjective organisation of shopping’s work, and subsequently enabled the appreciation of an array of practical matters and practical methodologies involved in and reflexively organising need anticipation. We identified the rhythms and routines involved in shopping by employing the ‘horizontal and vertical slicing’ technique (Crabtree et al. 2012). This allowed us to map out the local order of shopping’s work in each household, which became apparent through our observations of shopping activities as they were taking place and when spoken about in discussion. The mapping exercise sensitised us to the details of shopping’s work and helped us tease out the ‘animal in the foliage’ (Garfinkel et al. 1981). That is, the methodological ways in which need was and is anticipated in the doing of domestic shopping across participating households in the face of the ‘disparate concerns’ (Crabtree and Rodden 2004) or the particular needs that marked out each home as unique.“... in the inter-subjective organisation of human activities and put us onto real world topics that are relevant to the future technologies we wish to develop.”
3 Anticipating need through list construction
3.1 The incidental anticipation of need
Here, the addition of an item to the list is occasioned in preparing a meal. When getting the thyme out from the cupboard, just at the point when the process of cooking occasions its addition, Tina notices that it is running low. This triggers a series of actions that acknowledge and register prospective need, before returning to cooking the bolognaise sauce. As the example makes clear, need is contingently anticipated in the doing of mundane domestic activities, often at the point an item is taken from a shelf or cupboard or when it is disposed of, and turns upon seeing and noticing the numbers, quantities and/or amounts of remaining items. It is also the case that the recurrent nature of many mundane activities in the home (e.g. making tea or coffee or toast, etc.) provides ongoingly for incidental monitoring and drives a local life cycle of need anticipation.Tina: Ah we’re running out of thyme (shakes thyme pot, picks up pen and adds it to the list on the fridge)
Where the use of items is bound to the undertaking of particular activities, in this case the changing of the baby’s nappy, the practical task of making sure that those items are restocked is also routinely carried out by the individual who largely uses them. Anticipating incidental need is, then, bound to specific individuals who are responsible for doing certain ‘jobs’.David: Well my wife uses themFieldworker: Yeah.David: predominantly, so she’s the one that notices when they’re empty.
In addition to demonstrating that mutual monitoring is not fool proof, the example also demonstrates that it turns upon agreed measures of what constitutes ‘running low’.David: We usually keep spare toothpaste in stock but my wife forgot to put it on the list so this time I bought three.
In addition to being differentially distributed then, the local life cycle of need anticipation is also managed for some members of the home, and is organised with respect to the local social and moral order. Thus, and for example, managing his six-year old daughter’s intake of biscuits and what it is appropriate for her to have is, for David, an accountable feature of parenting, made visible through the work of assembling the list.Fieldworker: Custard creams (reading from the list)?David: Now I don't usually buy custard creams but my daughter [aged 6], er, her friend, when she goes to her house, they always have custard creams.Fieldworker: OK right.David: So she said Daddy can we have some of those custardy biscuits and I said yeah course we can. We usually buy something else for her, so she’ll get those instead.
3.2 The intentional anticipation of need
Consulting household members as to what is needed routinely occurred as the doing of the household shop drew closer, e.g., the night before, the morning of, or just before the shop. As the above example makes visible, the intentional anticipation of need is routinely articulated through proposing candidate items (e.g., bagels) whose need status is determined through practices of looking-and-checking (e.g., looking in the bread bin, where it is found that what is actually needed is bread).Charles: What kind of things do we need so I can get a sense of what we are out of?Julie: OK, Bread.Charles: Bread.Fran: Bagels.Charles: What?Fran: Bagels.Julie: There’s bagels there (in the bread bin) Fran.Charles: (Gets up to check bread bin) We need bread.
Julie: Coffee maybe. Actually, you don't have coffee do youCharles: No? Well, actually I need coffee, thanks for that.Julie: because Sarah Johnson I think had the last of it yesterday when she came round.Charles: Oh did she now.
Clarification may be required from specific members as above as to just what is wanted, and also to what has been previously written on the list (e.g., when an illegible or unfamiliar entry has been made). Discussion of food categories may also occasion members being called to account for not eating certain items and wanting other items instead (as again can be seen above).Charles: What cereal?Julie: Girls what cereal?Charles: Not the chocolate ones.Julie: Fran have you stopped eating malt wheats?Fran: They’ve done something to the malt wheats, I don't know what they done but they’ve done something.Fieldworker: They’ve changed have they?Fran: They’ve done something and its not me being picky, they’ve done something.Julie: Right so you don't want malt wheats. What do you want?Fran: Rice Krispies.
As Amy and Mark make visible, planning with reference to established routines turns on building variability into them. After all, most people do not want to eat the same things day after day.Amy: Do you want umm four days worth of roasted veg and rice, or shall we do like two, three days and maybe do something else again?Mark: Umm, well is there anything in there that you could have for lunch the next day?Amy: No. Not really.Mark: Do you want to do pasta instead one day?
In the course of planning, the implications of persons availability on what might take place and when is taken into explicit account, and shapes what goes on the list ‘here and now’. Wrapped up in this are considerations as to just who making a shared meal might fall to, with an individual’s competences driving just what goes on the list. Charles, for example, is not as accomplished a cook as Fran’s mum, which results in them discussing ‘easy’ meals to make on Friday. Just who has to provide for the routine’s accomplishment (e.g., eating a shared dinner) may even occasion alternative options (such as a takeaway). It is also the case that guests and visitors are factored into determinations of what is needed when considering the impact of schedules on the intentional anticipation of need.Charles: Mum’s away Friday Fran, what do you want for dinner then?
3.3 Anticipating need online
Liana’s anticipation of the need for coconut milk is occasioned by her looking at her ‘favourites’ list, i.e., a list of previously bought items provided by a digital shop. As with so many other items, the potential need for coconut milk was not encountered incidentally, but intentionally in checking the favourites list, which sometimes prompts looking and checking elsewhere in the home.Liana: See like coconut milk, I don't know if we’ve got some and like, sometimes I just get it anyway and sometimes I get up and check.
As Brenda and Frank make visible, shop furnished categories or self-formulated ones (e.g., ‘Christmas things’) are leveraged to surf and browse digital shops to discover candidate items and find just which amongst them will satisfy their needs.Brenda: Right, what else?Frank: Just write Christmas things.Brenda: (Types ‘Christmas things’ in search bar; the category Christmas is also furnished by the website).
Clearly there are various pathways whereby need is anticipated in the course of online shopping, but in each case the exact number, size, quantity, weight, amount or brand needed is determined at the interface in light of available choices on just this occasion of shopping. Choosing inevitably involves comparing and making selections from amongst multiple available items. Comparing and selecting turns upon striking a balance between a broad range of practical concerns to do with item selection – e.g., best deal, the look of an item, preferences, fit with meal plans, etc. – and the cost of the shop as a whole. Choosing items thus turns upon calculation, which is a complex matter that also plays out, and in richer ways, on the shop floor.Liana: I don't know if I’ve got cheese actually (gets up from sofa and goes to the fridge, finds they have not got much cheese; searches for cheese deals and adds one to the online list).
4 Calculation on the shop floor
Calculation often turns, as it does for George, on ‘sensing’ items in order to choose the most suitable to meet his anticipated needs. The extract shows how sensing the specific physical conditions of the potatoes underpins this. Thus, choosing from a container of potatoes is a calculable matter demonstrated in seeking out potatoes that do not have blemishes. Of course, this particular kind of sensing is contextually bound to choosing potatoes and reveals what it is that people know about the items they are buying, e.g., that potatoes are not sensed in the same way as avocadoes, which are squeezed in various ways in order to determine their ripeness.George: Get a few jacket potatoes, those ones look alright.Fieldworker: What are you looking for here?George: Dents. Blemishes. Anything. That's why I often pick my own because if they are in a pack you can’t do anything about it.
In this case the sensing of the bread is tied to its prospective use in making toast, along with Charles’ personal preferences on the matter. It was observable too how the prospective use of items was tied ‘here and now’ on the shop floor to the places our participants anticipated using them. Thus, and for example, tinned sardines in BBQ sauce were bought instead of sardines in oil as there is ‘less waste to deal with’ on the building site where one participant worked.Charles: I want something that feels springy, and I look at the size of it - I hate thin bread because when you toast it, it turns really dry, you know?
In the above extract Harry takes more than a cursory glance at the peaches. A close reading of the label on the tin allows him to get a detailed sense of its contents, which is key to deciding whether ‘just this’ item in hand will meet anticipated need. This determination turns upon Harry’s knowledge of buying ‘this kind’ of product in ‘these (budget) shops’ and displays his anticipation of the features it may have that he may or may not want. It is a common feature of calculation on the shop floor that a label is appealed to in order to make a choice when a degree of specificity about an item’s features may not be possible to determine by other means. Thus, we saw labels being read to find out about contents, nutritional value, quantity, how long something takes to cook, and various other product features that turned upon, and served, a disparate range of preferences, interests and activities.Harry: Usually those just say ‘in light syrup’, but then cinnamon, yuck. Perhaps that's why it’s cheap because not many people would buy that, with cinnamon. So with these shops, you’ve got to look beyond them a little bit.Fieldworker: You’ve got to be careful?Harry: Yes. In fact I do read labels a lot.
Cleary ‘the (use by) dates’ on products is a key calculation in anticipating need on the shop floor and determining just which items to buy. Cost labels were also routinely checked and were found on items themselves and on the shelves. These were used in comparing prices, which included those currently on display and those previously seen, as described by George while heading towards the cakes.Fieldworker: So you check the dates on each one.Amy: I do. You don't, so much (looking at Mark).Mark: I normally do because I get a bollocking if I don't.
Checking the price allows George to calculate whether or not ‘here and now’ is a good time to buy cake. The calculation turns upon his local knowledge of costs, which is drawn upon to make sure he buys items when the price is low. George, like many of our participants, routinely kept a stock of certain items in order to prevent him from being forced to buy when the price is higher. Thus, choice is often calculated based upon shop specific cycles of costs, sales and offers. Our participants also considered the prospective costs of the same or similar items in other shops being visited that day while at the shelf face.George: Cakes will be the next thing. We don't eat a lot of cake. Sally might have some. Again, I’ll check. If the price is good I’ll have them, if not I’ll wait another week. It’s not a problem.
Here Tina’s anticipation of need is calculated upon seeing tubs of Flora (a butter-like spread) on sale, a discovery that makes her ‘excited’ as saving money is not an inconsequential matter. We found that many of our participants kept their ‘eyes peeled’ for bargains as they went about shopping, and certain sections in certain stores would be routinely visited in order to see ‘what they had on offer’, all of which means that our participants routinely bought more items than were on the list. We found too that where items were serendipitously discovered but had not been tried before, then our participants employed a distinct calculative strategy as seen here when Harry notices a stack of tinned tomatoes on sale.Tina: Ah, Flora. This is where I get excited. You see (picks up two large tubs and puts them in the basket).
Discoveries of unknown items, as in the case above, would often involve buying a small amount of the item to try out. This enabled participants to manage the risk that accompanies spending money on items whose ability to meet anticipated need has yet to be determined. Thus methods for anticipating need are routinely bound up with contingency plans to make sure that risk is minimised.Harry: Well I haven’t heard of this brand before, but they’re very cheap.Fieldworker: Yes, that is very cheap isn’t it.Harry: So I might buy two and try ‘em, see if they’re any good. It says that it’s just tomato so that's more or less the same – salt – more or less the same as the usual ones. But its an unknown brand to me. But at twenty-five pence I can’t go wrong.Fieldworker: You would usually buy four?Harry: Yes I would usually buy packs, but these are twenty-five pence in the singular (puts two in basket).
This extract makes it perspicuous how items are bought, or not, with regard to how they may be received and treated by other household members, in this case by Harriet one of Charles’ teenage daughters. All of our participants routinely undertook such calculations, which are bound to the social and moral order of domestic life and the potential impact of particular purchases on that order. Calculation is also done with respect to the preferences of others, as seen below when Mark finds himself with a different dessert to Amy who has chosen a more ‘chocolaty’ one.Charles: Now I am in a quandary (looking at yogurt) because I can’t remember what they eat.Fieldworker: Do they change the type of yogurt they want often?Charles: Well Harriet (daughter) demands these ones, and she thinks it’s hers and won’t share.Fieldworker: Right.Charles: And if she were here looking at it with me now I would say no you’re not getting this one to yourself.
In this it can be seen that the prospective consumption of food is a calculative matter that shapes the anticipation of need ‘here and now’ on the shop floor not only in the face of manifold product choice but also in the face of the choices made by other members of the home. It is not only the qualities or properties of ‘things on shelves’ that matter then, their prospective relationship to people and the events they engage in is important too.Mark: Happy with that?Amy: Yeah, yeah.Mark: I feel a bit left out though. I feel as though I should probably get the same, so I don't get food envy (puts dessert back on the shelf and picks up the same one as Amy).
5 So what?
“The motivation … is that ‘practice’ is seen as a means for providing social theorizing with an ‘ontological’ (or transcendental) foundation, i.e., a foundation prior to building a framework bottom up from actual empirical studies. So far, without luck, for the concept of ‘practice’ is notoriously unfit for doing that kind of work. As a result, the term ‘practice’ is being used in confusing and confused ways: as another word for ‘activity’, ‘culture’, ‘tradition’, ‘paradigm’, ‘embodied action’, ‘knowing how’, and so forth.” (ibid.)
“ … the Modern concept of ‘practice’ … focus[es] on the ways in which the competent actor in his or her action … [takes] particular conditions into account while committed to and guided by … general principles [plans, rules, procedures, etc.]. When studying a practice we are [then] focusing on how … practitioners determine the nature of a situation, how they select effective and efficient techniques (materials, implements, bodily postures, methods, etc.), determine deviations from what has been assumed in … rule formulations, deal with routine troubles, recover from breakdowns, etc. (ibid., our emphasis)
They are, but it is not that ethno-methods, or members’ methodologies, ‘make practices possible’; it’s not as if there are ethno-methods on the one hand, and practices on the other, with the former having a causal relationship to the latter. Rather, it is that ‘ethno-methods’ and ‘practices’ are identical. These are but different names for the same naturally occurring and naturally accountable phenomenon, ‘born in obscurity’ as Schmidt (2014) puts it or ‘seen but unnoticed’ in ethnomethodological parlance and left unexamined by social theory (Hutchinson et al. 2008). The notion of ‘ethno-methods’ was coined by an ‘incommensurable, asymmetrically alternate technology of social analysis’ (Garfinkel and Wieder 1992), which is fundamentally incompatible with a technology of social analysis that proceeds by theorising practice and thus abstracting from what it is that people actually do in order to build (typically explanatory) frameworks from actual empirical studies (Lynch 1997). This alternate technology of social analysis (Garfinkel 1988) was subsequently taken up in CSCW, where it came to be referred to as ‘studies of work’ or ‘work practice’, a concept as Button and Harper (1996) point out,“For ethnomethodology practices are locally produced by using a selection of certain ‘ethno-methods’ of interaction that make practices, and thus all social activity, possible. These ethno-methods are the central object of ethnomethodological studies.”
“ … that needs to be grounded in analytic explication of work rather than in theoretical abstractions … … …. capable of revealing the methods through which the situated contingencies of activities and interactions are contextually managed as orderly courses of work. (our emphasis)
The turn towards proactive systems has given us motive and we find, when we look, that something as commonplace and ‘banal’ as constructing a shopping list and handling the manifold contingencies of choice on the shop floor in anticipating need has a rich ‘methodic’ or methodological character. We can see in the first instance that physical lists and resources for their construction are situated in an ecology of anticipation, amongst high density traffic in the flow of fast moving consumer goods. This is no accident, but a methodological feature of list construction found across the homes participating in our study, which enables need to be anticipated incidentally on the fly and to be intentionally provided for as a preface to or during the actual shop. Both incidental and intentional need anticipation are shot through with methodological characteristics, as is calculation on the shop floor, and we summarise each in turn as a preface to considering the implications of these methodological matters for the design of proactive technologies to support domestic shopping.“ … practices of such unquestioned efficacy and banality that no motive ordinarily exists, either in commonplace settings or professional inquiries to make an issue of their methodic character.”
5.1 The methodological character of incidental need anticipation
5.2 The methodological character of intentional need anticipation
5.3 The methodological character of anticipation on the shop floor
6 Implications for design
6.1 Sensing in the physical ecology of anticipation
6.2 Learning and predicting calculative practice
6.3 Situating proactive technologies in the division of labour
While it may be possible to build ‘in situ forms of interaction’ into proactive systems to support monitoring, looking-and-checking, consultation, proposing candidates, clarification, and planning, it will not be possible to build in all the competencies involved in anticipating need. There is, then, need to build the human into the proactive loop.“Most importantly (and problematically) for the project of designing autonomous systems, plans or any other form of prescriptive specification presuppose competencies and in situ forms of interaction that they can never fully specify.”