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1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Introduction: Figure, Figuring and Configuration

   • Celia Lury, William Viney, Scott Wark

   Pages 1-20Open Access

3. The Work That Figures Do

   • Leila Dawney

   Pages 21-39Open Access

4. In “The Cloud”: Figuring and Inhabiting Media Milieus

   • Scott Wark

   Pages 41-63Open Access

5. Figure to Ground: Felicity Allen Interviewed by Celia Lury

   • Felicity Allen, Celia Lury

   Pages 65-75Open Access

6. The Research Persona Method: Figuring and Reconfiguring Personalised Information Flows

   • Liliana Bounegru, Melody Devries, Esther Weltevrede

   Pages 77-104Open Access

7. Engines, Puppets, Promises: The Figurations of Configuration Management

   • Matt Spencer

   Pages 105-125Open Access

8. Figuring Molecular Relapse in Breast Cancer Medicine

   • William Viney, Sophie Day

   Pages 127-148Open Access

9. The Gardener and the Walled Garden

   • Sophie Day, Jayne Smith, Helen Ward

   Pages 149-172Open Access

10. Data Through Time: Figuring Out the Narrative Self in Longitudinal Research

    • Jane Elliott

    Pages 173-196Open Access

11. Figuring Out Exposure: Exploring Computational Environments and Personalisation in Interdisciplinary Air Pollution Research

    • Emma Garnett, Srishti Bhatnagar

    Pages 197-219Open Access

12. Figures of Speech: Stuck in the Middle with ‘People Like You’

    • Celia Lury

    Pages 221-241Open Access

13. Ubiquitous Surveillance and Data Selves

    • John Frow

    Pages 243-261Open Access

14. Figuring Accompaniment: The Creation of Urban Spaciousness

    • AbdouMaliq Simone

    Pages 263-283Open Access

This open access book shows how figures, figuring, and configuration are used to understand complex, contemporary problems. Figures are images, numbers, diagrams, data and datasets, turns-of-phrase, and representations. Contributors reflect on the history of figures as they have transformed disciplines and fields of study, and how methods of figuring and configuring have been integral to practices of description, computation, creation, criticism and political action. They do this by following figures across fields of social science, medicine, art, literature, media, politics, philosophy, history, anthropology, and science and technology studies. Readers will encounter  figures as various as Je Suis Charlie, #MeToo, social media personae,  gardeners, asthmatic children, systems configuration management and cloud computing – all demonstrate the methodological utility and contemporary relevance of thinking with figures. This book serves as a critical guide to a world of figures and a creative invitation to “go figure!”

• cultural theory and history
• STS
• figuration
• data
• breast cancer medicine
• digital media and culture
• Open Access
• art criticism
• design
• data selves
• surveillance
• urban studies
• interdisciplinary methodologies

“This fascinating collection opens up the figure of the “figure,” diving deep into its histories and ranging widely across its many contemporary lives. It is a boon for anyone interested in the strange power of figuration.”

—Nick Seaver, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Tufts University, USA

• Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

  Celia Lury, Scott Wark

• Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK

  William Viney

Celia Lury is Professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick. She has a long-standing interest in the ways in which “live” methods contribute to the enactment of social worlds. Her most recent book is Problem Spaces: How and Why Methodology Matters (2020).

William Viney is a research fellow in the Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London, as part of the project “People Like You”: Contemporary Figures of Personalisation. His most recent book is Twins: Superstitions and Marvels, Fantasies and Experiments (2021).

Scott Wark is a research fellow for the Wellcome-funded project, “People Like You”: Contemporary Figures of Personalisation. He is based at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick. His main research focus is on online culture.