Abstract

Understandings of what ‘in the wild’ might mean differ enormously according to the kind of research being undertaken. This chapter inspects the orientations to the wild visible in various kinds of research deployments and assesses their implications. Very broadly, one can identify four potentially overlapping concerns: wanting to deploy a technology so that it will be seamlessly integrated into real-world activities; deploying a rather crude technology with an interest in finding out by doing so what it will take to make it fit; deploying a technology to encourage specific kinds of engagement that may or may not have any permanence; and deploying a technology with the express goal of being disruptive. Having examined how these orientations are visible in the literature the chapter goes into greater depth regarding two specific and contrasting deployments to examine the outcomes of different research orientations to the wild in greater depth. In particular, the chapter highlights the potential disjuncture between researcher orientations to the wild and the orientations of the inhabitants of the settings where research deployments take place and considers what the consequences of that might be.