Showing papers by "John Law published in 1987"

Technology and heterogeneous engineering: the case of Portuguese expansion

Abstract: Based on historical materials about the technology of the 15th and 16th century Portuguese maritime expansion, the author shows that in order to understand the emergence, functioning, and collapse of technological systems we need to develop an approach that will be centred on the notion of heterogeneous engineering. Heterogeneous engineering presupposes that the building of technological systems involves associating and channelling diverse entities and forces, both human and nonhuman. This permits an analysis of how the existence of particular systems is shaped equally by different factors: natural, social, economic, and technical. In the case of Portuguese maritime expansion, the success of system-building was determined by the association between shipbuilding; the navigational skills of the navigators; navigational equipment and guns; features of the capes, oceanic currents, and winds; and the system of state support, training, and regulation—all of which made possible the establishment of a stable and powerful network that allowed the Portuguese to dominate the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Therefore, the construction of a technological system is a process of resolving conflicts between heterogeneous elements, and the associated elements must be able to withstand encounters with hostile forces and entities, both physical (e.g. oceans) and social (e.g. the Muslims). The systems approach proposed by the author shows, first, that technology can be analysed using the principle of generalized symmetry, which states that the same type of analysis should be made for all components in a system whether these components are human or not; and, second, that actors should be understood as entities that exert detectable influence on other entities

On the Social Explanation of Technical Change : The Case of the Portuguese Maritime Expansion

Abstract: It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that a technological artifact whose origins and development are insufficiently understood must be in want of a social or economic explanation. For some, the pursuit of manifest economic or social interests ranks as a central explanatory resource.' Others, perhaps more numerous, also make reference to profit and social control but link them to the operation of the capitalist labor process and the way in which they structure technological possibilities.2 Yet others, while not necessarily disagreeing with such an approach, are more committed to a systems model in which complex social, economic, technical, and political elements are seen to influence one another, and distant developments may create the perception of technological problems.' My purpose here is to consider the applicability of the last of these approaches through an analysis of Portuguese transoceanic expansion. My particular object is to offer a nonreductionist sociological per-

The structure of sociotechnical engineering – a review of the new sociology of technology

Abstract: Concorde and Dissent: Explaining High Technology Project Failures in Britain and France Elliot J. Feldman, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985, £19.50, xvii + 201pp. The Social Shaping of Technology: How the Refrigerator Got its Hum Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman (eds.). Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1985, £22.00, paper £8.95, viii + 327pp. Networks of Power: Electriflcation in Western Society, 1880-1930 Thomas P Hughes, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1983, £33.90, xi + 474pp.

On the art of representation: notes on the politics of visualisation

Abstract: This paper considers how technologies of representation are used by writers about acid rain research to re-present that research to non-scientists. The processes by which such technologies suppress what they purport to represent and replace it with novel and more docile elements which are often visual is described. Visual technologies for combining and further simplifying these elements are considered. Finally, the analogy between political and visual representation is drawn out, though the specificity of visual technologies is emphasised.