Showing papers in "Social Studies of Science in 2013"
TL;DR: In this article, there has been a renewed and reinvigorated exchange of ideas across science and technology studies and participatory design, emerging from a shared interest in publics.
Abstract: Of late, there has been a renewed and reinvigorated exchange of ideas across science and technology studies and participatory design, emerging from a shared interest in ‘publics’. In this article, ...
398 citations
TL;DR: There is in science and technology studies a perceptible new interest in matters of "ontology" as mentioned in this paper, and the notion of "enactment" has been explored in the context of ontology.
Abstract: There is in science and technology studies a perceptible new interest in matters of ‘ontology’. Until recently, the term ‘ontology’ had been sparingly used in the field. Now it appears to have acquired a new theoretical significance and lies at the centre of many programmes of empirical investigation. The special issue to which this essay is a contribution gathers a series of enquiries into the ontological and reflects, collectively, on the value of the analytical and methodological sensibilities that underpin this new approach to the make-up of the world. To what extent and in what sense can we speak of a ‘turn to ontology’ in science and technology studies? What should we make of, and with, this renewed interest in matters of ontology? This essay offers some preliminary responses to these questions. First, we examine claims of a shift from epistemology to ontology and explore in particular the implications of the notion of ‘enactment’. This leads to a consideration of the normative implications of approaches that bring ‘ontological politics’ to centre stage. We then illustrate and pursue these questions by using an example – the case of the ‘wrong bin bag’. We conclude with a tentative assessment of the prospects for ontologically sensitive science and technology studies.
325 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore empirical ontology by arguing that realities are enacted in practices and use the case of Atlantic salmon to argue that different salmon are being enacted within those different practices.
Abstract: This paper explores empirical ontology by arguing that realities are enacted in practices. Using the case of Atlantic salmon, it describes a series of scientific and fish-farming practices. Since these practices differ, the paper also argues that different salmon are being enacted within those different practices. The paper explores the precarious choreographies of those practices, considers the ways in which they enact agency and also work to generate Otherness. Finally it emphasises the productivity of practices and notes that they generate not simply particular realities (for instance particular salmon), but also enact a penumbra of not quite realised realities: animals that were almost but not quite created.
226 citations
TL;DR: In the Netherlands as elsewhere, the overriding message of most dieting advice is that a person who wants to lose weight needs to overrule the desires of her craving body. But there are many ways of doing so as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In the Netherlands as elsewhere, the overriding message of most dieting advice is that a person who wants to lose weight needs to overrule the desires of her craving body. Her mind has to put itself in a sovereign position and make ‘good choices’ about what to eat. But there are many ways of doing so. Linking up with different traditions within nutrition science, different dieting techniques enact different versions of food and concern themselves with different bodies. The ideals they strive after and the dangers they warn against are different, too. In short, they incorporate different ontonorms. At the same time, in all the ‘mind your plate’ advice, however varied, bodies figure as endowed with a nature that is problematic under the present cultural circumstances. This is in contrast with advice to ‘enjoy your food’, that targets a body that is not naturally given, but deserves to be cultivated. As I bring out the details of the discrepancies between the ontonorms embedded in different kinds of dieting ...
199 citations
TL;DR: An historical account of deep brain stimulation is provided and it is suggested that it is necessary to scrutinise their application in research contexts to ensure that they capture clinical changes that are meaningful for patients and their families.
Abstract: Deep brain stimulation involves using a pacemaker-like device to deliver constant electrical stimulation to problematic areas within the brain. It has been used to treat over 40,000 people with Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor worldwide and is currently undergoing clinical trials as a treatment for depression and obsessive–compulsive disorder. This article will provide an historical account of deep brain stimulation in order to illustrate the plurality of interests involved in the development and stabilization of deep brain stimulation technology. Using Latour’s notion of immutable mobiles, this article will illustrate the importance of clinical assessment tools in shaping technological development in the era of medical device regulation. Given that such tools can serve commercial and professional interests, this article suggests that it is necessary to scrutinise their application in research contexts to ensure that they capture clinical changes that are meaningful for patients and their families. This is particularly important in relation to potentially ethically problematic therapies such as deep brain stimulation for psychiatric disorders.
161 citations
TL;DR: Criticism seems to be a recurring and significant characteristic of public engagement exercises as mentioned in this paper, as reflected both in general political discussion and in the academic literature on public engagemeing.
Abstract: Criticism seems to be a recurring and significant characteristic of public engagement exercises – as reflected both in general political discussion and in the academic literature on public engageme...
135 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that a commitment to a general philosophical ontology confuses investigations of specific practical ontologies, and recommended ‘ontography’: historical and ethnographic investigations of particular world-making and world-sustaining practices that do not begin by assuming a general picture of the world.
Abstract: In this postscript to the special issue of Social Studies of Science on the ‘turn to ontology’ in science and technology studies, I discuss a tension that runs through many of the articles in the i...
133 citations
TL;DR: Indigenous peoples and genome scientists' respective definitions and practices of making "indigeneity" illustrate their competing notions of identity, origins, and futures as discussed by the authors. But their definitions of identity are different.
Abstract: Indigenous peoples’ and genome scientists’ respective definitions and practices of making ‘indigeneity’ illustrate their competing notions of identity, origins, and futures. This article explores t...
122 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the politics of expertise in an ongoing controversy in the United States over the role of certain insecticides in colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon involving mass die-offs of honey bees.
Abstract: In this article, we explore the politics of expertise in an ongoing controversy in the United States over the role of certain insecticides in colony collapse disorder - a phenomenon involving mass die-offs of honey bees Numerous long-time commercial beekeepers contend that newer systemic agricultural insecticides are a crucial part of the cocktail of factors responsible for colony collapse disorder Many scientists actively researching colony collapse disorder reject the beekeepers' claims, citing the lack of conclusive evidence from field experiments by academic and industry toxicologists US Environmental Protection Agency regulators, in turn, privilege the latters' approach to the issue, and use the lack of conclusive evidence of systemic insecticides' role in colony collapse disorder to justify permitting these chemicals to remain on the market Drawing on semistructured interviews with key players in the controversy, as well as published documents and ethnographic data, we show how a set of research norms and practices from agricultural entomology came to dominate the investigation of the links between pesticides and honey bee health, and how the epistemological dominance of these norms and practices served to marginalize the knowledge claims and policy positions of commercial beekeepers in the colony collapse disorder controversy We conclude with a discussion of how the colony collapse disorder case can help us think about the nature and politics of expertise
107 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that ‘latency’, a technical term initially used by cryobiologists to describe life in a state of suspended animation, can be extended as a concept for science studies scholars interested in technoscientific efforts to manage the future.
Abstract: Before the rise of DNA sequence analysis or the controversies over the Human Genome Diversity Project, there was the International Biological Program, which ran from 1964 to 1974. The Human Adaptab...
94 citations
TL;DR: Biological samples collected from indigenous communities from the mid-20th century for scientific study and preserved in freezers of the Global North have been at the center of a number of controve...
Abstract: Biological samples collected from indigenous communities from the mid-20th century for scientific study and preserved in freezers of the Global North have been at the center of a number of controve...
TL;DR: In this article, an experimental understanding of political ontology is proposed to understand why the shift from e.g. ontology to political ontologies has a negative effect on democracy.
Abstract: This article contributes to debates about the ontological turn and its implications for democracy by proposing an experimental understanding of political ontology It discusses why the shift from e
TL;DR: In this paper, a panacea for the problems of environmental management, "participation" conceals competing frames of meaning, and "Ladders of participation" explain insufficiently why public engagement is...
Abstract: Presented as a panacea for the problems of environmental management, ‘participation’ conceals competing frames of meaning. ‘Ladders of participation’ explain insufficiently why public engagement is...
TL;DR: This article examined how subjectivity operates as an epistemic virtue in artistic evaluation, and argued that the concrete procedures for producing legitimate judgment in the world of art can be usefully compared to the norms for legitimate judgments in science.
Abstract: This article considers affinities between artistic and scientific evaluations. Objectivity has been widely studied, as it is thought the foundation for legitimate judgments of truth. Yet we know comparatively little about subjectivity apart from its characterization as the obstacle to objective knowledge. In this article, I examine how subjectivity operates as an epistemic virtue in artistic evaluation, which is an especially interesting field for study given the accepted relativism of taste. Data are taken from interviews with 30 book reviewers drawn from major American newspapers including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and others. The data reveal that critics invest in a set of strategies to effectively ‘objectivize’ the subjectivity intrinsic to artistic evaluation, which I refer to collectively as strategies for maintaining critical distance. I argue that the concrete procedures for producing legitimate judgment in the world of art can be usefully compared to the norms for legitimate judgment in science.
TL;DR: The authors explored how memories of "means" and past scientific activity in Dakar and abroad give meaning to subsequent experiences of the lab as a place filled with inactive "antiques" and "wreckage" and suggested that the waning of means not only displaces scientific activity "elsewhere" but also fragments its tempos, altering its rhythms along with its social, moral and affective qualities.
Abstract: Focusing on the Laboratory of Toxicology and Analytical Chemistry of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal, this article foregrounds temporality as a key dimension of the postcolonial history of African science. This laboratory, like many others across Africa, is experienced by its current and former members as a space of shortage. I explore how memories of ‘means’ and past scientific activity in Dakar and abroad give meaning to subsequent experiences of the lab as a place filled with inactive ‘antiques’ and ‘wreckage’. I suggest that the waning of means not only displaces scientific activity ‘elsewhere’ but also fragments its tempos, altering its rhythms along with its social, moral and affective qualities. The interpenetration of past and future generates nostalgia, segmented narratives and trajectories, quests for immediacy and continuity, as well as new engagements with routines of scientific regulation and management. Paying attention to the intersection of materiality and...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the evidence for the claim of an ontological turn in science and technology studies (STS) and show that despite an increase in references to ontology in STS since 1989, there has not so much been an ontology turn as multiple discussions deploying the language of ontology, consisting of many small movements that have changed the landscape within STS and beyond.
Abstract: We examine the evidence for the claim of an ‘ontological turn’ in science and technology studies (STS). Despite an increase in references to ‘ontology’ in STS since 1989, we show that there has not so much been an ontological turn as multiple discussions deploying the language of ontology, consisting of many small movements that have changed the landscape within STS and beyond. These movements do not point to a shared STS-wide understanding of ontology, although it can be seen that they do open up STS to neighbouring disciplines. Three main thematic complexes are identified in this literature: constructivism and realism; instruments and classification; and the social sciences and the humanities. The introduction of ontology into the long-running constructivism-realism debate can be considered as an acknowledgement on both sides that objects are real (i.e. pre-existing the situation) and constructed at the same time. The second thematic complex focuses on the role of instruments and classification in establishing not only relations of heterogeneity, but also of stability. The third thematic complex broadens the debate and actively seeks to promote an STS-driven ontological turn for research concerned with the humanities and the social sciences more generally. This study is based on both quantitative and qualitative interpretations of the literature.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose that without ethical biovalue, collections become "orphan" DNA, divorced from a guardian, which is viewed as unethical by most Australian genetic researchers who have closer relationships with indigenous Australians and postcolonial politics.
Abstract: Thousands of blood samples taken from Australia’s indigenous people lie in institutional freezers of the global North, the legacy of a half-century of scientific research. Since those collections were assembled, standards of ethical research practice have changed dramatically, leaving some samples in a state of dormancy. While some European and American collections are still actively used for genetic research, this practice is viewed as unethical by most Australian genetic researchers, who have closer relationships with indigenous Australians and postcolonial politics. For collections to be used ethically, they require a ‘guardian’ who has an ongoing and documented relationship with the donors, so that consent to further studies on samples can be negotiated. This affective and bureaucratic network generates ‘ethical biovalue’ such that a research project can satisfy Australian ethical review. I propose in this article that without ethical biovalue, collections become ‘orphan’ DNA, divorced from a guardian...
TL;DR: In this article, a diachronic analysis of debates and institutional shifts pertaining to both attempts to change the law, and understandings of personality disorder is presented, showing how mental health policy and practice have mutually constituted one another, such that the aims of clinicians and policymakers have come to be aligned.
Abstract: In recent years, personality disorders – psychiatric constructs understood as enduring dysfunctions of personality – have come into ever-greater focus for British policymakers, mental health professionals and service-users. Disputes have focussed largely on highly controversial attempts by the UK Department of Health to introduce mental health law and policy (now enshrined within the 2007 Mental Health Act of England and Wales). At the same time, clinical framings of personality disorder have dramatically shifted: once regarded as untreatable conditions, severe personality disorders are today thought of by many clinicians to be responsive to psychiatric and psychological intervention. In this article, I chart this transformation by means of a diachronic analysis of debates and institutional shifts pertaining to both attempts to change the law, and understandings of personality disorder. In so doing, I show how mental health policy and practice have mutually constituted one another, such that the aims of clinicians and policymakers have come to be closely aligned. I argue that it is precisely through these reciprocally constitutive processes that the profound reconfiguration of personality disorder from being an obdurate to a plastic condition has occurred; this demonstrates the significance of interactions between law and the health professions in shaping not only the State’s management of pathology, but also perceptions of its very nature.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors retrace the main steps that led to the Inquiry on Modes of Existence and explain the link between philosophy and anthropology through the peculiar notion of "mode of existence".
Abstract: Since the Inquiry on Modes of Existence has been long in coming and has connections with all the successive field works done by the author, the paper tries to retrace the main steps that have led to the project. It shows that it has preceded the work done in actor-network theory and explains the link between philosophy and anthropology through the peculiar notion of ‘mode of existence’.
TL;DR: This article argued that economics is constitutive of economic institutions, and of markets in particular, in contrast to economic soci ciality and the notion of markets as an independent entity.
Abstract: Recent work on the relationship of economics to economic institutions has argued that economics is constitutive of economic institutions, and of markets in particular. In opposition to economic soc...
TL;DR: An observational study of the nature of Evidence and Evidence-Based Medicine as understood and performed in practice is presented by examining how an absence of Evidence is defined and managed in evidence-Based Guideline development.
Abstract: Since the emergence of the Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) movement, the nature and role of evidence in medicine has been much debated. The formal classification of evidence that is unique to Evidence-Based Medicine, referred to as the Evidence hierarchy, has been fiercely criticized. Yet studies that examine how Evidence is classified in EBM practice are rare. This article presents an observational study of the nature of Evidence and Evidence-Based Medicine as understood and performed in practice. It does this by examining how an absence of Evidence is defined and managed in Evidence-Based Guideline development. The EBM label does not denote the quantity or quality of evidence found, but the specific management of the absence of evidence, requiring a transparently reported process of evidence searching, selection and presentation. I propose the term ‘Evidence Searched Guidelines’ to better capture this specific way of ‘being’ EBM. Moreover, what counts as Evidence depends not just on the Evidence hierarchy...
TL;DR: The metaphor of an ‘epistemic scaffold’ is introduced to illuminate how scientists create and contest claims about the utility of animal models in the field of animal behavior genetics.
Abstract: Animal models of human disorders are a ubiquitous feature of contemporary biomedical research, but how is their value and role in understanding human disorders established? This article examines th...
TL;DR: A account of a routine visit in a trial conducted in Burkina Faso is used to examine the specific nature of these research practices, and in doing so, identify the ontologies they involve.
Abstract: For a number of years, clinical trials have been the focus of a growing body of social science research and have come to represent the gold standard of evidence-based medicine. While a considerable and wide-ranging body of research has been devoted to trial participants, the approach is partial in that the participants’ reality tends to be cut loose from the very practices that constitute the beating heart of the trials. The practices of clinical research tend to be accepted as an unquestioned premise from which myriad actions and consequences emerge. Following the praxiological turn initiated by Mol and basing my analysis on my fieldwork and an ethnographic account of the running of a clinical trial, I hope to propose a new reading of trial participation. Indeed, whatever their form or their objectives, trials are essentially scientific experiments and are invariably grounded in a clinical design. The individuals who take part in trials must also contend with these two types of practices – the clinical a...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore healthcare scientists' accounts of men in healthcare science laboratories, focusing on subtle masculinist actions that women find disadvantageous to them, and seek to extend knowledge about women's underrepresentation in senior positions in Healthcare Science.
Abstract: We explore healthcare scientists’ accounts of men in healthcare science laboratories. By focussing on subtle masculinist actions that women find disadvantageous to them, we seek to extend knowledge about women’s under-representation in senior positions in healthcare science – despite women being in the majority at junior levels. We maintain that healthcare science continues to be dominated by taken-for-granted masculinities that marginalize women, keeping them in their ‘place’. Our aim is to make visible the subtle practices that are normally invisible by showing masculinities in action. Principally using feminist analyses, our findings show that both women and men are often unaware of taken-for-granted masculinist actions, and even when women do notice, they rarely challenge the subtle sexist behaviour.
TL;DR: The authors examines the politics of formal representations of environmental hazards and argues that certain environmental hazards are made publicly invisible when their formal representations are misaligned with those of the intended target class of hazards.
Abstract: This article examines the politics of formal representations of environmental hazards. Certain environmental hazards are made publicly invisible when their formal representations are misaligned wit...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the interrelations between human population genomic research, political strategies of indigenous movements and processes of identity formation, and explore the relationship between these three aspects.
Abstract: The objective of this article is to explore the interrelations between human population genomic research, the political strategies of indigenous movements and processes of identity formation. It wi...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore economic forecasting by examining the various social settings and networks economic forecasters are embedded in, and they argue that macroeconomic models are subordinate to the production process of economic forecasts in various formal and informal networks.
Abstract: This article explores economic forecasting by examining the various social settings and networks economic forecasters are embedded in. It discusses how forecasters meet with political and economic actors and also how members of forecasting teams embody main aggregates of the economy to commonly produce a consensus about the economic future. The data underlying this article were collected from three economic forecasting institutes in German-speaking countries and consist of interviews with economic forecasters and representative users of the forecasts in economic and political organizations. The article argues that on the backstage of economic forecasting, macroeconomic models are subordinate. Rather, the production process of economic forecasts is embedded in various formal and informal networks. The article summarizes the activities on the backstage of economic forecasting by using the notion of ‘epistemic participation’. This means that the forecasters give their object of inquiry, which is the economy,...
TL;DR: The authors argue that the controversy about the theory of relativity represents a type of controversy that is unresolvable because of the ontological commitments underlying the arguments against academic consensus and the social dynamics of a process of marginalization of deviant knowledge.
Abstract: In the 1920s, hundreds of pamphlets were published whose authors self-confidently claimed to have refuted the theory of relativity. The opposition to relativity was extraordinarily fierce and lasted years, including not only physicists and philosophers but also scientific laymen. What were the motives of Einstein’s opponents? On what basis was the theory of relativity attacked so vociferously? This article focuses on the emergence of a heterogeneous international network of academic and nonacademic opponents to Einstein in the early 1920s and suggests a theoretical approach for understanding the nature of the controversy about the theory of relativity. I argue that the controversy about the theory of relativity represents a type of controversy that is unresolvable because of the ontological commitments underlying the arguments against academic consensus and the social dynamics of a process of marginalization of proponents of deviant knowledge.
TL;DR: A number of approaches have been used to explain scientific success, but none incorporate scientists' own understandings, which are critic... as discussed by the authors The authors of this paper consider how highly cited scientists account for their success.
Abstract: How do highly cited scientists account for their success? A number of approaches have been used to explain scientific success, but none incorporates scientists’ own understandings, which are critic...
TL;DR: It is argued that in understanding the World Health Organization’s 2009/10 application of the Pandemic Alert Phases, the critical limitation of the functions served by the classificatory scheme led to the breakdown of its construction.
Abstract: The classification of novel disease events is central to public health action surrounding them. Drawing upon the sociology of scientific classification, this article examines the role and contestat...