1 engineering practice and sts john law centre for science studies lancaster university
TRANSCRIPT
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Engineering Practice and STS
John Law
Centre for Science StudiesLancaster University
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STS is ….
‘Science, technology & society’• Shaping• Construction• Mutual shaping (co-construction)• Ordering: networks & relations
Two (similar?!) approaches:• SCOT (social construction of technology)• ANT (actor-network theory)
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A Word on SCOT
Social interests shape technologies:
• bicycles; print technologies; military hardware; genomics
Social forces, interests (society)
Technologies, engineering (artefacts)
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Co-construction?Society shapes technologies:
and
technologies shape society
• bicycles; print technologies; military hardware; genomics!
Social forces, interests (society)
Technologies, engineering (artefacts)
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What is at stake?• Is society fundamentally different from
technology? • Should we explore how they influence
one another?• = SCOT & co-constructionor• Are society and technology all mixed up?• Should we explore patterns of relations?• = ANT
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The basic ANT message
To understand technologies? think of them as networks/ systems:
Explore
• practices • Look for relations (& patterns)• see what’s important empirically (‘follow the actors’)• don’t distinguish social/technical (‘symmetry’)• expect networks to be heterogeneous, (social,
technical, natural)
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The basic ANT message
Expect the following
• networks are more or less precarious
• components & relations change shape
• social/technical emergent
• social/technical revisable
• networks: not entirely coherent
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Today’s Talk
STS works empirically!
Three cases
• Simple example: salmon farm (new)
• Large scale example (Portuguese)
• Management (Daresbury Laboratory)
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The Salmon Farm
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Norway!
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Norway!
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The Fish Farm in Norway!
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Doing ANT?
I’m looking for
• ‘actors’ … anything that acts … objects, people, texts (symmetry!)
• ‘relations’, network (patterns between these)
• mutual adjustments (‘actors’ shaped by relations)
• to produce an ‘actor-network’
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Complexity?
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Complexity!
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More complexity!!
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And again (or is it simply mess?!)
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Now the whole point: salmon in a tank!
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Question: how is it possible to grow salmon in a tank?
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Answer…I’m going to try to trace…
• Actors• Networks/Connections• Materials• Heterogeneous materials• To try to trace an actor-network
• Basic question: what do the salmon depend on?
• How is a ‘salmon-network’ done?
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1. Water
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(More Water!)
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2. Feed
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3. Oxygen
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4. Electricity
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5. Vaccination
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6. Boats and Piers
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7. God?
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8. Paperwork
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9. Displays
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10. People places
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11. People
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I’ve made an actor-network
I’ve• Followed the actors (symmetrically)• Followed their relations• Tried to see how they fit together to
make a network
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An actor-network?
Electricity
Displays
God
Boats
Water
Piped Oxygen
Food pellets
Farmed Salmon
People
Paperwork
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Compare and Contrast!
Water
AirFood
‘Wild’ Salmon
People?!
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An actor-network?
Electricity
Displays
God
Boats
Water
Piped Oxygen
Food pellets
Farmed Salmon
People
Paperwork
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The Salmon Actor-network
• Intricate ‘heterogeneous engineering’!• Materials, technologies
• People
• Paperwork
• Electronics
• The natural world
• Even God?
• Sets of relations, connections• A network that ‘enacts’ salmon
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More!
But not everything is connected!
I need to trace disconnections too
(Salmon need to be separated from ….?)
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Nets? (freedom, birds, seals)
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(Bio)security?(diseases)
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More (bio)security?
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Chemical Treatment (sea lice)
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Sealing an Enclosure
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The Salmon not-network?!
Freedom!
Warm water
Seals
Disease
Wild Salmon
Sea Lice
Freezing water
Salmon
Regulators
Birds
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Is also a network?!
Freedom!
Nets
Seals
Disease
Chemicals
Sea Lice
Salmon
Vaccination
Birds
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A salmon actor-network
Practices that enact …
• Connections/networks/links(water, electricity, oxygen, feed…)
• Barriers/separations(vaccination, biosecurity, nets, disinfection, age-classes, wild salmon)
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This is Actor-Network Theory
I‘m looking at the practices & strategies of ‘heterogeneous engineering’
Network configurations
Social, technical and natural (mixed up)
Tracing the processes of adjustment
Aware of insecurity/uncertainty!
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An Actor Network on a Global Scale?
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An Actor Network on a Global Scale?Question?
How did the Portuguese get to India? & Taiwan!
Answer!
The built a heterogeneous network!
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Historical Interlude!Zheng He, 1405-1433
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Historical Interlude: Zheng He’s Flagship!
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/Genealogy/Documents/Asia/Ships/ZhengHeShip.jpg
European ship!
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The Portuguese built an actor-network
Starting c. 1400• Ships• Navigation• Guns• Money & trade
http://ww
w.new
berry.org/smith/slidesets/Im
ages/06-3.jpg
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Ships as Actor-networks
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Ships as actor-networks the European Galleyhttp://w
ww
.newberry.org/sm
ith/slidesets/Images/06-1.jpg
• Mediterranean
• Large crew• Small cargo• Poor endurance• Seaworthy?!
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The actor-network galley
Could not go far!!
Fast
Lots of crew
The Galley
Un-seaworthyWater Food
Storms!!
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Ships as actor-networks: the European Cog
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/Genealogy/Documents/Asia/Ships/Northern_cog.jpg
• North SeaBaltic
• Seaworthy• Small crew• Square sail:
Could not sailagainst wind
• Not manoeuvrable
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The Actor-network CogNot
manoeuvrable
Small crew
The Cog
SeaworthyWater Food
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The Caravel: or Designing a new heterogeneous network!
http://www.newberry.org/smith/slidesets/Images/06-2.jpg
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Designing the new actor-network shipChoice of power: winds or people?• Wind, not people (endurance needed!)• Use prevailing winds – multiple masts• Sail close to wind: triangular sails
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The Caravel-network 1Winds Long
distances
Sails(Small) Crew
endurance
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The Caravel-network 2Winds
Inshore exploring
Sails
Small draft
3+ masts
Manoeuvrable
Lateen sails
The Caravel-network 3
Food / water
(Small) Crew
Storage
The Caravel-networkWinds Long
distances
Inshore exploring
Food / water
Sails
Small draft
(Small) Crew
Storage
3+ masts
endurance
Manoeuvrable
Lateen sails
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Exploring with the Caravel: a globalactor-network!
http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/images/exploration.jpg
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There’s something missing!How to get there?
It’s inefficient and slow to follow the coast!
Look at the sea currents and the trade winds.
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Atlantic winds
http://www.keyshistory.org/35-hurr-prevail-wind.jpg
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Atlantic currents
http://www.cruiserlog.com/wiki/images/3/37/Atlantic_Ocean_Currents.jpg
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Atlantic sailing!
http://www.cruiserlog.com/wiki/images/3/37/Atlantic_Ocean_Currents.jpg
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Atlantic dangers!
http://www.cruiserlog.com/wiki/images/3/37/Atlantic_Ocean_Currents.jpg
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The Problem
• The Problem!• Latitude? How far north or south?
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The Answer: Navigation as an Actor-Network
• How far north or south?• Use celestial navigation!• Measure the angle of the north star …
or sun
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The Altura: the Pole Star in the Network
The North Star sinks as you sail southYou can measure your latitude
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The Navigation actor network
Pole Star
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Using the Astrolabe
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Astrolabe_(PSF).png
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The Navigation actor networkSkilled
navigator
Astrolabe
Calculate Latitude
Measure altura
Pole Star
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A Problem!
• In the south the Pole Star disappears
• You need to measure where the sun is
• But it moves!• You need to use astronomical tables
to tell you where it is• And do calculations on a slate
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Maritime Ephemerides
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AlmanachPerpetuum.jpg
(AbrahamZacuto)
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The Navigation actor networkSkilled
navigator
Astrolabe
Calculate Latitude
Write it on slate
Measure altura
EphemeridesSun
Pole Star
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Building a global Actor-Network
• Ships• Navigation• Guns and force• Trade
• Artful• Precarious• Heterogeneous
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Actor-Network Heterogeneity
Objects• Ships, sails, stores• Astrolabes, instrumentsPeople• sailors, navigatorsTexts• EmphemeridesNatural phenomena• Sun, stars, winds, currents
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What ANT’s done here?
Treating power/globalisation as effects of networks/ systems
I’ve explored• practices • relations (patterns, ‘strategies’) in network relations• seen what’s important empirically (‘followed actors’)• Not distinguished social and technical (‘symmetry’)• Assumed networks are heterogeneous, (social,
technical, textual, human & natural)• Asked how things hold together
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Patterns and Strategies?
• I’m looking at networks patterns (and/or strategies)
• Question:
• are those patterns always consistent? Coherent?
• I think the answer is ‘no’.
• This is the point of my third case
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The actor-network of a large laboratory
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Daresbury SERC Laboratory
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Daresbury Station 16.4
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~lachlan/dwalker_volume_oxygen/image29_s.jpg
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Daresbury SRS
http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/local/cache-vignettes/L336xH337/Copy_of_hall_ISIS-c2a95.jpg
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The Study and the QuestionA year there! Exhausting!
• I’m looking for patterns in the network
• Is there one or are there many?
• Answer: there are multiple, different, orders/patterns/strategies
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Management meeting
Difficult to show this quickly! But let’s try
• A management board conversation:about money to put archives right….
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Conversation 1
Andrew: ‘What archives? …. Where are they?’
Tim: ‘In the basement .... it’s full of them, box after box, that people have put down there when they ran out of space.’
Andrew: ‘What’s the problem with just chucking them out?’
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Conversation 2
Tim: ‘The law says we can’t destroy them... when a file is full, you keep it, and then after five years, you can decide to keep it. Or ….you can destroy it. .... only [senior management] can take the decision to destroy a file.’
Here’s Logic 1: Legality
‘the law says we can’t destroy them’
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Conversation 3
Andrew ‘Who actually uses these files? I've never looked at them – what use are they?’
Ben: ‘They’ll be used by someone who wants to write the history of the organisation. Or by a sociologist!’ [laughter]
Here’s Logic 2: pragmatism
‘Who actually uses these files’
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Conversation 4
Giovanni: ‘If you want my opinion, we should just [burn] them!’
Terry: ‘But it’s worrying if we’re supposed to be keeping them.’
Logic 1: legality‘it’s worrying if we’re supposed to be keeping them’
Logic 2: pragmatism‘we should just [burn] them’
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Conversation 5
Andrew: ‘Listen, this is quite a lot of money they’re asking for to start organising these files.’ [Logic 1: Pragmatism]
‘What’s to stop us drawing a line in history and deciding on what we should be doing from now on, and doing that?’ [Logic 1: Pragmatism and Logic 2: Legality]
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What’s happening?
Answer:
different kinds of ordering strategies and logics are appearing …
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A Legal Logic (Administration)
• Its VALUES?laws, propriety
• How should PEOPLE be? follow rules properly; dutiful; fair; precise;
• What is a good ORGANISATION?bureaucracy
• What is the role for TEXTS/MACHINES: expressions/reflections of proper order
• THEORIST: Weber
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Use logic (Enterprise)• Its VALUES?
success, performance, activity!
• How should PEOPLE be?active, responsible, performers, decision-makers!
• What is a good ORGANISATION?cost-centres, performance
• What is the role for TEXTS/MACHINES:practical, usable, means to an end
• THEORIST: ??
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Multiple Network LogicsActor-networks:
• depend on different logics
• they would collapse with only one logic
• so they jump between them (not very coherently
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A Conclusion
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My basic ANT message
To understand technologies? I’ve• tried to show that they’re networks/ systems!• explored practices • looked for relations (& patterns)• ‘followed the actors’ to see what’s important
empirically• haven’t distinguished social & technical
(‘symmetry’)• argued networks are heterogeneous,
(social, technical, natural)
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My basic ANT message
I’ve tried to show that
• networks are more or less precarious
• components & relations change shape
• social/technical emergent
• social/technical revisable
• networks: not entirely coherent
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Thank you so much for your attention!