1 meltdown: why ant? john law centre for science studies lancaster university
TRANSCRIPT
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A journey?
1. Sociology of science• Merton• Scientific method• Scientific content to be protected by the
Cudos norms• Communism• Universalism• Disinterestedness• Scepticism
• A sociology of scientific institutions: not scientific content
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A journey?
2. The Kuhnian revolution• Paradigms• Puzzle solving (active agency!)• Pragmatism (tool)• Practice• Vision/seeing• Community based – and training
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A journey?
3. Sociology of Scientific Knowledge• Paradigm is a shared culture!• Used by scientists• Solving problems generated by
• Paradigm itself• Social Interests
• Ie: a form of the sociology of knowledge• Society > shapes culture/knowledge/science
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A journey?
4. Material Semiotics• Relationality• Process• Heterogeneous practice• Everything an effect• Potentially revisable
Collision
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Welfare Quality®: outline
• EU FP 6 Project; 2004-2009; €17m
• Farm animal Welfare• Standards/labelling• Animal Science and
Social Science
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Enacting the public in policy practice?
Public views of animal welfare
Animal science views
Industry stakeholders’
views
Policy Recommendations
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WQ: versions of the public
Animal science views
Industry stakeholders’
views
Policy Recommendations
Public 1:‘Survey public’
Public 2: ‘Focus group public’
Public 3: ‘Power-point
publics’
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The survey public enacted
• % thinking of animal welfare ‘in general’ and ‘when buying’, 7 countries;
• High level of interest; quite high ‘when buying’
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Doing the survey person … in practice
Survey: enacts persons: • self-quantifying individuals• containers of somewhat stable attitudes
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The survey public
• What goes into this? - process; assemblage, practices, effort, time
• What does it enact?- specific claims- person as container of (welfare-concerned) attitudes- collectivity / public as quantified aggregate
• What comes out and circulates?- statistical summary
• Concealed?- the practices of production- specificity/arbitrariness of person/collectivity
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Survey public in political practice
Industry: public has an unrealistic/idealistic view; and
won’t pay anyway!
Public views of animal welfare: important, needs
information
Political positionin relation to
industry stakeholders
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Focus Group practice• Enacts
person as storyteller
• Circulation? Stories!
• Collectiveas story/ position ….?
Focus group public enacted1. Animal itself and its environment
2. Naturalistic– Environment (green fields); outdoor living;
natural behaviours; being ‘fit for their environments’
3. Holistic– Can’t be broken down
4. Inseparable from other issues– Sustainability, quality, taste, human health,
GMOs
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Focus Group Public
• What goes into this?– A process, assemblage, practices
• What does it enact?– Specific claims– Person as a story-teller– Collectivity as typical/illustrative stories
• What comes out and circulates?– Stories and views about welfare
• Concealed?– the practices of production– specificity/arbitrariness of person/collectivity
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Focus group public in political practice
Animal science views: more atomistic, less naturalistic
Public views of animal welfare: holistic/naturalistic stories
Political positionin relation to
animal science
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Enacting the PowerPoint public• Locating/enacting the public as an actor in a
network/system• Hetero-
geneous• Reciprocal
relations
• Publicversionno. 3?
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Meeting politics• PowerPoint:
fromstakeholders’meeting!
• Political again• In relation to
(some) angrystakeholders…‘consumers naive,and cost-conscious’
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Enacting performative publics
Animal science views
Industry stakeholders’
views
Policy Recommendations
Public 2: ‘Focus group public’
Public 3:PowerPoint
Public 1:‘Survey public’
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STS
• Not just about science and technology (spatiality, organisation, health care, education, psychology, politics, embodiment ….)
• A set of techniques (sensibility?)
• ANT (material semiotics) attends to practices
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Attention to Practices
• Analytical unit• Detectable patterning/strategy• Of heterogeneous materials/relations• That enacts reals (and representations)• At particular locations/sites• That may or may not hold• and may or may not be
circulable/translatable to other sites
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Abandoning Sociological Assumptions?
• A somewhat stable social• Explaining particular phenomena
Or?
• Practices assembling/enacting realities (social/material)
• Seeing what holds as these realities circulate