Centre for Science Studies
Lancaster University
Engineering Practice and
STS
John Law
1
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)
2
A Word on SCOT
Social interests shape technologies:
• bicycles; print technologies; military
hardware; genomics
Social forces,
interests
(society)
Technologies,
engineering
(artefacts)
3
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-construction
•
or
• Are society and technology all mixed up?
• Should we explore patterns of relations?
• = ANT
5
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
7
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
9
Norway!
10
Norway!
11
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!
15
More complexity!!
16
And again (or is it simply mess?!)
17
Now the whole point: salmon
in a tank!
18
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
21
(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
27
7. God?
28
8. Paperwork
29
9. Displays
30
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?
God
Boats
Electricity
People
Farmed
Salmon
Food
pellets
Paperwork
Water
Piped
Oxygen
Displays
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Compare and Contrast!
People?!
‘Wild’ Salmon
Water
Food
Air
35
An actor-network?
God
Boats
Electricity
People
Farmed
Salmon
Food
pellets
Paperwork
Water
Piped
Oxygen
Displays
36
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 ….?)
38
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?!
Regulators
Disease
Freedom!
Salmon
Wild
Salmon
Birds
Seals
Freezing
water
Warm
water
Sea Lice
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Is also a network?!
Vaccination
Disease
Freedom!
Salmon
Chemicals
Birds
Seals
Sea Lice
Nets
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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!
European
ship!
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/Genealogy/
Documents/Asia/Ships/ZhengHeShip.jpg
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The Portuguese built an
actor-network
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http://www.newberry.org/smith/slidesets/Images/06-3.jpg
Starting c. 1400
• Ships
• Navigation
• Guns
• Money & trade
Ships as Actor-networks
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• Mediterranean
•
•
•
•
Large crew
Small cargo
Poor endurance
Seaworthy?!
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http://www.newberry.org/smith/slidesets/Images/06-1.jpg
Ships as actor-networks the
European Galley
The actor-network galley
Fast
Lots of
crew
Water
The Galley
Food
Could not go far!!
Un-seaworthy
Storms!! 55
Ships as actor-networks: the
European Cog
• North Sea
Baltic
• Seaworthy
• Small crew
• Square sail:
Could not sail
http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~vaucher/Genealogy/
against wind
Documents/Asia/Ships/Northern_cog.jpg
• Not manoeuvrable
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The Actor-network Cog
Not
manoeuvrable
Small
crew
Water
The Cog
Food
Seaworthy
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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 actornetwork ship
Choice 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 1
Winds
Long
distances
endurance
Sails
(Small)
Crew
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The Caravel-network 2
Winds
Sails
Lateen
sails
3+ masts
Manoeuvrable
Small draft
Inshore exploring
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The Caravel-network 3
(Small)
Crew
Food /
water
Storage
The Caravel-network
Winds
Long
distances
endurance
Sails
Lateen
sails
(Small)
Crew
3+ masts
Manoeuvrable
Small draft
Inshore exploring
Food /
water
Storage
Exploring with the Caravel:
a global
actor
-network!
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http://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/images/exploration.jpg
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 66
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 south
You can measure your
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latitude
The Navigation actor network
Pole
Star
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Using the Astrolabe
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http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Astrolabe_(PSF).png
The Navigation actor network
Skilled
navigator
Calculate
Latitude
Pole
Star
Measure
altura
Astrolabe
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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
(Abraham
Zacuto)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AlmanachPerpetuum.jpg
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The Navigation actor network
Skilled
navigator
Calculate
Latitude
Pole
Star
Sun
Astrolabe
Measure
altura
Ephemerides
Write it on slate
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Building a global ActorNetwork
•
•
•
•
Ships
Navigation
Guns and force
Trade
• Artful
• Precarious
• Heterogeneous
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Actor-Network Heterogeneity
Objects
• Ships, sails, stores
• Astrolabes, instruments
People
• sailors, navigators
Texts
• Emphemerides
Natural 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
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http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~lachlan/dwalker_volume_oxygen/image29_s.jpg
Daresbury SRS
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http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/local/cache-vignettes/L336xH337/Copy_of_hall_ISIS-c2a95.jpg
The Study and the Question
A 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
87
Management meeting
Difficult to show this quickly! But let’s try
• A management board conversation:
about money to put archives right….
88
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
95
Use logic (Enterprise)
• Its VALUES?
success, performance, activity!
• How should PEOPLE be?
active, responsible, performers, decisionmakers!
• 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 Logics
Actor-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
98
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)
99
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
100
Thank you so much for your
attention!
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