1 engineering practice and sts john law centre for science studies lancaster university

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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!


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Atlantic dangers!


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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!