Performing technology's stories: On social constructivism, performance, and performativity

Technology and Culture

Volumn 41, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 765-775

  Law, John ^a   Singleton, Vicky ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0034345813     PISSN: 0040165X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/tech.2000.0167     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. Edward W. Constant II, "Reliable Knowledge and Unreliable Stuff: On the Practical Role of Rational Beliefs," Technology and Culture 40 (1999): 324-57.
2. For a statement of the Edinburgh school position, see Barry Barnes, T. S. Kuhn and Social Science (London, 1982), and David Bloor, Knowledge and Social Imagery (London, 1976). For Mary Hesse's development of the philosophy of science, see Mary B. Hesse, The Structure of Scientific Inference (London, 1974). A fine empirical example of the genre is Donald MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (Cambridge, Mass., 1990).
3. For a statement of the Edinburgh school position, see Barry Barnes, T. S. Kuhn and Social Science (London, 1982), and David Bloor, Knowledge and Social Imagery (London, 1976). For Mary Hesse's development of the philosophy of science, see Mary B. Hesse, The Structure of Scientific Inference (London, 1974). A fine empirical example of the genre is Donald MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (Cambridge, Mass., 1990).
4. For a statement of the Edinburgh school position, see Barry Barnes, T. S. Kuhn and Social Science (London, 1982), and David Bloor, Knowledge and Social Imagery (London, 1976). For Mary Hesse's development of the philosophy of science, see Mary B. Hesse, The Structure of Scientific Inference (London, 1974). A fine empirical example of the genre is Donald MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (Cambridge, Mass., 1990).
5. For a statement of the Edinburgh school position, see Barry Barnes, T. S. Kuhn and Social Science (London, 1982), and David Bloor, Knowledge and Social Imagery (London, 1976). For Mary Hesse's development of the philosophy of science, see Mary B. Hesse, The Structure of Scientific Inference (London, 1974). A fine empirical example of the genre is Donald MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (Cambridge, Mass., 1990).
6. For an early collection, with a range of different positions, see Wiebe Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, and Trevor J. Pinch, eds., The Social Construction of Technological Systems (Cambridge, Mass., 1987).
7. For accounts of the actor-network approach, see Bruno Latour, Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society (Milton Keynes, 1987), and John Law, "Notes on the Theory of the Actor-Network: Ordering, Strategy and Heterogeneity," Systems Practice 5 (1992): 379-93. Exemplary empirical studies here include Latour's study of Louis Pasteur (The Pasteurization of France [Cambridge, Mass., 1988]) and John Law's exploration of the Portuguese maritime expansion ("On the Methods of Long Distance Control: Vessels, Navigation and the Portuguese Route to India," in Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? ed. John Law [London, 1986]).
8. For accounts of the actor-network approach, see Bruno Latour, Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society (Milton Keynes, 1987), and John Law, "Notes on the Theory of the Actor-Network: Ordering, Strategy and Heterogeneity," Systems Practice 5 (1992): 379-93. Exemplary empirical studies here include Latour's study of Louis Pasteur (The Pasteurization of France [Cambridge, Mass., 1988]) and John Law's exploration of the Portuguese maritime expansion ("On the Methods of Long Distance Control: Vessels, Navigation and the Portuguese Route to India," in Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? ed. John Law [London, 1986]).
9. This is implicit in actor-network theory, but has been less developed in that body of work.
10. Donna Haraway is a principal exponent of this view, which she has developed in several books, most recently Modest_Witness@Second_Millenium.FemaleMan@Meets_ OncoMouse™: Feminism and Technoscience (New York and London, 1997), but see particularly her essays on the cyborg manifesto and situated knowledges in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (London, 1991).
11. Donna Haraway is a principal exponent of this view, which she has developed in several books, most recently Modest_Witness@Second_Millenium.FemaleMan@Meets_ OncoMouse™: Feminism and Technoscience (New York and London, 1997), but see particularly her essays on the cyborg manifesto and situated knowledges in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (London, 1991).
12. This is discussed at greater length in a number of locations. See, for instance, John Law, "The Anatomy of a Sociotechnical Struggle: The Design of the TSR2," in Technology and Social Process, ed. Brian Elliott (Edinburgh 1988), and John Law, "The Olympus 320 Engine: A Case Study in Design, Development, and Organizational Control," Technology and Culture 33 (1992) 409-40. The analysis of political performativity outlined in the present piece is explored in greater depth in John Law, Aircraft Stories: Decentering the Object in Technoscience (Durham, N.C., in press).
13. This is discussed at greater length in a number of locations. See, for instance, John Law, "The Anatomy of a Sociotechnical Struggle: The Design of the TSR2," in Technology and Social Process, ed. Brian Elliott (Edinburgh 1988), and John Law, "The Olympus 320 Engine: A Case Study in Design, Development, and Organizational Control," Technology and Culture 33 (1992) 409-40. The analysis of political performativity outlined in the present piece is explored in greater depth in John Law, Aircraft Stories: Decentering the Object in Technoscience (Durham, N.C., in press).
14. This is discussed at greater length in a number of locations. See, for instance, John Law, "The Anatomy of a Sociotechnical Struggle: The Design of the TSR2," in Technology and Social Process, ed. Brian Elliott (Edinburgh 1988), and John Law, "The Olympus 320 Engine: A Case Study in Design, Development, and Organizational Control," Technology and Culture 33 (1992) 409-40. The analysis of political performativity outlined in the present piece is explored in greater depth in John Law, Aircraft Stories: Decentering the Object in Technoscience (Durham, N.C., in press).
15. "To will the future (and not to desire it), to submit it to planning and projects, to wish to construct it, is to lock oneself into a devalorized present that is airless and unlivable. 'The project,' according to Bataille, 'is the prison.' To want to get out of the labyrinth, making this into a project, is to close it, to close oneself inside it." Denis Hollier, Against Architecture: The Writings of Georges Bataille (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), 61.
16. This is described more fully in John Law, "On the Subject of the Object: Narrative, Technology and Interpellation," Configurations 8 (2000): 1-29.
17. See, for instance, Erving Goffman, Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1968).
18. The approach has been developed for the notion of the person in a variety of locations. See, for instance, Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York and London, 1990).
19. Annemarie Mol has rigorously developed this position through a series of publications on medical performance. See, in particular, "Missing Links, Making Links: The Performance of Some Artheroscleroses," in Differences in Medicine: Unravelling Practices, Techniques and Bodies, ed. Annemarie Mol and Marc Berg (Durham, N.C., 1998); "Ontological Politics: A Word and Some Questions," in Actor Network Theory and After, ed. John Law and John Hassard (Oxford and Keele, 1999); and The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice (Durham, N.C., 2001).
20. Annemarie Mol has rigorously developed this position through a series of publications on medical performance. See, in particular, "Missing Links, Making Links: The Performance of Some Artheroscleroses," in Differences in Medicine: Unravelling Practices, Techniques and Bodies, ed. Annemarie Mol and Marc Berg (Durham, N.C., 1998); "Ontological Politics: A Word and Some Questions," in Actor Network Theory and After, ed. John Law and John Hassard (Oxford and Keele, 1999); and The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice (Durham, N.C., 2001).
21. Annemarie Mol has rigorously developed this position through a series of publications on medical performance. See, in particular, "Missing Links, Making Links: The Performance of Some Artheroscleroses," in Differences in Medicine: Unravelling Practices, Techniques and Bodies, ed. Annemarie Mol and Marc Berg (Durham, N.C., 1998); "Ontological Politics: A Word and Some Questions," in Actor Network Theory and After, ed. John Law and John Hassard (Oxford and Keele, 1999); and The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice (Durham, N.C., 2001).
22. This resonates with one of the great tropes of feminist and other politically radical writing, namely that much scholarship renders the work of low-status groups invisible. Donna Haraway explores this for technology, as does Susan Leigh Star. See Susan Leigh Star, "Power, Technologies and the Phenomenology of Conventions: On Being Allergic to Onions," in A Sociology of Monsters? Essays on Power, Technology and Domination, ed. John Law (London, 1991), and "The Sociology of the Invisible: The Primacy of Work in the Writings of Anselm Strauss," in Social Organization and Social Processes: Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss, ed. David Maines (New York, 1992).
23. This resonates with one of the great tropes of feminist and other politically radical writing, namely that much scholarship renders the work of low-status groups invisible. Donna Haraway explores this for technology, as does Susan Leigh Star. See Susan Leigh Star, "Power, Technologies and the Phenomenology of Conventions: On Being Allergic to Onions," in A Sociology of Monsters? Essays on Power, Technology and Domination, ed. John Law (London, 1991), and "The Sociology of the Invisible: The Primacy of Work in the Writings of Anselm Strauss," in Social Organization and Social Processes: Essays in Honor of Anselm Strauss, ed. David Maines (New York, 1992).
24. See Bruno Latour, We Have Never Been Modern (Brighton, 1993).
25. This point has been made in slightly different idioms by, on the one hand, Vicky Singleton and Mike Michael, who argue that a working program (the U.K. Cervical Screening Program) is not a single structure but rather contains inconsistencies and ambivalences, and on the other by Anni Dugdale, in her exemplary exploration of Australian policymaking about the advice to accompany IUD contraception. Vicky Singleton and Mike Michael, "Actor-Networks and Ambivalence: General Practitioners in the U.K. Cervical Screening Program," Social Studies of Science 23 (1993): 227-64; Vicky Singleton, "Stabilizing Instabilities: The Role of the Laboratory in the United Kingdom Cervical Screening Program," in Berg and Mol, Differences in Medicine; Anni Dugdale, "Materiality: Juggling Sameness and Difference," in Law and Hassard, Actor Network Theory and After.
26. This point has been made in slightly different idioms by, on the one hand, Vicky Singleton and Mike Michael, who argue that a working program (the U.K. Cervical Screening Program) is not a single structure but rather contains inconsistencies and ambivalences, and on the other by Anni Dugdale, in her exemplary exploration of Australian policymaking about the advice to accompany IUD contraception. Vicky Singleton and Mike Michael, "Actor-Networks and Ambivalence: General Practitioners in the U.K. Cervical Screening Program," Social Studies of Science 23 (1993): 227-64; Vicky Singleton, "Stabilizing Instabilities: The Role of the Laboratory in the United Kingdom Cervical Screening Program," in Berg and Mol, Differences in Medicine; Anni Dugdale, "Materiality: Juggling Sameness and Difference," in Law and Hassard, Actor Network Theory and After.
27. This point has been made in slightly different idioms by, on the one hand, Vicky Singleton and Mike Michael, who argue that a working program (the U.K. Cervical Screening Program) is not a single structure but rather contains inconsistencies and ambivalences, and on the other by Anni Dugdale, in her exemplary exploration of Australian policymaking about the advice to accompany IUD contraception. Vicky Singleton and Mike Michael, "Actor-Networks and Ambivalence: General Practitioners in the U.K. Cervical Screening Program," Social Studies of Science 23 (1993): 227-64; Vicky Singleton, "Stabilizing Instabilities: The Role of the Laboratory in the United Kingdom Cervical Screening Program," in Berg and Mol, Differences in Medicine; Anni Dugdale, "Materiality: Juggling Sameness and Difference," in Law and Hassard, Actor Network Theory and After.