How ditch and drain become a healthy creek: Re-presentations, translations and agency during the re/design of a watershed

Social Studies of Science

Volumn 31, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 315-356

  Lee, Stuart ^a   Roth, Wolff Michael ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA   (Canada)

Author keywords

Community science; Education; Fluid ontology; Mediation; Semiotics

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035536136     PISSN: 03063127     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/030631201031003001     Document Type: Article

References (118)

1. 'Watershed' denotes that land which drains into a common watercourse. The boundaries of watersheds are high points of land, the opposite sides of which drain water down into different creek systems.
2. Literally, vegetation that is growing on a stream's banks.
3. Henderson Creek Project's mission statement is: 'To protect and enhance the Henderson Creek stream system in order to maintain sufficient water quality and quantity so as to achieve the best possible balance between ecological and agricultural needs of the watershed, and to maintain these watershed functions for future generations'.
4. We mean 'spaces' in Callon and Law's sense of 'discretionary space', as a space created by a confluence of machines, people, re-presentations and so forth, 'a space where options may be exercised . . . a mode of ordering which defines and distributes the character of persons and papers': see Michel Callon and John Law, 'Agency and the Hybrid Collectif', The South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol. 94, No. 2 (Spring 1995), 481-507, esp. at 494.
5. See Annemarie Mol and Jessica Mesman, 'Neonatal Food and the Politics of Theory: Some Questions of Method', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May 1996), 419-44, at 429.
6. We use the term 'collective' in the sense it is used by Latour: 'the associations of humans and non-humans', and Callon's 'collectif': 'an emergent effect created by the interaction of the heterogeneous parts that make it up'; Bruno Latour, Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 304; Callon & Law, op. cit. note 4, 485.
7. We use the term 'collective' in the sense it is used by Latour: 'the associations of humans and non-humans', and Callon's 'collectif': 'an emergent effect created by the interaction of the heterogeneous parts that make it up'; Bruno Latour, Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 304; Callon & Law, op. cit. note 4, 485.
8. Our de-centred notion of 'event' is very similar to that articulated by Gomart and Hennion, when they describe 'A rock concert . . . [which] does not bring together already existing objects, subjects and social groupings - rather, this is a conjunctural event in which the relevant objects, subjects and social groupings are co-produced': see Emelie Gomart and Antoine Hennion, 'A Sociology of Attachment: Music Amateurs, Drug Users', in John Law and John Hassard (eds), Actor Network Theory and After (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), 220-47, at 228. Similarly, Latour writes of a confluence of humans and non-humans which participate in an event where both emerge transformed: Latour, op. cit. note 6, 281.
9. Our de-centred notion of 'event' is very similar to that articulated by Gomart and Hennion, when they describe 'A rock concert . . . [which] does not bring together already existing objects, subjects and social groupings - rather, this is a conjunctural event in which the relevant objects, subjects and social groupings are co-produced': see Emelie Gomart and Antoine Hennion, 'A Sociology of Attachment: Music Amateurs, Drug Users', in John Law and John Hassard (eds), Actor Network Theory and After (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), 220-47, at 228. Similarly, Latour writes of a confluence of humans and non-humans which participate in an event where both emerge transformed: Latour, op. cit. note 6, 281.
10. We relate this idea to Callon and Law's notion of 'translations', which 'make the things, texts and people': Callon & Law, op. cit. note 4, 501.
11. Of course, in the process, the activists create themselves in the community as well, a point that is not lost on them.
12. Tiago Moreira, 'Translation, Difference and Ontological Fluidity', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 30, No. 3 (June 2000), 421-46; and see John Law and Annemarie Mol, 'Notes on Materiality and Sociality', Sociological Review, Vol. 43, No. 2 (May 1995), 274-94.
13. Tiago Moreira, 'Translation, Difference and Ontological Fluidity', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 30, No. 3 (June 2000), 421-46; and see John Law and Annemarie Mol, 'Notes on Materiality and Sociality', Sociological Review, Vol. 43, No. 2 (May 1995), 274-94.
14. Marianne de Laet and Annemarie Mol, 'The Zimbabwe Bush Pump: Mechanics of a Fluid Technology', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 30, No. 2 (April 2000), 225-63.
15. 'Large Woody Debris' is a creek restoration term to indicate various logs, branches, and the like, that contribute to fish habitat by providing shelter for the fish, reducing the flow of the current, providing environment for insects that the fish eat, and so on.
16. See Law & Mol, op. cit. note 10, 282.
17. The transformation that things undergo as they become re-presented, 'translation', is a well-articulated theme in S&TS. See, for example, Michel Callon, 'Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay', in John Law (ed.), Power, Action, and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), 196-229; and Bruno Latour, 'Drawing Things Together', in Michael Lynch and Steve Woolgar (eds), Representation in Scientific Practice (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990), 19-68.
18. The transformation that things undergo as they become re-presented, 'translation', is a well-articulated theme in S&TS. See, for example, Michel Callon, 'Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay', in John Law (ed.), Power, Action, and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), 196-229; and Bruno Latour, 'Drawing Things Together', in Michael Lynch and Steve Woolgar (eds), Representation in Scientific Practice (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990), 19-68.
19. Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2nd edn, 1986). See also Kathryn Henderson, 'The Political Career of a Prototype: Visual Representation in Design Engineering', Social Problems, Vol. 42, No. 2 (May 1995), 274-99.
20. Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2nd edn, 1986). See also Kathryn Henderson, 'The Political Career of a Prototype: Visual Representation in Design Engineering', Social Problems, Vol. 42, No. 2 (May 1995), 274-99.
21. Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of France, trans. Alan Sheridan and John Law (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), 229.
22. Many authors in S&TS confront and challenge science's relation with authority in support of a more inclusive, democratic process. For some examples, see: Alan Irwin and Brian Wynne (eds), Misunderstanding Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), esp. 1-64; Bruno Latour, 'Socrates' and Callicles' Settlement, or the Invention of the Impossible Body Politic', Configurations, Vol. 5 (Spring 1997), 189-240;
23. Many authors in S&TS confront and challenge science's relation with authority in support of a more inclusive, democratic process. For some examples, see: Alan Irwin and Brian Wynne (eds), Misunderstanding Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), esp. 1-64; Bruno Latour, 'Socrates' and Callicles' Settlement, or the Invention of the Impossible Body Politic', Configurations, Vol. 5 (Spring 1997), 189-240;
24. or Susan Leigh Star, 'Power, Technology and the Phenomenology of Conventions: On Being Allergic to Onions', in John Law (ed.), A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination (London & New York: Routledge, 1991), 26-56.
25. This goal of the broad inclusion of the demos in articulating the world is explicitly discussed in Latour's 'Socrates and Callicles', op. cit. note 17.
26. For a detailed, thoughtful discussion of the notion of inclusiveness within ANT, see Nick Lee and Steve Brown, 'Otherness and the Actor Network', American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 37, No. 6 (May 1994), 772-90, and Nick Lee and Paul Stenner, 'Who Pays? Can We Pay Them Back?', in Law & Hassard (eds), op. cit. note 7, 90-112; also Callon & Law, op. cit. note 4.
27. For a detailed, thoughtful discussion of the notion of inclusiveness within ANT, see Nick Lee and Steve Brown, 'Otherness and the Actor Network', American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 37, No. 6 (May 1994), 772-90, and Nick Lee and Paul Stenner, 'Who Pays? Can We Pay Them Back?', in Law & Hassard (eds), op. cit. note 7, 90-112; also Callon & Law, op. cit. note 4.
28. For a detailed, thoughtful discussion of the notion of inclusiveness within ANT, see Nick Lee and Steve Brown, 'Otherness and the Actor Network', American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 37, No. 6 (May 1994), 772-90, and Nick Lee and Paul Stenner, 'Who Pays? Can We Pay Them Back?', in Law & Hassard (eds), op. cit. note 7, 90-112; also Callon & Law, op. cit. note 4.
29. This is the way in which Marianne de Laet and Annemarie Mol describe one of the key individuals in the evolution of the Zimbabwe Bush Pump, who refuses to be attributed authorship of this successful pump, and who is 'firm about the necessity of abandoning control': de Laet & Mol, op. cit. note 11, 251.
30. The activists' work regarding impervious surfaces has had an important impact on our own lives. When Roth constructed a gravel path on his property, he was reminded by neighbours that this was against the building scheme of the neighbourhood, which required concrete paths. However, trusting in the increasing influence of the activists on community politics, he built the gravel path anyway, trusting that the activists would assist in the case of trouble because of their commitment to limit the total amount of impervious surfaces in the community.
31. Meaghan, personal communication (email, 28 July 1999).
32. 'Riffles' are places in a creek where the slope of the creek is relatively steep; there is a rocky bottom and often shallow water, burbling over and around the rocks. 'Rapids' are an extreme example of riffle structure.
33. As such, our methodology follows in a long line of research among activists in S&TS. For example, Steven Epstein, Vololona Rabeharisoa and Michel Callon, Reid Helford and Margaret Eisenhart have all contributed significantly to the field through their observer/participant research: see Steven Epstein, 'Activism, Drug Regulation, and the Politics of Therapeutic Evaluation in the AIDS Era: A Case Study of ddC and the "Surrogate Markers" Debate', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1997), 691-726; Vololona Rabeharisoa and Michel Callon, Le pouvoir des malades [The power of the ill] (Paris: Écoles de Mines, 1999); Reid M. Helford, 'Rediscovering the Presettlement Landscape: Making the Oak Savanna Ecosystem "Real" ', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Winter 1999), 55-79; Margaret Eisenhart and Elizabeth Finkel, Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1999).
34. As such, our methodology follows in a long line of research among activists in S&TS. For example, Steven Epstein, Vololona Rabeharisoa and Michel Callon, Reid Helford and Margaret Eisenhart have all contributed significantly to the field through their observer/participant research: see Steven Epstein, 'Activism, Drug Regulation, and the Politics of Therapeutic Evaluation in the AIDS Era: A Case Study of ddC and the "Surrogate Markers" Debate', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1997), 691-726; Vololona Rabeharisoa and Michel Callon, Le pouvoir des malades [The power of the ill] (Paris: Écoles de Mines, 1999); Reid M. Helford, 'Rediscovering the Presettlement Landscape: Making the Oak Savanna Ecosystem "Real" ', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Winter 1999), 55-79; Margaret Eisenhart and Elizabeth Finkel, Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1999).
35. As such, our methodology follows in a long line of research among activists in S&TS. For example, Steven Epstein, Vololona Rabeharisoa and Michel Callon, Reid Helford and Margaret Eisenhart have all contributed significantly to the field through their observer/participant research: see Steven Epstein, 'Activism, Drug Regulation, and the Politics of Therapeutic Evaluation in the AIDS Era: A Case Study of ddC and the "Surrogate Markers" Debate', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1997), 691-726; Vololona Rabeharisoa and Michel Callon, Le pouvoir des malades [The power of the ill] (Paris: Écoles de Mines, 1999); Reid M. Helford, 'Rediscovering the Presettlement Landscape: Making the Oak Savanna Ecosystem "Real" ', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Winter 1999), 55-79; Margaret Eisenhart and Elizabeth Finkel, Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1999).
36. As such, our methodology follows in a long line of research among activists in S&TS. For example, Steven Epstein, Vololona Rabeharisoa and Michel Callon, Reid Helford and Margaret Eisenhart have all contributed significantly to the field through their observer/participant research: see Steven Epstein, 'Activism, Drug Regulation, and the Politics of Therapeutic Evaluation in the AIDS Era: A Case Study of ddC and the "Surrogate Markers" Debate', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1997), 691-726; Vololona Rabeharisoa and Michel Callon, Le pouvoir des malades [The power of the ill] (Paris: Écoles de Mines, 1999); Reid M. Helford, 'Rediscovering the Presettlement Landscape: Making the Oak Savanna Ecosystem "Real" ', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Winter 1999), 55-79; Margaret Eisenhart and Elizabeth Finkel, Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1999).
37. For details on these studies, see: Wolff-Michael Roth and G. Michael Bowen, 'Digitizing Lizards: The Topology of "Vision" in Ecological Fieldwork', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 29, No. 5 (October 1999), 719-64; Roth and Bowen, 'Professionals Read Graphs: A Semiotic Analysis', Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Vol. 32, 2001, 159-94.
38. For details on these studies, see: Wolff-Michael Roth and G. Michael Bowen, 'Digitizing Lizards: The Topology of "Vision" in Ecological Fieldwork', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 29, No. 5 (October 1999), 719-64; Roth and Bowen, 'Professionals Read Graphs: A Semiotic Analysis', Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Vol. 32, 2001, 159-94.
39. Power-to-act and the productive nature of human activity are central concepts in phenomenological and (neo-)Marxist thought, and therefore make for similarities in the work of philosophers (e.g. Paul Ricœur), ethnomethodologists (e.g. Harold Garfinkel), or (Marxist) psychologists (e.g. Klaus Holzkamp, Alexej Leont'ev). For example, Garfinkel suggests that rather than being cultural dopes that blindly follow rules, 'members to an organized arrangement are continually engaged in having to decide, recognize, persuade, or make evident the rational, i.e., the coherent, or consistent, or chosen, or planful, or effective, or methodical, or knowledgeable character of such activities of their inquiries as counting, graphing, interrogation, sampling, recording, reporting, planning, decision-making, and the rest'. We refuse deterministic models of human action both in our own lives - we know that we are not social or psychological 'dopes' - and in our research. See, for example: Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967), at 32; Klaus Holzkamp, 'Societal and Individual Life Processes', in Charles W. Tolman and Wolfgang Maiers (eds), Critical Psychology: Contributions to an Historical Science of the Subject (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 50-64; Alexej N. Leont'ev, Activity, Consciousness and Personality (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978); Paul Ricœur, Oneself as Another (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992).
40. Power-to-act and the productive nature of human activity are central concepts in phenomenological and (neo-)Marxist thought, and therefore make for similarities in the work of philosophers (e.g. Paul Ricœur), ethnomethodologists (e.g. Harold Garfinkel), or (Marxist) psychologists (e.g. Klaus Holzkamp, Alexej Leont'ev). For example, Garfinkel suggests that rather than being cultural dopes that blindly follow rules, 'members to an organized arrangement are continually engaged in having to decide, recognize, persuade, or make evident the rational, i.e., the coherent, or consistent, or chosen, or planful, or effective, or methodical, or knowledgeable character of such activities of their inquiries as counting, graphing, interrogation, sampling, recording, reporting, planning, decision-making, and the rest'. We refuse deterministic models of human action both in our own lives - we know that we are not social or psychological 'dopes' - and in our research. See, for example: Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967), at 32; Klaus Holzkamp, 'Societal and Individual Life Processes', in Charles W. Tolman and Wolfgang Maiers (eds), Critical Psychology: Contributions to an Historical Science of the Subject (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 50-64; Alexej N. Leont'ev, Activity, Consciousness and Personality (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978); Paul Ricœur, Oneself as Another (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992).
41. Power-to-act and the productive nature of human activity are central concepts in phenomenological and (neo-)Marxist thought, and therefore make for similarities in the work of philosophers (e.g. Paul Ricœur), ethnomethodologists (e.g. Harold Garfinkel), or (Marxist) psychologists (e.g. Klaus Holzkamp, Alexej Leont'ev). For example, Garfinkel suggests that rather than being cultural dopes that blindly follow rules, 'members to an organized arrangement are continually engaged in having to decide, recognize, persuade, or make evident the rational, i.e., the coherent, or consistent, or chosen, or planful, or effective, or methodical, or knowledgeable character of such activities of their inquiries as counting, graphing, interrogation, sampling, recording, reporting, planning, decision-making, and the rest'. We refuse deterministic models of human action both in our own lives - we know that we are not social or psychological 'dopes' - and in our research. See, for example: Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967), at 32; Klaus Holzkamp, 'Societal and Individual Life Processes', in Charles W. Tolman and Wolfgang Maiers (eds), Critical Psychology: Contributions to an Historical Science of the Subject (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 50-64; Alexej N. Leont'ev, Activity, Consciousness and Personality (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978); Paul Ricœur, Oneself as Another (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992).
42. Power-to-act and the productive nature of human activity are central concepts in phenomenological and (neo-)Marxist thought, and therefore make for similarities in the work of philosophers (e.g. Paul Ricœur), ethnomethodologists (e.g. Harold Garfinkel), or (Marxist) psychologists (e.g. Klaus Holzkamp, Alexej Leont'ev). For example, Garfinkel suggests that rather than being cultural dopes that blindly follow rules, 'members to an organized arrangement are continually engaged in having to decide, recognize, persuade, or make evident the rational, i.e., the coherent, or consistent, or chosen, or planful, or effective, or methodical, or knowledgeable character of such activities of their inquiries as counting, graphing, interrogation, sampling, recording, reporting, planning, decision-making, and the rest'. We refuse deterministic models of human action both in our own lives - we know that we are not social or psychological 'dopes' - and in our research. See, for example: Harold Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967), at 32; Klaus Holzkamp, 'Societal and Individual Life Processes', in Charles W. Tolman and Wolfgang Maiers (eds), Critical Psychology: Contributions to an Historical Science of the Subject (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 50-64; Alexej N. Leont'ev, Activity, Consciousness and Personality (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978); Paul Ricœur, Oneself as Another (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992).
43. In 1996, this journal published a Special Issue, in which authors debated the relative merits of neutrality and commitment, politics and policy, and research and activism: Malcolm Ashmore and Evelleen Richards (eds), 'The Politics of SSK: Neutrality, Commitment and Beyond', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. 2 (May 1996), 219-468.
44. Callon & Law, op. cit. note 4, 504.
45. Law and Mol introduce 'patchwork' as a theory metaphor that emphasizes entities as local, inherently unstable, and without discernible direction: see Law & Mol, op. cit. note 10, at 275 and 287-91.
46. Ibid., 290. Also relevant here is the description of the 'convergent diversity' of scientific practices described by Charles Goodwin on an oceanographic survey ship: see Charles Goodwin, 'Seeing in Depth', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 25, No. 2 (May 1995), 237-74.
47. Ibid., 290. Also relevant here is the description of the 'convergent diversity' of scientific practices described by Charles Goodwin on an oceanographic survey ship: see Charles Goodwin, 'Seeing in Depth', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 25, No. 2 (May 1995), 237-74.
48. On the nature of inscriptions as immutable mobiles, see Latour, op. cit. note 14;
49. for further discussion, see also Bruno Latour, Science in Action (Milton Keynes, Bucks.: Open University Press, 1987).
50. Steven Epstein has provided detailed descriptions of the way AIDS activists appropriated scientific topical and methodological discourse, which allowed them to participate in the discourse, and to change it in the process: Steven Epstein, 'The Construction of Lay Expertise: AIDS Activism and the Forging of Credibility in the Reform of Clinical Trials', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Autumn 1995), 408-37. Vololona Rabeharisoa and Michel Callon (op. cit. note 25) have also documented in great detail the work of the French activists, l'Association française contre les myopathies, who appropriate scientists' discourses and inscriptions and, drawing on the enormous power of the multi-million Telethon funding drives, shape the nature of scientific research.
51. Steven Epstein has provided detailed descriptions of the way AIDS activists appropriated scientific topical and methodological discourse, which allowed them to participate in the discourse, and to change it in the process: Steven Epstein, 'The Construction of Lay Expertise: AIDS Activism and the Forging of Credibility in the Reform of Clinical Trials', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Autumn 1995), 408-37. Vololona Rabeharisoa and Michel Callon (op. cit. note 25) have also documented in great detail the work of the French activists, l'Association française contre les myopathies, who appropriate scientists' discourses and inscriptions and, drawing on the enormous power of the multi-million Telethon funding drives, shape the nature of scientific research.
52. Paul Ricœur has noted that the conflation of sameness (idem-identity) and selfhood (ipse-identity) gives rise to ample confusion. Idem-identity is based on a continuity of materiality, whereas ipse-identity arises from relations of self and other. New relations, therefore, are associated with different identities for both the mobile entity and its new context. See Ricœur, op. cit. note 27, esp. 118-19. John Law and Annemarie Mol suggest that we should think of material entities in the same terms - that is to say, materiality is relational as much as is sociality: Law & Mol, op. cit. note 10, 276-77.
53. Paul Ricœur has noted that the conflation of sameness (idem-identity) and selfhood (ipse-identity) gives rise to ample confusion. Idem-identity is based on a continuity of materiality, whereas ipse-identity arises from relations of self and other. New relations, therefore, are associated with different identities for both the mobile entity and its new context. See Ricœur, op. cit. note 27, esp. 118-19. John Law and Annemarie Mol suggest that we should think of material entities in the same terms - that is to say, materiality is relational as much as is sociality: Law & Mol, op. cit. note 10, 276-77.
54. Although, as we noted earlier, we do not see them as 'the same' object being interpreted by different communities of practice, but rather participants that are circulated between different locations. Their beings arise out of the subsequent events in which they participate. For the traditional elaboration of boundary objects, see S. Leigh Star and James R. Griesemer, 'Institutional Ecology, "Translations" and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3 (August 1989), 387-420. See also S. Leigh Star, 'The Structure of Ill-Structured Solutions: Boundary Objects and Heterogeneous Distributed Problem Solving', in M.N. Huhns and Lee Gasser (eds), Distributed Artificial Intelligence,Vol. 2 (Menlo Park, CA: Morgan Kauffmann, 1989), 37-54, and Kathryn Henderson, 'Flexible Sketches and Inflexible Data Bases: Visual Communication, Conscription Devices, and Boundary Objects in Design Engineering', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Autumn 1991), 448-73.
55. Although, as we noted earlier, we do not see them as 'the same' object being interpreted by different communities of practice, but rather participants that are circulated between different locations. Their beings arise out of the subsequent events in which they participate. For the traditional elaboration of boundary objects, see S. Leigh Star and James R. Griesemer, 'Institutional Ecology, "Translations" and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3 (August 1989), 387-420. See also S. Leigh Star, 'The Structure of Ill-Structured Solutions: Boundary Objects and Heterogeneous Distributed Problem Solving', in M.N. Huhns and Lee Gasser (eds), Distributed Artificial Intelligence,Vol. 2 (Menlo Park, CA: Morgan Kauffmann, 1989), 37-54, and Kathryn Henderson, 'Flexible Sketches and Inflexible Data Bases: Visual Communication, Conscription Devices, and Boundary Objects in Design Engineering', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Autumn 1991), 448-73.
56. Although, as we noted earlier, we do not see them as 'the same' object being interpreted by different communities of practice, but rather participants that are circulated between different locations. Their beings arise out of the subsequent events in which they participate. For the traditional elaboration of boundary objects, see S. Leigh Star and James R. Griesemer, 'Institutional Ecology, "Translations" and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3 (August 1989), 387-420. See also S. Leigh Star, 'The Structure of Ill-Structured Solutions: Boundary Objects and Heterogeneous Distributed Problem Solving', in M.N. Huhns and Lee Gasser (eds), Distributed Artificial Intelligence,Vol. 2 (Menlo Park, CA: Morgan Kauffmann, 1989), 37-54, and Kathryn Henderson, 'Flexible Sketches and Inflexible Data Bases: Visual Communication, Conscription Devices, and Boundary Objects in Design Engineering', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Autumn 1991), 448-73.
57. Steven Epstein, for example, has described the appropriation and use of scientific discourse and representations by AIDS activists. As a result of this appropriation and insertion of inscriptions into their own discourse, AIDS activists were able to change scientific practices, such as the establishment of protocols for scientific testing of drugs. See Epstein, op. cit. note 25, 718.
58. The environmental activist groups studied by Reid Helford and Margaret Eisenhart are examples of this type of activist organization: see opera cit. note 25.
59. 'Streamkeepers' is a programme sponsored by the provincial government dedicated to training and supporting citizen-based stream assessment and restoration. The programme provides a thick binder of theoretical information and weekend-long courses in which participants learn how to assess a stream for physical, chemical and biological properties. The Streamkeepers programme considers a stream's fitness to support salmonids (salmon and trout species) as its normative standard.
60. Although, as Bruno Latour points out (op. cit. note 14), this material transformation into an artefact that can be easily seen in its entirety, manipulated and transported facilitates much of scientific practice.
61. See Michael Lynch, 'The Externalized Retina: Selection and Mathematization in the Visual Documentation of Objects in the Life Sciences', in Michael Lynch and Steve Woolgar (eds), Representation in Scientific Practice (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990), 153-86, esp. fn 11.
62. Ken Alder has used the word 'thinning' to describe the changes in a material representational practice of engineering illustrations, and has also given a rich description of the historical struggles surrounding the implementation of this practice. See Ken Alder, 'Making Things the Same: Representation, Tolerance and the End of the Ancien Régime in France', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, No. 4 (August 1998), 499-545. A similar account of the organizational politics commensurate with 'thinning' is given by Diane Vaughan in her paper on the successive reductions of uncertainty in the assessments of the safety of the space shuttle Challenger's solid booster rockets. See Diane Vaughan, 'The Rôle of the Organization in the Production of Techno-Scientific Knowledge', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 29, No. 6 (December 1999), 913-43.
63. Ken Alder has used the word 'thinning' to describe the changes in a material representational practice of engineering illustrations, and has also given a rich description of the historical struggles surrounding the implementation of this practice. See Ken Alder, 'Making Things the Same: Representation, Tolerance and the End of the Ancien Régime in France', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, No. 4 (August 1998), 499-545. A similar account of the organizational politics commensurate with 'thinning' is given by Diane Vaughan in her paper on the successive reductions of uncertainty in the assessments of the safety of the space shuttle Challenger's solid booster rockets. See Diane Vaughan, 'The Rôle of the Organization in the Production of Techno-Scientific Knowledge', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 29, No. 6 (December 1999), 913-43.
64. In this sense, we use 'thin' in a manner consistent with that articulated by Gilbert Ryle and, after him, by Clifford Geertz. See Gilbert Ryle, 'Thinking and Reflecting' and 'The Thinking of Thoughts', in his Collected Papers, Volume II, Collected Essays 1929-1968 (London: Hutchison, 1971), 465-79 and 480-95; and Clifford Geertz, 'Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture', in his Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 3-30.
65. In this sense, we use 'thin' in a manner consistent with that articulated by Gilbert Ryle and, after him, by Clifford Geertz. See Gilbert Ryle, 'Thinking and Reflecting' and 'The Thinking of Thoughts', in his Collected Papers, Volume II, Collected Essays 1929-1968 (London: Hutchison, 1971), 465-79 and 480-95; and Clifford Geertz, 'Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture', in his Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 3-30.
66. In this sense, we use 'thin' in a manner consistent with that articulated by Gilbert Ryle and, after him, by Clifford Geertz. See Gilbert Ryle, 'Thinking and Reflecting' and 'The Thinking of Thoughts', in his Collected Papers, Volume II, Collected Essays 1929-1968 (London: Hutchison, 1971), 465-79 and 480-95; and Clifford Geertz, 'Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture', in his Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 3-30.
67. Bruno Latour (op. cit. note 6, 70-71) also talks about this shifting of properties as the gains of standardization, compatibility, universality, and the like, made through 'reduction' of a phenomenon by scientific practice.
68. Lynch, op. cit. note 40.
69. Star & Griesemer, op. cit. note 35.
70. Gordon Creek is the main tributary of Henderson Creek that flows through Community Park, where the activists built a series of riffles and reinforced the banks.
71. Françoise Bastide and Greg Myers, among others, have provided semiotic analyses that deal with the changing rôles of figure and ground when detail is increasingly removed from inscriptions. See: Françoise Bastide, 'The Iconography of Scientific Texts: Principles of Analysis', in Lynch & Woolgar (eds), op. cit. note 40, 187-229; Greg Myers, 'Every Picture Tells a Story: Illustrations in E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology', ibid., 231-65.
72. Françoise Bastide and Greg Myers, among others, have provided semiotic analyses that deal with the changing rôles of figure and ground when detail is increasingly removed from inscriptions. See: Françoise Bastide, 'The Iconography of Scientific Texts: Principles of Analysis', in Lynch & Woolgar (eds), op. cit. note 40, 187-229; Greg Myers, 'Every Picture Tells a Story: Illustrations in E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology', ibid., 231-65.
73. One 'reach' of the creek is defined as the length of creek between a geographically significant starting point and end point.
74. We detail processes similar to those described by Bruno Latour in Pandora's Hope, op. cit. note 6, Chapter 2, 'Circulating Reference: Sampling the Soil in the Amazon Forest', 24-79.
75. We do not intend to suggest that such assessments are simple processes. Rather, as studies of determining birds using field guides (Law & Lynch) or of following instructions (Amerine & Bilmes) show, there is always considerable work being done. But this work, because of its mundaneity, is often overlooked by those interested in cognition. See John Law and Michael Lynch, 'Lists, Field Guides, and the Descriptive Organization of Seeing: Bird Watching as an Exemplary Observational Activity', in Lynch & Woolgar (eds), op. cit. note 40, 267-99; Ronald Amerine and Jack Bilmes, 'Following Instructions', ibid., 323-35.
76. We do not intend to suggest that such assessments are simple processes. Rather, as studies of determining birds using field guides (Law & Lynch) or of following instructions (Amerine & Bilmes) show, there is always considerable work being done. But this work, because of its mundaneity, is often overlooked by those interested in cognition. See John Law and Michael Lynch, 'Lists, Field Guides, and the Descriptive Organization of Seeing: Bird Watching as an Exemplary Observational Activity', in Lynch & Woolgar (eds), op. cit. note 40, 267-99; Ronald Amerine and Jack Bilmes, 'Following Instructions', ibid., 323-35.
77. For similar accounts of 'disciplining', see Latour, op. cit. note 6, esp. Chapter 2, 46-49;
78. Roth & Bowen, opera cit. note 26.
79. On the notion of 'ontological gap' between any two inscriptions that follow each other in series of inscriptions, see Latour, op. cit. note 6, particularly Chapter 2, 'Circulating Reference: Sampling the Soil in the Amazon Forest', 24-79.
80. A number of researchers have described the function and work of formal representations in everyday activity ranging from observing lizards (Lynch) to birdwatching (Law & Lynch) and tracking organs (Hogle), patients (Berg), and air travellers and their baggages (Suchman & Trigg). In 'The Externalized Retina' (op. cit. note 40), Michael Lynch makes the point that the mathematical nature of the world is the result of doing the articulation work between an inherently mathematical inscription and an a priori unstructured dynamic continuum. See also Law & Lynch, op. cit. note 50; Linda F. Hogle, 'Standardization across Non-standard Domains: The Case of Organ Procurement', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Autumn 1995), 482-500; Marc Berg, 'Of Forms, Containers, and the Electronic Medical Record: Some Tools for a Sociology of the Formal', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Autumn 1997), 403-33; Lucy A. Suchman and Randy Trigg, 'Understanding Practice: Video as a Medium for Reflection and Design', in Joan Greenbaum and Morton Kyng (eds), Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 65-89.
81. A number of researchers have described the function and work of formal representations in everyday activity ranging from observing lizards (Lynch) to birdwatching (Law & Lynch) and tracking organs (Hogle), patients (Berg), and air travellers and their baggages (Suchman & Trigg). In 'The Externalized Retina' (op. cit. note 40), Michael Lynch makes the point that the mathematical nature of the world is the result of doing the articulation work between an inherently mathematical inscription and an a priori unstructured dynamic continuum. See also Law & Lynch, op. cit. note 50; Linda F. Hogle, 'Standardization across Non-standard Domains: The Case of Organ Procurement', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Autumn 1995), 482-500; Marc Berg, 'Of Forms, Containers, and the Electronic Medical Record: Some Tools for a Sociology of the Formal', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Autumn 1997), 403-33; Lucy A. Suchman and Randy Trigg, 'Understanding Practice: Video as a Medium for Reflection and Design', in Joan Greenbaum and Morton Kyng (eds), Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 65-89.
82. A number of researchers have described the function and work of formal representations in everyday activity ranging from observing lizards (Lynch) to birdwatching (Law & Lynch) and tracking organs (Hogle), patients (Berg), and air travellers and their baggages (Suchman & Trigg). In 'The Externalized Retina' (op. cit. note 40), Michael Lynch makes the point that the mathematical nature of the world is the result of doing the articulation work between an inherently mathematical inscription and an a priori unstructured dynamic continuum. See also Law & Lynch, op. cit. note 50; Linda F. Hogle, 'Standardization across Non-standard Domains: The Case of Organ Procurement', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Autumn 1995), 482-500; Marc Berg, 'Of Forms, Containers, and the Electronic Medical Record: Some Tools for a Sociology of the Formal', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Autumn 1997), 403-33; Lucy A. Suchman and Randy Trigg, 'Understanding Practice: Video as a Medium for Reflection and Design', in Joan Greenbaum and Morton Kyng (eds), Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 65-89.
83. A number of researchers have described the function and work of formal representations in everyday activity ranging from observing lizards (Lynch) to birdwatching (Law & Lynch) and tracking organs (Hogle), patients (Berg), and air travellers and their baggages (Suchman & Trigg). In 'The Externalized Retina' (op. cit. note 40), Michael Lynch makes the point that the mathematical nature of the world is the result of doing the articulation work between an inherently mathematical inscription and an a priori unstructured dynamic continuum. See also Law & Lynch, op. cit. note 50; Linda F. Hogle, 'Standardization across Non-standard Domains: The Case of Organ Procurement', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Autumn 1995), 482-500; Marc Berg, 'Of Forms, Containers, and the Electronic Medical Record: Some Tools for a Sociology of the Formal', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Autumn 1997), 403-33; Lucy A. Suchman and Randy Trigg, 'Understanding Practice: Video as a Medium for Reflection and Design', in Joan Greenbaum and Morton Kyng (eds), Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 65-89.
84. How forms as protocols articulate work and the practices people enact to achieve this articulation is in itself a most interesting phenomenon but which, for space limitation, we cannot further elaborate here.
85. For a similar shift, see the changing identities of the Zimbabwe Bush Pump, a mechanical entity that is a source of water, to one that is a source of health: de Laet & Mol, op. cit. note 11.
86. The OCP is a planning document that sets out a community's commitments. Any new by-laws enacted by council must be consistent with the Official Community Plan. It is a democratically negotiated document, which is updated about every 5-10 years.
87. Henderson Creek Project, 'Cutthroat Trout Habitat Enhancement Proposal for Henderson Creek through Community Park' (September 1998), 8.
88. Henderson Creek Project, 'Water Budget Proposal to South Island Aquatic Stewards' (18 January 1999), 3.
89. Chuck Goodwin has analysed the evidence given by a police officer called as an expert witness to provide his reading of the videotapes that had previously been shown on television: see Charles Goodwin, 'Professional Vision', American Anthropologist, Vol. 96 (1994), 606-33.
90. Both Bastide (op. cit. note 50) and Myers (op. cit. note 50) have provided comparative analyses of the work of reading different types of inscriptions.
91. On multiplicity in the form of multiple identity, multiple marginality, and multiple membership, see Star, op. cit. note 17.
92. 'Electro-shocking' is an accepted method of counting how many fish are in a small area. A registered electro-shocker inserts the tool into the water, and delivers a charge that stuns the fish without killing them, allowing them to be seen and enumerated.
93. Henderson Creek Project, op. cit. note 57, 9.
94. Henderson Creek Project, web site, 'about page': 'Why is the Health of Henderson Creek Important?'. [We cannot give further details of this web site without compromising the anonymity of our respondents.]
95. These include, according to the Kentucky Coal Mine Museum web site (a likely good source of information on these matters), methane and 'black damp', a colourless, odourless gas which is an 'instant killer': http://www.uky.edu/~rsilver/CommunityService/ ky-coal.htm; Bobbie Gothard, private communication (email, 7 September 1999).
96. These include, according to the Kentucky Coal Mine Museum web site (a likely good source of information on these matters), methane and 'black damp', a colourless, odourless gas which is an 'instant killer': http://www.uky.edu/~rsilver/CommunityService/ ky-coal.htm; Bobbie Gothard, private communication (email, 7 September 1999).
97. Benthic invertebrates are insects (usually larvae) that live in the creek and are the major food source for young trout.
98. Oceanside draft OCP, p. 56, sec. 11.1.5.
99. Henderson Creek Project, 'Letter to Council and OCP Planning Team' (18 November 1998).
100. Ecological Restoration is defined by the Society for Ecological Restoration as 'the process of assisting the recovery and management of ecological integrity. Ecological integrity includes a critical range of variability in biodiversity, ecological structures and processes, regional and historical context, and sustainable cultural practices': Eric Higgs, 'Designing, Not Faking, Nature', in Proceedings of 'Helping the Land Heal' (Vancouver, BC: The BC Environmental Network Educational Foundation, 1998), 34-40.
101. Henderson Creek Project, op. cit. note 57, 14.
102. Ibid.
103. Higgs, op. cit. note 69.
104. See BC ENEF, Proceedings, op. cit. note 69.
105. We use the term 'thickening' here to indicate both the gross material changes that occur as sketches become transformed into logs, and the practices and actor-networks necessary to re-situate and materialize theory-laden discourse: see Alder, op. cit. note 41.
106. A 'hip chain' is the same instrument Latour described as a 'pedofil' or 'Topofil Chaix™'. A spool of fine string is affixed to a counter inside a housing. As the spool unwinds, the counter records the distance of string that has just been unwound. The 'hip chain' is affixed to the surveyor's belt, thus allowing her to measure how far she has walked from a fixed point without using her hands to carry any type of measuring apparatus. See Latour, op. cit. note 6, 43.
107. Here, 'affordance' is understood as coined by James Gibson, a constraint that decreases the interpretative flexibility and makes some actions, meanings, more likely than others: James J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (New York: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1986), at 239.
108. Cf. Goodwin, op. cit. note 31, 253. The co-ordination of talk, perceptual structures in the setting, and gestures is a pervasive phenomenon in many different settings. Charles Goodwin has conducted a number of seminal studies in this respect. See also Goodwin, op. cit. note 59. Such co-ordination work is also highly relevant from developmental perspectives. Experience with worldly phenomena that can be pointed to and modelled by iconic gestures is crucial to the evolution of appropriate proto-scientific discourses among school-aged children. See Wolff-Michael Roth, 'From Gesture to Scientific Language', Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 32, No. 11 (2000), 1683-714; W.-M. Roth, 'Discourse and Agency in School Science Laboratories', Discourse Processes, Vol. 28, No. 1 (1999), 27-60.
109. Cf. Goodwin, op. cit. note 31, 253. The co-ordination of talk, perceptual structures in the setting, and gestures is a pervasive phenomenon in many different settings. Charles Goodwin has conducted a number of seminal studies in this respect. See also Goodwin, op. cit. note 59. Such co-ordination work is also highly relevant from developmental perspectives. Experience with worldly phenomena that can be pointed to and modelled by iconic gestures is crucial to the evolution of appropriate proto-scientific discourses among school-aged children. See Wolff-Michael Roth, 'From Gesture to Scientific Language', Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 32, No. 11 (2000), 1683-714; W.-M. Roth, 'Discourse and Agency in School Science Laboratories', Discourse Processes, Vol. 28, No. 1 (1999), 27-60.
110. Goodwin, 'Seeing in Depth', op. cit. note 31, 265.
111. For a more detailed explication of the many convergences possible in hybrid space, see Goodwin, ibid., 265-68.
112. Gomart and Hennion (op. cit. note 7, esp. 242-45) write of the meticulous preparation involved in setting the conditions for an event in which the person abandons a large degree of control.
113. For an elaborate treatment of this type of 'spreading around' of cognitive function, see Edwin Hutchins, 'How a Cockpit Remembers Its Speed', Cognitive Science, Vol. 19 (1995), 265-88.
114. Reid Helford (op. cit. note 25) also writes about how activists construct, physically and discursively, new 'ecologically correct' entities.
115. Peninsula News Review (30 June 1999), 9.
116. 'The regime of ecology simply says that we do not know what makes the common humanity of human beings and that, yes, maybe, without the elephants of the Ambolesi, without the meandering waters of the Drome, without the bears of the Pyrenees . . . [we] would not be human': Bruno Latour, 'To Modernize or to Ecologize? That's the Question', in Bruce Braun and Noel Castree (eds), Remaking Reality: Nature at the Millennium (London & New York: Routledge, 1998), 221-42, at 233.
117. In this part of the province, the First Nations people signed treaties with representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company, granting all the land to 'the white people and their descendants', and restricting them to small parcels of land, called Indian reserves, surrounding their traditional winter village sites.
118. Patricia Vickers, comment originally made at a meeting in February 2000 (edited version dated 25 October 2000).