Engineering Practice and STS

1. Centre for Science StudiesLancaster University Engineering Practice and STS John Law

2. 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

3. A Word on SCOT Social interests shape technologies: bicycles; print technologies; military hardware; genomics Social forces, interests (society) Technologies, engineering (artefacts) 3

4. Co-construction? Society shapes technologies: and technologies shape society bicycles; print technologies; military hardware; genomics! Social forces, interests (society) Technologies, engineering (artefacts) 4

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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

8. Today’s Talk STS works empirically! Three cases Simple example: salmon farm (new) Large scale example (Portuguese) Management (Daresbury Laboratory) 8

9. The Salmon Farm

10. 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’ 10

11. Question: how is it possible to grow salmon in a tank?

12. 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?

13. 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 13

14. An actor-network? God Boats People Farmed Salmon Electricity Water Food pellets Piped Oxygen Paperwork Displays

15. Compare and Contrast! People?! ‘Wild’ Salmon Water Food Air 15

16. An actor-network? God Boats People Farmed Salmon Electricity Water Food pellets Piped Oxygen Paperwork Displays 16

17. 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

18. More! But not everything is connected! I need to trace disconnections too (Salmon need to be separated from ….?)

19. The Salmon not-network?! Regulators Freezing water Disease Salmon Freedom! Wild Salmon Birds Seals Sea Lice Warm water 19

20. Is also a network?! Vaccination Disease Salmon Freedom! Chemicals Birds Seals Sea Lice Nets 20

21. A salmon actor-network Practices that enact … • Connections/networks/links(water, electricity, oxygen, feed…) • Barriers/separations(vaccination, biosecurity, nets, disinfection, age-classes, wild salmon)

22. 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!

23. An Actor Network on a Global Scale?

24. An Actor Network on a Global Scale? Question? How did the Portuguese get to India? & Taiwan! Answer! The built a heterogeneous network! 24

25. The Portuguese built an actor-network Starting c. 1400 • Ships • Navigation • Guns • Money & trade

26. Ships as Actor-networks 26

27. Ships as actor-networks the European Galley • Mediterranean • Large crew • Small cargo • Poor endurance • Seaworthy?!

28. The actor-network galley Fast Lots of crew The Galley Water Food Un-seaworthy Could not go far!! Storms!! 28

29. Ships as actor-networks: the European Cog • North SeaBaltic • Seaworthy • Small crew • Square sail:Could not sailagainst wind • Not manoeuvrable

30. The Actor-network Cog Not manoeuvrable Small crew The Cog Water Food Seaworthy 30

31. The Caravel: or Designing a new heterogeneous network!

32. Designing the new actor-network ship • Choice of power: winds or people? • Wind, not people (endurance needed!) • Use prevailing winds – multiple masts • Sail close to wind: triangular sails

33. The Caravel-network 1 Winds Long distances endurance Sails (Small) Crew

34. The Caravel-network 2 Winds Sails Lateen sails 3+ masts Small draft Manoeuvrable Inshore exploring

35. The Caravel-network 3 (Small) Crew Food / water Storage

36. The Caravel-network Winds Long distances endurance Sails (Small) Crew Lateen sails 3+ masts Food / water Small draft Manoeuvrable Storage Inshore exploring

37. 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. 37

38. The Problem • The Problem! • Latitude? How far north or south?

39. The Answer: Navigation as an Actor-Network • How far north or south? • Use celestial navigation! • Measure the angle of the north star … or sun 39

40. The Navigation actor network Pole Star 40

41. The Navigation actor network Skilled navigator Calculate Latitude Pole Star Measure altura Astrolabe 41

42. 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

43. The Navigation actor network Skilled navigator Calculate Latitude Pole Star Sun Measure altura Ephemerides Astrolabe Write it on slate

44. Building a global Actor-Network • Ships • Navigation • Guns and force • Trade • Artful • Precarious • Heterogeneous 44

45. Actor-Network Heterogeneity • Objects • Ships, sails, stores • Astrolabes, instruments • People • sailors, navigators • Texts • Emphemerides • Natural phenomena • Sun, stars, winds, currents

46. 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 46

47. 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

48. The actor-network of a large laboratory 48

49. 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

50. Management meeting • Difficult to show this quickly! But let’s try • A management board conversation:about money to put archives right…. 50