Publications, recordings and other outputs

The contribution of the field of science and technology studies (STS) to mainstream sociology has so far been slim because of a misunderstanding about what it means to provide a social explanation of a piece of science or of an artefact. The type of explanation possible for religion, art or popular culture no longer works in the case of hard science or technology. This does not mean, it is argued, that science and technology escapes sociological explanation, but that a deep redescription of what is a social explanation is in order. Once this misunderstanding has been clarified, it becomes interesting to measure up the challenge raised by STS to the usual epistemologies social sciences believed necessary for their undertakings. The social sciences imitate the natural sciences in a way that render them unable to profit from the type of objectivity found in the natural sciences. It is argued that by following the STS lead, social sciences may start to imitate the natural sciences in a very different fashion. Once the meanings of "social" and of "science" are reconfigured, the definition of what a "social science" is and what it can do in the political arena is considered. Again it is not by imitating the philosophers of science's ideas of what is a natural science that sociology can be made politically relevant.

LATOUR, B. (2000): When things strike back: A possible contribution of "science studies" to the social sciences. The British Journal of Sociology, 51 (1): 107-123

"This 2-CD set collects a self-released studio tape from 1983, Dvouletá Fáma's sole album, and two concerts from 1988. The bands featured on the two discs are very different and barely deserve the same name. In 1983, Dvouletá Fáma was the quartet of Zdenek Konopásek (drums), Martin Vik (guitar), Jana Machácková (vocals) and Ivan Benda (bass). They played complicated new-wave pop songs that stood somewhere between Talking Heads, Pere Ubu, and the Art Bears. The studio 1983 CD bristle with quirkiness and charm. Vik's twangy out-of-tune guitar is a perfect match for Machácková's playful vocal delivery (some may be reminded of After Dinner's Haco). More challenging but still very interesting, the live 1988 disc is a very different affair. Only Konopásek and Vik remain of the original line-up. During the first 14 tracks (recorded on June 12, 1988) they perform as a trio with poet/actor Radomil Uhlír. The last six tracks (date unspecified but obviously a few months later) also feature bassist Josef Ferda Matousek. These pieces inhabit much darker realms, include a lot of improvisation and are dominated by Uhlír's theatrical (and often absurd) recitation. While the non-Czech speaking listener can thoroughly enjoy disc 1, one has the clear impression to miss a crucial dimension in the second one. It still has its moments and from the general mood it draws comparisons with Mikolás Chadima's MCH Band. The tapes have been beautifully remastered for this edition, making Studio 1983 & Live 1988 more rewarding than much of Black Point's other Archiv titles." François Couture, All-Music Guide [audio samples here]

Translation of: LATOUR, B. (undated): Let’s us not overlook the earthworm Pontoscolex corethrurus. Manuscript, available at http://bruno.latour.fr

Although nature often has been treated as an unproblematic reality, I argue for treating it as a contested concept, suggesting that "nature" is a cultural construction. Drawing on interactionist and ecological theory, I claim that the creation of social problems involving the environment is inevitably grounded in cultural choices. Through a set of ideological structures (a protectionist vision, an organic vision, and a humanistic vision), social actors develop templates for understanding the proper relationship between humans and nature. Based on an ethnography of mushroom collecting, I contend that these models lead us to experience nature through cultural eyes - wishing to be away from civilization, to be at one with nature, and to engage in the pragmatic use of nature for personal ends. Conflicting stances toward nature account for debate over the moral acceptability of the commercial collection of mushrooms and the "problem" of overpick. Templates of human-environmental interaction, leading to models for experiencing the wild, provide the basis for understanding the conditions under which environmental change is defined as a social problem.

FINE, G.A. (1997): Naturework and the taming of the wild: The problem of "overpick" in the culture of mushroomers. Social Problems, 44 (1): 68-88

This paper attempts an analysis of some of the methodological practices of Conversation Analysis (CA); in particular, tape recording and transcription. The paper starts from the observation that, in the CA literature, these practices, and the analytic objects they create (the tape and the transcript), are accorded different treatment: simply put, for CA the tape is a "realist" object, while the transcript is a "constructivist" one. The significance of this difference is explored through an analysis of the dynamics of CA practice. We argue that the "constructivist transcript" is premised on an understanding of CA as predominantly concerned with maximising its "analytic utility": a concern of one distinct temporal stage of CA work: that of the "innocent" apprehension of objects in the "first time through". The "realist tape", in contrast, is based on a different aspect of the work of CA: its quest for greater "evidential utility", achieved by the "nostalgic" revisiting of previously produced objects for purposes of checking them against each other; work done in the "next time through". We further argue that both the ontology and the epistemology of CA[a]s objects are changed in any next time encounter. We conclude with a cautionary speculation on the currently-projected, transcript-free, digital future of CA.

ASHMORE, M. / REED, D. (2000): Innocence and nostalgia in conversation analysis: The dynamic relations of tape and transcript. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(3): 45 paragraphs., art. 3. Available at http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs000335