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Mapping Controversies (Collins (1975) (Scientists' Activities in the…

- - - - Ships = Knowledge
      - Bottle = Validity
  - - - Unambiguous instructions can be formulated and transferred
      - When exact replications of scientific models does not happen, the reason is found in the incompleteness of the algorithm - sociologists look for the source of this.
      - Assumes knowledge is reducible
    - - Arises from the problematical statement of exact copy of the original
      - Transfer of knowledge is not directly monitorable
      - Through ones culture, we decide legitimate parameters, thus effectively deciding appropriate explanations of concepts
      - By effect only studying the successes leads to understandings, as failures arise from explainable factors
- - - - Concerned with theory of history, especially the shift from collective perspectives to that of individuals.
      - Chicagoan anthropologists, who took a swing at Kuhn, comparing his narrative strategies to rhetorical styles in baseball history
    - - Criticizes Kuhn for lacking any social perspectives.
    - - That Kuhn is lacking females in his descriptions is symptomatic of his social poverty.
- - - - Expressions of human nature
      - Traits which funnels disputes, are found among scientists entering their professions in search of fame and the extraordinary
      - Violations of institutional norms of intellectual property
  - - - trimming & cooking
    - - Active
      - Passive
      - Retreatism
- - - - Merton
        
        Normative structure or institutional ethos in science
        
        Sanctions
        
        Rewards
      - Kuhn
        
        Point model requires discovery to be instantanous
        
        Instead of focusing on who, Kuhn argues the crucial issue is what counts as, in the discovery
      - Brannigan
        
        Attributional model
        
        Focuses on the social processes, by which discoveries are recognised and attributed
        
        Questions the Point Model
      - Woolgar
        
        Shows that the date of the discovery varies depending on what stage in the process is taken to be the defining point of the discovery
        
        Attribution model
    - - Examining controversies involving science and technology in other arenas, than the scientific field, but rather the courtroom, the media, quasi-governmental policy organizations, and citizens’ action groups
    - - Nelkin
        
        4 types of political, ethical, economic controversies
        
        Conflicts between individual rights and group rights
        
        Health hazards
        
        Clash between the commercial and economic
        
        Social, moral and religious impact of science
      - There has been increasing recognition that science and technology are neither neutral nor necessarily beneficial
      - Jasanoff
        
        individual litigants are being replaced by statistical objects and the power of juries losing out to court appointed experts in the relevant science and technology
      - Attention is focused upon seeing how scientists become political rather than upon how politics might itself shape scientific knowledge.
        
        Separation between science and politics. Science controversy is closed methodologically and epistemologically, while political controversies are closed non-scientifically
        
        Goffman
        
        Front stage
        
        Formal policies
        
        Back stage
        
        Informal networks
    - - Bloor
        
        Symmetry principle
        
        How scientific knowledge is shaped and how this shaping
        contributes to the dynamics of controversies
        
        With each side alleging that it has "truth" on its side, and disparaging the theoretical and experimental efforts of the other, a symmetrical analysis can explain both sides of the controversy
        
        Theoretical analysis supported by historical case studies
      - Collins
        
        During controversies scientific findings exhibit interpretive flexibility, with facts being debated and interpreted in different ways by the parties. The point of closure can be deemed by researches when a controversy has vanished and consensus emerged
        
        Empirical method for studying the sociology of scientific knowledge in contemporaneous cases.
        
        Experimenter's regress
        
        The problem that arises, that when at research frontiers there is no agreed upon outcome by which to judge practitioners.
        
        Both the issue at hand, and the experiment become contested.
      - Shapin & Schaffer
        
        Studies the dispute over Boyle's airpump
        experiments
        
        showed how the wider political climate could shape the outcome of a controversy and at the same time help institutionalize a new way of fact making
        
        Virtual witnessing
      - Callon
        
        a controversy cannot be explained by reference to the social realm alone, but the analyst must also take account of the actions of non-human actors
      - The social construction of technology (SCOT)
        
        A variety of competing meanings are found in technological artefacts
        
        study how "closure mechanisms" such as advertising produce a stable meaning of a technology
      - Latour & Woolgar
        
        Controversy struggles involve aligning material and cognitive resources with social ones into black boxes, objects that remain fixed when transported along scientific networks, and which contain sets of social, cognitive and material relationships
        
        Literary inscriptions indicate how controversies can be analyzed in terms of certain modalities, and how these are added or subtracted from scientific statements - making the more or less fact-like
      - SSK has itself become a site of controversy. Most notably, lively controversies have occurred over the viability of interest explanations, over the extent to which the sociology of science should itself be reflexive about its methods and practices and over the role of non-human actors
- - - - Explores the tensions and political agendas embedded in practices including those of science and technology
      - Feminist cyborg
        
        The task of the investigator is to denaturalize relations and interfere in dominatory practices by articulating alternative politically hopeful or liberatory trope
- - - - Layout Algorithms
      - Data filtering
      - Statistics
      - Annotation
  - - - Size
        
        Adapted to represent ordinal values (comparability)
      - Position
        
        “the fewer the number of lines crossing, the better the sociogram
      - Hue
        
        Tends to be used to distinguish different categories of elements
    - - B.4
        
        Visualising Nodes Size
        
        4. How to read the hierarchy of connectivity
        
        Authorities
        
        The nodes that are the destination of many edges
        
        Hubs
        
        The nodes that are the origins of many edges
        
        Authorities are cited a lot while hubs cite a lot
        
        INTERPRETATION
        
        Indegree
        
        The size of each node according to number of incoming links
        
        Outdegree
        
        The size of each node according to number of outgoing links
        
        Ranking & Listing
        
        Projecting the ranking on the spatialized networks is interesting as it allows identifying where most hubs and authorities are located
        
        Questions to ask:
        
        Are they central in a cluster or do they bridge
        different regions
        
        Are they uniformly distributed or do they concentrate in some regions of the graph
        
        Is it possible to detect local hubs and authorities for each cluster
      - C.5
        
        Visualising Nodes Colours
        
        5. How to read the distribution of colored categories
        
        Observe if the nodes of the same color tend to be closer than nodes of different colors – creating a correspondence between the typology and the topology of the network
        
        when different layers of classification are present it is interesting to compare them and observe whether the different classifications produce the same borders in the network
        
        The nodes can and (when possible) should be classified according to different systems of classification. Each classification system is projected on the network as a layer of colors applied to the same base-map
        
        Exclusiveness
        
        The color is a non-mixable visual variable, thus you can only employ one color to each node.
      - A.1-3
        
        Visualising Nodes Position
        
        3. How to read centers and bridges
        
        Centrality
        
        Global (whole network)
        
        The elements that are globally central are driven in this position
        by the fact of being evenly linked to all the regions of the network
        
        Local (single cluster)
        
        The element that are locally central tend to be linked predominantly within one cluster
        
        Central positions (local or global) can be occupied by single nodes, clusters or by sub-clusters
        
        Bridges
        
        Nodes or clusters that have connections with several clusters (2<b<n)
        
        Outside
        
        Can be located outside the clusters they connect,
        if their connections are evenly distributed among them
        
        Within
        
        They can be located within one of the clusters, if they are more connected to it than to the others
        
        Questions to ask:
        
        Which nodes or clusters (if any) are located in the center of the network
        
        Which nodes or sub-clusters (if any) are located in the center of each cluster
        
        Which nodes (if any) are located in the center of each sub-cluster
        
        Which nodes or clusters (if any) are located among the main clusters
        
        Which nodes (if any) are located among the main sub-clusters
        
        INTERPRETATION
        
        When the bridging position of a node cannot be confirmed by the qualitative analysis, the best option is simply to ignore it. Unlike the larger patterns visible in the networks, single edges are not always significant. The aim of the visual analysis is not to explain the position of each and every node, but to detect large trends and notable nodes.
        
        1. How to read the variations of density
        
        Using force-directed algorithm
        
        Questions to ask:
        
        Which are the main clusters?
        
        Which are the main structural holes that separate them?
        
        Which are the sub-clusters within each cluster?
        
        Which are the smaller structural holes separating them?
        
        INTERPRETATION
        
        Find a suitable ‘collective name’ for each group of nodes
        
        Clusters are the main landmarks of the reading process.
        
        2. How to read the size and density of clusters
        
        Size
        
        Defined by number of nodes within
        
        Density
        
        Measures coherence in clusters
        
        Closeness
        
        1 more item...
        
        Afarness
        
        1 more item...
        
        INTERPRETATION
        
        The size and shape of larger clusters seem therefore to be consistent with the different types of social organizations present in our network
  - - - Observation and description always occur together
        
        Unfolding the complexity of the controversy should never be separated from ordering the complexity of the controversy
      - Exploration and representation always come together
    - - Being proportional in attention to actors
        
        Representativeness
        
        Not all perspectives are equally supported and social cartographers should find ways to render such disparity
        
        Influence
        
        Actors occupying influential positions deserve special attention because, like it or not, they will have better chances to shape controversies
        
        Interest
        
        No matter how marginal, disagreeing viewpoints can be interesting because they offer original perspectives
      - Researchers can focus on a sample of representative actors or concentrate on the most influential or spotlight marginal viewpoints, as long as they can justify their choice.
        
        Resistance is ensured by:
        
        Adaptation
        
        They should stretch to cover as many native representations and overlay as few interpretative layers as possible. A skyscraper of interpretations is the last thing to build on a seismic ground
        
        Redundance
        
        The key to drawing effective representations is drawing many of them: each one dedicated to a different aspect of the phenomenon
        
        Redundancy stabilizes representations and makes them able to stand the quakes of public debate.
        
        Flexibility
- - - - Western & Maitumo
        
        Moving from management of wildlife to conservation of biodiversity
        
        Relationship between elephant concentration and biodiversity - Elephants accounting for 85% of tree loss, but both too few and too many destroyed biodiversity
        
        Showing elephants to be Keystone Species in biodiversity
        
        Conservation biologists
      - Moss
        
        Rights of animals
        
        Studies of social behavior of elephants
        
        Contrasting the view of Western m.fl
        
        Kiss
        
        Also sceptical about Western
        
        Suggesting leasing land from locals to expand the woodland while protecting the elephants
        
        Elephant behaviorists
      - Maasai
        
        Interested (curious) about gaining back some say about the local land and control over local wildlife
        
        Intergenerational conflicts about appropriateness and means when doing entrepreneurial conservation
        
        Although the women are involved and participating in conservation, they were not present at the workshop at the time
      - Leakey
        
        First conservation biologist later protector of elephants
        
        Staging an televisionalised burn of ivory, constituting the anti-poaching stand of Kenya
    - - Western
        
        Biodiversity gradient
        
        Arguing that culling or fertility control would be preferable (but fertility too expensive) as to keep population low.
      - Moss
        
        The elephant population as important for science itself - a gold mine
        
        Elephants should be protected because of their intrinsic rights as complex social creatures
      - Poole & Kangwana
        
        Acknowledged loss of woodland, and argued for a migration route
        
        Seeing conservation as being about protecting elephants
      - Waitaka
        
        Described the different ecological systems of sumps, woodland etc
        
        Argued that the mosaic of the savannah were dependend on appropriate movement of elephants in relation to humans, wildlife, livestock
      - Oloitiptip
        
        Arguing the points of the Maasai, who nomatter wat, would suffer from any solution
        
        Maasai saying cattle create trees, elephants create grass
        
        Irony in first removing Maasai, claiming them to be cause of destruction, to a even worse situation, where Maasai again, were on the loosing team
    - - Western
        
        Aligning politically and historically with the local Maasai people
        
        Using the translation of the 'tour' to 'see for their own eyes' established his truth
        
        Arguing that the idea of peer-review science was inappropriate in conservation issues, as this was too little situated, and thus lacked the necessary perspectives.
      - Moss
        
        Arguing the points of the disinterested science and the need for peer-review material. If anybody had data proving the points of Western it should be shown, but his local data was not proof enough in her eyes
        
        Arguing against inviting the press, on the base of the conservation of elephants being a 'science' issue.
      - Maasai
        
        Mainly agreed with the points put forward by Western and more.
        
        Pointed to how science was the first step in a long political process, thus them being more concerned (perhaps) about the political issues at hand, than that of solemly the elephants or solemly the ecological system
        
        Not particulary impressed by any scientific processes, thus aligning with the view of locla knowledge by Western
      - The press
        
        Picking up and reporting the unfolding events, but also trying to change the views of the people involved
      - The behavior biologists (elephant watchers) could have won, if they had activated their political ties more. They had the lower hand, even before the workshop, due to them lacking the local connections
- - - - “Just observe and describe controversies”—nothing easier, except for two little problems: “just” and “controversies.”
        
        Observe: deploying the complexity of controversies
        
        Describe: ordering the complexity of controversies
        
        Just
        
        1.
        
        Invites scholars to use every observation tool at hand, as well as mixing them without restraint.
        
        Surprise and curiosity should inspire their notions and protocols more than the other way around
        
        You shall not restrain your observation to any single theory or methodology
        
        2.
        
        Objectivity can be pursued only by multiplying the points of observation
        
        The more numerous the perspectives the more objective and impartial will be its observation
        
        You shall observe from as many viewpoints as possible
        
        3.
        
        Researchers are obliged to reconsider their attitude toward their subjects of study
        
        Entails the idea that participants to social phenomena may be as informed as investigator
        
        You shall listen to actors’ voices more than to your own presumptions
      - When you look for controversies, search where collective life gets most complex: where the largest and most diverse assortment of actors is involved; where alliances and opposition transform recklessly; where nothing is as simple as it seems; where everyone is shouting and quarreling; where conflicts grow harshest. There, you will find the object of the cartography of controversies
      - Constructivist
        
        Nothing can attain a collective existence without being the result of collective work and controversies are the settings where this work is more visible
        
        What should be observed are the actors-networks—that is to say, the fleeting configurations where actors are renegotiating the ties of old networks and the emergence of new networks is redefining the identity of actors
      - Four Recommendations
        
        1.
        
        You shall not simplify the number of propositions to be taken into account in the discussion. Perplexity
        
        2.
        
        You shall make sure that the number of voices that participate in the articulation of propositions is not arbitrarily short-circuited.Consultation
        
        3.
        
        You shall discuss the compatibility of new propositions with those which are already instituted, in such a way as to maintain them all in the same common world that will give them their legitimate place. Hierarchization
        
        4.
        
        Once the propositions have been instituted, you shall no longer question their legitimate presence at the heart of collective life. Institution
    - - "every bit of science and technology which is not yet stabilized, closed or “black boxed”
      - Controversies begin when actors discover that they cannot ignore each other and controversies end when actors manage to work out a solid compromise to live together. Anything between these two extremes can be called a controversy
      - Situations where actors disagree (or better, agree on their disagreement)
      - Characteristics
        
        1.
        
        Controversies involve all kind of actors
        
        Controversies are the place where the most heterogeneous relationships are formed - a space of conflict and negotiation among actors that would otherwise happily ignore each other
        
        2.
        
        Controversies display the social in its most dynamic form
        
        No natural or technical assembly can be taken for granted. In controversies, any actor can decompose in a loose network and any network, not matter how heterogeneous, can coagulate to function as an actor.
        
        3.
        
        Controversies are reduction-resistant
        
        That’s why issues are so difficult to solve, because they are impossible to reduce to a single resuming question. The difficulty of controversy is not that actors disagree on answers, but that they cannot even agree on questions.
        
        4.
        
        Controversies are debated
        
        Controversies are discussions (even if not always verbal ones) where more and more objects are discussed by more and more actors
        
        5.
        
        Controversies are conflicts
        
        No matter how trivial their objects may be, actors always take quarrels very seriously, for they know that social order and social hierarchy are at stake. Controversies decide and are decided by the distribution of power. Actors are not born equals in controversies.
      - A good controversy
        
        1.
        
        There must be some action going on
        
        Avoid cold controversies
        
        2.
        
        Avoid past controversies
        
        Issues should be studied when they are both salient and unresolved
        
        3.
        
        Avoid boundless controversies
        
        The more a controversy is restricted to a specific subject, the easier will be its analysis
        
        4.
        
        Avoid underground controversies*
        
        The cartography of controversies was developed to map public space
    - - 1.
        
        From statements to literatures
        
        The first task of social cartography is to map this web of references, revealing how dispersed discourses are woven into articulated literatures
      - 2.
        
        From literature to actors
        
        Whenever you wonder if something is acting in a controversy, just ask yourself if its presence or absence does make a difference. If it does and if this difference is perceived by other actors, then it is an actor
      - 3.
        
        From actors to networks
        
        Observing controversies is observing the unceasing work of tying and untying connections. In Latour’s own words “Being connected, being interconnected, being heterogeneous, is not enough ... really, we should say ‘worknet’ instead of ‘network’. It’s the work, and the movement, and the flow, and the changes that should be stressed”
      - 4.
        
        From networks to cosmoses
        
        Ideologies are not meant to be descriptions of the world as it is, but visions of the world as it should be. While collective life is chaotic and erratic, ideologies are orderly and harmonious: they are not universes, but cosmoses.
      - 5.
        
        From cosmoses to cosmopolitics
        
        Its understanding requires abandoning one of the most venerable ideas of Western culture: the belief that, behind all ideologies and controversies, some objective reality must exist independently from what actors think or say