Richard Grusin’s account of Bruno Latour’s talk, chaired by Isabelle Stengers, at “The Large, The Small, and the Human Mind” conference last week, as part of the Swiss Biennial on Science, Technics + Aesthetics in Lucerne.
Compositionism
19 January 2010 by PEDeleuze and Speculative Realism
18 January 2010 by PEIt would sure be interesting to explore further the confluence of Deleuze and Latour, and the eddies they create in object-oriented philosophy. If you feel inspired to contribute, see this call for papers by Deleuze International (hat tip to Object-Oriented Philosophy and Speculative Heresy).
The Nature of Technology
16 January 2010 by PESpeaking of journals and technology, the special issue of the Cambridge Journal of Economics on the question concerning technology has now been published and it is apparently freely available for a month (hat tip to Object-Oriented Philosophy). It is set to become a definitive point of reference on how technology matters for the social sciences, given the comprehensive and multidisciplinary overview of the problem provided by some of the most interesting people working on the subject (or shall we say object). This also explains the conundrum of why an economics journal had commissioned a philosopher (Graham Harman) to write an article about Heidegger’s take on technology, which really intrigued me at the time. Here are my initial ruminations on Harman’s article from May 2009. Needless to say, this Cambridge J. Econ. special issue is very close to the ANTHEM focus, namely the overlap and communication between Heideggerian, STS, and economic approaches to the question of technology.
Here is the list of articles and contributors:
The Nature of Technology
Philip Faulkner, Clive Lawson, and Jochen Runde: Theorising technology
Philosophy of technology
Graham Harman: Technology, objects and things in Heidegger
Albert Borgmann: Reality and technology
Andrew Feenberg: Marxism and the critique of social rationality: from surplus value to the politics of technology
Peter Kroes: Engineering and the dual nature of technical artefacts
Wiebe E. Bijker: How is technology made?—That is the question!
Trevor Pinch: On making infrastructure visible: putting the non-humans to rights
Tim Ingold: The textility of making
Marcia-Anne Dobres: Archaeologies of technology
Robert Aunger: What’s special about human technology?
Wanda J. Orlikowski: The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research
Judy Wajcman: Feminist theories of technology
Technology and Economics
J. Stan Metcalfe: Technology and economic theory
Giovanni Dosi and Marco Grazzi: On the nature of technologies: knowledge, procedures, artifacts and production inputs
Carlota Perez: Technological revolutions and techno-economic paradigms
Tony Smith: Technological change in Capitalism: some Marxian themes
Anne Mayhew: Clarence Ayres, technology, pragmatism and progress
What is Technology?
15 January 2010 by PEA call for papers with a proper question: “What is Technology?” – Theory, History, Ontology, by the International Social Science Journal (ISSJ).
Reposing the Heideggerean question of Being and techné, this volume of the International Social Science Journal aspires to again ask “what is technology?” and interrogate the effects of technology on subjectivity, psyche and the body. We ask how the technological infiltrates and shapes social facts and problematize the long-standing distinction between nature and techné. How are post-modern subjectivities interpolated by the technological and how is the very notion of the human called into question in light of advances in science and technology?
Moreover, this issue will seek to telescope the very possibility of an ethics of science and technology and the philosophical grounds for such an ethics in an age bereft of all narratives of transcendence. Themes to be engaged include:
1. History/Theory
2. The post-human/trans-human/cyborgs
3. Cybernetics, Nanotechnology, and Converging Technologies
4. Language, Culture, Subjectivity
Contributions can emerge from any discipline and theoretical orientation.
Please send abstracts and queries to S. Romi Mukherjee by 28 February 2010. Final articles expected for July 2010. E-mail: s.mukherjee@unesco.org
Sloterdijk in English
3 January 2010 by PEA nice bibliography of Peter Sloterdijk’s work in English with links, from Sean Sturm.
ANT job at the New School
31 December 2009 by PEThis might very well be the first time I have ever seen a job advert specifically looking for someone with expertise in actor-network theory. And it’s not just any old school, it’s the New School in New York! They are looking for an Assistant Professor of International Affairs. Apply here. Good luck, job seekers!
The New School’s Graduate Program in International Affairs (GPIA), a multidisciplinary Master’s level program that bridges critical theory and practical training, invites applications for a three-year term faculty position at the level of Assistant Professor, beginning on July 1, 2010. (Faculty appointments are renewable.) We are looking for a social scientist who works on issues relating to governance or conflict and security, both broadly understood. Candidates whose research agenda stems from engagement with social and political theory, actor-network theory, critical political economy, or comparable approaches, are of particular interest. The ideal candidate should have a strong interest in the methodology of inquiry in the social sciences and a focus on geographical regions outside of Europe and the United States would be of particular interest. While the position is primarily dedicated to supporting the graduate program, there will be opportunities for undergraduate teaching.
Market Studies Workshop
21 December 2009 by PE
See this call for papers for EIASM’s 1st Interdisciplinary Market Studies Workshop to be held near Stockholm on 3-4 June 2010. The announcement gives a good summary of the recent surge of interest in the nature of markets and the contributions actor-network theory driven approaches and science and technology studies (STS) have made to this area in recent years. The workshop aims to be interdisciplinary and calls for contributions from all areas that have an interest in markets, such as business studies, marketing, STS, economic sociology, economics, economic geography, consumer research, cultural studies and anthropology.
Possible topics:
- the various forms markets may assume
- the processes through which markets are realized
- the import of economic theories at large on markets (economics, marketing, strategy)
- the role of devices and metrics in shaping markets
- the role of “market professionals” in the organizing of markets
- how regulators act in and on markets
- how representations of markets contribute to shape the markets they depict
- how market agencies are equipped
- how markets produce values
To apply, submit a 3-page abstract by 29 January 2010. The organising committee consists of Hans Kjellberg (Stockholm School of Economics), Debbie Harrison (Norwegian School of Management), Claes-Fredrik Helgesson (Linköping University), and Susi Geiger (University College Dublin). Guest speakers include Bernard Cova (Euromed Marseille), Barbara Czarniawska (Gothenburg School of Economics), and Steve Woolgar (Saïd Business School, Oxford).
Algorithmic Allure
19 December 2009 by PEIt is nice to learn from Graham Harman that his Bournemouth talk last year on Heidegger’s “origin of the work of art” essay has directly inspired this interesting forthcoming paper by Robert Jackson: “Heidegger, Harman and Algorithmic Allure.” That event was actually organised by Tammy Lu at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth (since then renamed as the Arts University College at Bournemouth), although I was the one who took this crazy photo of Graham:
Three days later Graham gave another talk on “The Greatness of McLuhan” at the Media School at Bournemouth University. We posted the recordings of both talks on this blog and they both became quite popular, however the Heidegger talk has the edge: it has been downloaded 1,027 times since 8 February 2008, as opposed to the 884 downloads of the McLuhan talk.
Strangely, both of these talks are more popular than Harman’s first lecture at the LSE “On Actors, Networks, and Plasma: Heidegger vs. Latour vs. Heidegger” on 29 November 2007, which has been downloaded 778 times, even though that was the event that launched the Heideggero-Latourian project most explicitly. I would have thought that the juxtaposition of Heidegger and Latour and the invocation of Latour’s concept of the plasma would be provocatively alluring (or alluringly provocative) enough to attract more attention. But the most popular Harman download (besides the respectable 1,688 downloads of the Harman Review itself) seems to be his “Assemblages According to Manuel DeLanda” from November 2008, with 1,385 downloads since then.
[Although I should hasten to add that these figures are somewhat misleading, as both the plasma talk and the Harman Review are also available on the LSE website, so probably just as many people if not more would have downloaded them from there. As for the DeLanda talk, it received a boost after being listed on Speculative Heresy.]
Jackson’s paper sounds very interesting though, so I’ll reproduce his abstract here:
Object-Oriented Octopus
17 December 2009 by PEI hereby nominate this very clever octopus to the post of official mascot of object-oriented ontology. If there was any doubt that humans (and primates and ants and birds and so on) were not the only creatures that can use tools, then this should settle it. Even an invertebrate knows how to use tools. More than that, this octopus uses tools to build a dwelling, for the very practical and sensible reason of protecting and furthering its existence. As Heidegger put it, “Dwelling, however, is the basic character of Being in keeping with which mortals exist. (…) Building and thinking are, each in its own way, inescapable for dwelling.” (p. 158). If that’s the case, then it’s time perhaps to freshen up Heidegger a bit. Enough talk of man, how about octopus?
“What if octopus’s homelessness consisted in this, that octopus still does not even think of the real plight of dwelling as the plight? Yet, as soon as octopus gives thought to his [or her] homelessness, it is a misery no longer. Rightly considered and kept well in mind, it is the sole summons that calls mortals into their dwelling. ” [After Heidegger, p. 159]
Reference:
Heidegger, M. (1975). Poetry, Language, Thought. New York, Harper & Row.
