Re: empty or not
Jay Lemke (JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU)
Tue, 23 Apr 96 23:27:37 EDT
I do not at all see Latour's networks as forged from the will
to power. Perhaps this impression comes from his arguments about
scientific rhetorics of persuasion, but in _We Have Never Been
Modern_ and in the work of many in the social studies of science
using the actor-network or actant-network model, it seems clear
that the enlistment of allies in science struggles is only one
special case, and that more generally what is being described
are networks of social practices linked by the actants that
participate in them (e.g. boundary objects in the way I know
Chuck B. uses them, as has Leigh Star), including the selves
we are when we are entrained by the activities of some segment
of a network. Human possibilities abound in this model because
we get remade (no essentialism) as we participate differently
in different networks. JAY.
JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
BITNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM
INTERNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU