Bourdieu’s Cleft Sociology of Science

The paper examines Pierre Bourdieu’s extensive writings on the production of scientific knowledge. The study shows that Bourdieu offered not one but two - significantly different - approaches to scientific knowledge production, one formulated in his theoretical, or programmatic, writings on the subject, the other developed in his empirical writings. Addressing the question as to the relevance of Bourdieu’s work for science studies, the analysis argues that the former of these two approaches is at once very visible in Bourdieu’s work but characterized by limitations from the standpoint of scholarship in STS, whereas the latter approach is less conspicuous but of broader empirical value.     

From the Obligation of Birth to the Obligation of Care: Esposito’s Biophilosophy and Recalcati’s ‘New Symptoms’

This essay addresses the controversial status of subjectivity in Esposito’s affirmative biopolitics and articulates it using Recalcati’s psychoanalytical theory, with the aim of promoting a non-vitalistic affirmative biopolitics. In biopolitical theory in general, and in Esposito’s especially, subjectivity has a problematic status: while life precedes intersubjectivity, it is not clear whether subjectivity is regarded as a consequence or as the precondition of intersubjectivity (and thus of life). Esposito acknowledges such an aporia, the subjectum suppositum, but fails to recognise it in his own reasoning, ultimately envisioning a powerful interpretative and transformative paradigm – affirmative biopolitics – whilst leaving at its core a life-less subject. In this essay, I read Esposito’s affirmative biopolitics through Recalcati’s clinical approach to the ‘new symptoms’, with the aim of envisioning a subjectivity compatible with the ontogenetic primacy of life posited by biopolitical theory. Ultimately, the aim of this article is to suggest that an affirmative biopolitics, grounded on the promotion of neither a pre-subjective bare life, nor of a lifeless subject, but of a fully subjective life, a living subject is possible.     

Photographer’s Memories of VIPs in 16 Years

~~Photographer’s Memories of VIPs in 16 Years     

A Cartography of Philosophy’s Engagement with Society

Minerva - Should philosophy help address the problems of non-philosophers or should it be something isolated both from other disciplines and from the lay public? This question became more than...     

Revisiting ‘Weinberg’s Choice’: Classic Tensions in the Concept of Scientific Merit

Alvin Weinberg’s classic and much debated two articles in Minerva, “Criteria for Scientific Choice” (1963) and “Criteria for Scientific Choice II – The Two Cultures” (1964), represent two of the first and most important attempts to create a meta-discourse about priority setting in science policy, and many of the points advanced remain relevant. The goal of this paper is to elaborate on the relevance of some of Weinberg’s original arguments to priority setting today. We have singled out four issues for attention: The tension between scientific and institutional choice, the assumptions behind the triad of scientific, technological and social merit, the elusive ‘externality from size’ argument for funding promoted by Weinberg, and finally the problems involved in the idea of basic science as an ‘overhead cost’ for applied science, and applied science as an ‘overhead’ on a sectoral mission. These four issues will be elaborated from a policy perspective and connected to present day challenges for science and technology policy.     

Exploring representations of Black masculinity and emasculation on NBC’s Parenthood

Here, representations of Black masculinity and emasculation are explored on NBC’s Parenthood. We question whether depictions of Black masculinity represented through Parenthood’s character, Alex, are empowering or stereotypical; how do they reflect, destabilize, and/or reinforce heteronormative depictions of Black community members? Two seasons were analyzed using Owen’s thematic analysis. Ultimately, Black males are portrayed as being societal failures, criminals, violent, and hypersexualized through his character. This embodiment ultimately preserves long-held images of Black men as “Toms, coons?…?bucks?…?as oversexed, aggressive, violent, animalistic, or emasculated” (Jackson, R. L. II. 2006. Scripting the black masculine body: Identity, discourse, and racial politics in popular media. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press). Practical recommendations and suggestions for researchers and media practitioners are provided.     

The Universal Values of Science and China’s Nobel Prize Pursuit

China does not seem to believe the existence of universally acknowledged values in science and fails to promote the observation of such values that also should be applied to every member of the scientific community and at all times. Or, there is a separation between the practice of science in China and the values represented by modern science. In this context, science, including the pursuit of the Nobel Prize, is more a pragmatic means to achieve the end of the political leadership – the national pride in this case – than an institution laden with values that govern its practices. However, it is the recognition and respect of the latter that could lead to achievement of the former, rather than the other way around.     

Zhao Chants Master’s Songs

~~Zhao Chants Master’s Songs@David     

The EPSRC’s Policy of Responsible Innovation from a Trading Zones Perspective

Responsible innovation (RI) is gathering momentum as an academic and policy debate linking science and society. Advocates of RI in research policy argue that scientific research should be opened up at an early stage so that many actors and issues can steer innovation trajectories. If this is done, they suggest, new technologies will be more responsible in different ways, better aligned with what society wants, and mistakes of the past will be avoided. This paper analyses the dynamics of RI in policy and practice and makes recommendations for future development. More specifically, we draw on the theory of ‘trading zones’ developed by Peter Galison and use it to analyse two related processes: (i) the development and inclusion of RI in research policy at the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); (ii) the implementation of RI in relation to the Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering (SPICE) project. Our analysis reveals an RI trading zone comprised of three quasi-autonomous traditions of the research domain – applied science, social science and research policy. It also shows how language and expertise are linking and coordinating these traditions in ways shaped by local conditions and the wider context of research. Building on such insights, we argue that a sensible goal for RI policy and practice at this stage is better local coordination of those involved and we suggest ways how this might be achieved.     

When socialists marketize: the case of China’s wind power market sector

This paper analyzes China’s attempt at maintaining and stabilizing the market framing of wind power development as ‘sustainable.’ Drawing on mixed data and new directions in the social studies of marketization, the analysis focuses on the Chinese government’s responses to the ‘quality crisis’ in the wind turbine industry. Employing five types of framing – goods, marketizing agencies, market encounters, price-setting, and market design and maintenance – the paper sheds light on flexible government interventions to steer the socio-technical assemblage around wind power towards a ‘turn to quality.’ In essence, this is a study of market construction in the context of Chinese wind power experiments. The paper contributes to new directions in market studies by (1) demonstrating the importance of attending to the contested algorithmic transformation of wind resources to wind power; (2) taking market studies to a transitional and developmental context, which renders marketization prone to constant overflowing; and (3) elucidating a particular Chinese model of experimental market construction ‘through embracing overflowing.’ The paper proposes new trajectories for future market studies with a focus on non-Western contexts, to reveal the wide variety of how marketization unfolds.     

Rousseau’s Crusoe myth: the unlikely provenance of the neoclassical homo economicus

The neoclassical homo economicus has escaped the narrow confines of economic theory and is today embodied countless times over in the everyday behaviour that so much of the modern economy is set up precisely to serve. Not all of the authors of leading books on economic principles have named the neoclassical homo economicus, but when they have done so it is overwhelmingly in the same way. They have given him the human form of a Robinson Crusoe figure, despite the fact that his behavioural motivations and his practical conduct owe next-to-nothing to Daniel Defoe’s original characterisation. I suggest that the route to today’s cultural familiarity with the neoclassical homo economicus instead passes through the entirely unwitting hands of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He substituted Defoe’s account of the castaway’s continuing deference to prevailing social norms with his own idealised vision of how the individual might use solitude to escape the corrupting influences of modern society. It is altogether another desocialised individual also bearing the Crusoe name who has latterly shaped many of the economics textbooks’ renderings of the neoclassical homo economicus. However, we can get to him only by first understanding the essential features of Rousseau’s Crusoe myth.     

‘Terra Sigillata imitations’ from Nyon (SW Switzerland): one of Fronto’s workshops?

The production of Terra Sigillata imitations (TSI) from Nyon (south-west Switzerland) (15–30 A.D.) was studied from the chemical-mineralogical point of view, in order to define a new reference group and to prove if one piece stamped by the potter Fronto (ZA165) and found at the same place, was produced in the workshop of Nyon. Three Fronto stamped wasters found at Augst were compared with the local Nyon TSI in order to verify the possibility of the existence of two different workshops of this potter during the Gallo-Roman period. The analysed Nyon wasters may be divided into two groups, differing in CaO content. Most of the samples are characterised by high CaO concentrations and the Fronto stamped piece (ZA 165) is similar to this group. Nine samples form a small cluster characterised by lower CaO and MgO contents. Stamped wasters from Augst show a very different chemical pattern compared with the TSI of Nyon. One new reference group is proposed, consisting of CaO-rich samples from Nyon. Samples from Augst were certainly produced in a different workshop. The presence of two Fronto workshops is therefore presumed.     

Aesthetics Guru’s Passion for Rocks

~~Aesthetics Guru’s Passion for Rocks@David     

Facelift Restores Buddha’s Tang Glory

~~Facelift Restores Buddha’s Tang Glory@David     

Tea Party Celebrates Wang’s Dedication

~~Tea Party Celebrates Wang’s Dedication@David