Chasing Technoscience: Matrix for Materiality

by Evan Selinger (Editor), Donna J. Haraway, Don Ihde

". . . an original, quirky, and illuminating collection of material concerning the relatively new and exciting field of technoscience studies. . . . [T]he editors' choice of multiple approaches to the work of four major figures is wholly suited to clarifying their unorthodox and consequently somewhat elusive philosophical positions." ―Robert Scharff

Although often absent from the considerations of philosophers, sociologists, and anthropologists, the material dimension plays an important and even essential role in the practices of the sciences. Chasing Matrix for Materiality begins to redress this absence by bringing together four prominent figures who make technoscience, or science embodied in its technologies, a central theme of their work. Through lively personal interviews and substantive essays, the ideas of Andrew Pickering, Don Ihde, Donna Haraway, and Bruno Latour are brought to bear on the question of materiality in technoscience. The work of these theorists is then compared and critiqued in essays by colleagues. Chasing Technoscience is a ground-breaking, state-of-the-art look at current developments in technoscience.

Genres: Philosophy

264 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jens · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting composition of 4 authors where the book does a great job succinctly bringing to light what they are about. It does this by interviewing the authors, having an essay written by each, and including several essays comparing them with one another.

The Matrix for Materiality subtitle points to each of the author's emphasis on the importance of non-human agency such as technology and the symmetry (or near-symmetry) between humans and non-humans in shaping our world. The typical "technology as the extension of our body" is done away with as naive, making room for an interactionist and network approach, especially in Latour and Pickering, in my eyes the most valuable contributors. Ihde provides a phenomenological approach and Haraway a postmodern, feminist view.

[John Carter McKnight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally a solid, interesting, highly readable collection of works by and about Donna Haraway, Don Ihde, Bruno Latour, and Andrew Pickering. For the junior STS scholar, this is an invaluable collection: growing out of a set of workshops involving the authors, it pushes them towards a clarity, succinctness, and comparison/contrast which can be hard to come by in reading their works on their own.

There's some philosophy grad-student wank: "Author X uses words without understanding how my sub-sub-sub field has manipulated their meaning in arcane and baroque directions! Author Y cannot speak about technology because he/she hasn't read this one 18th century German manuscript!" There's also a good critique of the holy-canon sort of academia here as well, especially in focusing on a group of thinkers (generally, more or less) concerned with the material and immediate.

The ending compare-and-contrast essays are quite clever: "Ihde's Got a Gun!" is a lovely piece of pedagogy, taking a high-noon showdown between Ihde and Latour and spinning it out into a clear yet sophisticated discussion of agency in the two author's works.

I actually liked reading this anthology. There's little higher praise for this sort of thing.