Leading research in technoscience institutttseminar-281010

1
How Can
Anthropology Lead
Research in
Technoscience?
Prof.II Vidar Hepsø
NTNU and
Statoil Research and Development
Sosialantropologi
Insituttseminar 28.10.2010
vidar.hepso@ntnu.no

2
How can anthropology lead research in
Technoscience?
• Present main elements of the book
• Describe the methodological approach based on
Phronesis
– Insider and interdisciplinary approach to anthropology to lead
development work in Technoscience informed by Actor Network
Theory
• What are the implications of phronesis for the
practice of anthropology?

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1.Methodological intro: Technoscience and Phronesis
2-4 Cases: Norne,VISOK and crane operations
• Actors and forces in the case
• Where are we going? (Q1)
• Who wins and who loses, by which mechanism of power? (Q2)
• Is it desirable? (Q3)
• What can we do with it? (Q4)
• How is the social researcher acting out techne/phronesis in the cases?
Philosophical pragmatism (foundation)
5. Actor network theory an introduction
6. The cases as development of actor networks
7. Stakeholder management
8. Phronesis as “Due Process”
Questions1and2Questions3and4
Presenting the case
and the role of the
internal social
researcher
Presenting the
framework and concepts
to understand practice
Applying the framework/
concepts to
understand/inform
practice
Applying the framework
to involvement in
development processes
Applying the framework as
researcher to develop and
change practice
Background and
point of departure
• Actor network
• Translation
• Inscription
•Tools * Amplification/reduction
• Boundary objects
• Circulation
• Stakeholder
• Key movers
• Perplexity
• Consultation
• Irreversibility
• Program-antiprogram
• Punctualization/surrogacy
• Salience
• Hierarchy
• Institution

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What is Technoscience?
• A concept widely used in the interdisciplinary community
of science and technology studies to designate the
technological and social context of science
• Scientific knowledge is not only socially coded and
historically situated but sustained and made durable by
material (non-human) networks
– On a descriptive-analytic level, examination of the decisive role of
science and technology in developing knowledge
– On a deconstructive level, to address scientific practices and technology
critically and de-mystify them
– On a visionary level, cross and integrate boundaries drawn between
scientific disciplines as well as those commonly upheld for instance
between research, technology, the arts and politics.

5
Parallell threads in the book
Infrastructure development
•Monteiro, E. and Hepsø, V. (2000) Infrastructure Strategy Formation: Seize the Day at Statoil, in C. Ciborra, (ed) From
Control to Drift, Oxford: Oxford University Press:
•Monteiro, E and Hepsø, V. (2002) Purity and Danger of Information Infrastructure. Systemic practice and action research
(former Systems practice), 15(2)
• Hepsø, V.; Monteiro, E.; and Rolland, K. H. (2009) "Ecologies of e-Infrastructures," Journal of the Association for
Information Systems: Vol. 10: Iss. 5.
Ethnography
•Hepsø, V. (1990) ”Bedriften, individet og fellesskapet”. Trondheim Occasional Papers in Social Anthropology no. 7,
Trondheim: University of Trondheim
•Hepsø, V. (2000) ”Klovn, hoffnarr, guru og insiderantropolog ? noen tanker omkring et antropologisk insiderethos i
industrien”, Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 11: 67-80, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget
Computer Supported Collaborative Work
•Hepsø, V. (1997) The Social Construction and Visualization of a New Norwegian Oil installation, in J.Hughes, W.Prinz
and T.Rodden(eds.) Proceedings of the Fifth European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work
•Hepsø, V, Borstad, A. and Midtlyng, J.O. (1997) CSCW-Design and Implementation Compromises: an example from the
implementation of experience transfer in Statoil. Group Bulletin ACM SIGGROUP, 18/3:56 60
•Hepsø, V. (2009) The role of “common” information spaces in knowledge intensive work. Representation and negotiation
of meaning among oil and gas subsurface specialists in computer supported collaboration rooms. In Jemielniak, D,
Kozminski, L and Kociatkiewicz, J. (eds) Handbook of Research on Knowledge-Intensive Organizations, Pennsylvania:
Idea Group Publ
Action Research
•Gjersvik, R. and Hepsø, V. (1998) Using Models of Work Practice as Reflective and Communicative Devices,
Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 98, New York: ACM-Press
•Hepsø, V. and Botnevik, R. (2002) Competence Development in a Community of Practice, Proceedings of the
Participatory Design Conference 2002, New York: ACM-Press

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Bent Flyvbjerg
Phronesis
“At present, social science is locked in a fight it
cannot hope to win, because it has accepted
terms that are self-defeating. We will see that
in their role as phronesis, the social sciences
are strongest where the natural sciences are
weakest: just as the social sciences have not
contributed much to explanatory and predictive
theory, neither have the natural sciences
contributed to the reflexive analysis and
discussion of values and interests, which is the
prerequisite for an enlightened political,
economic, and cultural development in any
society, and which is at the core of phronesis.
This should also be the core of social science
if we want to transcend the current malaise of
the Science Wars” Flyvbjerg (2001:3) Bent Flyvbjerg Rationalitet og Magt Det Konkretes
Vitenskab Bind 1, Akademisk Forlag 1991
Bent Flyvberg Making Social Science Matter : Why
Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again
Cambridge University Press 2001

7
Episteme, Techne and Phronesis
Flyvbjerg (2001: 57)
• Episteme: Scientific knowledge. Universal, invariable,
context-independent. Based on general analytical
rationality. The original concept is known today from the
terms ”epistemology” and “epistemic.”
• Techne: Craft/Art. Pragmatic, variable, context-
dependent. Oriented toward production. Based on
practical instrumental rationality governed by a
conscious goal. The original concept appears today in
terms like ”technique”, “technical”, and “technology”.
• Phronesis: Ethics. Deliberation about values with
reference to praxis. Pragmatic, variable, context
dependent. Oriented toward action. Based on practical
value-rationality. The original concept has no analogous
contemporary term.

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Phronesis as practice
Flyvbjerg (Flyvbjerg 2001: 58) is clear on the fact that phronesis cannot
be reduced to techne, or a higher form of episteme
“Even if both of these intellectual virtues involve skill and judgement,
one type of intellectual virtue cannot be reduced to the other; phronesis
is about value judgement, not about producing things… But insofar as
phronesis operates via practical rationality based on judgement and
experience, it can only be made scientific in an epistemic sense
through the development of a theory of judgement and experience.”
“The objective is to balance instrumental rationality with value-rationality
increasing the capacity of individuals, organizations, and society to think and
act in value-rational terms…However, when combined with the element of
phronesis, it will be a techne ”with a head on it”, that is, a techne governed by
value rational deliberations.” (Flyvbjerg 2001: 130 and 167)

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A phronetic anthropology should stress the
value-rational, and ask four basic questions
1. Where are we going?
2. Who gains and who loses, by which
mechanisms of power?
3. Is it desirable?
4. What should be done?
Key issue to address is PRACTICE

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Three cases
Social construction of a
new Norwegian Oil
installation
New Forms of
Collaboration in
Exploration
Competence Development
and Improved Health,
Environment and Safety in
crane operations

11
Three cases
The Social Construction
of a New Norwegian Oil
installation
New Forms of
Collaboration in
Exploration
Competence Development
and Improved Health,
Environment and Safety in
crane operations
Role
-Project manager
- Facilitator
-Responsible for documenting the work
-Team member in a team of researchers, Norne
and Statoil IT personnel
Techne
-Facilitation in helping Norne create new work
processes via work process modelling,
search conferences and workshops
-Develop a groupware application that
supported the work and documented the
work processes
-Develop a method and process of
continuous improvement in Norne
Phronesis (examples)
-Facilitate a process that defines the core
values of a new offshore organization
-Empower offshore operators to increase the
quality of their working lives
-Ensure that those that do the work also
describe their activities
Role
-Ethnographer
-Facilitator
-Devils advocate in the project
-Bricolage IT systems developer
Techne
-Describing work processes and information
management in Statoil exploration and oil
licence development activities
-Make available key business information in a
web based system
-Development of a simple IT prototype-front
page
-Facilitate a process that shows what values
are in place and what their consequences are
-Why are the work practices of earth
scientists’ invisible and what can be done
with it?
-Is VISOK a management information system
and a panopticon?
Role
-Facilitator in a team of operational personnel
-Ethnographer
-Friendly outsider
Bricolage IT systems developer
Techne
-Facilitate in developing a “best practice” of
crane and lifting operations
-Develop a groupware application to support
the development of and implementation of
the “best practice”
-Help to develop training scenarios for crane
simulator training
-Improved health, environment and safety in
crane operations
-Competence development of a less
privileged group
-Make crane operations important and visible
-What are the proper values of a safety
culture?

12
Presenting the case
and the role of the
internal social
researcher
Presenting the
concepts to
understand/inform
practice
to involvement in
change practice
Background and
point of departure
• Actor network
• Translation
• Inscription
• Circulation
• Stakeholder
• Key movers
• Perplexity
• Consultation
• Irreversibility
• Salience
• Hierarchy
• Institution

13
The relationship between technology and
organisation
TECHNOLOGY ORGANISATION
Technology
determinism
TECHNOLOGY ORGANISATION
Social shaping
TECHNOLOGY ORGANISATJON
Socio-technical
perspective
o
o
t
t
oo
o t t
o
t
o
o
o
o
t
ANT

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Translation
?
• Transformation of a large work effort to less work efforts via delegation
• Can take many different forms, from the displacing of something to acts of
substitution
• Moving functions from humans to machines or artefacts
• Depends upon movement and transformation of some kind whether in the form of
knowledge, persons or materials
• Not merely literary; a generalised operation, an act of practice
• Fundamentally relational
•Form and meaning of things and people are defined in terms of their relation to
each other
•Translation connotes a special kind of work that creates associations or links
between elements

15
Inscription
• Is the result of a translation made into a lasting material form
– A process of closing a space of possibilities
– Any component in the network of humans and non humans can become the
material for such inscriptions.
– They can go two ways:
• From human to machine
• From machine to human
• IT Design is inscription:
– Assume scenarios of use
– Assumptions that designers have of their product

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Punctualization
• Punctualization develops when an actor has gained the privilege of
representing an actor network.
• Order is seen instead of a complex network.
• Makes it possible for social actors to serve as spokespersons for a
complex network of humans and non-humans
• In the context described, participants in the cases speak on behalf of
the complex network of human and non-human actors comprising
work practice.
– Statoil IT: IT-design, implementation and infrastructure in Statoil
• Who becomes the obligatory passage point?
• Will the actor that represent the punctuated network really speak on
behalf of its many silenced voices?
– What becomes invisible?

17
Translation, inscription and
punctualization:
-Translate and delegate interests in concrete situations
Latour, B. (1995) A Door Must Be Either Open or Shut, A Little Philosophy of Techniques. In A. Feenberg and A. Hannay (eds.)
Technology and the Politics of Knowledge, Bloomington: Indiana University Press

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Translation by aligning new
heterogeneous elements
Norne
Work
processes
Sketchesofa
concept
Methodofflowcharting
Trustofkey
stakeholders
EnrollingNOTESr3
Meetingsand
workshops
EnrollingFreelance
GraphicsNorneHomepageWWW
Enrollingprocess
owners
LotusNOTESr4
ClosedNOTESr4
network
EnrollSData
FAKEWWWNOTES
NAVIGATORS
LobbyforPilotStatoil
management
Doc-linking
DELTA
Distributedcollaboration
viaimprovementcommentsDigitaloperation
manuals
DigitalhandlingofISO
9001activities
Cyclicprototyoing
andfieldwork
FLOWCHARTINGTO
DESCRIBENEWWORK
All design processes are negotiation processes that involves
discussions on what claims should be implemented or ignored:
•What are most critical things we must do?
•How do we handle things that pops up?
•Are the claims real and just?
•Can this actor represent this claim, if not who can?
•What is most important in relation to our values?
•How can the collective of humans and non humans come to
an agreement?

19
Presenting the case
and the role of the
internal social
researcher
Presenting the
concepts to
understand/inform
practice
to involvement in
change practice
Background and
point of departure
• Actor network
• Translation
• Inscription
• Circulation
• Stakeholder
• Key movers
• Perplexity
• Consultation
• Irreversibility
• Salience
• Hierarchy
• Institution

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Why stakeholders?
• Stakeholder management is a practice where we try to get a grip on
how human stakeholders develop dynamic alliances with technical
or non-human forces in the ever changing landscape in which
human stakeholders and non-human forces interact.
• Stakeholder management is about renegotiating the established
working order
• Address the fundamental question; which groups deserve, require
attention and how?
• Many development and change processes today involve the design
of information systems and become a design of both work and
organizations
• This makes stakeholder management more important because it
has consequences for how we inform the design of information
systems and involve diverse stakeholders in this effort

21
What status should non-human
stakeholders be given?
• Vidgen and Mc Master (1996: 255) have gone as far to
include non-humans as stakeholders: “...any human or
non-human organization unit that can affect as well as
be affected by a human or non-human organization
unit’s policy or policies”.
• The symmetric perspective of Latour is challenging and
the inclusion of non-human stakeholders in a
stakeholder analysis will lead to several problems
(Pouloudi 1999:12-13).
– It is not clear how non-human stakeholders will be identified. Can it be
treated as a black box or not?
– Alexander (2005) also argues that it does not make sense to treat
human and non-human actors symmetrically because they are simply
different.

22
The status of non-humans?
• If both agency and intentionality is granted non-humans
it becomes difficult to define who is culpable.
– Who kills, the gun or the person? (Latour (1999: 180-181) vs. Ihde and Sehlinger (2003)
• One way of avoiding this is to focus on the prime mover.
The prime mover concept tries to describe the main
source(s) of power in a heterogeneous network.
• Try to catch the prime mover in the association. Since
the prime mover has the choice and the other actants
are not able to make the choices about action in this
association. (Aaron Smith 2003: 190)
• Smith finds it difficult to reject the centrality of the human
centred perspective. He argues that prime movers will
always involve human action and their decisions. Ethical
culpability must be awarded prime movers (humans)
only

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Due Process
Bruno Latour (2004) The Politics of Nature
• Treatment of stakeholders and claims
• This conception of ‘due process’ can be used to involve
and exclude stakeholders/actants in a collective
• Treat humans and non-humans as part of the same
collective and address salience and surrogacy
• The question of choice and coexistence is important and
involves a process of wrapping up facts and values, and
then wrap them together again into an integrated or
aligned network.

25
Two aspects of Due Process
- A cyclic and not linear process
How many
are we?
Can we
live together?
Facts Values
Candidate for existence
Excluded (the enemy)
Perplexity Consultation
HierarchyInstitution
1 2
4 3
FACTS:
Perplexity or determine if a phenomena or
claim exist or is important. Once this
question has been described as positive
the institutionalisation of the ”facts to be”
can start
VALUES:
Claims are often expressed in terms of
values. The creation of values involves a
consultation process

26
Due Process
-Separation of Powers
• “Taking into account” is the first power (Latour 2004:
109); these cover the processes of perplexity and
consultation. It considers new propositions, which are
not to be dismissed until they have undergone the
scrutiny of adequate consultation.
• If the collective finds the proposition useful, the second
power of “putting into order” is exercised. Here the new
propositions are sorted through the processes of
hierarchy and institution into the existing knowledge
hierarchy and develop closure or stabilization. The
propositions can now be considered as facts.

27
Perplexity
• Perplexity: includes presenting candidates or claims, involves the
proposal of possible entities and a discussion of which should be
taken into consideration at that time and context.
• These are elements that need further research and design and are
vital to create facts but they are still only ‘candidate’ facts.
• Various stakeholders can have claims or anecdotic evidence. A new
claim could be a new technology. Perplexities are often not logically
addressed so unrealistic expectations like magic silver bullets can
create expectations that cannot be met later. The new technology
has to be tested out to become more than a claim.
• To find out this we have to involve spokespersons that must be
allowed to speak for the claim. The open informed debate via
consultancy and hierarchy, actively encourages alternative
perspectives and analysis

28
Consultation
-A process through which the suitability of the supplicant for inclusion
in the network is assessed
• Consultation; takes the accepted entities from the first phase and
proposes action based on them
• Values evolve through reflection on and in action, through
discussions with others and embodied experience with the non-
humans
• In the phase of consultation a broad appreciation of the issues
associated with our decisions are taken
– Mobilising and negotiating with humans and non-humans to make them support
the claim.
• Questions related to how many are we in the collective and can we
live together are important questions to answer in relation to which
actants will be considered in the consultation process
• During consultation the collective is forced to explicitly make
choices and scrutinize trade-offs; what must be included now or can
wait

29
Hierarchy
• Hierarchy: is the process of understanding how the new
actant or claim will be positioned within the network such
that it will be acceptable to the current configuration of
humans and non-humans.
• Creating a hierarchy of values
• In this process some elements are found incompatible to
the configuration of the collective, these elements are
rejected but can appeal their claim later.

30
Institution
• Institution: When a new hierarchy in the collective is institutionalized,
this collective becomes the new stabilized or provisional reality.
• There is an important process element in a ‘due process’ and a lack of
control.
• In the "satisficing world", we look at what we believe is the best in the
light of present and past situations, weigh options, and then we take
our best guess.
• In the proceedings of a ‘due process’ the art of rhetoric and having the
better argument will always be in place.
• The power associated with the better argument tend to be coupled to
stakeholders that represent a collective or the punctualized network of
humans and non-humans that make this stakeholder strong.

31
Presenting the case
and the role of the
internal social
researcher
Presenting the
concepts to
understand/inform
practice
to involvement in
change practice
Background and
point of departure
• Actor network
• Translation
• Inscription
• Circulation
• Stakeholder
• Key movers
• Perplexity
• Consultation
• Irreversibility
• Salience
• Hierarchy
• Institution

32
Latour and Flyvbjerg together for a
phronetic anthropology
1. Where are we going?
2. Who wins and who
loses, by which
mechanisms of power?
4.What should
be done?
3. Is it desirable?

33
The anthropologist in the phase of
perplexity
• Our role as researchers and change agents in the phase
of perplexity is to try to develop an overall understanding
of the new claims that comes up in the vicinity of the
collectives we have presented in this book.
• We should ask:
– Why is there uncertainty associated with this claim?
– Who are the prime movers?
– Who represents which claims?
– Are some claims and voices silenced?
– What claims are relevant?
– How are claims made known to the collective?
– How do we uncover main values and develop new values to be followed
in the course of action?

34
consultation
• In the phase of consultation it is our obligation to get the
different prime movers with claims to speak for their
claims, plan and execute good processes in which
humans are allowed to speak for their claims and find
spokespersons for relevant claims not yet given a voice.
• In this consultation process it is our obligation to analyze:
– Who is winning and losing, through which mechanisms of power?
– Involve relevant non-humans must also be involved and given a voice
through some human spokesperson.
– How are actants considered for consultation and which are included or
rejected?
– Will prime movers that represent punctuated networks of humans and
non humans use their influence to shortcut the consultation process?

35
hierarchy and institution
• In the hierarchy phase it will be our task to help the
collective settle value questions and making priorities, by
challenging value rational issues and consequences
related to the action of humans and non humans: is this
desirable?
• Key issues are
– Based on the values and resources, which should we prioritize?
– How can we make sure that human and non-human claims are coloured
with values?
– Speak out if prime movers try to shortcut the process by trying to go
directly from perplexity to institution.
– Help the collective develop and institutionalise action plans and steps to
stabilize the new configuration of humans and non humans.
– We must assist in helping them set up more instrumental plans to do
something with their situation.

36
Practice in anthropology as Due Process
• What will happen when phronetic anthropology is
conducted according to ‘Due process’ principles?
• Is it correct to assume that doing anthropology, from
preparation, via fieldwork, data-collection and writing
texts consist of the same four elements: perplexity,
consultation, hierarchy and institution?

37
Methodological principles for a phronetic
anthropology
1. The whole person aspect: The phronetic anthropologist is
increasingly becoming a whole person in the fieldwork setting.
2. The system representation aspect: the system you represent will
colour the content of your practice.
3. The collaboration aspect: the anthropologist is in most cases a
team member
4. The intervention aspect: The focus will move from descriptions and
interpretations to interventions and acting on the results of the
research
5. The co-learning aspect: The principle of co-learning
6. The actant aspect: science and technologies participate as agents
in producing and reproducing the diverse features of social life,
including modalities of subjectivity.

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