Gabriel Gatti, Iñaki Martinez de Albéniz and Benjamín Tejerina (eds.), Tecnología, cultura experta e identidad en la sociedad del conocimiento, Servicio Editorial de la Universidad del País Vasco, 2010
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17043
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2038-3460
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Barbara Pentimalli
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Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Gabriel Gatti, Iñaki Martinez de Albéniz and Benjamín Tejerina (eds.), Technology, Expert Culture and Identity in the Knowledge Society, Servicio Editorial de la Universidad del País Vasco, 2010
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Book Reviews
2012-06-16
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2012-06-16
2023-07-10
135-140
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Barbara Pentimalli
2012/06/16
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17043
135
University of Roma La Sapienza
2038-3460
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140
Gabriel Gatti, Iñaki Martinez de Albéniz and Benjamín Tejerina (eds.), Technology, Expert Culture and Identity in the Knowledge Society, Servicio Editorial de la Universidad del País Vasco, 2010
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17043/15937
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                                                                    BOOK REVIEWS        135




rather than ended: this is why we             As the three editors state in the
need to find the way to consider              introduction, the volume aims to fill
together text and technology to               two gaps in social sciences focusing
understand how television socially            on how society and identity are
worked and works.                             shaped in the knowledge society,
                                              which is characterised by the
                                              pervasiveness of technology. The first
                   ***                        gap is the lack of attention given to
                                              the impact of social scientists’
                                              representations on their analyses of
Gabriel Gatti, Iñaki Martinez de Albéniz      society and identities (sociology is
     and Benjamín Tejerina (eds)              not purely descriptive but also
                                              performative). The second gap is
 Tecnología, cultura experta e
                                              related to the material dimension of
  identidad en la sociedad del
                                              the construction of identity, which is
           conocimiento
                                              mediated by technologies, embedded
(Technology, Expert Culture and Identity in   in heterogeneous artefacts, rather
         the Knowledge Society)               than being the exclusive result of
     2010, Servicio Editorial de la           social construction, as a phenomeno-
  Universidad del País Vasco, 275 pp.         logical perspective has claimed so far,
                                              privileging symbolic and inter-
                                              subjective aspects. The book is
            Barbara Pentimalli                organised into two sections, dedi-
                                              cated to these two points.
    (University of Roma La Sapienza)
                                              The first section, "Expert Knowledge
                                              and Identity", adopts a sociology of
The book is a collection of contri-           science perspective to point out the
butions presented at the seminar              influence of scientific representation
“Knowledge Society, Identity and              in the construction of identity and
Social Change – The Material Sup-             society, which are not static or given
ports of Identity”, organised in 2005         once for all, but must be regarded as
at the University of País Vasco,              dynamic,      heterogeneous,     fluid,
Bilbao, by the CEIC (Centro de                porous, hybrid and malleable.
Estudios sobre la Identidad Cole-             The first chapter, "The Problem of
ctiva) and the Department of                  Materiality     in     Science     and
Sociology, and it is a material proof         Technology Studies", is written by
that Actor-Network Theory (hence-             Miquel Domènech and Francisco
forth ANT) is becoming a very dyna-           Javier Tirado, members of the
mic field of investigation in Spain,          GESCIT (Grup d’Estudis Sociales de
thanks to an increasing number of             la Ciència i la Tecnologia), at the
conferences and publications pro-             Department of Social Psychology of
moted by universities and research            the     Autònoma      University     of
centres.                                      Barcelona. The authors have actively
136 TECNOSCIENZA – 3 (1)




    contributed to the translation,           masses which are also provided with
    diffusion and development of ANT          agency and are actively implicated in
    in Spain (in 1998 they edited             social practices. After this chapter,
    Sociología simétrica, the first book      which clarifies the theoretical
    dedicated to ANT, with translations       approach of the volume, we get to
    of works by Callon, Law and               the heart of the research projects,
    Latour). This chapter also shows how      which show how expert and
    in Spain ANT is mainly rooted in a        scientific knowledge contribute to
    sociology of knowledge framework          the configuration and naturalisation
    and moves from the techno-science         of society and identities.
    field to update the traditional           The chapter by Pablo Marinis,
    concepts     of    sociology,    social   "Expert Knowledge and its Power to
    psychology      and      anthropology     Make and Unmake ‘Society’",
    (Castillo Sepúlveda 2011). The            focuses on the role of a new
    chapter is the theoretical manifesto      professional agent, a new personi-
    of the book, proposing a new              fication of expert knowledge, a ‘new
    approach able to question the             servant of the prince’: that is, the
    modern dualism and “a priori”             symbolic analyst, whose identity is
    distinction between nature and            fluctuant, adaptable, and neither
    society, humans and artefacts. By         corresponds to the old ideal-typical
    recognising the contribution of           figure of the intellectual or the
    Science and Technology Studies,           academic nor to the social engineer
    especially of the socio-technical         of the Keynesian rational model. The
    (Hughes 1987), SCOT (Social               symbolic analyst is a pragmatic
    Construction Of Technology - Pinch        expert, a counsellor with mobile and
    and Bijker 1987) and ANT                  flexible institutional affiliations. He
    approaches, the authors refer to the      participates in government policies,
    principle of symmetry (Latour 1992)       is involved in think tank activities, or
    and to the postulate of heterogeneity     works for NGOs as a consultant,
    (Law and Bijker 1992) to embrace a        dealing with the development and
    “third” perspective, able to overcome     management of contingent projects.
    the tension between the social and        He maps the territory of social
    the     technological    determinism.     action; creates new communities and
    Adopting a symmetric approach             identities (with the cold know-how of
    means blurring the boundaries             the expert who believes in the
    between social, material and natural,     malleability of the world) as a
    highlighting the heterogeneous work       “beneficiary of program”, “neigh–
    of engineering by which social,           bour”, “consumer”, who ideally
    technical and material aspects            participate in cosmopolitan govern-
    intertwine with each other. When we       mental policies through committees
    consider agency as only human and         and assemblies.
    social, we neglect the materiality of     The chapter by Benjamín Tejerina,
    the world: that is, all the missing       "Knowledge Society, Social Mobili-
                                                                BOOK REVIEWS         137




sation and Collective Identity", fo-     emerges when the object ‘resists’
cuses on how scientific knowledge        some specific use or social repre-
turns into common sense when social      sentation, or as a mere social cons-
movements acquire it and adapt it to     truction.
their life-world. By giving voice to     The chapter by Antonio Ariño, "The
environmentalists, feminists and         Construction of Cultural Heritage"
peace campaigners, Tejerina shows        and its Paradoxes, presents two
that social movements are a symbolic     conflicting approaches to materiality
and material support for the con-        – the immanent and the constructiv-
struction and maintenance of iden-       ist one – analysing how societies and
tity. Their organizations and inter-     communities attribute a patrimonial
action systems work as spheres of        and aesthetic value to specific
socialisation and knowledge trans-       objects. Cultural heritage is generally
mission. The techno-scientific deba-     associated with an intrinsic quality of
tes sparked by their action challenge    the objects, which only experts can
the dominant scientific knowledge        identify, or with a network activated
and point out the necessity for          by specific social groups and
activists to adopt a more professional   involving conflicts for the attribution
profile. They should be able to          of the status of “cultural heritage”.
transform their alternative practices    Today, cultural heritage is related to
into expert knowledge, and learn,        the identity policies of an increasing
enhance and use this expert              number of communities. The society
knowledge (and convey it to the          produces cultural and identity value,
militants) to support their claims and   but it is the material construction of
their battles for social change, but     cultural heritage that makes identity
they should also acquire the             more solid, stable and visible, and
pragmatic knowledge to orient            therefore socially representable.
public policies.                         Cultural heritage creates four
The second section of the book,          paradoxes: ontological (the rapid
"Material Supports of Identity",         obsolescence of techno-scientific
collects a series of empirical studies   objects requires the conservation of a
carried out in a wide range of con-      growing number of ordinary items,
texts and focused on a variety of to-    which are consequently devaluated),
pics (cultural heritage, social mean-    methodological (the meaning of the
ing of trash, gastronomy, mobile pho-    objects changes and turns them into
nes). These studies show the relevan-    fétiches and objects of consumption),
ce of the technological mediation in     pragmatic (the proliferation of
the construction of identity, analys-    patrimonial objects creates conflicts
ing the material supports where          involving antique dealers, dealers of
identities are embedded. Here, mate-     cultural goods and restitution-related
riality is not regarded as a latent,     issues) and ecological (the increasing
inert and intrinsic quality of the       number of tourists visiting cultural
object, or as an element that only       sites spoils art treasures and historical
138 TECNOSCIENZA – 3 (1)




    or cultural relics) .                      where waste materials are exhibited
    The chapter by Gabriel Gatti, "The         in museums, taking on new meanings
    Materiality of the Dark Side (Notes        and new life).
    for a Sociology of Waste)", considers      Iñaki Martínez de Albemiz, in his
    waste as a form of materiality             chapter "Talking with Your Mouth
    opposed to that of cultural heritage.      Full. The Social as a Regime of
    While the construction of cultural         (In)compatibility between Eating and
    heritage is aimed at enhancing the         Talking", shows that when we eat
    aesthetic value of objects, bringing       and talk simultaneously, words
    their materiality out and turning it       (discourse) and things (food)
    into the symbol of an identity, waste      combine and collide with each other
    materials question this materiality.       in our mouth. The fight against
    Through a set of significant vignettes     materiality here takes the form of a
    illustrating     various    forms     of   rule of etiquette (“don’t talk with
    materiality (the debris from the           food in your mouth”) stating the
    Madrid       train    bombings;      the   incompatibility between talking and
    Diogenes Syndrome, i.e. the compul-        eating. Socialisation implies the
    sive hoarding of rubbish; the remains      passage from nature to culture, from
    used by CSI investigators; the             the uncontrolled oral expression to
    cartoneros), Gatti shows the meaning       the articulated language. To make
    that social sciences have attributed to    this transition possible, it was
    the waste of society: initially regarded   necessary to remove materiality,
    as unclassified, anomic materials, it      which was seen as an obstacle to the
    has later been considered as a danger      self-sufficient      rationality      of
    to be controlled (but according to         modernity, and create a greater dis-
    the Chicago School, marginal urban         tance between eating and talking.
    areas are consistent, meaningful and       From the regimes of the past, where
    parallel worlds with their own social      eating and talking were compatible
    order and culture), and today it is the    (such as in the Christian Agape
    object of active development policies.     Feasts and Carnival Banquets), we
    As the volume of garbage grows,            move to other social regimes. In the
    people become responsible for it: the      bulimic regime of the capitalist
    rubbish is re-used (as in the case of      bourgeois society, eating is regarded
    recycling or second-hand shops) or         as a public ritual and is the
    transformed into energy. In the            background for a stylised sociality or
    knowledge society, trash is more a         a public-political dialogue (illustrated
    product than a waste material: the         banquet), whereas in the private
    more its volume increase, the less         sphere the individual eats in
    waste is considered as such. Our           compulsive way. The anorexic regime
    society provides rubbish with new          of the knowledge society is instead
    uses and identities; it creates new        characterised by a theoretical
    experts and allows new ways of             curiosity about eating. In this society
    expression (such as forms of art           we do not talk as much about what
                                                                 BOOK REVIEWS        139




we eat as what we don’t (scientific       the     relationship   between      the
banquet). The combination of              materiality of the body and the object
cooking and science, the so-called        (as when we play with our phone
molecular gastronomy, the high-tech       while waiting in a café, or when we
kitchens      where    everything    is   hold it in our hands when we go
exhibited as if they were laboratories,   jogging). While the design of mobile
the visibility of cooks on the media,     phone shapes our gestures, postures
and the introduction of new               and code dressing, it also allows us to
technologies and scientific methods       acquire new perceptive abilities. The
in the cooking field, constitute the      possibility to be always reachable, to
socio-technical framework of the          immediately communicate emotions
knowledge society, where materiality      and obtain information, creates
emerges as a distinctive element.         addiction and attachment (Gomart
After interviewing mobile users and       and Hennion 1999; Jaureguiberry
observing their daily use of              2003). When we forget our mobile
technology (in London, Madrid and         phone we feel anxious, isolated and
Paris), Amparo Lasén, in "Affective       incomplete; we are afraid of losing
Technologies - How Mobile Phones          opportunities and we are worried
Contribute to the Shaping of              because friends and family cannot
Subjectivities and Identities", points    contact us. Mobile phones mediate,
out the necessity to explore how the      transform and affect the meaning and
relation with and the use of              the use of urban spaces and spatio-
technology shapes and is shaped by        temporal habits (such as the habit of
users’ identity. In our society, where    expressing feelings in public, which
sociality is related to multiple and      was once relegated to the private
transient identities in variegated        sphere). Users also delegate some
groups, subjectivity emerges from         choices to technical devices (it is the
and through a network of hetero-          phone mnemonic capacity that
geneous material and immaterial           decides when to remove the virtual
interactions. Mobile phones, as a part    presence of people from one’s life by
of this network, are an affective         deleting a phone number)
technology that allows us to share        The last chapter by Javier Izquierdo,
emotions with others, to construct        "The Authentic False: Things inside
and maintain social and affective ties,   People", shows the limits and
to manage and materialise the others’     opportunities created by socio-
virtual absence and presence, to          technical assemblages. By studying
defer social encounters and take          scientific,    legal   and     political
emotional distance from embarrass-        controversies, the author analyses the
ing situations, to personalise services   cognitive and the moral ability to
(ring tones, screensavers), to record     attribute responsibility in the cases
personal stories and keep track of        when human actions are carried out
significant past life events. The         through the mediation of complex
tactility of mobile phones embodies       technological systems. Izquierdo
140 TECNOSCIENZA – 3 (1)




    points out the absence of a                           History of Technology, Cambridge, MIT
    jurisprudence about rights and                        Press, pp. 225-258.
                                                       Law, J. and Bijker, W.E. (1992), Postscript:
    obligations, credits and responsibili-                Technology, Stability and Social Theory, in
    ties attributed to these new techno-                  W.E. Bijker and J. Law, (eds), Shaping
    scientific    bodies,    or    subject-               Technology/Building Society: Studies in
    machines, which are slowly and                        Sociotechnical Change, Cambridge, MIT
                                                          Press, pp. 290-308.
    imperceptibly      populating      our             Pinch, T.J. and Bijker W.E. (1987) The Social
    societies and can easily escape human                 Construction of Facts and Artefacts: Or
    control.                                              How the Sociology of Science and the
    In conclusion, we can agree with the                  Sociology of Technology Might Benefit
    authors that in a world where social                  Each Other, in W.E. Bijker, T.P. Hughes,
                                                          T.J. Pinch, (eds), The Social Construction
    actions and identities are performed                  of Technological Systems. New Directions
    and shaped through the use of an                      in the Sociology and History of Technolo-
    interconnected system of techno-                      gy, Cambridge, MIT Press, pp. 17-50.
    logical prosthesis, it is necessary to
    regard materiality (food, material
    waste, mobile phones) as the place of                                  ***
    a new agency and to urge social
    sciences and anthropology to take all
    these assemblages of humans and                                Dominique Vinck
    non-humans as their object of
    analysis.                                                  Les Nanotechnologies
                                                                   (Nanotechnologies)
    References                                              2009, Le Cavalier Bleu, 127 pp.
    Castillo Sepúlveda, J. (2011) Cartographies
        from the Margins: Outline of the
        Development and Application of Actor-                         Bernard Reber
        Network Theory in Spain, in “Tecnoscien-
        za, Italian Journal of Science &                (CNRS Research Center Meaning, Ethics,
        Technology Studies”, 2, (1), pp. 93-111.                  Society CERSES)
    Domenech, M. and Tirado, F. (1998)
        Sociología simétrica. Ensayos sobre ciencia,
        tecnología y sociedad, Barcelona, Gedisa.      Written by the sociologist Domi-
    Gomart, E. and Hennion, A. (1999) A                nique Vinck – professor of sociology
        Sociology of Attachment: Music Amateurs,       of sciences and innovation at the
        Drug Users, in J. Law, and J. Hassard,
        Actor Network Theory and After, London,
                                                       Lausanne University, and former
        Blackwell, pp. 220-247.                        professor at the University Pierre
    Jaureguiberry, E. (1995) Les branchés du           Mendès-France – this very clear book
        portable, Puf, Paris.                          introduces the reader to the
    Latour, B. (1992) Where are the Missing
                                                       controversies    associated      with
        Masses? A Sociology of a Few Mundane
        Artefacts, in W.E. Bijker, T.P. Hughes         nanotechnologies and tries to answer
        and T.J. Pinch, (eds), The Social              to these questions: What are the
        Construction of Technological Systems.         nanotechnologies? What are they
        New Directions in the Sociology and            for? Are the fears related to them
