Dominique Vinck, Les Nanotechnologies, Le Cavalier Bleu, 2009
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17044
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2038-3460
17044
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Bernard Reber
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Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Dominique Vinck, Nanotechnologies, Le Cavalier Bleu, 2009
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Book Reviews
2012-06-16
2023-05-25
2012-06-16
2023-07-10
140-143
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Bernard Reber
2012/06/16
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17044
140
CNRS Research Center Meaning, Ethics, Society CERSES
2038-3460
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Dominique Vinck, Nanotechnologies, Le Cavalier Bleu, 2009
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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
                                                                BOOK REVIEWS        141




unfounded?                                problem solutions: nanomedicine,
The book pretends not to be a book        sustainable development, communi–
for scientific popularization of          cation, security or comfort. Despite
nanotechnologies but to treat what        some of these promises are closer to
moves the “actors”: problems of           science fiction and far to be ready for
technological and scientific policy,      uses, ethical controversies appear on
market creation, regulation through       possible uses or side effects that are
law or ethical committees, forms of       welcome for some actors and frighten
public debate and research, and risk      some others, who are speaking of
strategy.                                 “Yuck”. Vinck introduces here a
The problem of nanotechnologies’          connection with the transhumanist
definitions runs throughout the           movement that want to be “more
book: they are controversies about        than human” and to go over the
their domain. Some of the chapters        biological (mental and physic)
focus     on      different    possible   aspects of the contemporary human
definitions of the nanotechnologies.      being (p. 62). Owing to this Vinck
According to the answer to the            deals with the political issues related
questions along the book, their           to    nanotechnologies      and     the
ensemble could be broader or more         equilibrium       between       actors,
precise.                                  suggesting an orientation to the
Are they only objects which size is       future, defining some priorities and
nanometres? If so, what are their         game rules (p. 73). Furthermore,
sizes? Equal or inferior to 100           chapter three gives some examples of
nanometres? Some definitions are          actors fighting against nanodevelop-
based on their size, while others are     ment. Among them he mentions (p.
based on their contents and their         26) Pieces and Labor (Pièces et main
properties. Some are bottom-up            d’oeuvre – PMO), a group based in
(aggregation), while others are top-      Grenoble, nearby the famous Micro
down (miniaturisation). The chemi-        and Nanotechnologies Innovation
cal reactivity of nanoparticules, for     Campus          Minatec         Center
instance, is higher and reaches some      (http://www.minatec.org/en). Their
quantum       effects    that    change   name, PMO, plays with GMO
mechanical, optical, electrical and       (Genetically Modified Organism),
magnetic properties. Other define-        and tries to make the link with these
tions play with the possible              organisms that are not welcome in
applications of nanotechnologies or       France and broadly in Europe.
they answer to the question: Are they     Dominique Vinck’ position on the
changing       (revolutionizing)    the   relevance of this link is not very
science or not?                           engaged: “surely, some elements of
Possible applications and novelty are     the GMO story could be found in
the two elements that could convince      the nanotechnologies case, but, very
the investors and future users with       probably, the controversies will be
possible new applications and             more numerous and diverse” (p. 96).
142 TECNOSCIENZA – 3 (1)




    According to the sociologist, the            consensual text very complete and
    social questions connected with              operational.
    nanotechnologies are very important          Although some references are given
    for their development. Paradoxically,        to ethical committees (p. 127), the
    only 0,4% of the expenses are                ethical controversy – which is
    dedicated to the study problems of           important both in the discourses of
    such as risk assessment (p. 86) and          pro or con actors and on the
    “social inscription of nanotechnolo-         ontological level (that is the reality of
    gies in society” (p. 122).                   these new entities and their impacts
    One of the main critical issues and a        on human live and environment) – is
    big challenge in this book of                very weak.
    sociology of technologies concerned          Moreover, another simplification in
    the study of the actors. As other            the book is about the participative
    sociologists of sciences and techno–         democracy, which is presented as the
    logies, in fact, Vinck tries (p. 121) to     solution (p. 105). This form of
    “follow the actors”: State, industrials,     democracy is distinct from the direct
    researchers, social groups concerned,        and the representative democracy.
    regulatory institutions. Actors and          Following Callon and collegues
    their nanotechnologies’ definitions          (2001), Vinck proposes participative
    are strictly related, since the latter are   democracy as an alternative to
    strategic for the allocation of              representative      and       delegative
    resources (research subvention), for         democracy. Most of the experiments
    the legislation, the standardisation         in     Participative     Technological
    and for social acceptance (p. 20).           Assessment (PTA), however, are not
    However, the book does not follow            considered as an alternative even
    the logic of different definitions and       though they seem to be more
    the benefice of them for each actor.         consistent      with     representative
    Moreover, Dominique Vinck tries to           democracy on specific issues. The
    give some possible definitions at            direct democracy as well is not a
    different parts of the book (p. 13, 22,      system where the delegation of
    27, 28).                                     legislative power tends to disappear
    Vinck mentions the Precautionary             as Vinck writes, but there is also a
    principle (p. 92) that plays an              form of complementarity. The
    important role in this controversy.          problem with the PTA example is
    We can regret his too simplistic way         precisely to find the way to
    to present it, letting only place for        institutionalize PTA results and
    the fears of researchers and people,         devices and to find their place in the
    or the opposition of industry against        ordinary politics. Indeed, very often
    the “discouragement towards the              they are only “one shot” experience,
    progress”. It could have been very           without strong assessment and with
    easy to mention the European                 loss of proposals for the counselling
    definition from the Commission on            in Parliament or in the appropriate
    the Precautionary Principle, a               institutional bodies.
                                                                    BOOK REVIEWS       143




In political sciences and philosophy                 Giuseppina Pellegrino
the trend is now focused on                  The Politics of Proximity. Mobility
deliberative democracy. The high                and Immobility in Practice
epistemic challenge, recognized by
Vinck throughout his book, needs                2011, Ashgate Publishing, 157 pp.
high level of reflection and not only
participation. These forums are not
the panacea as he describes them,                Andrés Felipe Valderrama Pineda
but I think they need as much                    (Technical University of Denmark)
expertise, know-how and assessment
as the research on nanotechnologies.
These participative devices could            The Politics of Proximity, edited by
offer good public spaces to confront         Giuseppina Pellegrino, is one of the
the different actors, following and          most salient contributions to the field
defending different definitions of           of mobility studies and to sociology
nanotechnologies.      Among      the        in general published in the last few
requirements of a deliberative               years. The main reason for this is that
democracy, in fact, the main point is        it takes up seriously the question
the obligation to present arguments.         “why do we move so much?” This
In one of the more prominent theory          question is pertinent at a moment in
of the argument (Toulmin, 1958), an          history when two contradictory
argument is composed of different            developments are happening: on the
steps. The first one is precisely to         one hand, we have now all the
agree on data and definitions. It            technological development necessary
would certainly be a way to continue         to reduce corporeal travel and at the
Vinck’s book.                                same time remain connected; on the
                                             other hand, the same technologies
References                                   could support the old dream of living
                                             in the countryside and still be part of
Callon, M., Lascoumes, P. and Barthe, Y.     the urbanity, being permanently
    (2001) Agir dans un monde incertain,
                                             connected. However, never in history
    Seuil, Paris.
Toulmin, S.E. (1958) The Uses of Argument,   humans have travelled so much, and
    Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.   never in history humans have
                                             crammed so much into dense and
                                             expensive cities. Why does this
                                             happen? Why do we pay so much
                                             money to live in cities and travel in
                                             them and between them so often? In
                                             short, why do we take so much pain
                   ***                       to be in proximity? This is the
                                             question for the politics of proximity
                                             that the various authors of this
                                             excellent compilation take up and
