João Arriscado Nunes and Ricardo Roque, Objectos Impuros. Experiências em Estudos sobre a Ciência, Edições Afrontamento, 2008
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17003
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2038-3460
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Laura Centemeri
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Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
João Arriscado Nunes and Ricardo Roque, Impure Objects. Science Studies Experiences, Edições Afrontamento, 2008
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Book Reviews
2011-06-27
2023-05-22
2011-06-27
2023-07-03
116-119
TS
Laura Centemeri
2011/06/27
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17003
116
CES – Universidade de Coimbra
2038-3460
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119
João Arriscado Nunes and Ricardo Roque, Impure Objects. Science Studies Experiences, Edições Afrontamento, 2008
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116   BOOK REVIEWS



      tude in decision making: ‘open-ended’              Latour, B. (1999),Politiques de la nature, Paris,
      cannot be confused with ‘democratic’;                  Editions La Decouverte & Syros.
                                                         Mény, Y., Thoenig, J.C. (1989) Politiques
          - the power to define policies is the              publiques. Paris, Presse Universitaires de
      result of a relational process, not the                France.
      origin of the policy at stake: looking at
      power in objectivist terms, as a re-
      source individual actors can mobilize                                    ***
      for their own interests, does not ac-
      count for who, how and when actors
      acquire the capacity to mobilize re-
      sources, and what constitutes a re-                   João Arriscado Nunes, Ricardo
      source in the actors’ perspective;                                 Roque
          - sometimes, ANT looks for missing              Objectos Impuros. Experiências
      masses, but in this case social actors are            em Estudos sobre a Ciência
      missing: why didn’t the trade unions                   (Impure Objects. Science Studies
      take part in the whole negotiation pro-                         Experiences)
      cess?                                               2008, Edições Afrontamento, 328 pp.
          If this book were a piece of music,
      as it often happens nowadays, it could                         Laura Centemeri
      be of interest for different audiences.                 (CES – Universidade de Coimbra)
      ANT listeners would probably be its
      ‘natural’ public, but political scientists              Science Studies are today in Portu-
      and environmental sociologists could               gal a very dynamic field of investiga-
      maybe enjoy it even more, because of               tion. Edited by two Portuguese schol-
      the ‘fresh sound’ this book brings into            ars that actively participated in the
      established canons. And social scien-              emergence and development of this re-
      tists (in general) could find new sounds           search field, the contributions collect-
      and dissonances in it that could help              ed in the volume aim at showing how
      them better frame the relationships be-            the theoretical and empirical investiga-
      tween humans, technologies and na-                 tion on science practice, objects and
      ture.                                              institutions in the Portuguese society (a
                                                         “semi-peripheral society” is the defini-
                                                         tion given by the authors) “interferes”,
                                                         through original paths, with the broad-
      References                                         er international debate.
                                                              The interest in studying science and
      Akrich, M. (1987) Comment décrire les objects
                                                         its impact on society is far from being a
          techniques?, “Technique et Culture”, 9, pp.
          49-64.                                         novelty in Portugal. In fact, the promo-
      Crozier, M., Friedberg, E. (1977) L’acteur e le    tion of science and the dissemination
          systéme, Paris, Edition du Seuil.              of scientific knowledge, as part of a
      Czarniawska, B. (2004) On Time, Space and Ac-      broader process of citizenship-buil-
          tion Nets, “Organization”, 11, pp. 777-795.
      Friedberg, E. (1993) Le pouvoir et la règle. Dy-
                                                         ding, have been a crucial component
          namiques de l’action organisée. Paris, Edi-    of the movement of opposition to the
          tion du Seuil.                                 Estado Novo, the Portuguese authori-
                                                             TECNOSCIENZA – 2(1)          117



tarian regime that for almost half a cen-    Nunes and Roque in their Introduc-
tury (until 1974) controlled the Coun-       tion, the collaborative dimension of the
try. Starting from the 1970’s Portugal       research projects through which the
has seen as well the emergence of a          field was built always prevails over the-
rich debate on epistemological issues,       se differences. An additional explana-
namely through the works of Boaven-          tion to this lack of clear cleavages is as
tura de Sousa Santos and Hermínio            well the strong “practical” orientation
Martins.                                     of these projects, which were designed
    Rooted in this tradition, the field of   in order to actively participate in the
Science Studies in Portugal is neverthe-     shaping of a Portuguese scientific cul-
less an undoubtedly “young” field. It        ture.
started to emerge in the 1990’s through          In fact, the emergence of the field
the creation, by the initiative of Maria     of Science Studies in Portugal run par-
Eduarda Gonçalves (currently profes-         allel to the constitution of a national
sor of Law and Public Policy at IS-          system of scientific production, via the
CTE), of a community of researchers,         creation of the Ministry of Science and
otherwise dispersed in different re-         Technology and a large investment in
search institutions (especially ISCTE        research, supported by European Pro-
and ICS in Lisbon, CES in Coimbra).          grams – Portugal having entered in
Joint projects of investigation brought      1986 the European Union. This specif-
to collective publications, edited by        ic condition brought to a situation in
Gonçalves, like Ciência e Democracia         which Portuguese researchers in the
(1996) and Cultura Científica e Partici-     field of Science Studies have been able
pação Pública (2000).                        to actually follow the creation of the
    This specific history implies that the   institutional and human infrastructure
field of Science Studies in Portugal         of science authority, studying obsta-
didn’t emerge in opposition to a con-        cles, controversies and conflicts emerg-
ventional sociology of science that nev-     ing in the process.
er really came into existence. As a con-         Through collecting contributions
sequence, some of the main theoretical       based on case-studies, written by
issues that oriented and structured the      young Portuguese researchers, this
epistemological debate at the interna-       volume shows, first of all, the variety
tional level were never at the core of       and dynamism of Science Studies re-
the Portuguese debate. The im-               search in Portugal, in terms of objects
portance of collaborative projects in        and approaches. However, the choice
structuring the field accounts for its       of the editors to have a first section of
being strongly multi-disciplinary (not       the book with contributions from
only sociologists are involved but his-      prominent scholars (Bruno Latour,
torians and anthropologists as well)         Annemarie Mol, Alan Irwin among
and for the variety of theoretical ap-       others) is meant to demonstrate how
proaches that orient the investigation.      the work of these young Portuguese
These different theoretical and episte-      researchers is oriented by issues cur-
mological approaches are not the case        rently core in the debate at the interna-
for structured cleavages. As noted by        tional level, like political ontology and
118   BOOK REVIEWS



      performativity.                                tients are helped by technologies and
          The contributions of the second            forms of knowledge that exist in the
      section of the book well illustrate the        clinic. These technologies and forms of
      main themes structuring the research           knowledge act as “prostheses” so that
      on science, technology and society in          patient personal agency is distributed
      Portugal. They can be regrouped in             in what can be defined as a “surgical
      three areas. First, ethnographic studies       collective”. The way in which these
      concerned with science “in the mak-            precarious and contingent collective
      ing”. Second, historical trajectories of       orders function accounts for the reha-
      scientific and technological innova-           bilitation path which is observed, in
      tions, oriented towards the under-             terms of successful recovery or not.
      standing of the processes that shape                In the subsection “Histories”, João
      the modern institutions of science and         Vasconcelos investigates from an an-
      the state. Third, the study of socio-          thropological point of view the emer-
      technical controversies, with an em-           gence of an empiricist discourse in Eu-
      phasis on the confrontation, in the            rope in the period 1850-1920, taking
      public space, between different forms          “spiritism” as its object of analysis. The
      of knowledge and their expression in           author shows how spiritism challenges
      social conflicts, especially in the field of   the separation between science and re-
      environmental and public health prob-          ligion, thus breaking a fundamental
      lems. They all share an approach to the        principle of modern sciences. This fact
      study of how social and material enti-         accounts for the epistemic and norma-
      ties are associated in complex and mul-        tive marginalism to which spiritism has
      tiple ways that grants a privilege to          been condemned since then. Rui Bran-
      what Nunes and Roque define in terms           co studies the relationship between the
      of a “sociology of impurity”, that is, the     construction of the state and the scien-
      contamination of different tools and           tific-technical production of cartog-
      epistemic approaches.                          raphy in Portugal, using an approach
          In the subsection “Ethnographies”,         of historical sociology and the analysis
      Gonçalo Praça shows how the tech-              of material (and micro) processes of
      nical production of meteorological             construction of science and the state.
      knowledge is based on two black-               Ricardo Roque analyzes the trajectory
      boxes: global models of weather fore-          of the only partially successful “scien-
      casting, and the local experience of sci-      tific translation” of wild bananas seeds
      entists working at the Portuguese Me-          into recognized medical treatment
      teorological Institute, an experience          against smallpox in India, at the begin-
      made of a combination of subjective            ning of the 20th century, crossing the
      knowledge, texts, technologies, institu-       biography of the physician Joaquim
      tional rules. Tiago Moreira investigates       Vás, the history of the creation of
      the socio-technical organization of            Health Services, the conflict between
      neurosurgery rehabilitation, through           medical powers.
      an ethnographic work in a neurosur-                 In the subsection “Controversies”,
      gery clinic in Portugal. In order to re-       Sofia Bento studies the case of the
      acquire a notion of “self in action”, pa-      Alqueva dam and the controversy con-
                                                                   TECNOSCIENZA – 2(1)          119



cerning the existence of significant ar-                        Reiner Keller
chaeological find in the area to be in-                   Wissenssoziologische
undated. The mobilization asking for                 Diskursanalyse. Grundlegung
the preservation of this archaeological              eines Forschungsprogramms
heritage was not successful, a failure             (The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to
that Bento investigates with a focus on              Discourse Analysis. Groundwork for a
the role of media in the construction of                    Research Programme)
scientific and technical objects. In the                  2011, VS Verlag, 360 pp.
final chapter, Marisa Matias examines
the controversy about the use of a ce-                            Jan Cherlet
ment factory in Souselas (a small town                       (Università di Bologna)
close to Coimbra) to incinerate indus-
trial wastes. Matias discusses the dy-                 Reiner Keller's work constitutes
namics through which the problem                   one of those “exceptions” that prove
arises together with the objects of sci-           that the academic scene is not yet as
entific controversy. She investigates as           global as we tend to think. Keller has
well how environmental policies and                developed a research programme for
citizens’ mobilisation enter the frame.            the sociological analysis of discourses
The author suggests that this kind of              and their effects. Thanks to its con-
studies can help in understanding the              creteness and practical applicability in
processes that confer existence (or                empirical research, the method has
non-existence) to public problems and              been harnessed by German scholars in
collective actors. Far from being just a           a wide range of disciplines – not only
sample of Science Studies research in              in sociology but also in history, peda-
Portugal, the volume edited by Nunes               gogics and educational science, linguis-
and Roque is an important exercise in              tics, political science, studies of reli-
self-reflexivity that points out the orig-         gion, criminology... That Keller's man-
inality of the Portuguese contribution             ual has reached a third edition in bare-
to the study of science and technology             ly six years can be taken as an indicator
in society, thus tracing a clear path for          of its success. Oddly enough, no Eng-
future developments.                               lish translation is available yet, and
                                                   while he is widely cited in Germany,
References                                         international publications referring to
                                                   Keller's work are still rare.
Gonçalves, M.E. (ed) (1996) Ciência e Democra-         Keller's research programme for
   cia, Venda Nova, Bertrand Editora.              discourse analysis – he prefers to call it
Gonçalves, M.E. (ed) (2000) Cultura Científica e
                                                   a programme since it includes both a
   Participação Pública, Oeiras, Celta.
                                                   theoretical framework and methodo-
                                                   logical tools – is grounded in the soci-
                      ***                          ology of knowledge but incorporates
                                                   insights from Foucault's work. The
                                                   proposed research programme origi-
                                                   nated in his own discourse research on
                                                   waste politics in Germany and France
