10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17341
application/pdf
2038-3460
17341
2
en
Tjerk Timan
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Giuseppina Pellegrino and Alessandro Mongili (eds.), Information Infrastructure(s): Boundaries, Ecologies, Multiplicity, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
7
Book Reviews
2017-01-24
2023-06-22
2017-01-24
2023-08-21
182-185
TS
Tjerk Timan
2016
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17341
182
University of Tilburg
2038-3460
2
en
185
Giuseppina Pellegrino and Alessandro Mongili (eds.), Information Infrastructure(s): Boundaries, Ecologies, Multiplicity, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17341/16189
7
182                                                         Tecnoscienza – 7 (2)

    Giuseppina Pellegrino and Alessandro Mongili (eds.)
Information Infrastructure(s): Boundaries, Ecologies, Multiplicity, Cam-
bridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014, pp. 337

Tjerk Timan University of Tilburg

    Based on a thematic track organized in occasion of the EASST con-
ference in Trento (September 2010), this edited volume holds a collection
of fourteen chapters on Information Infrastructures and/as Boundary
Objects. The book presents itself as a theoretical and empirical contribu-
tion on information infrastructures (IIs) and it is aimed at STS-ers, but
also organization studies and media studies scholars.
    In the very well-written and accessible “Introduction”, an overview is
provided of how infrastructures and boundary objects developed concep-
tually, how they compare to other STS concepts such immutable mobiles
and what is their place within approaches like ANT and SCOT. It serves
as a conceptual framework and reading lens for the book, and it works
well in guiding the reader through the sometimes-confusing vocabulary of
STS. Some of the main points made in the introduction are the emphasis
put on the interpretation of boundary objects (BOs), their different
shapes and forms (not necessarily being material things) and the interpre-
tation of information infrastructures themselves as boundary objects. The
editors explain very well the types of information infrastructures and the
need to research them, and they provide a relevant take on BOs and IIs.
    The editors set out three main foci for looking at the empirical cases
and examples of IIs provided in the volume; namely, boundaries, ecolo-
gies and multiplicity. They are, they say, interlinked dimensions of IIs.
These dimensions are illustrated by way of how other authors have used
these terms, and thus well-explained and referenced. However, they are
not very clearly defined in terms of dimensions and, as a result, the prom-
ise made to push theoretical insights by using these “dimensions” to ana-
lyse empirical material seems difficult and ill-structured (to use one of the
labels Star used to categorize IIs – either well-structured or ill-
structured). Questions of scaling up or down, of insiders/outsiders of a
particular infrastructure that a (novel) technology or application instigates
and of (de)centralization are connected to these dimensions and relevant
when studying IIs. To what extent the insights produced in the chapters
can be compared, measured and generalized in order to confirm ways of
thinking about IIs or to develop novel ones, remains to be seen and does
not become entirely apparent in the provided reading lens.
    The “Introduction” does not delve into explaining or problematizing
key terms in themselves, such as “information” or “infrastructure”: what
exactly makes up an information infrastructure and how to delineate an
infrastructure from a thing-in-itself? Does it depend on the amount and
types of users? On the fact that it is digital and/or electricity-based? Or
Book Review                                                               183
on some form of classification model or protocol being present or being
“done”? After reading the book, the reader does get a better feel and grip
on these questions, yet they are not dealt explicitly. An explicitation of
these issues could have helped in sharpening even further the reading lens
for the chapters.
    The chapters are divided in four parts that bundle three to four chap-
ters each under a thematic heading. The first theme deals with the design
and articulation of information infrastructures (IIs). This first part aims to
provide a grip on what IIs can be. The first and third chapters (respec-
tively, by Mongili and by Klein and Schellhammer) show in-depth a well-
designed study on the making of IIs, together with the processes of repre-
sentation and the different types of boundary objects involved in these
processes. The second chapter (by Pellegrino) tries to compare three
seemingly incomparable “cases” in order to show the contingencies of
IIS. Vulnerability, ductility and resilience take the stage, although the ad-
vantages of comparing these cases could have been underlined with more
strength. In all three chapters, moment of disruption or the influences of
external actors or processes in making visible certain problems within IIs
are discussed, also by providing insights in how boundary objects “act” or
categorize and (de) stabilize.
    The chapters in the second part are grouped around the concepts of
ecologies, by seeing IIs as ecological tools. The first chapter (by Poderi)
deals with a case of open versus formal computer software development
and discussed practices of Free & Open Source Software (FOSS). The
empirical material is mixed and presents interesting approaches to game
studies by looking at different actors and sub-parts of the game to be de-
veloped and how these forces interact (or not) during the development
process. As such, it can also be seen as an empirical qualitative software
studies project. The two following chapters (by Neresini and Viteritti and
by Crabu) present more traditional STS-lab work, in which equipment
and processes of standardization enter, and alter, the lab workplace. The
one by Neresini and Viteritti is focused on the introduction of lab-KITs
in order to standardize DNA analysis and on how these shape bio-
medical research, training, and research habits. Crabu discusses the work
of externally defined protocols and the local adjustments to these proto-
cols. The chapters present a truly mixed method approach, and they pro-
vide a clear diagrammatical analysis and good (yet sometimes over) use of
thick descriptions through field notes or participant notes (just a side-
note: if one presents field notes or graphs, they should be readable or at
least externally accessible). In these chapters, mostly anecdotal evidence
is provided and, although methodologies are often well-explained, they
are not always properly backed up (e.g. why this was the appropriate
method for the job at hand). On a theoretical level, the role of ecology as
a conceptual tool is not always obvious.
    In Part Three the role of users is discussed, as well as their different
roles and the difference of these roles in relation to specific IIs. The first

                                                                          183
184                                                         Tecnoscienza – 7 (2)

chapter (by Denis and Pontille) deals with online cartography, more spe-
cifically with a project of bottom-up and open source bike lane mapping.
This very enjoyable chapter shows the negotiation of life-worlds, that of
users and programmers, and how they try to “protect” or claim their ex-
pertise in the coming to being, and especially in the maintenance and in
the improvement of the software. The next chapter (by Lazzer and Giar-
dullo) compares two open-source sharing platforms for books, using an
actor-network software to map how this information infrastructure actu-
ally looks like and how users and platform “owners” negotiate (again, it
would have been be nice if the graphs were accessible online, and/or pub-
lished in higher-resolution). The third chapter (by Mitrea) has a more
theoretical nature and makes an analysis of dispositves of intelligent mo-
bility, using – amongst other – scenario methods. The fourth (by Isabella)
is about how users are defined by different groups of workers within a
relevant Italian telecommunication company and about what is the role
played in these definitions by the software infrastructure that mediate the
relation with them.
    The fourth and last part of the book focuses more on policies and dis-
courses as boundary objects and on their role in shaping potential IIs,
where organization, markets and governance issues are of key relevance.
The first chapter (by Miele) applies the concept of boundaries object to
organization, comparing the work of two spin-off projects. The second
chapter (by Turrini) focuses on risk models in medicine. The third one
(by Cozza) on the development of science parks and on the interaction
between a multiplicity of visions on what a science park should be. The
last chapter of the book (by Lugano) evolves around the notion of conver-
gence and divergence in design tools and how this has a shaping effect on
how digital infrastructures come into being.
    The common ground to be found in all these chapters is the role of IIs
in shaping and allowing/disallowing connections and relationships. Thus,
the main contributing factor of the book is to show that infrastructures
“do” and, therefore, are a site for research. This is not an entirely new
finding so that the book should probably be interpreted as a continuation
of the research agenda set out by Bowker and Star (1994).
    Many chapters show highly relevant case studies that provide an in-
sight in how to apply or “do” infrastructure research. The many chapters
vary in terms of level of analysis and type and size of case, presenting a
colourful spectrum of different types of STS infrastructure work.
    Notwithstanding the excellent work done, some after-reading com-
ments are required. A first one regards the fact that the work on infra-
structures and on systems of ordering and classification has usually specif-
ic goals. To focus on this aspect could show or reveal a particular hegem-
ony of one type of systems or to show alternative ways or modes of order-
ing that would have different consequences for how we experience an in-
formation system. If, as the book argues, we need to understand and in-
vestigate infrastructures conceptually through boundary objects, a key
Book Review                                                               185
starting point could have been to argue more clearly how or why the cases
discussed are boundary objects and what happens at the boundaries.
Such a lack could be a consequence of how authors have framed them-
selves in the research they have performed. The chapters presented are
highly exciting in terms of the types of fieldwork and cases presented; yet
most chapters adhere to the adagio of being mostly descriptive in an STS-
oriented vein. Duly noting that Law (2008) once stated that the agenda of
STS should remain descriptive and case-based, the book could have
pushed the field of studying infrastructures from an STS perspective by
framing it in a larger critical socio-political agenda. Or, to put it in terms
of a later article by Law (2009), via the term “interference”, by which he
means that there is a way for STS scholars to “be” political without being
prescriptive or without telling what is right or wrong (at least by ac-
knowledging their own role as researchers and the effect they have on the
field they are researching). “Politics is about interfering to make a differ-
ence” (Law 2009, p. 11). The arguments for what this difference is, or
should be, or how studying the myriad of IIs and BOs particularly con-
tribute to unveiling alternatives of differences, would have been an inter-
esting addition to the introductory chapter in order to answer the ques-
tion of why studying information infrastructures.
    A second remark regards the impression that some chapters seem to
have reinterpreted afterwards the data collected in terms of boundary ob-
jects or information infrastructures, rather than having taken these con-
cepts as starting points of their research. As a result, whereas the book is
extremely rich in terms of empirical material, theoretically it remains up
to the reader to distil and connect the relevant theoretical points made in
the introduction with the individual chapters.
    Overall, the range of topics may be not all equally suited to inform or
push conceptually on the concepts of IIs and BOs, yet they do provide a
wide and attractive spectrum of cases, which are informative and show in-
depth fieldwork. The book is accessible and it contributes to an empirical
understanding and grounding of the notions of IIs and BOs. As such, the
volume sets and fills out the agenda for this important research topic and
expands it well beyond a STS scholarship only.

References
Bowker, G., and Star S.L. (1994) Knowledge and Infrastructure in International
      Information Management: Problems of Classification and Coding, in L.
      Bud (ed.), Information Acumen: The Understanding and Use of
      Knowledge in Modern Business, London, Routledge, pp. 187-216.
Law, J. (2008) On Sociology and STS, in “The Sociological Review”, 56 (4), pp.
        623-649.
Law, J. (2009) The Greer-Bush Test: On Politics in STS, version of 23rd Decem-
        ber 2009 (available at: http://www.heterogeneities.net/publications/
        Law2009TheGreer-BushTest.pdf).

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