Acting in an Uncertain World: An Essay on Technical Democracy (Inside Technology)

✍ Scribed by Michel Callon, Pierre Lascoumes, Yannick Barthe

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 301
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Michel Callon, developer (with Bruno Latour and others) of the Actor Network Theory, is Professor at ?cole des mines de Paris and a Researcher at the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation there. Yannick Barthe a Researcher at CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) and a member of the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation. Pierre Lascoumes is Director of Research at CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientfique).

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 8
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Prologue......Page 14
1 Hybrid Forums......Page 26
Uncertain Times......Page 31
From Risk to Uncertainty......Page 32
Radical Uncertainties......Page 34
The Era of Suspicion......Page 35
From Suspicion to Presumption......Page 36
Social and Technical Uncertainties......Page 37
Dynamic......Page 39
Explorations and Collective Learning......Page 40
Controversy as a Mode of Exploration......Page 41
Controversy as Learning......Page 45
The Dialogical Space of Hybrid Forums......Page 48
2 Secluded Research......Page 50
The Great Confinement......Page 55
The Regime of Curiosity......Page 56
The Regime of Utility......Page 57
The Regime of Exactness......Page 58
From the Macrocosm to the Microcosm: Translation 1......Page 61
The Research Collective at Work: Translation 2......Page 64
Return to the Big World: Translation 3......Page 72
Translation......Page 81
3 There’s Always Someone More Specialist......Page 84
Taking Part in the Formulation of Problems......Page 89
Taking Part in the Research Collective in Order to Broaden and Organize It......Page 96
Turning Back to the World......Page 102
On the Necessary Cooperation between Secluded Research and Researchin the Wild......Page 107
More Than a Specialist, a Specialist and a Half......Page 112
4 In Search of a Common World......Page 120
Representation and Consultation: A Question of Procedures......Page 128
The Development of Hybrid Forums: A Criticism of the Limits of DelegativeDemocracy......Page 132
The Double Exploration of Possible Worlds and of the Collective......Page 136
In Search of a Common World......Page 149
5 The Organization of Hybrid Forums......Page 166
Organizational Criteria......Page 171
Implementation Criteria......Page 174
The Procedures......Page 176
‘‘Focus Groups’’ or Discussion Groups......Page 177
Public Inquiries......Page 179
Consensus Conferences......Page 182
Intensity?......Page 184
Openness?......Page 187
Quality?......Page 188
Citizens’ Panels and Juries......Page 189
Entry into the Public Space......Page 191
6 Measured Action, or How to Decide without Making a Definitive Decision......Page 204
What Precaution Is Not......Page 207
Precaution and Prevention......Page 208
Precaution and Abstention......Page 210
Precaution and ‘‘Worst-Case Scenarios’’......Page 212
Precaution and ‘‘Zero Risk’’......Page 213
Precaution and Responsibility......Page 214
Precaution as Measured Action......Page 216
The Field of Application of the Precautionary Principle: A CarefullyDelimited Framework of Action......Page 218
The Initiation of Precaution: Vigilance, Exploration, and Choice ofMeasures......Page 223
From Vigilance to Alarm......Page 224
The Exploration and the Measure of Overflows......Page 227
The Choice of Measures......Page 231
A New Conception of Decision......Page 234
7 The Democratization of Democracy......Page 238
A Risk Society?......Page 239
Democratizing Expertise?......Page 241
Returning to the Great Dichotomies?......Page 244
Use the Mechanisms of the Market?......Page 247
A Procedural Innovation of Technical Democracy: The Representation ofMinorities......Page 251
Equity or Feeling of Equity? The ‘‘Fair Effect Process’’......Page 256
Equity of Procedures, or Equity of Decisions?......Page 257
The Risk of Machiavellian Manipulation......Page 261
Efficient Because Dialogic......Page 263
Three Lessons......Page 264
Epilogue......Page 268
Notes......Page 280
Index......Page 292