Beyond imported magic: essays on science, technology, and society in Latin America PDF
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Beyond Imported Magic Inside Technology Series edited by Wiebe E. Bijker, W. Bernard Carlson, and Trevor Pinch Eden Medina, Ivan da Costa Marques, and Christina Holmes, Shobita Parthasarathy, Building Genetic Medicine: Breast editors, B eyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science, Technology, Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care and Society in Latin America Kristen Haring, Ham Radio’ s Technical Culture Anique Hommels, Jessica Mesman, and Wiebe E. Bijker, Atsushi Akera, Calculating a Natural World: Scientists, Engineers editors, V ulnerability in Technological Cultures: New Directions and Computers during the Rise of U.S. Cold War Research in Research and Governance Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Amit Prasad, I mperial Technoscience: Transnational Histories of Models Shape Markets MRI in the United States, Britain, and India Geoffrey C. Bowker, M emory Practices in the Sciences Charis Thompson, G ood Science: The Ethical Choreography of Stem Cell Research Christophe Lé c uyer, M aking Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 1930– 1970 Tarleton Gillespie, Pablo J. Boczkowski, and Kirsten A. Foot, editors, M edia Technologies: Essays on Communication, Anique Hommels, Unbuilding Cities: Obduracy in Urban Materiality, and Society Sociotechnical Change Catelijne Coopmans, Janet Vertesi, Michael Lynch, and Steve David Kaiser, editor, P edagogy and the Practice of Science: Woolgar, editors, R epresentation in Scientific Practice Revisited Historical and Contemporary Perspectives Rebecca Slayton, Arguments that Count: Physics, Computing, Charis Thompson, Making Parents: The Ontological and Missile Defense, 1949– 2012 Choreography of Reproductive Technology Stathis Arapostathis and Graeme Gooday, P atently Pablo J. Boczkowski, D igitizing the News: Innovation in Online Contestable: Electrical Technologies and Inventor Identities on Newspapers Trial in Britain Dominique Vinck, editor, E veryday Engineering: An Jens Lachmund, Greening Berlin: The Co- Production of Science, Ethnography of Design and Innovation Politics, and Urban Nature Nelly Oudshoorn and Trevor Pinch, editors, H ow Users Chikako Takeshita, The Global Biopolitics of the IUD: How Matter: The Co-Construction of Users and Technology Science Constructs Contraceptive Users and Women ’ s Bodies Peter Keating and Alberto Cambrosio, B iomedical Platforms: Realigning the Normal and the Pathological in Late-Twentieth- Cyrus C. M. Mody, Instrumental Community: Probe Microscopy Century Medicine and the Path to Nanotechnology Paul Rosen, F raming Production: Technology, Culture, and Morana Alac ,̌ H andling Digital Brains: A Laboratory Study of Change in the British Bicycle Industry Multimodal Semiotic Interaction in the Age of Computers Maggie Mort, Building the Trident Network: A Study of the Gabrielle Hecht, editor, E ntangled Geographies: Empire and Enrollment of People, Knowledge, and Machines Technopolitics in the Global Cold War Donald MacKenzie, Mechanizing Proof: Computing, Risk, and Michael E. Gorman, editor, T rading Zones and Interactional Trust Expertise: Creating New Kinds of Collaboration Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star, S orting Things Out: Matthias Gross, I gnorance and Surprise: Science, Society, and Classification and Its Consequences Ecological Design Charles Bazerman, T he Languages of Edison’ s Light Andrew Feenberg, Between Reason and Experience: Essays in Technology and Modernity Janet Abbate, I nventing the Internet Wiebe E. Bijker, Roland Bal, and Ruud Hendricks, T he Herbert Gottweis, G overning Molecules: The Discursive Politics Paradox of Scientific Authority: The Role of Scientific Advice in of Genetic Engineering in Europe and the United States Democracies Kathryn Henderson, O n Line and On Paper: Visual Park Doing, Velvet Revolution at the Synchrotron: Biology, Representation, Visual Culture, and Computer Graphics in Design Physics, and Change in Science Engineering Gabrielle Hecht, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and Susanne K. Schmidt and Raymund Werle, C oordinating National Identity after World War II Technology: Studies in the International Standardization of Telecommunications Richard Rottenburg, Far-Fetched Facts: A Parable of Development Aid Marc Berg, R ationalizing Medical Work: Decision Support Techniques and Medical Practices Michel Callon, Pierre Lascoumes, and Yannick Barthe, A cting in an Uncertain World: An Essay on Technical Democracy Eda Kranakis, C onstructing a Bridge: An Exploration of Engineering Culture, Design, and Research in Nineteenth-Century Ruth Oldenziel and Karin Zachmann, editors, C old War France and America Kitchen: Americanization, Technology, and European Users Paul N. Edwards, T he Closed World: Computers and the Politics Deborah G. Johnson and Jameson W. Wetmore, editors, of Discourse in Cold War America Technology and Society: Building Our Sociotechnical Future Donald MacKenzie, K nowing Machines: Essays on Technical Trevor Pinch and Richard Swedberg, editors, L iving in a Change Material World: Economic Sociology Meets Science and Technology Studies Wiebe E. Bijker, O f Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change Christopher R. Henke, C ultivating Science, Harvesting Power: Science and Industrial Agriculture in California Louis L. Bucciarelli, D esigning Engineers Helga Nowotny, Insatiable Curiosity: Innovation in a Fragile Geoffrey C. Bowker, S cience on the Run: Information Future Management and Industrial Geophysics at Schlumberger, 1920-1940 Karin Bijsterveld, Mechanical Sound: Technology, Culture, and Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century Wiebe E. Bijker and John Law, editors, S haping Technology / Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change Peter D. Norton, F ighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City Stuart Blume, I nsight and Industry: On the Dynamics of Technological Change in Medicine Joshua M. Greenberg, F rom Betamax to Blockbuster: Video Stores tand the Invention of Movies on Video Donald MacKenzie, I nventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance Mikael Hård and Thomas J. Misa, editors, U rban Machinery: Inside Modern European Cities Pamela E. Mack, V iewing the Earth: The Social Construction of the Landsat Satellite System Christine Hine, Systematics as Cyberscience: Computers, Change, and Continuity in Science H. M. Collins, A rtificial Experts: Social Knowledge and Intelligent Machines Wesley Shrum, Joel Genuth, and Ivan Chompalov, S tructures of Scientific Collaboration See http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/series/inside-technology for a complete list of titles in this series. Beyond Imported Magic Essays on Science, Technology, and Society in Latin America edited by Eden Medina, Ivan da Costa Marques, and Christina Holmes with a foreword by Marcos Cueto The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or me- chanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) with- out permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected]. This book was set in ITC Stone Sans Std and ITC Stone Serif Std 9/13 pt by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited, Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Beyond imported magic: essays on science, technology, and society in Latin America / edited by Eden Medina, Ivan da Costa Marques, and Christina Holmes; with a foreword by Marcos Cueto. page cm — (Inside technology) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-02745-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-262-52620-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Technology transfer — Latin America. 2. Science — Latin America. 3. Technology — Social aspects — Latin America. I. Medina, Eden, 1976– editor of compilation. II. Marques, Ivan da Costa editor of compilation. III. Holmes, Christina, 1973 – editor of compilation. T24.A1B46 2014 338.98 ′ 06 — dc23 2013046628 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Foreword by Marcos Cueto vii Preface xi 1 Introduction: Beyond Imported Magic 1 Eden Medina, Ivan da Costa Marques, and Christina Holmes Part I: Latin American Perspectives on Science, Technology, and Society 2 Who Invented Brazil? 27 Henrique Cukierman 3 Innovation and Inclusive Development in the South: A Critical Perspective 47 Mariano Fressoli, Rafael Dias, and Hern á n Thomas 4 Working with Care: Narratives of Invisible Women Scientists Practicing Forensic Genetics in Colombia 67 Tania P é rez-Bustos, Mar í a Fernanda Olarte Sierra, and Adriana D í az del Castillo H. 5 Ontological Politics and Latin American Local Knowledges 85 Ivan da Costa Marques 6 Technology in an Expanded Field: A Review of History of Technology Scholarship on Latin America in Selected English-Language Journals 111 Michael Lemon and Eden Medina Part II: Local and Global Networks of Innovation 7 South Atlantic Crossings: Fingerprints, Science, and the State in Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century Argentina 139 Julia Rodriguez vi Contents 8 Tropical Assemblage: The Soviet Large Panel in Cuba 159 Hugo Palmarola and Pedro Ignacio Alonso 9 Balancing Design: OLPC Engineers and ICT Translations at the Periphery 181 Anita Say Chan 10 Translating Magic: The Charisma of One Laptop per Child’ s XO Laptop in Paraguay 207 Morgan G. Ames 11 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: How an Emerging Area on the Scientific Agenda of the Core Countries Has Been Adopted and Transformed in Latin America 225 Noela Invernizzi, Matthieu Hubert, and Dominique Vinck 12 Latin America as Laboratory: The Camera and the Yale Peruvian Expeditions 245 Amy Cox Hall Part III: Science, Technology, and Latin American Politics 13 Bottling Atomic Energy: Technology, Politics, and the State in Peronist Argentina 267 Jonathan Hagood 14 Peaceful Atoms in Mexico 287 Gisela Mateos and Edna Su á rez-D í az 15 Neoliberalism as Political Technology: Expertise, Energy, and Democracy in Chile 305 Manuel Tironi and Javiera Barandiar á n 16 Creole Interferences: A Conflict over Biodiversity and Ownership in the South of Brazil 331 Ana Delgado and Israel Rodr í guez-Giralt 17 The Juridical Hospital: Patient-Citizen-Consumers Claiming the Right to Health in Brazilian Courts 349 Jo ã o Biehl Contributors 373 Index 379 Foreword This book testifies to the progress of critical investigations on how science and tech- nology have been constructed, designed, imagined, and practiced in Latin America. This collection is truly outstanding, not only because the contributors take into con- sideration the philosophical, historical, sociological, anthropological, and political science dimensions of a little-studied region of the world, but also because they address issues relevant to scholars and readers interested in the phenomenon of science and technology all over the world. And it is no small feat that the literature they use is up-to-date. One issue that certainly appears clear in this publication is that scientific knowledge constructs its “ universal ” legitimacy depending not only on time, place, and field of study, but also on the agency of individuals, institutions, and nations. Has Latin America always been passive and derivative in terms of scientific creativ- ity, or has it played a central role in the making of contemporary specialized practices? The answers coming from Latin America show, with increasing emphasis, that science and technology should be understood as an arena contested by a wide variety of individuals, institutions, and actors and through complex local processes of reception, rejection, adaptation, and hybridization. From this perspective, Western science could be understood as a process of polycentric networks, and as a global dynamic interplay in ever-shifting networks. This book offers several specific contributions to the literature. First, it addresses the complex and difficult coexistence of the significant advances made to Western science by Latin American centers of knowledge making and the asymmetry of knowl- edge production between Latin American nations and their counterparts in more industrialized parts of the world. This means that, at least during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Latin American science has contributed to the world store of knowledge and helped construct the hegemony of metropolitan Western knowledge, but at the same time has faced adverse conditions such as low cultural esteem, few full-time laboratory positions, ephemeral academic journals, underfunded universities, and limited financial resources. As a result, high-quality Latin American science and technology have survived in the international scientific community despite the viii Foreword asymmetry in power and financial relations. It also means that frequently “ good ” science and scientists exist despite the absence of consolidated scientific communities. This is a paradox, and a fascinating theme that is explored in this publication. Second, the authors in this book illustrate that the unique combination of moder- nity and underdevelopment in Latin America questions the “ natural ” frontiers between nature and society determined by politicians and science practitioners, making them appear clearly artificial. Third, in offering a detailed analysis of the day-to-day practices of scientists, engineers, and technologists, the book shows that these practitioners are close to the public reception of scientific knowledge, which they both produce and translate as they attempt to reconcile diverse lay and expert viewpoints. This is differ- ent from what often occurs in more industrialized nations, where there is often a larger gap between the mediation of scientific knowledge and the views of the general public. The chapters in the book are a clear by-product of a scholarly reaction in the region that can be traced to the 1980s, when researchers of the social studies of science went beyond the prevailing internalist perspectives, familiar traditional ideals of Western science, and models of scientific diffusion, social control, or scientific imperialism. The flaw of these models was that they assumed that anything in Latin American societies (modernization, development or dependence) came from outside those soci- eties. Contextual history was emphasized later, but after a few years it was clear that this too was not sufficient. The studies in this book take the approach a step further by intertwining contextual and internal factors and demonstrating that scientific life had a life of its own. They are a splendid mirror of the noticeable increase in the quantity, quality, and international relevance of scholarship in the social studies of science in Latin America. These new trends have also appeared in historical studies of medicine in Latin America, which have shown how European conquest, political governance, and culture in Latin America were inspired, legitimized, portrayed, and based on scientific and technological knowledge. In a continent marked by frequent revolutions, social upheavals, migrations, changing borders, and natural disasters, scientific expertise was frequently used as a catalyst for change— or a supporter of continuity— in institutions, landscapes, gender roles, races, societies, and states. The investigation of how science was grounded in cultural, social, and political currents of the past was made possible in part by novel research on new problems, using new sources, and carried out by a new historiography that matured most notably in the pages of the journal edited in Rio de Janeiro by the Casa Oswaldo Cruz, Historia, Ciencia, Sa ú de — Manguinhos (which first appeared in 1994). The original idea for this book grew out of a meeting that took place in Buenos Aires on the social studies of science and technology, bringing together scholars from across the Americas. The geographical and thematic distribution of the chapters reflects the excellent research going on in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and other Foreword ix countries in the region. Its publication in English— the Latin of our day — will help scholars in other countries to take stock of the field, to promote a fluid dialogue between all researchers interested in the social and cultural dimensions of science and technology studies. I would like to end by telling an anecdote that occurred when I attended a confer- ence in Mexico with several historians of science several years ago. We were wandering through the galleries of the splendid Museum of History and Anthropology in Mexico City. After our brilliant guide gave us a detailed explanation of the sophisticated mathematical knowledge of the Mayas before the conquest, I mumbled something like “ This is amazing!” to a British historian. I will never forget his response: “ What is amazing is that I knew nothing about it before!” I sincerely hope that this authorita- tive book will help to uncover unknown valuable information and suggestive new perspectives for the social studies of science and technology in the United States and Europe. The editors, authors, and publisher should be congratulated for producing a remarkable and coherent study that will be a landmark in the social studies of science and technology of Latin America and an intriguing and nuanced inspiration for broader debates on transnational STS research. It will certainly raise new important questions. It will also illuminate the current discussions on how science and technol- ogy can help to solve long-standing challenges in the region such as the achievement of full citizenship, social equality, and social cohesion. Marcos Cueto Visiting Professor Casa Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro
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