Abstract
This paper seeks a vocabulary to study designers at work. The paper draws on STS studies of scientists and laboratories. A number of studies are explored in order to identify different points of attention in studies of science and in studies of design. It is argued that the notions in actor network theory of “following traces”, “heterogeneous engineering” and “programs and anti-programs” will be useful for the study of designers, but their potential has not been fully explored. Thorough investigation of texts of design work as well as an empirical case from a rubber valve plant in Denmark leads us to the notions of “mind”. Designing is argued to be successful when it takes place as mindful interrelating between numbers of entities of different kinds. The subjectivity and “biographical trajectory” of the designer are argued to be of particular interest in order to understand design work. The notion of mind is defined as being heedful to a number of entities. These points stand in opposition to the ideal type in science of constructing objectified inscriptions. Opposing those focuses leads to a discussion of the distribution of “regimes” in constructive everyday practice. Inspired by Latour (1998) the authors argue for a messy middle ground between a regime of science with the purpose of information transfer and a regime of design that produces a master narrative of the designer. Being mindful of identities, materials, machines, plans, customers and ideas is held to be the way designers stabilize networks and become successful.
Notes
This paper is a reviewed version of the one presented at the DASTS conference at Copenhagen Business School, 2 May 2007.
1. According to Latour (Citation2005) a performative definition stands in opposition to an advance definition of the quality of certain elements
2. In other texts Latour calls this methodological point “The generalised symmetry principle”. See for instance Latour (Citation1987). The “generalized symmetry principle” is formulated by ANT as a reaction to among others David Bloor's formulation of “a symmetry principle”. The idea is that not only successes and failures within science and technology studies should be studied symmetrically; so should humans and non-humans. At the outset humans and non-humans must be studied symmetrically in order to understand the nature of society. See also for instance Law (Citation1994, p. 10).
3. Our interest in heterogeneous engineering is not a matter of valorizing white, middle-aged males, but reflects an ambition to understand how things work
4. The notion of “boundary object” comes from Star and Griesemer's (Citation1989) study of the construction of a large zoological museum in California in the 1930s. The main point is similar to Latour's “immutable mobile”, the idea that epistemic networks are formed when knowledge is translated into durable yet mobile forms. Boundary objects seem to be a way of acknowledging both the transformations that occur when a text or other object moves between contexts as well as actions and techniques that enable the text or object to maintain a certain degree of consistency across these spaces.
5. The purpose here is not to exclude the possibility that there are rules of art and aesthetics that can be followed by anyone, but this point we will put aside here.
6. LTH RUBBER is a false name to keep the company anonymous.
7. The following passage is drawn from an ethnographic study on knowledge and product innovation in industry (see Nickelsen, Citation2003).
8. EPDM is an acronym and represents a particular kind of rubber that can be produced in this device
9. To “under-remould” is a notion taken from the field studied. If the item stays for a shorter time than planned in the moulding tool it maintains a certain flexibility that makes further moulding possible
10. “Vulcanization degree” is another technical notion from the field studied. It is closely related to the earlier mentioned “under-remould”. It is a question of how much the rubber is fixed into a certain form
11. According to Akrich (Citation2000)a chimera is a design object that is too inflicted by a defective designer environment and does not meet the requirements of the user world.
12. See our earlier discussion in relation to the notion of agency.
13. “Hybrid manoeuvres” is our own term. It is close to heterogenous engineering. By hybrid manoeuvres we intend to foreground improvisation as an important aspect in making entities of different qualities come together and act as a performative network. Heterogenous engineering gives associations to something that is planned in advance.
14. We have discussed earlier that the generalized symmetry does not decide a priori what should be given attention. Intermediaries are sent into circulation by mediators and have effects. Human emotions can be seen as an intermediary. In this case anger from key managers has to be appreciated otherwise heedlessness threatens to leave the network in a state of breakdown (see Weick and Roberts, Citation1996).
15. The question of multiplicity, i.e. whether one or more anti-programs is to be identified, is central particularly to so-called post ANT, but this is too complicated to go into further at this time.
16. For further discussion on the notion of “arrangement of knowing” see Nickelsen (Citation2003).
17. For a good discussion of the modern dream of purity versus impurity see Law (Citation1994), Introduction.
18. “Interpellation” is a notion originally offered by Althusser (1973). Recently it has been taken up by Law (Citation2000, 2002). In his discussion on the role of the personal in social science he argues that in order to avoid a mind/body spilt the personal or emotions should be described in material form. “Interpellation” means something like “called to”. Law is for instance “interpellated” by the broadly criticized and abandoned TSR2 combat plane as a young man in the 1960s.