9^th Ethnographies of Science & Technology Workshop

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New Ontologies?
Some recent turns to ontology and their implications for anthropology

Lecture & discussion

Casper Bruun Jensen
(Osaka University)

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Date and Time:  Saturday, July 23^rd, 14:00〜17:30
Venue: Room 523, Main Building,  School/Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University
Access: http://www.hus.osaka-u.ac.jp/ja/access.html

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ABSTRACT

Recent years has seen an explosive interest in ‘ontology’ in anthropology and the humanities more generally. The notion was generally abandoned along with the realist or essentialist vocabularies that were superseded by the cultural and linguistic turns of the 70s and 80s, which highlighted power/knowledge relations, discursive and social constructions, and epistemological positions. In the mid-90s ontology returned as a theoretical orientation within science and technology studies that brought attention to the agency of nonhumans (ie Latour, Mol, Pickering). In the last ten years, the term has gained a series of additional, and different, inflections in anthropology, where “the ontological turn” has been much debated (ie Viveiros de Castro, Holbraad), and in philosophies affiliated with speculative realism, speculative materialism, object-oriented ontology, and new materialism (ie Meillassoux, Harman, Grant, Morton). These approaches have some shared pre-cursors, not least Gilles Deleuze, and they share a general interest in examining the material, nonhuman forces of the earth. However, there are also significant differences, and incompatibilities, between them. In this intensive seminar, we will read and discuss a series of key works in order to tease apart their different intellectual histories, orientations, and their possible implications for anthropology..

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PROGRAM

…14:00~15:30……Lecture & comments
…15:30~15:45……Coffee break
…15:45~16:30……Group discussion
…16:30~16:40……Coffee break
…16:40~17:15……Wrap-up discussion
…17:15……………Closing remarks

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READINGS
…for discussion
…* for a copy of the readings, please contact Moe Nakazora (moenakazora@gmail.com)

1. Pickering, Andrew. 2008. “New Ontologies”, in The Mangle in Practice: Science, Society and Becoming, eds. Andrew Pickering & Keith Guzik, Durham & London: Duke University Press, pp. 1-17.
2. Holbraad, Martin. 2009. “Ontography and Alterity: Defining Anthropological Truth.” Social Analysis 53(2): 80-93.
3. Harman, Graham. 2013. “The four most typical objections to OOO” and “Seventy-six theses on object-oriented philosophy”, in Bells and Whistles: More Speculative Realism. Winchester, UK & Washington, USA: Zero Books. pp. 31-40 & 60-71.
4. Christopher Gad, Casper Bruun Jensen, Brit Ross Winthereik. 2014. “Practical Ontology: Worlds in STS and Anthropology,” NatureCulture 3: 67-86.

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Open to public. Admission Free. No registration is required.
This event will be held in English (without translation).
For further details contact: Moe Nakazora (moenakazora@gmail.com)

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第9回科学技術の民族誌研究会

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新しい存在論？
近年の存在論的転回とその人類学における意味
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講義＆グループディスカッション

 キャスパー・ブルーン・イェンセン

（大阪大学）

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【日時】2016年7月23日（土）14:00〜17:30
【会場】大阪大学人間科学部／人間科学研究科　本館523教室
…アクセス：http://www.hus.osaka-u.ac.jp/ja/access.html

【形式】講義＋グループディスカッション
…※  参加希望者は事前に中空萌（moenakazora@gmail.com）
…までご連絡ください。参考文献を事前にお送りいたします。

【講師紹介】Casper Bruun Jensen

M. ストラザーン、G.ドゥルーズらの思想を批判的に継承し、ポスト・アクターネットワーク理論を先導する。主（編）著にDeleuzian Intersections: Science, Technology, Anthropology (Berghahn, 2009); Ontologies for Developing Things: Making Health Care Futures Through Technology (Sense, 2010) など。

【文献】
…※ 事前に参加者に送られます。

1. Pickering, Andrew. 2008. “New Ontologies”, in The Mangle in Practice: Science, Society and Becoming, eds. Andrew Pickering & Keith Guzik, Durham & London: Duke University Press, pp. 1-17.
2. Holbraad, Martin. 2009. “Ontography and Alterity: Defining Anthropological Truth.” Social Analysis 53(2): 80-93.
3. Harman, Graham. 2013. “The four most typical objections to OOO” and “Seventy-six theses on object-oriented philosophy”, in Bells and Whistles: More Speculative Realism. Winchester, UK & Washington, USA: Zero Books. pp. 31-40 & 60-71.
4. Christopher Gad, Casper Bruun Jensen, Brit Ross Winthereik. 2014. “Practical Ontology: Worlds in STS and Anthropology,” NatureCulture 3: 67-86.

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■ 使用言語：英語
■ 申し込み：不要
■  参加無料

8^th Ethnographies of Science & Technology Workshop

DIFFERENT WORLDS
Cybernetics as a Nonmodern Paradigm

Andrew Pickering
(University of Exeter)

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Date and Time: Tuesday, May 20, 16:30-18:00
Venue: Basement Lecture Hall, Faculty of Letters Main Bldg, Kyoto University
Access: http://www.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/about/access 

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【日時】2014年5月20日（火）16:30〜18:00頃
【場所】京都大学文学研究科　地下大会議室
■■■ アクセス：http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/access/campus/map6r_y.htm
■（以上のキャンパスマップの８番の建物の地下。西側階段を利用してください。）

Andrew Pickering氏略歴

英国エクセター大学教授。高エネルギー物理でPh.D.を取得後、科学社会学へ転向し、科学技術論(Science and Technology Studies)における国際的なリーダーとして活躍している。The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science の著者としても知られ、科学技術の哲学、歴史学、社会学、人類学などに多大な影響を与えてきた。第二次世界大戦後の素粒子物理学、１９世紀の科学と産業と福祉など多岐にわたるテーマを扱っている。

要旨

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7^th Ethnographies of Science & Technology Workshop

EXPERIMENTAL SYSTEMS AND INTERSECTIONS OF KNOWLEDGE
A Dialogue between Hans-Jörg Rheinberger and Japanese Anthropology

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Date and Time: Saturday, April 19, 13:00-17:30
Venue: Room 102, Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
Access: http://www.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/e/institute/access-institute/access_e.htm

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ABSTRACT

Along with Bruno Latour and Andrew Pickering, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger has left a significant impact on science studies and anthropology. The second edition of “Anthropology as Cultural Critique” by George Marcus and Michael Fisher, for example, recast “the experimental moment” of anthropology by referring to the dynamism of experimentation in natural sciences. The influence of Rheinberger’s notion of “experimental systems” is certainly behind this substantial shift of emphasis. An experimental system consists of heterogeneous elements such as concepts, devices, the technical system and organisation of the laboratory and serves as a basic unit for scientific exploration. Based on existing knowledge and technology, it generates unforeseen outputs and creates new scientific objects, which Rheinberger calls ‘epistemic things’. The workshop consists of a lecture by Rheinberger and two anthropological papers on experimental systems and aims to explore implications of Rheinberger’s work to anthropology and ethnographic STS.

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PROGRAM

13:00~13:20

“Introduction: Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Experimental Systems and Ethnography of Technoscience”
Atsuro Morita (Osaka University)

13:20~14:40

“Writing the History of the Life Sciences with Experimental Systems”
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science)

ABSTRACT: It is generally accepted that the development of the modern sciences is rooted in experiment. Yet for a long time, experimentation did not occupy a prominent role, neither in philosophy nor in history of science. With the “practical turn” in studying the sciences and their history, the situation has changed. This paper is concerned with experimental systems and the cultures they form. In the first part of the paper, I look at the forms of historical and structural coherence that characterizes the experimental approach to epistemic objects. In the second part, I briefly expose a particular experimental culture in the life sciences. I will give a survey of what it means and what it takes to analyze biological functions in the test tube.

14:40~15:00 Coffee Break

15:00~15:40

“Cells between Liveliness and Instrumentality:Onomatopoeia and Care in a Japanese Stem Cell laboratory”
Wakana Suzuki (Osaka University)

15:40~16:50

“Care as an Experimental System: An Anthropological Experiment”
Gergely Mohácsi(Osaka University)

ABSTRACT: My aim in this paper is to direct the important historical and epistemological insights about the experimental knowing of the world back to the issue of experimentation. I propose to look at the constitutive role of care in two different experimental settings: a university hospital in Japan and a clinical trial centre in Western Hungary. I will explore how Japanese medicines and Hungarian bodies become enmeshed in each other through care, experiment and comparison, forcing the anthropologist to reconsider her own methodological frames and tools.

16:50~17:30

Wrap-up discussion

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Open to public. Admission Free. No registration is required.
This event will be held in English (without translation).
For further details contact: Atsuro Morita (morita@hus.osaka-u.ac.jp)

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第7回　科学技術の民族誌研究会

「実験システムと知識の交差点」

【日時】4月19日　13:00~17:30
【会場】京都大学人文科学研究所　102号室
アクセス：http://www.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/e/institute/access-institute/access_e.htm..

要旨

LatourやPickeringと並んで科学的実験におけるダイナミックな存在論に光を当てたHans-Jörg Rheinbergerは、科学史とSTSだけでなく、人類学にも大きな影響を与えてきた。例えば、Goerge Marcus と Michael Fisher は『文化批判としての人類学』の第二版（1999年）で人類学が直面する「実験的な時代」を、文字通り科学の実験のダイナミズムをとおしてとらえ直すことを主張している。この転換の背後には、Rheinbergerによる生物学における「実験システム（experimental systems）」の歴史研究の影響がある。実験システムとは、概念、実験装置、実験を支える技術システム、研究室組織、スキルなどからなる異種混合的なシステムで、既存の知識と技術をベースにしながら未知の対象と驚きを生み出す、科学探求の基礎ユニットである。本ワークショップでは、Rheiberger氏本人による講演とこの概念に焦点を当てた人類学者によるふたつの発表をとおして、実験システム概念の人類学と民族誌的なSTSへのインプリケーションを考察する。

■ 使用言語：英語
■ 申し込み：不要
■ 問い合わせ先：morita@hus.osaka-u.ac.jp

International Conference and Workshop at Kyoto University

Date: March 3-4, 2012 (Saturday and Sunday)
Venue: Kyoto University, Institute for Research in Humanities (Main Bldg., Conference Room)
access map: http://www.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/e/institute/access-institute/access_e.htm
Open to public. Admission Free. No registration is required.

SYMPOSIUM ABSTRACT

Whereas artifacts, animals and all sorts of otherworldly creatures have long occupied the attention of anthropologists, recent encounters with science and technology studies have stimulated a novel interest in ecological thinking. Part of the impetus for this research comes from a shared critical stance towards the anthropocentric bias of social research. Another important issue central to these debates has been a growing emphasis on innovation at the ethnographic level. Posthumanist approaches call for a closer attention to nonhuman entities by exploring their role in what constitutes the senses, persons, worlds, etc. This conference will reflect on these conceptual and methodological currents in anthropology and beyond with the participation of scholars from diverse backgrounds and fields of study. Some of the key concerns and question we shall focus on are: What disciplinary boundaries have to be crossed or permeated to reveal otherwise unattended links between human and nonhuman ways of acting in the world? What are the distinguishing features of these analytic experimentations when compared to earlier work in ecological and cultural anthropology? How do the variety of posthumanist trends, from actor-network theory to multispecies ethnography and ontological anthropology, differ from and relate to each other? We hope to address these questions by both discussing new theoretical challenges and presenting diverse ethnographic cases relevant to the ongoing transformations of the world—a world, which is populated with humans and animate non-humans alongside techniques, and anthropologists who try to understand them.

PARTICIPANTS

 Guest Speakers

Matei Candea (University of Cambridge)
Miho Ishii (Kyoto University)
Natasha Myers (York University)
Mei Zhan (University of California, Irvine) 

Workshop Presenters

Moe Nakazora (JSPS/Kyoto University)
Lea Schick (IT University, Copenhagen)
Wakana Suzuki (Osaka University) 

PROGRAM

Day 1 (Graduate Workshop)

13:30  Introduction

13:45  The Care of the Cells: Body, Care and Affect
             Wakana Suzuki (Osaka University)
Comments by Natasha Myers (York University)

14:45  (Coffee Break)

14:55  Infrastructuring Smart Grid Environments: Technological Artifacts, Subjectpositions and ‘Natures’
             Lea Schick (IT University, Copenhagen)
Comments by Mei Zhan (University of California, Irvine)

15:55  (Coffee Break)

16:05  Pure Gifts for Future Benefit? Giving Form to Subject in the Biodiversity Databasing Project in India
             Moe Nakazora (JSPS/Kyoto University)
Comments by Matei Candea (University of Cambridge)

17:15  Closing comments by Paul Hansen (Tsukuba University)

Day 2 (International Symposium)

10:00 Moderator/Introductory Remarks by Gergely Mohácsi (Osaka University)

10:15  Excitable Tissues: Vocalities and Temporalities in Botanical Experiments
             Natasha Myers (York University)

11:15   (Coffee Break)

11:30   Disharmony Undivided: Thinking, Doing and Being Posthuman through Daosim’
Mei Zhan (University of California, Irvine)

12:30  (Lunch Break)

13:30  The Ecology of Transaction: Dividual Persons, Spirits, and Machinery in the Special Economic Zone in South India
Miho Ishii (Kyoto University)

14:30  Not feeding (or eating) meerkats
             Matei Candea (University of Cambridge)

15:30  (Coffee Break)

15:45  General Discussion

For further details contact:

Atsuro Morita (Osaka University) morita@hus.osaka-u.ac.jp, or
Gergely Mohacsi (Keio University) mohacska@z3.keio.jp

]]> http://etg-online.org/2013/03/03/3rd-symposium/feed/ 0 http://etg-online.org/2012/08/01/6th-workshop/ http://etg-online.org/2012/08/01/6th-workshop/#comments Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:27:12 +0000 http://etg.wp.cr-assist.co.jp/?p=53 6^th Ethnographies of Science & Technology Workshop
第六回「科学技術の民族誌研究会」 

At the Crossroads of Medical and Cultural Anthropology

– Culture, Medicine, Comparison –

文化と医療研究からみた現代人類学における『比較』の方法と実践

Date and Time: August 29, 2012, 15:00~18:00
Venue: G-sec Lab, 6F, East Building, Mita Campus, Keio University
Access: http://www.keio.ac.jp/access.html

Open to public. Admission Free. No registration is required.
This event will be held in English; summary in Japanese is provided after each talk.
For further details contact: Gergely Mohacsi (mohacska@z3.keio.jp)

PROGRAM

15:00 Introductory Remarks

     Gergely Mohacsi (CARLS, Keio University)

15:15 Beyond the Horizon: An Inquiry into the Outermost Reaches of the

     Anthropological Gaze and the Comparative Method

     Allan Young (McGill University)

16:15 (Coffee Break)

16:30 Roundtable Discussion

 Coordinator: Gergely Mohácsi (Keio University)

Participants:

Allan Young (McGill University)
Pino Schirippa (University of Rome)
Kitanaka Junko (Keio University)
Yamazaki Goro (Osaka University)
Hamada Akinori (JSPS)

17:30 General Discussion
Coordinator: Miyasaka Keizo (Keio University)

MOTION & ABSTRACT

The suggested motion for the roundtable discussion is:

Medical anthropology illuminates the recursive relationship between the anthropological tool of comparison and human differences.

Physicians and other medical professionals—not to mention patients—are only very rarely interested in the debates of medical anthropologists. One reason for this is that medical anthropology will never be able to cure people; one field, however, where medical anthropologists can contribute is (cultural) anthropology. Comparison is one issue/method where such a contribution is possible. It used to be the ultimate method in anthropology, but for a long time it is rather a target of criticism than anything else. Medical anthropologists, however, can provide many examples of how people—patients, physicians, epidemiologists, brain scientists, etc.—actually do comparisons all the time. We should rethink comparison as both a method and a daily practice (in medicine, and else) that links ethnography and anthropology. Whatever we think about its correctness or validity, comparison is one way people do their cultures, their religions, their sciences, their ethnicities, their gender, etc. It is therefore a very good example how anthropologists do exactly what their informants do—but it is very rarely admitted (despite the many other examples for such a recursive relationship in anthropology. The argument here is that admitting this relationship between the method and subject of ethnography may lead to new innovations in anthropological theory and practice, and that medical anthropology has a pivotal role there.

]]> http://etg-online.org/2012/08/01/6th-workshop/feed/ 0 http://etg-online.org/2012/05/01/5th-workshop/ http://etg-online.org/2012/05/01/5th-workshop/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:25:43 +0000 http://etg.wp.cr-assist.co.jp/?p=51 5^th Ethnographies of Science & Technology Workshop
第五回「科学技術の民族誌研究会」

「存在論的転換」を再考する

Casper Bruun Jensen
(IT University of Copenhagen)

【日時】2012年5月7日（月）14時〜17時
【場所】大阪大学人間科学研究科（吹田キャンパス）2階　会議室B
アクセス：https://55099zzwd.coop.osaka-u.ac.jp/daigaku-hall/files/access.html
問い合わせ先：鈴木 和歌奈（wakana.s.kyoto@gmail.com）。
※ テキストについてはこちらから入手ください。

導入

「存在論的転換」という言葉が、昨今日本でも多くの人類学者の口に上るようになってきました。しかしながら、この言葉が何をさしているのかは必ずしも明白ではありません。たとえば、科学技術を研究する人類学者たちは、自然についての科学的事実が科学の実践を通して立ち現れるというSTSの議論に依拠して、知識についての人類学的研究をモノの自然的／技術的構成も含んだものに拡張することを主張してきました。一方、Viveiros de Castroらの影響を受けた人々は、存在論を世界認識のあり方の根源的な他者性をとらえる方法として主張しています。さらに、こうした議論は、Roy WagnerからMarilyn Strathernに至る民族誌的な実践のイノベーションと絡み合ってきました。そのため、現在、存在論をめぐる議論はある種の混乱状態にあるように思われます。今回の研究会では、存在論をめぐってデンマーク人類学会で戦わされた論争のコメンタリーとして、Christopher Gad, Casper Jensen, Brit Ross Winthereikが共著した論文を取り上げます。この論文で著者たちは、STSと人類学の異同に注目しながら、存在論をめぐる議論の状況の整理を試みています。当日は、著者の一人であるCasper Jensenさんとともにこの問題を考えたいと思います。なお、当日はテキストを読んでくることを参加の条件とさせていただきます。

検討テキスト：

Christopher Gad, Casper Bruun Jensen & Brit Ross Winthereik (manuscript) “Practical Ontology: Worlds in STS and Anthropology” (English translation of the original Danish text appeared in “Tidsskriftet Antropologi” in 2012).

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