The Mangle In Practice

by Pickering, Andrew; Guzik, Keith

• ISBN13: 9780822343516
• ISBN10: 0822343517
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

InThe Mangle of Practice(1995), the renowned sociologist of science Andrew Pickering argued for a re-conceptualization of research practice as a "mangle," an open-ended, evolutionary, and performative interplay of human and non-human agency. While Pickering's ideas originated in science and technology studies, this collection aims to extend the mangle's reach by exploring its application across a wide range of fields including history, philosophy, sociology, geography, environmental studies, literary theory, biophysics, and software engineering.The Mangle in Practiceopens with a fresh introduction to the mangle by Pickering. Several contributors then present empirical studies that demonstrate the mangle's applicability to topics as diverse as pig farming, Chinese medicine, economic theory and domestic-violence policing. Other contributors offer examples of the mangle in action: real-world practices that implement a self-consciously "mangle-ish" stance in environmental management and software development. Further essays discuss the mangle as philosophy and social theory. As Pickering argues, the mangle points to a shift in interpretive sensibilities that makes visible a world of de-centered becoming. This volume demonstrates the viability, coherence, and promise of such a shift, not only in science and technology studies but in the social sciences and humanities much more generally.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
New Ontologies	p. 1
Studies
A Choreography of Fire: A Posthumanist Account of Australians and Eucalypts	p. 17
Crate and Mangle: Questions of Agency in Confinement Livestock Facilities	p. 46
Soul Collectors: A Meditation on Arresting Domestic Violence	p. 67
Resisting and Accommodating Thomas Sargent: Putting Rational Expectations Economics through the Mangle of Practice	p. 92
The Mangle of Practice and the Practice of Chinese Medicine: A Case Study from Nineteenth-Century China	p. 110
Marup Church and the Politics of Hybridization: On Choice and Becoming	p. 129
Reflexivity
Going with the Flow: Living the Mangle through Environmental Management Practice	p. 163
A Manglish Way of Working: Agile Software Development	p. 185
The Docile Body of the Scientist	p. 202
Theory
The Mangle of Practice or the Empire of Signs: Toward a Dialogue between Science Studies and Soviet Semiotics	p. 221
Ontological Dance: A Dialogue between Heidegger and Pickering	p. 243
References	p. 267
About the Contributors	p. 293
Index	p. 297
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