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| Reference : The Condition of Felicity of a Blind Instrument |
| Scientific congresses and symposiums : Unpublished conference | |||
| Social & behavioral sciences, psychology : Sociology & social sciences | |||
| http://hdl.handle.net/2268/62781 | |||
| The Condition of Felicity of a Blind Instrument | |
| English | |
| [fr] Les conditions de félicités d'un instrument aveugle | |
Melard, François  [Université de Liège - ULg > Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement > Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement >] | |
| 3-Nov-2001 | |
| No | |
| International | |
| Annual Meeting of the Society of the Social Studies of Science | |
| 1-4 novembre 2001 | |
| Cambridge MA | |
| USA | |
| [en] Polarimetry ; Controversy ; Instruments ; History of Science | |
| [en] This paper deals with an historical and ethnographic case : the operation of field laboratories in the sugar industry and their use of an instrument to measure a vegetable - the sugar beet. An optical instrument – the polariscope - gives voice to sugar beets in order to settle agreements on the vegetable's industrial definition and financial value. The polariscope gained its strange authority through a historical and technical capacity for mediation : a mediation between sugar beet growers and sugar manufacturers (and their social interests), but especially a mediation between these social actors and the vegetable itself.
I focus on the idea that, in fact, this instrument is “blind” and describe the sociological “exchanges of properties” that take place between human and non-human actors in an industrial, public, and low-tech setting. My study shows that this is a challenging and alternative way - far from scientific laboratories - by which knowledge and coordination are produced. | |
| Researchers ; Students | |
| http://hdl.handle.net/2268/62781 |
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