Latour or Callon: Facts do not obtain?

December 19, 2012 10:56 AM

"Facts do not always obtain" or something like that. Bruno Latour or Michel Callon quote. What was it? Who said it?

I am looking for a quote by other Latour or Callon. Callon wrote about how scallops did not attach they way they were supposed to. Both authors took up this idea about how facts are constructed. I don't know the specific quote and can't find it by googling the idea.

posted by turtlefu to Grab Bag (1 answer total)

Perhaps here:
In one of the classic early statements of ANT, Michel Callon made a similar case in the context of attempts to set a conservation strategy for scallops in St. Brieuc Bay in Brittany. Callon's actors included the scientists, the fishermen, the 'collectors' used to trap the scallops, and, finally, the scallops themselves. All parts of this actor-network had to work together for a scientific fact to be formed. After initial success, the network fell apart. The fishermen managing the sample beds for the scientists suddenly dredged them up for sale. Meanwhile, the scallops began to ignore the collectors and anchored themselves elsewhere. Callon called his version of Actor-Network Theory a 'sociology of translation', by which he meant that all the various actors and actants had to be engaged, enrolled and mobilized in response to a problem for an effective solution to work. While all participants are not equal, no one has everything his/her/its own way. (54)

54 is Some elements of a sociology of translation, which seems to be his taking up of the idea, and while there are some statements there that discuss the overall sociological structure of deriving a scientific fact, the precise quote may not be there.
posted by dhartung at 12:02 PM on December 19, 2012