Thursday 31 October 2013

The 'small talk' of STS and ANT – Of trails, trials and travails

Jan posts some interesting comments on trends in STS/ANT:
[...] during the last few months I noticed that we in STS (and we as ANTers especially) have a tendency to talk small when talking big.
These tendencies involve denying that their approach is a theory or a method, using "thin concepts, modest methods, weak explanations" and then trying to articulate cases well but not 'get it right.'

Does the 'small talk' really denote modesty?  Perhaps.  But I think that perhaps it allows STS-ers to be sneaky!  To slink around, following their trails, trials and travails in ever more expansive and ambitious loops without being detected.  To keep their ambitions secret.  The quietest of coups.