LOCATION
The conference will be held at:
Sea Lodge La Jolla Shores Beach Hotel(This is also where most non-local attendees are staying.)
8110 Camono Del Oro
La Jolla, CA 92307
+1-800-237-5211 tel
+1-858-459-8271 tel
+1-858-456-9346 fax
http://www.ljbtc.com/sealodge/index.html
FORMAT
The format of the workshop will be as follows. We've paired papers into "elective affinities" or "productive clashes." Each pair will be discussed together for about 80 minutes total. One person---not the paper's author---will introduce each paper and lead the discussion. The author of a paper will help with the discussion, but he or she won't make a formal presentation. Your own task is to present, lead and facilitate the *other* paper with which you are paired. For example, you might briefly present the main ideas and your personal reactions to them. For your own session, you should work out with your fellow presenter how you want to arrange your 80 minutes - there are no set rules. All available papers are online here:
http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~gasser/dcp
Most papers are posted now; new papers are arriving daily and they will be posted as they come in.
A printed booklet containing all the papers will be ready for you at the workshop.
SCHEDULE
Wednesday 6 February
9.00am-10.00am: Introduction and introductions
10.00am-11.20am: Dick Boland and Laurent Thevenot
11.20am-11.40am: Coffee
11.40am-1.00pm: Jean-Paul Sansonnet and Simon Buckingham Shum
1.00pm-2.30pm: Lunch in La Jolla in assorted restaurants
2.30pm-3.40pm:L Katie Vann and Bernard Conein
3.40pm-4.00pm: Coffee
4.00pm-5.20pm: Leigh Star and Dominique Boullier
Thursday 7 February
9.00am-10.20am: Geof Bowker and Claude Henry
10.20am-10.40am: Coffee
10.40am-12.00pm: Kjeld Schmidt & Ina Wagner and Les Gasser
12.00pm-2.00pm: Lunch in La Jolla in assorted restaurants
2.00pm-3.20pm: Terry von Thaden and Christian Licoppe
3.20pm-3.40pm: Coffee
3.40pm-5.00pm: John King and Bill Turner & Paul de Guchteneire
7.00pm+: Conference banquet
Friday 8 February
8-3.30pm: Desert trip, with lunch at Casa del Zorro, Borrego Springs
3.40pm-5.00pm: Joseph Goguen and Michel Callon
5.00pm-6.00pm: Closing and the future
6.00pm +: Informal reception - please invite local friends and colleagues
Saturday 9 February: PUBLIC CONFERENCE
10.00am-11.00am:
John King
Dean, School of Information
University of Michigan
"Transport-Based Terrorism as Distributed Collective Practice"
The events of September 11 might not at first seem like a form of distributed collective action, but they certainly were. Otherwise, how would it be possible for a small group of comparatively poor, anti-modern fanatics to appropriate very modern assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars and use them to bring down buildings worth billions of dollars, killing thousands of people in the process? This feat was literally enabled by the highly sophisticated infrastructure of air transport that was designed, quite deliberately, to put a great deal of control in the hands of end-users. Naturally, none of those who designed this infrastructure intended this use, and efforts are being made to interdict such use for the future. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that many of the objectives of the terrorists were closely aligned with the objectives of the infrastructure: to permit disaggregated individuals to engage in the collective practice of air travel with remarkably low coordination and transaction costs. These connections will be explored.11.00am-12.00pm
Laurent Thevenot
Directeur du Groupe de Sociologie Politique et Morale (EHESS-CNRS)
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
"What's the Good of Distributed Collective Practice? The politics and morality of heterogeneity"
Distributed collective practice (DCP) raises three main issues: heterogeneity, coherence, collectivity. These practices are praised because they are supposed to enhance heterogeneity. But they are not only considered in their isolated peculiarity. They are viewed as coordinated, when they take part in the construction of some collectivity. Thus, DCP enables us to see collectivities as built on differences and particularities, and leads us to take into account the resulting tension which moves us away from traditional conceptions of substantive social groups. This is one of the points where the development of distributed collaborative computing technology contributes to rethinking basic social categories. In addition, DCP enables us to see collectivity from a pragmatic viewpoint - as the dynamic result of technical practices which constantly update the list and character of who and what aim at collectivity. And some coherence is needed for the actor to orient one's conduct and coordinate it. These views might contribute to a fresh understanding of collectives, and of the most extended of them, the common collectivity which is referred to in politics, when evaluations have to be made by reference to some common or public good. But, these views also raise problems: - How is heterogeneity dealt with so as to achieve coordination and to overcome the tension between such heterogeneity and commonality or the public good? - What idea of the good might govern the evaluation of achieved coordination, and of the outcome which is collectively relevant?
12.00pm-12.30pm: Discussion
12.30pm-2.00pm: Lunch
(lunch will not be provided; there will be food available on campus or in nearby La Jolla)
2.00pm-3.00pm:Dick Boland,
Weatherhead School of Management
Case Western Reserve University
"Mind Eats Body and Other Tales of Terror From Distributed Mediated Cognition"
In this talk I will explore the phenomenon of distributed mediated practice from an openly existential and structuralist viewpoint. Both are currently out of fashion but I will argue that the field of distributed mediated practices brings them into focus anew. It raises fundamental questions of theory, existence, language and meaning that resurface enduring concerns of Western thought andcall out for existential and structuralist voices.
3.00pm-4.00pm:
Michel Callon
Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation
Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris
"Economic markets as calculating and calculated collective devices"
The paper is based on the assumption that economic markets provide an interesting (and crystal clear) illustration of DCP and that lessons could consequently be drawn from the understanding of their functioning. More precisely, markets are considered as collective devices that perform calculation on the value of goods, establishing negotiated compromises between different conceptions, expectations and values. Performing these calculations require calculable products, calculative agencies as well as rules arranging the encounter between specific supplies and demands. Comments are given on the growing role of laboratory research in the design and implementation of markets.
4.00pm-5.00pm: Discussion and Closing