Masons, Tricksters and Cartographers: Comparative Studies in the Sociology of Scientific and Indigenous Knowledge (Studies in the History of Science, Technology & Medicine)

Science and technology have created many of the problems besetting us at the turn of the century, yet, paradoxically, we cannot address them without their assistance. This beautifully illustrated book takes a fresh approach to resolving the problems of progress and modernity by reframing science and technology. In an eclectic and highly original study, Turnbull brings together a wide range of traditions as diverse as cathedral building, Micronesian navigation, cartography and turbulence research. He argues that all our differing ways of producing knowledge, including science, are messy, spatial and local. Every culture has its own ways of assembling local knowledge, thereby creating space through the linking of people, practices and places. The spaces we inhabit and assemblages we work with are not as homogeneous and coherent as our modernist perspectives have led us to believe-rather they are complex and heterogeneous motleys. Book Cover......Page 1 Half-Title......Page 2 Title......Page 3 Copyright......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Figures......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 Modernity and its Problems......Page 10 Decentring Science and Curing Somnambulism......Page 12 Of Pawpaws and Cabbages, Roses and Nettles......Page 15 Science as Practice......Page 17 The Structure of the Book......Page 22 Notes......Page 24 Comparing Knowledge Traditions......Page 28 The Anasazi......Page 30 The Inca......Page 35 Australian Aborigines......Page 42 Moving Local Knowledge......Page 47 Knowledge Assemblage......Page 50 The Local and the Global in Interaction......Page 54 Notes......Page 56 Bringing Chartres into the Present......Page 64 (Re)constructing Chartres......Page 67 The Question of Plans......Page 71 Talk, Tradition and Templates......Page 75 Cathedrals as Laboratories......Page 78 Construction with Geometry and String......Page 80 Form and Function......Page 83 Theory and Practice......Page 87 The Technoscientific Knowledge Space Coproduced with Cathedrals......Page 89 From Master Mason to Architect......Page 91 Notes......Page 93 3 TRICKSTERS AND CARTOGRAPHERS: MAPS, SCIENCE AND THE STATE IN THE MAKING OF A MODERN SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE SPACE......Page 100 Being a Trickster......Page 101 Maps as the ‘Hard Case’......Page 103 Maps and the Modern Mind......Page 104 Maps as Scientific Theories......Page 105 The Suppressed Question......Page 108 Maps as Lies......Page 110 Was There a Cartographic Revolution?......Page 112 The First Attempt at Map Assemblage......Page 116 Disciplining the Master Map......Page 119 A Fifth Continent?......Page 122 Bringing the World Back Home......Page 124 The World on the Third Floor......Page 125 Tying France Together......Page 126 France and England Bound as One......Page 131 Cook Adrift......Page 133 Notes......Page 135 Speaking of Others’ Knowledge......Page 142 Undoing the Great Divide......Page 143 Calculation v. Orientation......Page 144 Star Compass and Etak—A Dynamic Cognitive Map......Page 147 Navigation as Strategy......Page 152 Discovery: Accidental or Deliberate?......Page 154 Open or Closed?......Page 159 Canoes—The Key Technological Device......Page 160 Writing Reconsidered......Page 162 Knowledge Transmission and Access......Page 164 Notes......Page 169 5 MAKING MALARIA CURABLE: EXTENDING A KNOWLEDGE SPACE TO CREATE A VACCINE......Page 174 Disciplining the Definition......Page 175 Molecular Biology’s Agenda and the Problems of Messiness......Page 180 A Vaccine for PNG......Page 183 Are There Alternatives?......Page 185 Notes......Page 190 Disorder, Order, Collective Work and Assemblages......Page 196 Complexity in Turbulence......Page 199 External Coherence and the Ordering of Turbulence......Page 204 Internal Coherence and the Ordering of Turbulence......Page 205 Simulation versus Experimentation......Page 210 Moving Local Knowledge Out of the Lab......Page 218 Notes......Page 219 Public Knowledge and the Knowledge of the Public......Page 224 Rationality, Universality and SSK......Page 225 Relativism and Reflexivity......Page 231 Approaching the Transmodern: The Possibility of a Third Space......Page 242 Notes......Page 243 BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 248 Index......Page 274

Science and technology have created many of the problems besetting us at the turn of the century, yet, paradoxically, we cannot address them without their assistance. This beautifully illustrated book takes a fresh approach to resolving the problems of progress and modernity by reframing science and technology.
In an eclectic and highly original study, Turnbull brings together a wide range of traditions as diverse as cathedral building, Micronesian navigation, cartography and turbulence research. He argues that all our differing ways of producing knowledge, including science, are messy, spatial and local. Every culture has its own ways of assembling local knowledge, thereby creating space through the linking of people, practices and places. The spaces we inhabit and assemblages we work with are not as homogeneous and coherent as our modernist perspectives have led us to believe-rather they are complex and heterogeneous motleys.

Donna Haraway

Turnbull is an innovative theorist and astute writer, and this book makes a major contribution to our understanding of the ways knowledge practices work.

Machine generated contents note: Figures vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction From rationality to messiness: Rethinking technoscientific knowledge 1 Chapter 1 'On with the motley': The contingent assemblage of knowledge spaces 19 Chapter 2 Talk, templates and tradition: How the masons -built Chartres Cathedral without plans 53 Chapter 3 Tricksters and cartographers: Maps, science and the state in the making of a modern scientific knowledge space 89 Chapter 4 Pacific navigation: An alternative scientific tradition 131 Chapter 5 Making malaria curable: Extending a knowledge space to create a vaccine 161 Chapter 6 Messiness and order in turbulence research 183 Conclusion Rationality, relativism and the politics of knowledge 209 Bibliography 233 Index 259. "In an original study Masons, Tricksters and Cartographers brings together a wide range of traditions as diverse as cathedral building, Micronesian navigation, cartography and turbulence research. It argues that all our differing ways of producing knowledge, including science, are messy, spatial and local. Every culture has its own ways of assembling local knowledge, thereby creating space through the linking of people, practices and places. The spaces we inhabit and assemblages we work with are not as homogeneous and coherent as our modernist perspectives have led us to believe - rather they are complex and heterogeneous motleys." --Book Jacket In an eclectic and highly original study, Turnbull brings together traditions as diverse as cathedral building, Micronesian navigation, cartography and turbulence research. He argues that all our differing ways of producing knowledge - including science - are messy, spatial and local. Every culture has its own ways of assembling local knowledge, thereby creating space thrugh the linking of people, practices and places. The spaces we inhabit and assemblages we work with are not as homogenous and coherent as our modernist perspectives have led us to believe - rather they are complex and heterogeneous motleys. In an eclectic and highly original study, Turnbull brings together traditions as diverse as cathedral building, Micronesian navigation, cartography and turbulence research. He argues that all our differing ways of producing knowledge - including science - are messy, spatial and local. Every culture has its own ways of assembling local knowledge, thereby creating space through the linking of people, practices and places. The spaces we inhabit and assemblages we work with are not as homogenous and coherent as our modernist perspectives have led us to believe - rather they are complex and hetero. This highly original study puts forward the notion that every culture has its own ways of assembling local knowledge, thereby creating space through the linking of people, practices and places.