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Cover’s comment No stars When artists draw on materials and techniques from an area such as science, they must be able to keep free from demonstration and verification. It is to be good at having a lyrical approach, imagining “the Earth is still flat" and considering sci- ence and technology as mysterious and fantastic tools. In the proposed image, a model of the tetrahedron designed by the Canadian scientist and inventor Alexander Graham Bell as a module for the gliders is al- tered. The change is made by the torsion of a plane surface, through developing formal ambiguity, thus depriving the object of its aerodynamic function. The model was then made available to a group of people with whom the artist opened a dialogue. Hence a spontaneous conversation was triggered about the nature of the object itself, from which it turned out a kaleidoscope of assump- tions, definitions, visual projections, constituting the series "No stars". Some stretches of the dialogue: "There are surfaces to which you can adhere in a metaphorical sense"; "The rotate plane is a lever that multiplies these surfaces toward infinity"; "Ironic instruments punctuate the experience"; "I can still imagine the earth as flat". Reflection concerns the inevitable sophistication produced by the attempt to define a form. And this sophistication is a "problem" we have in common. In fact a strong ambiguity is always encountered when it is sought to define an object, for the object is not merely placed in a space, but is itself a space. By de-contextualizing the object we have a first difference of meaning and by altering it we have a second one. Thus it becomes as a "lever", which projects an endless becoming and an unbreakable repositioning of itself, transporting us in a field of huge possibilities. “No stars” is a work in progress based on a single rule: neither the object nor its shadow will ever match the shape of a star. by Alia Scalvini (the work in its entirety can be viewed at: http://aliascalvini.altervista.org/Sito_2/Works/Pagine/Thetraedron.html) Tecnoscienza is a scientific journal focusing on the relationships between science, technology and society. The Journal is published twice a year with an open access and peer reviewed policy; it is managed by an Editorial Board with the supervision of an International Advisory Board. Tecnoscienza è una rivista scientifica che indaga i rapporti tra scienza, tecnolo- gia e società. La rivista è semestrale, open access e peer-reviewed; la rivista è gestita da un Comitato di Redazione, con la supervisione di un Comitato Scientifi- co Internazionale. Tecnoscienza by Tecnoscienza.net is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione-Non commerciale-Condividi allo stesso modo 2.5 Italia License. Board Coordination International Advisory Board Attila Bruni Maria Carmela Agodi (Università di Trento) (Università di Napoli – IT) Paolo Magaudda Barbara Allen (Università di Padova) (Virginia Tech University – USA) Assunta Viteritti Mario Biagioli (Università di Roma La Sapienza) (University of California Davis – USA) Wiebe Bijker (Maastricht University – NL) Geoffrey Bowker Editorial Board (University of Pittsburgh – USA) Massimiano Bucchi Stefano Crabu (Università di Trento – IT) (Università di Padova) Barbara Czarniawska Claudio Coletta (Göteborg University – SE) (Università di Trento) Steven Epstein Enrico Marchetti (UC San Diego – USA) (Università di Ferrara) Silvia Gherardi Alvise Mattozzi (Università di Trento – IT) (Libera Università di Bolzano) Luca Guzzetti Francesca Musiani (Università di Genova – IT) (MINES ParisTech – FR) Christine Hine Laura Lucia Parolin (University of Surrey – UK) (Università di Milano Bicocca) Alessandro Mongili Annalisa Pelizza (Università di Padova – IT) (University of Twente – NL) Michela Nacci Giuseppina Pellegrino (Università dell’Aquila – IT) (Università della Calabria) Federico Neresini Barbara Pentimalli (Università di Padova – IT) (Università di Roma La Sapienza) Trevor Pinch Manuela Perrotta (Cornell University – USA) (Queen Mary – London UK) Lucy Suchman Tiziana Piccioni (Lancaster University – UK) (IULM Milano) Paolo Volontè (Politecnico di Milano – IT) Tecnoscienza is promoted by STS Italia (www.stsitalia.org) Società Italiana di Studi sulla Scienza e la Tecnologia Tecnoscienza c/o STS Italia Via Cesarotti, 10-12, 35100 – Padova – Italy www.tecnoscienza.net – [email protected] – ISSN 2038-346 Table of Contents TECNOSCiENZA Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies Vol. 4, Nr. 2, December 2013 Cover No Stars, by Alia Scalvini Essays Naubahar Sharif Exploiting Uncertainty and Ambiguity in Policymaking. Hong Kong and Investment in the Pearl River Delta Region p. 5 Alessandro Delfanti Geni ribelli. La scienza aperta nell'immagine pubblica di due biologi p. 27 Conversations Attila Bruni, Trevor Pinch and Cornelius Schubert Technologically Dense Environments: What For? What Next? p. 51 Scenarios Carsten Ochs and Petra Ilyes Sociotechnical Privacy. Mapping the Research Landscape p. 73 Tjerk Timan Surveillance in Urban Nightscapes. An STS-Informed Perspective p. 93 Cartographies Ana Delicado At the (semi)Periphery. The Development of Science and Technology Studies in Portugal p. 125 Tecnoscienza - 4 (2) 4 Book Reviews p. 149 D. Trottier Social Media as Surveillance. Rethinking Visibility in a Converging World (2012), by Andrea Mubi Brighenti A. Ciccozzi Parola di scienza. Il terremoto dell’Aquila e la Commissione Grandi Rischi. Un’analisi antropologica (2013), by Gemma Maltese M. Quet Politiques du savoir: Sciences, technologies et participation dans les années 1968 (2013), by Francesca Musiani M. Synésio Alves Monteiro Os dilemas do humano: reinventando o corpo humano numa era (bio)tecnológica (2012), by Denise M. Nunes S. Ossicini L’universo è fatto di storie non solo di atomi. Breve storia delle truffe scientifiche (2012), by Giuseppe Pellegrini C. Zucchermaglio, F. Alby, M. Fatigante and M. Saglietti Fare ricerca situata in psicologia sociale (2013), by Barbara Pentimalli S. Moebius and S. Prinz (eds.) Das Design der Gesellschaft: Zur Kultursoziolgie des Designs (2012), by Paolo Volonté Essay Exploiting Uncertainty and Ambiguity in Policymaking Hong Kong and Investment in the Pearl River Delta Region Naubahar Sharif The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Abstract: Drawing on a case study on Hong Kong government policymaking, this paper identifies a potentially fruitful intersection between science and technology studies (STS) and policy studies whereby the latter would benefit from conceptual resources originating in STS. Hong Kong has sought stronger economic ties with the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of Mainland China since the late 1990s, using social and economic indicators to promote increased investment in the region. During this process Hong Kong effectively expunged uncertainty (creating a “certainty trough”) while constructing a definitive representation of the PRD region to serve as a social technology in public policy discourse. The paper argues that the government exploited a form of interpretive uncertainty – ambiguity – to attract potential investors, suggesting that STS concepts, such as the co- production of social technologies and MacKenzie’s (1990) “certainty trough”, could be effective tools for analyzing social and economic policymaking. Keywords: uncertainty; ambiguity; policymaking; Honk Kong; Pearl River Delta. Corresponding author: Dr. Naubahar Sharif, Room 3372, Division of Social Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR (HK) – Email: [email protected] 1. Introduction Sheila Jasanoff suggests that science and technology studies (STS) would benefit from interdisciplinary “conversations” with scholars in other areas (Jasanoff 2004, 2) and in this paper I identify one site at which such a conversation might fruitfully: a case involving the construction of TECNOSCIENZA Italian Journal of Science and Technology Studies 4 (2) pp. 5-26 - ISSN 2038-3460 www.tecnoscienza.net 2013 6 Tecnoscienza - 4 (2) social indicators by the Hong Kong government to promote investment in and stronger economic ties with the neighboring Pearl River Delta region (PRD) in China’s Guangdong province. As STS scholar focusing on in- novation systems and economic development who tracks Hong Kong’s interest in expanding its economic relationship with the PRD, it occurred to me that, although there were no material technologies or scientific is- sues at stake, some useful concepts and principles established in STS – emerging in particular from the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) – might be applied to the relationship between experts and economic poli- cymakers in the Hong Kong government. My work in developing a case study of the Hong Kong government’s policy towards the PRD region suggested to me a pattern in the produc- tion of technology familiar to STS scholars, involving factors through which key actors construct certainty from uncertainty in the course of producing scientific results or technologies. Such results, which are pro- duced through social relationships involving negotiation, contestation, and interpretation, came to be known in SSK as social technologies. In the case at hand, the social technology in question – a representation of the PRD region that would attract business investment – was, as Theodore Porter (1995, 229) terms it, a representation of the PRD region involving “public forms of knowledge [...] shaped for policy purposes”. Moreover, in producing its PRD construct, the