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Relocating Innovation: Places and material practices of future-making

Case study:
Parliament Politics, Hungary

Politics, and related concepts such as citizenship, democracy and publics have gradually become central themes in Science and Technology Studies (STS). By concentrating on specific sites and material practices of ordering, several STS scholars have challenged the universalist, humanist, discourse-centric assumptions of political theory. In one way or another, they have convincingly shown that politics is done as much in labs, hospitals, farms, or high-tech innovation centres as in ‘big and important’ political institutions. But how do these diverse sites and practices relate to conventional forms and technologies of political representation? This PhD research aims to contribute to ongoing discussions about materiality and politics by extending the STS gaze to one of the symbols of democracy: the parliament. It focuses on the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest and argues that this seemingly singular site is constantly caught up in (and shaped by) diverse political narratives. Following a material semiotic approach the research shows that narratives about the origins of democracy, the operation of the political regime, and acts of decision-making are not separate stories about the same parliament, but produce an object that is multiple and non-coherent. The thesis sets out to analyse the ways in which specific arrangements of subjects and objects define such non-coherent political sites, and render certain futures real(istic) while keeping others invisible.

Researcher

Endre Dányi is a postgraduate at the Department of Sociology, Lancaster University UK. See his personal website for more information on his research and latest publications.

Useful references

Asdal, Kristin, Brita Brenna and Ingunn Moser (2007) Technoscience: the politics of interventions (Oslo: Unipub).

Barry, Andrew (2001) Political machines: governing a technological society (London: Athlone).

Boltanski, Luc and Thévenot, Laurent (2006) On justification: economies of worth (Princeton ; Oxford: Princeton University Press).

Buck-Morss, Susan (2000) Dreamworld and catastrophe : the passing of mass utopia in East and West (Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT).

Latour, Bruno and Peter Weibel (2005), Making things public: Atmospheres of democracy (Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press)

Law, John (2002) Aircraft stories: decentering the object in technoscience (Durham, NC: Duke University Press).

Mol, Annemarie (2002) The body multiple: ontology in medical practice (Durham, N.C.; London: Duke University Press).

Rév, István (2005) Retroactive justice: Prehistory of post-communism (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press).

This is a research project based at Centre for Science Studies, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YT, United Kingdom. Funded by The Leverhulme Trust. Please contact us at relocatinginnovation@sand14.com