Technoscientific Infrastructures and Emergent Forms of Life: A Commentary

Author(s): Michael M. J. Fischer

Source: American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 107, No. 1 (Mar., 2005), pp. 55-61
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
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MICHAEL M. J. FISCHER

Technoscientific
Infrastructures
and Emergent
Formsof Life:A Commentary
ABSTRACTNewforms
oflife,
ethical
andcivic
contests
arisethrough
thecreation
ofnewtechnoscientific
infrasplateaus,
political
inwhich
tructures
for
over
control
the
of
A
rules
review
of
a
of
market,
law,code,andnorms
compete hegemonic
play.
panel four
ofthelocally
articles
diverse
ofsuchnewinfrastructures,
thecontinuing
interrogates
agendasforethnographies
peopling
including
of
and
historical
modalities
of
ethical
and
reason.
forms
of
technoscientific
life,
emergent
political
renegotiation
[Keywords:
emergent
ethical
as civics]
infrastructures,
plateaus,
deepplay,
biology

N FOCUSANDON THEagendaforthe21stcentury

are both the interface

betweenethnographic
methods
and scienceand technologystudies,and,morebroadly,the
oftechnologiesin locallydipeoplingand reappropriation
ofhisverseways-includingthecontinuingrenegotiation
toricaland emergent
modalitiesofethicaland politicalreason. Theseare not onlymattersof skilledmanpowerflows
or new technologiesbut also of how interpretation
works,
symbolicresonancesaremobilized,passionsarechanneled,
risksareleveraged,and how thingsfittogether(theanthropologicaland ecologicalrule:You cannotchangeonlyone
and implithing,thingshaveunexpectedinterconnections
cations).Theyare mattersof emergentnew formsof life,
of new ethicalplateaus and civic politicalcontests,and
of deep play that implodesnot in cockfights
or buzkashi
in
the
of
new
but
arenas
technoscientific
infrastrucgames,
turesin whichmarket,law,code, and normscompetefor
hegemoniccontrolovertherulesofplay.'
Anthropologyoperates both (1) in a set of third
spaces,2wherenewethicsareevolvingout ofdemandsthat
cultures-includingdifferentiating
occupational,legal,science, and engineeringculturesas well as national,class,
ethnic,or religiousones-attend to one ansociolinguistic,
wherethe
networks,
other;and (2) withintechnoscientific
"demandsof the face of the other,"3history,
and autobicounterthe reductionof all to the
ographicalfigurations
same. Anthropology's
challengeis to develop translation
and mediationtools formakingvisiblethe difference
of
access,power,needs,desires,anxieties,and philointerests,
sophicalperspectives.
Aswebeginto facenewkindsofethicaldilemmasstemming frombiotechnologicaldevelopments,expansivein-

formationdatabases,and ecologicalinteractions,
ethnographyprovidesthe groundingson whichto developtools
and newcategoriesforanalysis-notjustslotnew developmentsinto the categoriesof the past-and to observeand
foran evolvingcivil
help articulatenew socialinstitutions
society.
Among the tools of analysisbroughtinto focus in
thesearticlesare the seekingout of material-semiotic
obP-450enzymes,T-or CD-4 cells,farmed
jects(cytochrome
"wild"animalsforflamboyant
banquets,and bioengineered
smallmolecules),4instruments
DNA se(flowcytometers,
software
and
machines,
quencing
interoperability, experimental systems),and circuitsof media and exchange
tours,and patentlicensing).These
(tradeshows,celebrity
and circuitsare inmaterial-semiotic
objects,instruments,
dexicalofnewrelationsofproductionand consumption,
of
relations
of
and
and ofnew
changed
cognition subjectivity,
or ennunciatory
communitiesthatcan introarticulatory
ducenewpoliticalrelationsand institutional
forms,
changingthevoicingofwho speaksforwhom.
Theseobjects,instruments,
and circuitsactas materialsemioticswitching
ofold and
pointsin thereconfiguration
newtechnologies,
orsyntax,and ethconceptualgrammars
icalplateaus(orterrains
ofconsequentialdecisionmaking).
We live (again) in an era in whichnew ethicaland political spacesare thrownup thatrequireactionand have serious consequencesbut forwhichthepossibilities
forgiving
or
reasons
run
out.5
Traditional
ethical
and
grounds
quickly
moralguidesdo not alwaysseemhelpful,and we areoften
leftto negotiatemultiplicities
ofinterests
and trade-offs
in
or
other
of
tournaments
decision
over
time.
In
legal
making
the fieldof U.S. Internetlaw,forinstance,courtdecisions

AMERICANANTHROPOLOGIST,
Association.
Vol.107,Issue1,pp.55-61,ISSN0002-7294,electronic
ISSN1548-1433.? 2005bytheAmerican
Anthropological

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56

AmericanAnthropologist* Vol. 107,No. 1 * March2005

overthepastdecade have been unstable,as the federalapand

peals courtsystemworksthroughmanylowerdistrict
circuitcourtdecisionsand filingsof manydifferent
interestgroups,underconditionsofrapidlychangingtechnolowithlegal,market,
and socialnormchanges,
gies.Together
this can dramaticallyshiftrelationsof power and interests.The SupremeCourtworksbestwhenit can reviewthe
in a differentiated
variousoutcomesand interests
terrain,
ratherthanbeingcalledon to arbitrate
ruleswithoutsuch
I call such terrainsethicalplateaus,spaces in
groundwork.
whichmultipletechnologiesinteract;
whereethicsand politicscannotbe reducedto two-person,
zero-sumgames;and
whereoftenincommensurable
framesof referencecome
into play,involvingirrationalpassions and fundamental
as wellas rationalcalculations.
commitments,
SO WHATIS NEW?THE NATUREOF EMERGENCE
AND EMERGENTFORMS OF LIFE
Mei Zhan's (thisissue) delightfully
provocativejuxtaposition of the SARSpanic and the global tour of the Real
Madridfootball(soccer)team straddles,on the one hand,
the narrativetacticsof weak punning(consumption),exoticism,and temporalserendipity,
and,on theotherhand,
moreseriousinquiryinto new modalitiesof global circulation.What makesthisjuxtapositionfitinto the present
technoscientific
contextis theconnectionwithcontempoSARS;recurrent
raryconcernsofvirologyand immunology:
strainsofavianfluthatinfecthumans;primateand porcine
retroviruses
that,likeHIV,mightcause humanpandemics
eithernaturallyor throughxenotransplanation
of organs;
and airbornediseasesresistantto a varietyof drugs,such
as thecurrent
tuberculosis.
epidemicofmultidrug-resistant
these
concerns
should
be
to
the
Why
juxtaposed
celebrity,
tourofDavid Beckhamand theRealMadrid
moneymaking
team,Zhan argues,is because both providewindowsinto
the operationof commodityand popularculturecirculadition.Thisincludeswhatshecalls"visceraland discursive
mensions"ofreinscribing
and recirculating
Orientalist
and
excessand by
celebrity
tropes,drivenbothby consumerist
Zhanpointsout that,temporally,
the
repairofdeprivation.
as some of the proceeds
two phenomenabelongtogether,
of the celebritytourweregivento help recentlyafflicted
SARSvictims.
So what is different
about the contemporary
global
in
circulationsand those of earliereras? How different
structureare the 1918 influenzaand the contemporary
aretheunderHIV/AIDSor SARSepidemics?How different
about
finance
of
the
late
19th
standings
century
imperialand underconsumption
ism,overproduction,
dynamics,on
debatesaboutrenewed
theone hand,and late-20th-century
werethe
globalization,on the otherhand? How different
worldwidenetworkof PasteurInstitutesin Tunisia,Iran,
and Vietnamin the colonial era, and the contemporary
multinational
pharmaceutical
industry's
globalprospecting
in
how different
forclinicaltrialpopulations?And finally,
and specularimpetusforconsumption
structure
circulatory

werethe 19th-century
worldexpositionsand exoticashows
fromtoday'scelebrity
tourssuchas Real Madridin China?
On theagenda,then,is a need to clarify
whatreallyis
at stakein thenotionof"emergence."
Thereareat leasttwo
things.Firstis theorganizational
conceptthattherelations
and
amongphysics,chemistry, biologyare "levelsoforganization"thatemergedthroughevolution;in algorithmic
"complexitytheory,"thatsimplerulesiteratedovertime
can produceunexpectednewforms;or,in Durkheimian
soofpersons,socialforms
ciology,thatout oftheinteraction
emergethatcannotbe reducedto theircomponentindividfromtheir
uals, (justas the qualitiesof alloysaredifferent
componentmetals).So, too,we can askwhethertheeffects
of film,photography,
the telegraph,
telephone,television,
environand, now,the Interneton theglobalinformation
mentparallelthe changesthat KarlMarx chartedin the
movementfromtools to machines:emergenceinto larger
and material-semiotic
modes
cyborgian,actor-networks
of productionwithchangedculturalpresuppositions
and
calculi?
A second,ifrelated,notionof "emergence"is thatof
contested"emergent
formsoflife,"thecontinualrenegotiationofhistorical
and emergent
modalitiesofethicaland politicalreason.Thisrenegotiation
comes,as LudwigWittgenstein once put it, fromthe factthat our reasonsforaction quicklyrun out and yetwe mustact. Further,
those
actshave seriousconsequences,leadingto newsocialforms
withmoralconcomitants
thathaveno-or, atbest,onlyretforjustifying
action.
rospectively
constructed-precedents
As ethnographers,
we are privilegedto watchthe testing,
demise,and survivalofnewlycreatedsocialforms.
Thereis, of course,a thirdrelatednotionof emergent
and newformsoflife,theliteralcreationofsmallmolecules
thathad no priorexistenceand thatwereneverbeforeexperiencedby any human or in vivo body beforethe ap(as exploredby Sundar
plicationof molecularengineering
and
in
Fortunand Fortun thisissue). Such creation
Rajan
of new formsof lifeprovidesome of the ethicaland politicalcontestationsthat contributeto the above notions
of emergenceand emergentformsof life,as well as to
the need forunderstanding
new ethicalplateausand deep
play.
Zhan's fieldwork
was done only afterthe SARScrisis
was declaredover.Her data consistsof some informants'
storiesand a fewnewspaperarticlesaftershe arrived,and,
later,morearchivalworkin theprintand web page media.
In otherwords,theethnographer
herselfis dippedintothe
the
and
ofwhich
flows,
circulatory
provenance effectivities
themselves
should
be
a
further
of
tracked
as
means
ideally
on civetsand Beckham,and as indicesof media
reflection
and their
theirspatialranges,speculative
velocities,
circuits,
ratesof exchangeor pricing.In thisway,Zhan
fluctuating
drawsourattentionto theneoliberalconstructions
ofexoticism (marketing
to foreigners
of flamboyant
cuisine),selfas icon-undisciplined),
affludiscipline(Beckham-Ronaldo
ence (high-techhospitals,proximity
to worldsoccerstars,
and abilityto purchasedomesticallyflamboyantfoods),

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Fischer* Technoscientific
andEmergent
Forms
ofLife 57
Infrastructures
and hystericalpassions (panic about SARSand frenzyfor
Beckham).
Allthatis soliddoesnotsimplymeltintoairbutistransmuted.Atissueis neithera confusionofthewild-domestic
logicoffoods(ala Levitioppositionnorevena classificatory
La penseesavage),but the excus, Galen, or Levi-Strauss's
pandingnatureofcompanionatespecieswithwhichhomo
sapienscoevolves.Aswildanimalsbecomefarmedforfood
(whynot eventuallysnakestoo), and the dietsand health
ofthesefarmedanimalsaremonitoredand controlled,
they
itemsof concernand resourcesof inbecomeincreasingly
and forour huformationforvirologyand immunology,
man biologiesand epidemiologies.
WHATIS SO COMPLICATED?DEEP TOXICPLAY
of germs,viruses,panIfZhan beginsto trackcirculations
and feedbackloopsofexoticising
pastand
ics,enthusiasms,
ofa disfutureidentities,
issue)
(this
study
TimothyChoy's
and
waste
incinerators
over
disposal
dioxin-producing
pute
of land tenure,the
insecurities
in Hong Konginvestigates
circulationof consultancies,and the rootednessof toxic
in thevisceral,in how
waste.LikeZhan,Choyis interested
theirdiscourseas
located
and
of
sight
"tropes smell,sound,
more immediate ... than government conceptions of jiliu

protectionde[data]."The playersare the environmental

conthe
partment;theirexpatriateplanners; department's
sultingfirmforwhichChoy initiallyworked;Greenpeace,
whichhe subsequentlyhelped and withwhichhe identified;a U.S. consultantdeployedby Greenpeace;and the
villagersof LungKwuTan and ofHa PakNai.
study,thiscase fitsintoa skein
Althougha site-specific
cases throughthe global circulationof
of environmental
the U.S. consultantand Greenpeace,throughthe environmentalchallengesforthe Chinesestate,and throughthe
movementsaroundthe
post-WorldWarII environmental
the
decades-longstruggleof the victimsof
globe-from
the Minimatacatastrophe(George2001) to Love Canal,
Bhopal(Fortun2001),and BatonRouge,as wellas lesscatasand landfills
overincinerators
trophiclocal storiesoffights
(Crawford1996).
in whatKimFortunand
interested
Choyis particularly
communities
Mike Fortuncall enunciatory
(as opposed to
merelystakeholders).He uses ErnestoLaclau and Stuart
Hall'snotionof"doubledarticulation"
(speaking,enrolling
of
context
the
as
well
(in
as
globalconcontesting
publics)
sultantsand local politicaldeployments)linguisticattenLike
and metapragmatics.
tion to translation,
pragmatics,
discourse:
of
the
in
interested
is
viscerality
Zhan, Choy
tropesof smell,sound,and sight,and especially"detailed
accountsof embodiedexperience[which]seemedto contradictclaimsof knowingtoo much or havingnothingto
say,""momentsin which subjectsrecognizedthe limited
powerof what theyknew."He poses and then solvesthe
puzzleofwhythevillagersof LungKwuTan initiallyseem
so vulnerableto environmental
injustice(toxicsare often
are
but
the
on
readilyenrolledbyGreepeace
poor)
dumped
whereasthenearbyvillagersof Ha
to fightthe incinerator,

PakNai refuseto join theenvironmental

protestorrockthe
in tenurebetweenthose
politicalboat. It is the difference
who were,at a certainhistoricalpoint,designated"indigeon "state
nous" ownersand thosewho aremerely"renters"
sensesof legal empowerland." Theyhave quite different
and security.
ment,self-confidence,
The landfillsarefillingup. Whatto do? Choyprovides
of the different
an analysisof the social situatedness
playmoves,theironiesofBritishexpatriates
ers,theirrhetorical
against
arguingthe localnessof Hong Kongcircumstances
environmental
U.S. expertopinionsupporting
justiceand
cleanerdisposalmethods.WehearthefearsoftheLungKwu
ofthe
Tan villagersaboutdioxinsand otheradverseeffects
concerns
supportedby Greenpeace
proposedincinerator,
and the U.S. consultant(althoughperhapsnot in thatorButwhatare
ofcommitment).
orpriority
deroftransitivity
in play?How could alternative
the technicalalternatives
scenariosbe mobilized?IftheU.S. consultanthas so many
in so manycountries,
thousandsof speakingengagements
outcomesthatprove
doeshe haveexperiencein negotiating
acceptableto all, and how is this done? Here,worthyof
studyare the historiesof othercommunities'experiences
and theircultivationofenunciatory
capacities,at timesrethe exampleof Minaas
in
of
decades
persistence,
quiring
to stressthatitis notthetechnologies,
mata.Choyis correct
per se, but the peoplingof the technologiesthatis crucial
to be made possible,
to explore.But fornew articulations
thetechnologicalblackbox frominitialplanningto implementationmustbe priedopen. At issue are powerfulpassions investedin illness,land, power,economicopportubetween
nitiesand costs,sensesof justice,thedifferentials
whatis mobileand circulatory
(consultants,
money,dioxins, and air pollution)and what is immobileand rooted
and whatconstitutes
(poisonedland and villagehistories),
levers
at any pointin timethe resourcesand institutional
fororganizingenunciatorycommunities,articulategoals,
One could well imaginea
and politicallyviable strategies.
as deeplyoverinvested
ofconfrontations,
tournament
(psybut
as
and
statuswise)
cockfight
any
chically,financially,
withlargerstakes:betweentheplannersand consultantsof
of environmental
the department
protection,on the one
other
the
on
side,Greenpeace,theirU.S. consulside,and,
articulate
more
the
and
villagersof Lung Kwu Tan.
tant,
(The villagersof Ha Pak Nai watch and perhapsexercise
embodied,and reinfluencebackstagewiththeexpressive,
powerless,who mustrelyon
sistingtools of the relatively
thefiner"martial"artsofleverageand indirection.)
CHANGE?
IS THERESTRUCTURAL
EMERGENTBIOCAPITALISM
WithKaushikSunderRajan'sarticle,we move fromcommoditycirculation,showbiz extractionof surplusvalue
frommass markets,and sale of expertiseto localitiesand
and turnto whatare arguablynew relations
governments
of biologicalmolecules)
of production(e.g., patentability
marand consumption(e.g.,expansionof pharmaceutical
ketsbynewtestsand prophylactic
drugssuchas statins,for

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58

AmericanAnthropologist* Vol. 107,No. 1 * March2005

markers
of predisposition
forillnessamongasymptomatic
populations).Could theseconstitutethe beginningsof at
leastan imaginedand promissory
newsocialformation
(articulatingseveraloldermodes of production)?And would
sucha new socialformation
changeor exacerbateinequalities(gene-enhancedgroupsvs. old-modelhumanbeings,
or justthosewithaccessto new medicaltechnologiesand
thosewithout)?
SunderRajantakesa distributed
knowl(or multisited)
edge system(biosciences,genomics)and exploresits differential
civics(or politicsand politicaleconomy)in India
and the UnitedStates."Biocapitalism"-withits own cyclesofoverproduction
and underconsumption
dynamicsis differently
in each nationalsetting(different
"emergent"
mix of government,
and acaagendas,different
industry,
demicinputs),yeteach countryis onlypartof an uneven
AswithUlrichBeck's(1992)
(hencedynamic)globalterrain.
workof the late 1980s,and JosephDumit's(2004) recent
Dumitspeaks,for
work,Marxistcategoriesaretransmuted.
instance,of the productionof "surplushealth,"the turnwho can be puton
ingofeveryoneintopatients-in-waiting
drugsforlife(statinsarethecurrent
exampleparexcellence,
thedrugthatcan improveeveryone'scholesterol
levelsand
turneveryoneintoan everexpandingmarketforpharmaceuticalmarketing).
SunderRajanfocusesattentionon the
biopoliticaluses of clinicaltrialpopulationsin India (and
elsewherein theThirdWorld),as wellas middle-class
populationsof "patients-in-waiting,"
whichgenomicprofiling
willturnintoevermorespecificmarketing
nichesand customizedtargets.
SunderRajandrawsparticular
attentionto a newcivics
and politicsofbiologyin thepostcolonialworld.India has
resourcesof at leastthreesortswithwhichto enterthese
postcolonial,uneven terrainsof transnationalbioscience
and biotechnologynetworks:first,a pool of well-trained
and technicians;second,the institutional
youngscientists
driveon thepartofbothgovernment
and Indianpharmaceuticalcompaniesto createnewformsoforganization
that
can competeon the global stageand can also contribute
locallyto thedevelopmentofdomesticmedicalscienceresources;and third,populationsthatcan be recruited
easily
forclinicaltrials(a competitive
resourcebeingminedglobally).SunderRajanfocuseson thepromiseofpharmacogenomicsto eventuallyprovidesomethinglikepersonalized
medicineand, thereby,
to also reshapethe marketdynamics of consumerand corporatebehaviorin the healthcare
The venturesof companieslikeGenomicHealth
industry.
and patientadvocacygroupslikePXE International
signal
the possibilitiesthat "enunciatorycommunities"(an anmore powerfulconceptthan the bureauthropologically
craticconceptof a "stakeholder")can, in fact,shape researchdirectionsand marketsforthe benefitof patients
and individuals-insteadof leavingthemto the aggregating politicaleconomiesof the searchfor "billion dollar
molecules."
Sunder Rajan's ethnographicwork,like Fortunand
Fortun's,includesan informedprobingof the technolo-

gies and science of genomics(informatics,

microarrays,
and the
machines,and geneticprofiling)
high-throughput
(individualizedtherapies).
promisesofpharmacogenomics
SunderRajan's ethnography,
like that of Fortunand Fortun's,is inquisitiveaboutthesocialchoicesinvolvedin the
directions
thesesciencesand newtechnologiestake.Use of
theterminology
ofbiocapitalism,
and biosociality
biopolitics,
linksthe article'sconcernsto the vigorousdiscussionsin
otherpartsof anthropology,
human rightsorganizations,
medical anthropology,
and politicaleconomy.These discourseshaveextendedMichelFoucault'sworkon theemergenceofnewdisciplinesand discoursesand GillesDeleuze's
conceptionsofa gradualshiftfromsocietiesofdisciplineto
societiesof controlthroughcodes and flows.The promisor even soteriological,
discoursesof
soryand salvationary,
pharmacogenomics
providepotentially
productivecultural
resourcesfordifferential
of how "valueraunderstandings
tionalities"(as opposedto economicor instrumental
ones)
arenas on the levmight intervenein technoscientific
els of motivation,ideology,and culturalshapingthrough
advertising.
Thereis a lovelylittlepotentialchemicalsynapsebetween SunderRajan's pharmacogenetics
and Fortunand
Fortun'stoxicogenomics:
the CytochomeP-450 familyof
Theseenzymes,locatedin theliver,areresponsienzymes.6
ble fordetoxifying
dangerousinputsfromthebiospherein
thehumanbody.Somearealso important
formetabolism
in
thebodyitself,
as in makingcholesterol
bioacids.Butforthe
developmentoforalor systemic
drugs,themostimportant
oftheseenzymesarethefiveor sixthoughtto be responsible forxenobiotictransformations
outsidein(detoxifying
areinvolvedin acputs).Theseenzymes,equallycritically,
medicinal
tivatingcarcinogenicmutations.Unfortunately,
fornow is stillalmostentirely
trialand
chemistry
empirical,
a collectionofad hoc tricksand localrules(e.g.,ifyou
error,
wantto suppresshydroxylation,
you mightput a fluorine
on yourcompoundsomewhere,usuallyin the fourposiofmanyof
tion).Withcloningand commercialavailability
theseenzymes,it is now possibleto perform
in vitrotests
ofpotentialdrugcompoundsfairlyearlyin thedrugdevelopmentprocessto see whetherthecompoundis inhibiting
the enzymes.Suchtestsprovidea fairlygood surrogate
for
in vivotrialsofwhether,
in thebody,thecompoundmight
metabolizethesubstrate
or viceversa.
Not only then are we at a junctionbetweentracking down environmentalstressorson the human body
and learningabout the chain reactionsof metabolisminside the body but also at a junctionof conversations
betweenchemistsand biologists,structural
chemistsand animal models,and informatics
of
screening(againstlibraries
cDNA oftenheld as proprietary
by companies)and informaticssearching(inbothprivateand publicdatabaseswith
different
access costs and authorization).Finally,we also
findourselvesat a junctionbetweenthe strategy
of oral
and systemicdrugdeliveryand that of targeteddelivery
to selectivetissues(geneticengineering)or even regenerativemedicine(stemcell research).The social complexity

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Fischer* Technoscientific
Infrastructures
andEmergent
Forms
ofLife 59
ofthesedisciplinary
and materialbiologicalexchangesand
a
is at levelofintricacy,
infrastructural
reach,
competitions
and potentialtransformative
powerthatexplainswhyone
mightwell hypeor fearthatwe aremovinginto a new soand techcial formationof economic,political,scientific,
nologicalnettingthatis muchfinerand muchmoredissemin ourpurview.Thisis not
inatedthananythingpreviously
of bits,
only because of the descentinto the microworlds
beatoms,and moleculesbutalso,as SunderRajanstresses,
causethesenetsdependon relationsbetweendeproletariancontractclinicaltestingcompanies,naizedtextilelaborers,
tionallaboratories,
exportand importtraderelations,and
nationaland multinational
companies.
pharmaceutical
worldof machines,emergentmass
The 19th-century
politics,and global marketsis now transmutedand intensified,theirvelocitiesincreased,and the destructionofrelationsofproductionand consumption
reconstruction
evermorefinelygrained.Itbecomesincreasingly
important
to thinkabout how to organize"enunciatorycommunities"thatallow theends,whichthesenewbiosciencesand
makepossible,to be channeledtowardeqbiotechnologies
outcomes.One mayrecallthe
uitable,just,and legitimated
recentcase of the T4 (or CD4) cell. The 1993 switchfrom
ofAIDS (< 200 CD4
definitions
clinical-to laboratory-based
cells/mm3
plus HIV-positiveantibodytest)not only sudthe size of the AIDS populationbut also
increased
denly
who felt
patientsand activists
initiallyangeredHIV-positive
thattheirexperienceof illnesswas beingdevaluedby the
tests.Later,as theycontestedclinilaboratory
objectifying
markers"
cal trialdesign,theypromotedCD4 as "surrogate
and
As
fortherapeutic
management. Keating Cambrosioput
it,"T4 cellshave enteredthepoliticalarena"(2003:9).

ofcostsand rewardsintothespacesofpersuasion,
tribution
civilprotest,and legitimation.
negotiation,litigation,
Newepistemicobjectsarebroughtto visibility
bylargeThe varyingof parametersand experscale informatics.
imentingwith data to make visibleand formulatesuch
epistemicobjectsalso has builtin itthedangerthat,downstream,thechoicesmadein thebuildingoftheinformatics
systemsmay no longerbe obvious or even visibleto orsilentlyintotheinfrastrucdinaryusers.The civicsretreats
ofinfrastructure.Thechoicesthatgo intotheconstruction
tures,as nicelyschematizedby LawrenceLessig(1999), are
of fourkinds:(1) thecode or architecture
(technologyand
and prices),(3)
the
market
choices),
(2)
(costs
engineering
thelaw,and (4) socialnorms.Allfourofthesemodalitiesare
toolsofcivicpoliticsand ethicalchoices.Theirintersecting
and critical
renegotiation,
pointsof choice and recurrent
formplateausof ethiand reconstruction,
deconstruction
cal strugglein whichdecisionmakingin one area affects
on choicesin otherpartsoftheplayingfieldor
constraints
plateau.
Thus,the complaintsfromthosesuffering
risingcanbasedon micerratesaboutcurrent
toxicologicalinitiatives
can, ifwellorgadata,databanks,and informatics
croarray
to otherchoices. In this
nized, reopenthe infrastructure
case, the problemis not onlythat,as of yet,we lack stanbut also that,because
dardizationof microarray
platforms
we need
chemicals
the
metabolize
same
differently,
people
and because different
betterworkon biomarkers,
popularatesofcancer,we need betterassociationshave different
insteadof relyingon metion studies.Or,moregenerally,
chanicalscreens,reductionist
techniquesoffindingcauses,
withgenes-the
and genomictechniquesofexperimenting
functionsof whichwe do not understandand the proteoCOMMUNITIES
WHEREIS THE CIVICS? ENUNCIATORY
nomicsofwhichwe areonlybeginningtoexplore-weneed
AND ETHICALPLATEAUS
a multicausal,integrative
biology"thatcan more
"systems
ofin vivophysifunctions
dealwiththeinteracting
a seriesofframes-Fortunand Fortun'sarticleforegrounds
directly
is a termthatis poppingup
as experimental
informatics
enunciativecommunities,
biology
Systems
ologicalsystems.
sysin variousplaces,as of yetwithouta stablemeaning,and
tems,care of data as public works,collaborativeethnoit is quite excitingto see it emerginghere,withgroundand
graphicworkbetweenscientistsand anthropologists,
between
in the interface
civicscienceas a combinationof good scienceand ethical
ing and multipleconstituencies,
to
and
of
the
attentionand care-forthinking
personapproaches
epidemiology,
toxicogenomics,
through emergence
those
of
are
not
The
constituencies
medicine.
alized
how
toxvisible
make
frames
These
only
help
toxicogenomics.
but
also
bioscientists
of
communities
different
of
scientific
new
as
a
disciplinary
generator
icogenomicsmaybecome,
civicgroups.
healthinfrastructures, patientadvocacygroupsand environmental
objects,partof new environmental
is crucial
works
as
of
data
care
of
notion
The
inpublic
morephysiologically
and possiblya bridgeto a future,
and
for
biomedical
ethical
is
an
obvious
It
here.
aspiration
formed,systemsbiology.Such a systemsbiologywill deto
conwho
wish
and
scientists engineers
oftechnologies
beyondmicroarrays environmental
pendon theemergence
tributeto thegood ofsociety,as wellas forpatientgroups,
on whichtheydepend.
and thedatabanksand informatics
and thepublicin general.Butit
researchers,
purescientific
In earlierworkon Bhopal,KimFortun(2001) explores
is also contestedgroundin intellectualpropertylaw and
Fortunand Forcommunities."
thenotionof "enunciatory
in the marketmechanismson which we have come to
tun discussthe conceptfurther,
movingpoliticaldiscussince
outoftherealm
infrastructures
sionsabouttechnoscientific
relyto spurinvestmentin innovation,particularly
thecommercializatheBayh-DoleActof 1980 encouraging
winner-loser
of stakeholder
powergameswithinpregiven
labs.
and university
madein government
tionofdiscoveries
contextsand intotherealmofactivecreation
institutional
ofcreatingnew kindsofstakeholders Puttingdatabanksintothe publicdomainwithsecurepriofvoice and strategy,
and authorizationprotections
and of new institution vacy,anonymity,
integrity,
withnew modes of accountability,
testsand
of high-profile
a
with
number
is a dauntingtask,
bringingthe civicpoliticsand disformation-specifically,

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60

AmericanAnthropologist* Vol. 107,No. 1 * March2005

contestations
ongoing.The ethicalterrainhas implications
is often
formultiplespheresof social life,and, therefore,
not justitem-by-item
also passionateterrain,
problemsolvsuch
as roads,teleas
in
networked
infrastructures
older,
ing
As
the
or
even
the
Internet.
volatile
debatesover
phones,
stemcellresearchand genetically
engineeredcropsdemonare
these
ethical
not
containablewithinnastrate,
plateaus
tional boundariesbut have uneven,moebius-like,
global
topologieswithacceleratedfeedbackspeed.

and biasing blinders. In today's high-speedelectronic

media world,effectivities
depend as much on iterative
and
flow,adaptability,
ubiquityin public spaces as any
statement's
single
veracityor validity.
Zhan stepsintomultiplemediacircuitsand culturalin(MichelSerres'sfelicitouspun on interferences
teref6rances
and inter-references:
culturalassociationsin one language
or cultureinterrupting,
displacing,and reroutingmeaningsin theother).She explorestheseissuesretrospectively
storiesand newspaperarticles:banthroughinformants'
CONCLUSION:RENEWEDFORMS OF ETHNOGRAPHY
tours,impressionmanagementand public
quets,celebrity
We live (again) in an eraofvolatileemergentformsoflife,
relationsefforts,
circuitsaboutviralinfections,
explanatory
sitesof deep play,and ethicalplateausrequiringrenewed
and rhetoricsof self-discipline
using celebrityicons. It is
We need to go beyondslogansof
formsof ethnography.
thesecircuitsthatbecometherelaysand switching
points,
Weneedto pushintodistributed
multisitedness.
infrastruc- displacingand transforming
culturalmeaningsand social
tures.We must look forenunciatorycommunities,rules
relationsbetweenclasses,nations,and species,in turnafof play,and sitesof contestation.We need to pay attenfectingpublichealthand epidemiologicalmeasuresacross
tionto difficulties
oftranslation
acrossmultiplescienceand
theglobe.
well
as
to
as
team
engineeringcommunities,
competitive
Choy uses a particularsite(Hong Kong'svillages)as a
of
new
tools
ofconsultants,
productions
objects(molecules),
(experimenportalto globalcirculation
planners,ideolotal systems),processes(patentsand licenses),and care of
gies,and powerrelations.He not onlygaugesthe effectividata (publiccommons).We need to analyzehow iterative
tiesofactivistsand plannersvis-A-vis
boththeirclientsand
flowsofscientific
factsand factoidsareconfigured
intologostensivebeneficiaries
but also probesto see ifnew articuics and grammars,
whose pragmaticsand metapragmatic latorycommunities
can be coaxed intoeffective
existence.
are inThe probeis both a descriptive
tool and an experimental
blinders,limitations,and contradictions
markers,
and productively
suturedso as not to be visione as theethnographer
becomesengagedin theeffort,
dustriously
sugble (discourses,naturalizedcommonsense,and streaming
as an experimental
gestingethnography
system,a turnof
information
fromactivist,state,and corporatebroadcast
thescrewon theolder,lessactive,"insider-outsider"
ethnorole.
media).
graphic
The originalnotionof a "multisited"
or "multilocale"
SunderRajan'sprobeitselftravelsglobally,walkingthe
in
as
Cultural
(Marcus
ethnography Anthropology
Critique
"rightrope"
againstfallinginto a moreactiveexperimenand Fischer1999)wascalledforth
of
the
comtal
instrument
to join boardsof companieshe is
by
challenges
(refusing
and
of
while
thattheethnographic
parative,cross-cultural, polycentricanalyses phestudying)
acknowledging
gaze
nomena. These were not only distributed
is
a
trade
and
spatially(such
capital
good
employeeincentiveforsome
that any given site is not a microcosmbut only partof
of the players("see,even MIT is interested
in whatwe are
but
also
where
the
Palo Alto,Delhi,Hylargersystems)
vertically(e.g.,
partial
doing").FromBostonto Washington,
actorsin a welfaresystem,
derabad,and Bombay,he probesdifferent-sized,
knowledgesystemsof different
-resourced,
fromeconomistsdealingwithaggregate
datato socialworkand -incentivizedportalsto an emergentpoliticaleconersdealingwithpracticalcontingencies,
each complicating
conomy of biocapitalism,each sitewitha verydifferent
theworkoftheother,oftenfalsifying
each other'sinsights,
stellationofenunciatory
businessplans,and
communities,
and introducing
friction
and incomprehension
intothesyspoliticalloci: small start-upsin SiliconValley,CA; a pahas long since givenup the perspectientadvocacygroupin Massachusetts;
tem). Anthropology
genomicsand phartiveof binarylogic (us-them,civilized-primitive,
Europemacogenomicscompaniesin SiliconValleyand Rockville,
therest,Christian-savage,
and
in Cold Spring
conferences
developed-underdeveloped)
MD; tradeshowsand scientific
and
in Washlaboratories
replacedit with new comparativemethods,which conHarbor,NY,
Miami;government
stantlyscan fordifference,
multiplevoices,and knowledge
ington,DC, and Delhi; pharmaceuticalcompanies;and
sets.This linguistically
and sociologicallyattentivecrossclinicaltrialcenters(see also SunderRajan 2002). In focus
culturalperspectiveof anthropology
arebusinessplans,promissory
preparedthe ethnolegallanguage,relationsbetweenhypeandventurecapital,due diligenceand risk,pubgraphicmethodto scan fordifferences
amongoccupation,
and educational
lic domain and proprietary
expert,civic, consumer,entertainment,
knowledgeas well as national
cultures(notmerelynational,religious,or ethnicones).
and
relations
betweengovernment,
agendas
changing
pharmaceuticalindustry,
and biotechfirms.
It is therelationsof
Similarly, serious ethnographers have long
abandoned-at risk of being read as either ironic or
and consumption-entitlements,
production,marketing,
naive-the "firstdiscovery"tropesof the 17th century.
human,and social or cultural),social rerights(property,
situatethemselvesagainstongoing
Instead,ethnographers
stratification,
inequities,and justice-that constitutethe
streamsof representations.
Each representation
or formof
emergentsystemmorethan just the molecules,kits,and
has itsfeaturesand bugs,facilitating
lenses
medicaldrugsor therapeutic
representation
protocols.

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Fischer* Technoscientific
and Emergent
Forms
ofLife 61
Infrastructures
Fortunand Fortun'sethnographicprobes,similarly,
roveacrosstheenvironmental
healthinforperipatetically
maticsplateaus fromolder-style
chemicaland ecological
knowledgeplatformsto new experimentalsystemsplatformedon informatics
databanksand simulationmodels.
Fortunand Fortunmove fromGordonconferenceto corofHealth,and uniNationalInstitutes
poratelaboratories,
for
the
versitylaboratories,looking
ways in which data
setsare constituted,
mined,massaged,abstracted,
arrayed,
anonymized,linked,and above all turnedinto something
over whichcare and ethicalattentioncan be directedby
Thereis a civicsat the
communities.
multipleenunciatory
heartof thisbiology,environmental
studies,and toxicology,not only linkingthe promiseof customizedhealth
not merely
for individualsthroughpharmacogenomics,
and
clinical
environmental,
epidemiological,
connecting
and
citizen
the
but
also
rights
using aspirations
knowledges
informatics
to enrollscientists,
communities
ofenunciatory
mothers,and othercaregivers
researchers,
ethnographers,
in morerobustpolities.
At issue,in all these articles-as well as betweenthe
anthrolinesandbeyondtheirframes-isthequintessential
the
to
and
peoethnographicchallenge explore
pological
oftechnologiesand knowledges
plingand reappropriation
in locallydiverseways.Theseincludethecontinuingrenegotiationof historicaland emergentmodalitiesof ethical
and politicalreason.How interpretation
works,symbolic
resonancesare mobilized,passionschanneled,risksleveraged, and tools of market,legal, code, and social norms
of emergenttechnoscienused-all these are constitutive
new formsoflife,ethicalplateaus,and
tificinfrastructures,
civicpoliticalcontests.

informabut,likemostcontemporary
developed-underdeveloped)
tionmatrices,
a constantly
anddifference
comparative
scanning
method.
SeealsoConclusion:
Renewed
Forms
ofEthnography.
3. Thephrasing
alludesto theliterature
on ethicssurrounding
theworkofEmmanuel
Levinas.
Theobligation
to respond
tothe
demandoftheotherdoesnotdependonlyonwhatheorsheasks
forbutalsowhatcanbe seenin hisorherface,andparticularly
in hisorherotherness.
On theethicaldemands
ofcross-species
otherness
andofnotreducing
theothertothesame-asintreating
2003.
petsas children-see
Haraway
4. On material-semiotic
seeHaraway
1997.
objects,
5. SeeWittgenstein,
OnCertainty
(1991).
6. Thanks
toBrianSeedforclarifying
theroleoftheseenzymes.
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