Table Of ContentBeyond Imported Magic
Inside Technology Series
edited by Wiebe E. Bijker, W. Bernard Carlson, and Trevor Pinch
Eden Medina, Ivan da Costa Marques, and Christina Holmes, Shobita Parthasarathy, Building Genetic Medicine: Breast
editors, B eyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science, Technology, Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care
and Society in Latin America Kristen Haring, Ham Radio’ s Technical Culture
Anique Hommels, Jessica Mesman, and Wiebe E. Bijker, Atsushi Akera, Calculating a Natural World: Scientists, Engineers
editors, V ulnerability in Technological Cultures: New Directions and Computers during the Rise of U.S. Cold War Research
in Research and Governance
Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial
Amit Prasad, I mperial Technoscience: Transnational Histories of Models Shape Markets
MRI in the United States, Britain, and India
Geoffrey C. Bowker, M emory Practices in the Sciences
Charis Thompson, G ood Science: The Ethical Choreography of
Stem Cell Research Christophe Lé c uyer, M aking Silicon Valley: Innovation and the
Growth of High Tech, 1930– 1970
Tarleton Gillespie, Pablo J. Boczkowski, and Kirsten A. Foot,
editors, M edia Technologies: Essays on Communication, Anique Hommels, Unbuilding Cities: Obduracy in Urban
Materiality, and Society Sociotechnical Change
Catelijne Coopmans, Janet Vertesi, Michael Lynch, and Steve David Kaiser, editor, P edagogy and the Practice of Science:
Woolgar, editors, R epresentation in Scientific Practice Revisited Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
Rebecca Slayton, Arguments that Count: Physics, Computing, Charis Thompson, Making Parents: The Ontological
and Missile Defense, 1949– 2012 Choreography of Reproductive Technology
Stathis Arapostathis and Graeme Gooday, P atently Pablo J. Boczkowski, D igitizing the News: Innovation in Online
Contestable: Electrical Technologies and Inventor Identities on Newspapers
Trial in Britain Dominique Vinck, editor, E veryday Engineering: An
Jens Lachmund, Greening Berlin: The Co- Production of Science, Ethnography of Design and Innovation
Politics, and Urban Nature Nelly Oudshoorn and Trevor Pinch, editors, H ow Users
Chikako Takeshita, The Global Biopolitics of the IUD: How Matter: The Co-Construction of Users and Technology
Science Constructs Contraceptive Users and Women ’ s Bodies Peter Keating and Alberto Cambrosio, B iomedical Platforms:
Realigning the Normal and the Pathological in Late-Twentieth-
Cyrus C. M. Mody, Instrumental Community: Probe Microscopy
Century Medicine
and the Path to Nanotechnology
Paul Rosen, F raming Production: Technology, Culture, and
Morana Alac ,̌ H andling Digital Brains: A Laboratory Study of
Change in the British Bicycle Industry
Multimodal Semiotic Interaction in the Age of Computers
Maggie Mort, Building the Trident Network: A Study of the
Gabrielle Hecht, editor, E ntangled Geographies: Empire and
Enrollment of People, Knowledge, and Machines
Technopolitics in the Global Cold War
Donald MacKenzie, Mechanizing Proof: Computing, Risk, and
Michael E. Gorman, editor, T rading Zones and Interactional
Trust
Expertise: Creating New Kinds of Collaboration
Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star, S orting Things Out:
Matthias Gross, I gnorance and Surprise: Science, Society, and
Classification and Its Consequences
Ecological Design
Charles Bazerman, T he Languages of Edison’ s Light
Andrew Feenberg, Between Reason and Experience: Essays in
Technology and Modernity Janet Abbate, I nventing the Internet
Wiebe E. Bijker, Roland Bal, and Ruud Hendricks, T he Herbert Gottweis, G overning Molecules: The Discursive Politics
Paradox of Scientific Authority: The Role of Scientific Advice in of Genetic Engineering in Europe and the United States
Democracies Kathryn Henderson, O n Line and On Paper: Visual
Park Doing, Velvet Revolution at the Synchrotron: Biology, Representation, Visual Culture, and Computer Graphics in Design
Physics, and Change in Science Engineering
Gabrielle Hecht, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and Susanne K. Schmidt and Raymund Werle, C oordinating
National Identity after World War II Technology: Studies in the International Standardization of
Telecommunications
Richard Rottenburg, Far-Fetched Facts: A Parable of
Development Aid Marc Berg, R ationalizing Medical Work: Decision Support
Techniques and Medical Practices
Michel Callon, Pierre Lascoumes, and Yannick Barthe, A cting
in an Uncertain World: An Essay on Technical Democracy Eda Kranakis, C onstructing a Bridge: An Exploration of
Engineering Culture, Design, and Research in Nineteenth-Century
Ruth Oldenziel and Karin Zachmann, editors, C old War
France and America
Kitchen: Americanization, Technology, and European Users
Paul N. Edwards, T he Closed World: Computers and the Politics
Deborah G. Johnson and Jameson W. Wetmore, editors,
of Discourse in Cold War America
Technology and Society: Building Our Sociotechnical Future
Donald MacKenzie, K nowing Machines: Essays on Technical
Trevor Pinch and Richard Swedberg, editors, L iving in a
Change
Material World: Economic Sociology Meets Science and
Technology Studies Wiebe E. Bijker, O f Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a
Theory of Sociotechnical Change
Christopher R. Henke, C ultivating Science, Harvesting Power:
Science and Industrial Agriculture in California Louis L. Bucciarelli, D esigning Engineers
Helga Nowotny, Insatiable Curiosity: Innovation in a Fragile Geoffrey C. Bowker, S cience on the Run: Information
Future Management and Industrial Geophysics at Schlumberger,
1920-1940
Karin Bijsterveld, Mechanical Sound: Technology, Culture, and
Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century Wiebe E. Bijker and John Law, editors, S haping Technology /
Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change
Peter D. Norton, F ighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in
the American City Stuart Blume, I nsight and Industry: On the Dynamics of
Technological Change in Medicine
Joshua M. Greenberg, F rom Betamax to Blockbuster: Video
Stores tand the Invention of Movies on Video Donald MacKenzie, I nventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of
Nuclear Missile Guidance
Mikael Hård and Thomas J. Misa, editors, U rban Machinery:
Inside Modern European Cities Pamela E. Mack, V iewing the Earth: The Social Construction of
the Landsat Satellite System
Christine Hine, Systematics as Cyberscience: Computers, Change,
and Continuity in Science H. M. Collins, A rtificial Experts: Social Knowledge and Intelligent
Machines
Wesley Shrum, Joel Genuth, and Ivan Chompalov, S tructures
of Scientific Collaboration
See http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/series/inside-technology for a complete list of titles in this series.
Beyond Imported Magic
Essays on Science, Technology, and Society in Latin America
edited by Eden Medina, Ivan da Costa Marques, and Christina Holmes
with a foreword by Marcos Cueto
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or me-
chanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) with-
out permission in writing from the publisher.
MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional
use. For information, please email [email protected].
This book was set in ITC Stone Sans Std and ITC Stone Serif Std 9/13 pt by Toppan Best-set Premedia
Limited, Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beyond imported magic: essays on science, technology, and society in Latin America / edited by
Eden Medina, Ivan da Costa Marques, and Christina Holmes; with a foreword by Marcos Cueto.
page cm — (Inside technology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-02745-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-262-52620-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Technology transfer — Latin America. 2. Science — Latin America. 3. Technology — Social
aspects — Latin America. I. Medina, Eden, 1976– editor of compilation. II. Marques, Ivan da
Costa editor of compilation. III. Holmes, Christina, 1973 – editor of compilation.
T24.A1B46 2014
338.98 ′ 06 — dc23
2013046628
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Foreword by Marcos Cueto vii
Preface xi
1 Introduction: Beyond Imported Magic 1
Eden Medina, Ivan da Costa Marques, and Christina Holmes
Part I: Latin American Perspectives on Science, Technology, and Society
2 Who Invented Brazil? 27
Henrique Cukierman
3 Innovation and Inclusive Development in the South: A Critical Perspective 47
Mariano Fressoli, Rafael Dias, and Hern á n Thomas
4 Working with Care: Narratives of Invisible Women Scientists Practicing Forensic
Genetics in Colombia 67
Tania P é rez-Bustos, Mar í a Fernanda Olarte Sierra, and Adriana D í az del Castillo H.
5 Ontological Politics and Latin American Local Knowledges 85
Ivan da Costa Marques
6 Technology in an Expanded Field: A Review of History of Technology
Scholarship on Latin America in Selected English-Language Journals 111
Michael Lemon and Eden Medina
Part II: Local and Global Networks of Innovation
7 South Atlantic Crossings: Fingerprints, Science, and the State in
Turn-of-the-Twentieth-Century Argentina 139
Julia Rodriguez
vi Contents
8 Tropical Assemblage: The Soviet Large Panel in Cuba 159
Hugo Palmarola and Pedro Ignacio Alonso
9 Balancing Design: OLPC Engineers and ICT Translations at the Periphery 181
Anita Say Chan
10 Translating Magic: The Charisma of One Laptop per Child’ s XO Laptop in
Paraguay 207
Morgan G. Ames
11 Nanoscience and Nanotechnology: How an Emerging Area on the Scientific
Agenda of the Core Countries Has Been Adopted and Transformed in Latin
America 225
Noela Invernizzi, Matthieu Hubert, and Dominique Vinck
12 Latin America as Laboratory: The Camera and the Yale Peruvian
Expeditions 245
Amy Cox Hall
Part III: Science, Technology, and Latin American Politics
13 Bottling Atomic Energy: Technology, Politics, and the State in Peronist
Argentina 267
Jonathan Hagood
14 Peaceful Atoms in Mexico 287
Gisela Mateos and Edna Su á rez-D í az
15 Neoliberalism as Political Technology: Expertise, Energy, and Democracy in
Chile 305
Manuel Tironi and Javiera Barandiar á n
16 Creole Interferences: A Conflict over Biodiversity and Ownership in the South
of Brazil 331
Ana Delgado and Israel Rodr í guez-Giralt
17 The Juridical Hospital: Patient-Citizen-Consumers Claiming the Right to Health
in Brazilian Courts 349
Jo ã o Biehl
Contributors 373
Index 379
Foreword
This book testifies to the progress of critical investigations on how science and tech-
nology have been constructed, designed, imagined, and practiced in Latin America.
This collection is truly outstanding, not only because the contributors take into con-
sideration the philosophical, historical, sociological, anthropological, and political
science dimensions of a little-studied region of the world, but also because they address
issues relevant to scholars and readers interested in the phenomenon of science and
technology all over the world. And it is no small feat that the literature they use is
up-to-date. One issue that certainly appears clear in this publication is that scientific
knowledge constructs its “ universal ” legitimacy depending not only on time, place,
and field of study, but also on the agency of individuals, institutions, and nations.
Has Latin America always been passive and derivative in terms of scientific creativ-
ity, or has it played a central role in the making of contemporary specialized practices?
The answers coming from Latin America show, with increasing emphasis, that science
and technology should be understood as an arena contested by a wide variety of
individuals, institutions, and actors and through complex local processes of reception,
rejection, adaptation, and hybridization. From this perspective, Western science could
be understood as a process of polycentric networks, and as a global dynamic interplay
in ever-shifting networks.
This book offers several specific contributions to the literature. First, it addresses
the complex and difficult coexistence of the significant advances made to Western
science by Latin American centers of knowledge making and the asymmetry of knowl-
edge production between Latin American nations and their counterparts in more
industrialized parts of the world. This means that, at least during the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries, Latin American science has contributed to the world store of
knowledge and helped construct the hegemony of metropolitan Western knowledge,
but at the same time has faced adverse conditions such as low cultural esteem, few
full-time laboratory positions, ephemeral academic journals, underfunded universities,
and limited financial resources. As a result, high-quality Latin American science and
technology have survived in the international scientific community despite the
viii Foreword
asymmetry in power and financial relations. It also means that frequently “ good ”
science and scientists exist despite the absence of consolidated scientific communities.
This is a paradox, and a fascinating theme that is explored in this publication.
Second, the authors in this book illustrate that the unique combination of moder-
nity and underdevelopment in Latin America questions the “ natural ” frontiers between
nature and society determined by politicians and science practitioners, making them
appear clearly artificial. Third, in offering a detailed analysis of the day-to-day practices
of scientists, engineers, and technologists, the book shows that these practitioners are
close to the public reception of scientific knowledge, which they both produce and
translate as they attempt to reconcile diverse lay and expert viewpoints. This is differ-
ent from what often occurs in more industrialized nations, where there is often a larger
gap between the mediation of scientific knowledge and the views of the general public.
The chapters in the book are a clear by-product of a scholarly reaction in the region
that can be traced to the 1980s, when researchers of the social studies of science went
beyond the prevailing internalist perspectives, familiar traditional ideals of Western
science, and models of scientific diffusion, social control, or scientific imperialism.
The flaw of these models was that they assumed that anything in Latin American
societies (modernization, development or dependence) came from outside those soci-
eties. Contextual history was emphasized later, but after a few years it was clear that
this too was not sufficient. The studies in this book take the approach a step further
by intertwining contextual and internal factors and demonstrating that scientific life
had a life of its own. They are a splendid mirror of the noticeable increase in the
quantity, quality, and international relevance of scholarship in the social studies of
science in Latin America.
These new trends have also appeared in historical studies of medicine in Latin
America, which have shown how European conquest, political governance, and culture
in Latin America were inspired, legitimized, portrayed, and based on scientific and
technological knowledge. In a continent marked by frequent revolutions, social
upheavals, migrations, changing borders, and natural disasters, scientific expertise was
frequently used as a catalyst for change— or a supporter of continuity— in institutions,
landscapes, gender roles, races, societies, and states. The investigation of how science
was grounded in cultural, social, and political currents of the past was made possible
in part by novel research on new problems, using new sources, and carried out by a
new historiography that matured most notably in the pages of the journal edited in
Rio de Janeiro by the Casa Oswaldo Cruz, Historia, Ciencia, Sa ú de — Manguinhos (which
first appeared in 1994).
The original idea for this book grew out of a meeting that took place in Buenos
Aires on the social studies of science and technology, bringing together scholars from
across the Americas. The geographical and thematic distribution of the chapters
reflects the excellent research going on in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and other
Foreword ix
countries in the region. Its publication in English— the Latin of our day — will help
scholars in other countries to take stock of the field, to promote a fluid dialogue
between all researchers interested in the social and cultural dimensions of science and
technology studies.
I would like to end by telling an anecdote that occurred when I attended a confer-
ence in Mexico with several historians of science several years ago. We were wandering
through the galleries of the splendid Museum of History and Anthropology in Mexico
City. After our brilliant guide gave us a detailed explanation of the sophisticated
mathematical knowledge of the Mayas before the conquest, I mumbled something
like “ This is amazing!” to a British historian. I will never forget his response: “ What
is amazing is that I knew nothing about it before!” I sincerely hope that this authorita-
tive book will help to uncover unknown valuable information and suggestive new
perspectives for the social studies of science and technology in the United States and
Europe. The editors, authors, and publisher should be congratulated for producing a
remarkable and coherent study that will be a landmark in the social studies of science
and technology of Latin America and an intriguing and nuanced inspiration for
broader debates on transnational STS research. It will certainly raise new important
questions. It will also illuminate the current discussions on how science and technol-
ogy can help to solve long-standing challenges in the region such as the achievement
of full citizenship, social equality, and social cohesion.
Marcos Cueto
Visiting Professor
Casa Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro
