Appropriating
Technology: Vernacular Science and Social
Power
by Ron Eglash,
Jennifer Croissant, Giovanna Di Chiro,
and Rayvon Fouché, Eds.
Minnesota University Press, Minneapolis,
2004
376 pp., illus. 29 b/w. Trade, $77.95;
paper, $25.95
ISBN: 0-8166-3426-2; ISBN: 0-8166-3427-0.
Reviewed
by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be
As a new technology becomes available
to a wider segmentbecause
of higher stability, lower prices or spreading
know-howthere is a chance
that some communities or even individuals
find new and unexpected usages for the
toolboxes that come with it. The obvious
example is the World Wide Web that started
as a system for sharing scientific papers
and knowledge and has developed into a
semi-universal vehicle for commercial,
cultural, political, religious and artistic
messages and interaction. Less obvious
but no less telling examples are the thermos
flask and the bicycle, respectively turned
into a device to keep drinks hot and a
recreational instrument. In all cases,
the original intention has been all but
overrun by unintended and, from the point
of view of the inventors, inappropriate
usage. Apparently, tools are not unambiguous
and technologies are social conventions
about their use rather than naked and
value-free technical means.
In this book, Ron Eglash, Jennifer L.
Croissant, Giovanna Di Chiro and Rayvon
Fouché have collected 20 essays
on (mal)appropropriations of very diverse
technologies. In each instance minorities
and communities have adapted or reinterpreted
the toolsas technical expressions
of the underlying technological or scientific
knowledgefor their own goals.
In focusing on groups with low-to-middle
social power, the authors question the
potential of these appropriations to make
contributions to a stronger democracy.
Basically, they ask whether alternative
usages of existing technologies can be
viewed as processes of critique, resistance
or empowerment. And the answer is certainly
not always unequivocally positive. We
know what happened with the punk movement.
In the blink of an eye, mainstream record
and fashion companies re-appropriated
the symbols and slogans of the movement,
stripped them of their sharpest edges
and most venomous content and turned them
into more commodities, thus reinforcing
the bastions of complacent consumerism.
In a similar but not always equally cynical
way, reappropriated technologies and vernacular
expert knowledge can be sucked up by powerful
groups or reintegrated into social structures,
turning critique into entertainment and
resistance into a parody of democracy.
Of course, this is not always the case.
At the micro level and at the onset, individuals
or small groups do benefit from their
newly acquired power and develop some
sense of independence if nothing else.
In the long run however, and at a larger
scale, old social structures
show a remarkable degree of flexibility
and tolerance and the new interpretations
of emerging technologies often strengthen
existing roles.
The first part of the book is on Body
Tech, with essays about bodybuilders
pharmaceutical knowledge, transgendering
technologies and the usages of condoms.
The second part is about information technology,
with among others an interesting look
into the kitchen of scratching deejays.
Next is a section on environmental activism
and environmental science and the book
concludes with essays on the phonograph
and the bicycle, on the mythical black
inventor Lewis Latimer and on the
technological reinvention of the self
by young gay men. The chapters are very
different in style and methodology but
the whole book breathes a sense of critical
enthusiasm and careful optimism. Most
essays are well written and have excellent
bibliographies, making the collection
a most welcome starting point for any
research into this relatively new field
of study.