Prohibitions, Weapons and Controversy:: Managing the Problems of Ordering.  

Oleh:

Rappert, Brian

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Social Studies of Science vol. 35 no. 2 (Apr. 2005), page 211.
Topik: arms control; biological weapons; controversy; disposal strategies; theories of technology
Fulltext: 211.pdf (346.21KB)

Isi artikel

With the destructiveness of modern conflict, varied national and international calls have been made to constrain the employment of weaponry. Efforts to establish prohibition regimes attempt to cut through disorderly and diverse sociotechnical assemblages to locate the principal source of a problem in order to justify a certain course of action. Science and Technology Studies cautions against separating elements of socio-technical assemblages. Likewise, the fragility and contestability of particular determinations of the acceptability of weaponry are apparent in contemporary prohibition debates. Even while many acknowledge the problems of definitely locating some source of acceptability, many arms-control discussions invariably entail efforts to do just that. This paper considers the dynamics of the claims and counterclaims offered to support contentions about the acceptability of the employment of weaponry and thereby justify certain control regimes. As argued, when faced with fundamental difficulties and dilemmas associated with offering determinations of where unacceptability rests, actors engage in various strategies to deny, defer, deter and deflect having to resolve the complicated issues at stake. Alternative characterizations and definitions involve alternative ways of shifting the burden of proof for resolving intractable problems. The paper proposes the notion of ‘disposal strategies’ as a useful way of characterizing the processes of ordering, whereby actors attempt to manage persistent problems and dilemmas.

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