Anais do XXI Seminário Internacional Nanotecnologias, Sociedade e Meio Ambiente desafios jurídicos éticos e sociais para a “grande transição sustentável” (XXI SEMINANOSOMA) 328 As in Mode 2, the PNS approach describes processes in which science interweaves with social dynamics to such an extent that even defining problems is (and should be) a common arena between science and society. Furthermore, when policy decisions are made, judge- ments are made not about the logical truth of scientific results, but about their quality (Funtowicz and Ravetz 2003). Similarly, as in Mode 2 the concept of the agora is introduced, in PNS the extended com- munity’s dialogue is a concern that is embodied in an extended participation model that also includes the idea of an extended assessment community. A major challenge facing PNS is how to replace the colle- gial mutual trust achieved through the institutionalisation of modern science. 2.3 Socio-technical networks for device assemblage: Actor-Network Theory (ANT) While the previous approaches emphasise the indissolubility of the science-society complex, Actor Network Theory (ANT) radical- ises this position even further by positing the impossibility of distin- guishing the terms of this complex; the distinction is only admissible in purely functional terms. Science and the social context are articu- lated in network dynamics and cannot be understood as independent entities; on the contrary, science is one of the translation mechanisms participating in the social assemblage. This implies a qualitative leap in the understanding of the relationship between the two traditionally separate spheres of science and society. As defined by Callon (1995) in his description of the extended translation science model, the aim is to prove that robust knowledge is produced at the same time as spaces for the circulation of statements are created. The definition of science’s global dynamics rejects the society-nature dichotomy and opposition between micro and macro analysis. Instead, translation networks define a continuum between these extremes, and where [i]f one still wants to talk of nature and society, it is better to say that translation networks weave a socionature, an in-between that is inhabited by actants whose competence and identities vary along with the translations transforming them (Callon 1995: 58). So, instead of applying traditional sociological categories to the understanding of the “scientific field,” the ANT approach requires a dynamic understanding of science, of the connections that make it possible to stabilise translation networks. In his negating definition, Latour argues that ANT is not the branch of social science that has suc-
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