Alter-ontologies: Towards a constituent politics in technoscience

Abstract

This paper identifies four recent conceptualizations of politics in relation to technoscience that focus on expertise, institutional participation, the inclusion of non-human others and the importance of marginalized experiences. The paper argues that each of these forms of politics is mainly concerned with renegotiating the already constituted terms of inclusion in a specific technoscientific field. In many cases such a strategy is necessary, but the paper aims to open up discussion of alternative forms of politics that act as constituent forces of radical social and material transformation in technoscience: alter-ontologies.