In the workshopVersion 0.1
ST-Graph
Follow how a proposal gains and loses its allies, version by version.
Any proposal, whether a policy, a reform, a technology or a rumour, has to keep recruiting support to stay real. ST-Graph lets you code a controversy as successive versions of a programme of action and its anti-programme, then derives the indicators and draws the diagrams.11Latour, B., Mauguin, P. & Teil, G. (1992). A note on socio-technical graphs. Social Studies of Science, 22(1), 33–57.
What it does
- Code versions, not themes
- Place actants on either side of each version of the controversy. What you code is a position in a dispute and how it changes from one version to the next.
- The original indicators
- The software computes the measures described in the method, checked against the figures published with it.
- Diagrams from your coding
- The front line between programme and anti-programme is drawn from your data. Exports to CSV, SVG, PDF and GraphML.
The method behind it
The method was published by Bruno Latour, Philippe Mauguin and Geneviève Teil in Social Studies of Science 22 (1992).
The software that article described was a HyperCard stack, and it disappeared long ago. As far as we can tell nothing took its place: controversy-mapping tools draw co-occurrence networks, and qualitative tools code themes. None of them model versions, the front between programme and anti-programme, or the indicators. ST-Graph fills that gap.
Who it is for
- Researchers in science and technology studies and actor-network theory
- Policy analysts following a reform through its revisions
- Teachers of controversy mapping and qualitative methods
Where it stands
A working prototype (version 0.1). Join the list to try early builds and tell us which cases you want to analyse.
Get notified about ST-Graph
We will write when there is something you can try. Your interest also tells us what to build first.