This is a filmed lecture in my 2020 graduate course on the Politics of Science based on my paper ... more This is a filmed lecture in my 2020 graduate course on the Politics of Science based on my paper on the politics of modern STS
There is, as yet, no really comprehensive history of the role of the Cowles Commission in the dev... more There is, as yet, no really comprehensive history of the role of the Cowles Commission in the development of economics in the US. There are, of course, some partial contributions concentrating mostly on the early achievements of the Cowles Commission in econometrics, which turned out to be perhaps the least important aspect of its history. The authors focus instead on the role of the Cowles Commission in introducing the models of information into American economic orthodoxy. Major contributors to the development of the economics of information include Tjalling Koopmans, Jacob Marschak, Kenneth Arrow, Herbert Simon, Stanley Reiter and Leonid Hurwicz. As economics gradually switched from being past-oriented to future-oriented, 'information' became an elementary tool which allowed to explain how the inscrutable future causes economic changes in the present. The Cowles Commissions' research agenda comprised both interpreting 'information' as a thing, and treating it ...
This revisits a theme from my early career, concerning the relationship of images of Nature for m... more This revisits a theme from my early career, concerning the relationship of images of Nature for models of the Economy. I evaluate recent attempts to either deny or dismiss the proposition.
Neoclassical economists, having worked hard to convince the world that everything was hunky-dory ... more Neoclassical economists, having worked hard to convince the world that everything was hunky-dory circa 2005, and concurrently having invented the rationales and the theories behind the financial time bombs that went off across the landscape, don’t seem to have suffered one whit for the subsequent sequence of events, a slow-motion train wreck that one might reasonably have expected would have rubbished the credibility of lesser mortals. Individually and collectively, they have only become more dominant in academia and in government. They are even tapped to usurp the position of democratically elected leaders in periods of crisis.
Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospect of Artificial Intelligence, ... more Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospect of Artificial Intelligence, Pamela McCorduck, San Francisco, California, Freeman, 1979, 375 pp., ISBN 0-7167-11135-4.
Abstract We propose that certain classes of economic models best be understood as ‘fictions,’ in ... more Abstract We propose that certain classes of economic models best be understood as ‘fictions,’ in the sense promoted by Roman Frigg and others. The structure of the argument parallels that made by Arnon Levy for information in biology. The lesson is that economists are not really all that concerned over the sorts of things, such as the nature of knowledge, that philosophers deem central to epistemology. JEL Codes: B21, B41, D80
ABSTRACT Karl Polanyi and Friedrich Hayek are often portrayed as implacable intellectual opponent... more ABSTRACT Karl Polanyi and Friedrich Hayek are often portrayed as implacable intellectual opponents but their respective historical trajectories suggest some telling similarities. Here we describe some key similarities in their approach to markets, as a prelude to evaluating the political consequences of relying upon their Austrian conceptions of nature-based and constructivist framing of markets. Perhaps it is time to transcend their dichotomy.
Almost everyone is enthusiastic that 'open science' is the wave of the future. Yet when o... more Almost everyone is enthusiastic that 'open science' is the wave of the future. Yet when one looks seriously at the flaws in modern science that the movement proposes to remedy, the prospect for improvement in at least four areas are unimpressive. This suggests that the agenda is effectively to re-engineer science along the lines of platform capitalism, under the misleading banner of opening up science to the masses.
We live in a winter of disconnect. As the permafrost melts and global warming accelerates, bringi... more We live in a winter of disconnect. As the permafrost melts and global warming accelerates, bringing us to the cusp of catastrophic environmental changes, governments and corporations continue their campaign of denial. Many of us are caught up in the public theatre of climate policy, confounded that something so transparently illogical as outright science denial has been so effective. Why has the Left, which has always regarded itself as having science on its side, been so paralysed by climate policy? Geoengineering is a portmanteau term covering a range of intentional large-scale manipulations of the Earths climate.. Like most neoliberal prescriptions, the most important aspect of this tortured marriage of science and corporate commodification is that it doesnt work. Geoengineering presumes corporations can take unilateral actions violating international treaties and not have to own the consequences. It doesnt resolve the root problem increasing CO2 concentrations and it will not stop ocean acidification, itself so dire that some scientists have called for a suite of novel `ocean engineering techniques to prevent the collapse of coral reefs
The interview gives an extremely comprehensive overview of Mirowski’s work and, I think, provokes... more The interview gives an extremely comprehensive overview of Mirowski’s work and, I think, provokes answers that may not be found in any of his previously published books or journal articles. As the reader will soon appreciate his work is remarkably diverse and almost appears to lack structure. To think this, however, is to be mistaken. There is a very discernible structure in the trajectory of Mirowski’s work. Indeed, it seems to be an identical structure that is found in the trajectory of the work of the philosopher who most closely resembles Mirowski. I have in mind, of course, Michel Foucault.
The highly regarded contributors to the book argue that the standard narrative of microfoundation... more The highly regarded contributors to the book argue that the standard narrative of microfoundations is likely to be unreliable. They therefore re-examine the history of the relationship of microeconomics and macroeconomics, starting from their emergence as self-consciously distinct fields within economics in the early 1930s. They seek to go beyond the conventional history that is often told and written by practicing economists. From different perspectives they challenge the association of microfoundations with Robert Lucas and rational expectations and offer both a more complete and a deeper reading of the relationship between micro and macroeconomics.
This is a filmed lecture in my 2020 graduate course on the Politics of Science based on my paper ... more This is a filmed lecture in my 2020 graduate course on the Politics of Science based on my paper on the politics of modern STS
There is, as yet, no really comprehensive history of the role of the Cowles Commission in the dev... more There is, as yet, no really comprehensive history of the role of the Cowles Commission in the development of economics in the US. There are, of course, some partial contributions concentrating mostly on the early achievements of the Cowles Commission in econometrics, which turned out to be perhaps the least important aspect of its history. The authors focus instead on the role of the Cowles Commission in introducing the models of information into American economic orthodoxy. Major contributors to the development of the economics of information include Tjalling Koopmans, Jacob Marschak, Kenneth Arrow, Herbert Simon, Stanley Reiter and Leonid Hurwicz. As economics gradually switched from being past-oriented to future-oriented, 'information' became an elementary tool which allowed to explain how the inscrutable future causes economic changes in the present. The Cowles Commissions' research agenda comprised both interpreting 'information' as a thing, and treating it ...
This revisits a theme from my early career, concerning the relationship of images of Nature for m... more This revisits a theme from my early career, concerning the relationship of images of Nature for models of the Economy. I evaluate recent attempts to either deny or dismiss the proposition.
Neoclassical economists, having worked hard to convince the world that everything was hunky-dory ... more Neoclassical economists, having worked hard to convince the world that everything was hunky-dory circa 2005, and concurrently having invented the rationales and the theories behind the financial time bombs that went off across the landscape, don’t seem to have suffered one whit for the subsequent sequence of events, a slow-motion train wreck that one might reasonably have expected would have rubbished the credibility of lesser mortals. Individually and collectively, they have only become more dominant in academia and in government. They are even tapped to usurp the position of democratically elected leaders in periods of crisis.
Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospect of Artificial Intelligence, ... more Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospect of Artificial Intelligence, Pamela McCorduck, San Francisco, California, Freeman, 1979, 375 pp., ISBN 0-7167-11135-4.
Abstract We propose that certain classes of economic models best be understood as ‘fictions,’ in ... more Abstract We propose that certain classes of economic models best be understood as ‘fictions,’ in the sense promoted by Roman Frigg and others. The structure of the argument parallels that made by Arnon Levy for information in biology. The lesson is that economists are not really all that concerned over the sorts of things, such as the nature of knowledge, that philosophers deem central to epistemology. JEL Codes: B21, B41, D80
ABSTRACT Karl Polanyi and Friedrich Hayek are often portrayed as implacable intellectual opponent... more ABSTRACT Karl Polanyi and Friedrich Hayek are often portrayed as implacable intellectual opponents but their respective historical trajectories suggest some telling similarities. Here we describe some key similarities in their approach to markets, as a prelude to evaluating the political consequences of relying upon their Austrian conceptions of nature-based and constructivist framing of markets. Perhaps it is time to transcend their dichotomy.
Almost everyone is enthusiastic that 'open science' is the wave of the future. Yet when o... more Almost everyone is enthusiastic that 'open science' is the wave of the future. Yet when one looks seriously at the flaws in modern science that the movement proposes to remedy, the prospect for improvement in at least four areas are unimpressive. This suggests that the agenda is effectively to re-engineer science along the lines of platform capitalism, under the misleading banner of opening up science to the masses.
We live in a winter of disconnect. As the permafrost melts and global warming accelerates, bringi... more We live in a winter of disconnect. As the permafrost melts and global warming accelerates, bringing us to the cusp of catastrophic environmental changes, governments and corporations continue their campaign of denial. Many of us are caught up in the public theatre of climate policy, confounded that something so transparently illogical as outright science denial has been so effective. Why has the Left, which has always regarded itself as having science on its side, been so paralysed by climate policy? Geoengineering is a portmanteau term covering a range of intentional large-scale manipulations of the Earths climate.. Like most neoliberal prescriptions, the most important aspect of this tortured marriage of science and corporate commodification is that it doesnt work. Geoengineering presumes corporations can take unilateral actions violating international treaties and not have to own the consequences. It doesnt resolve the root problem increasing CO2 concentrations and it will not stop ocean acidification, itself so dire that some scientists have called for a suite of novel `ocean engineering techniques to prevent the collapse of coral reefs
The interview gives an extremely comprehensive overview of Mirowski’s work and, I think, provokes... more The interview gives an extremely comprehensive overview of Mirowski’s work and, I think, provokes answers that may not be found in any of his previously published books or journal articles. As the reader will soon appreciate his work is remarkably diverse and almost appears to lack structure. To think this, however, is to be mistaken. There is a very discernible structure in the trajectory of Mirowski’s work. Indeed, it seems to be an identical structure that is found in the trajectory of the work of the philosopher who most closely resembles Mirowski. I have in mind, of course, Michel Foucault.
The highly regarded contributors to the book argue that the standard narrative of microfoundation... more The highly regarded contributors to the book argue that the standard narrative of microfoundations is likely to be unreliable. They therefore re-examine the history of the relationship of microeconomics and macroeconomics, starting from their emergence as self-consciously distinct fields within economics in the early 1930s. They seek to go beyond the conventional history that is often told and written by practicing economists. From different perspectives they challenge the association of microfoundations with Robert Lucas and rational expectations and offer both a more complete and a deeper reading of the relationship between micro and macroeconomics.
Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, 2000
Our objective in this paper is to try and clarify what we perceive to be two major approaches to ... more Our objective in this paper is to try and clarify what we perceive to be two major approaches to the problem of heterogeneous interactive economic agents, and argue in favor of the option which we feel has suffered relative neglect. The first option, perhaps best represented by the work of Alan Kirman, but found throughout the avant garde of the
Neoliberalism is dead. Again. Yet the philosophy of the free market and the strong state has an u... more Neoliberalism is dead. Again. Yet the philosophy of the free market and the strong state has an uncanny capacity to survive, and even thrive, in times of crisis. Understanding neoliberalism’s longevity and its latest permutation requires a more detailed understanding of its origins and development.
This volume breaks with the caricature of neoliberalism as a simple, unvariegated belief in market fundamentalism and homo economicus. It shows how neoliberal thinkers perceived institutions from the family to the university, disagreed over issues from intellectual property rights and human behavior to social complexity and monetary order, and sought to win consent for their project through the creation of new honors, disciples, and networks. Far from a monolith, neoliberal thought is fractured and, occasionally, even at war with itself. We can begin to make sense of neoliberalism’s nine lives only by understanding its own tangled and complex history.
In March 2016, a group of thirty scholars from around the world convened at the WZB Berlin Social... more In March 2016, a group of thirty scholars from around the world convened at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center to discuss “more roads” to and from Mont Pèlerin. The conference was the third international conference on the topic of neoliberalism focusing on organized neoliberal networks. The previous conference at NYU led to the publication of The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective, which has sparked an ongoing international debate and a wide range of research on the intellectual and social history of neoliberalism.
More Heat Than Light is a history of how physics has drawn some inspiration from economics and al... more More Heat Than Light is a history of how physics has drawn some inspiration from economics and also how economics has sought to emulate physics, especially with regard to the theory of value. It traces the development of the energy concept in Western physics and its subsequent effect upon the invention and promulgation of neoclassical economics. Any discussion of the
... enamored of joining the Economists' Club, in that a number of economists have been will-... more ... enamored of joining the Economists' Club, in that a number of economists have been will-ing to listen to some of my wilder ideas and taken them seriously enough to criticize them. The parade of open-minded economists began with my thesis advisor, Gavin Wright, although I ...
This was the first cross-over book into the history of science written by an historian of economi... more This was the first cross-over book into the history of science written by an historian of economics. It shows how 'history of technology' can be integrated with the history of economic ideas. The analysis combines Cold War history with the history of postwar economics in America and later elsewhere, revealing that the Pax Americana had much to do with abstruse and formal doctrines such as linear programming and game theory. It links the literature on 'cyborg' to economics, an element missing in literature to date. The treatment further calls into question the idea that economics has been immune to postmodern currents, arguing that neoclassical economics has participated in the deconstruction of the integral 'self'. Finally, it argues for an alliance of computational and institutional themes, and challenges the widespread impression that there is nothing else besides American neoclassical economic theory left standing after the demise of Marxism.
In this interview, Philip Mirowski, a foremost economic historian and philosopher of economic tho... more In this interview, Philip Mirowski, a foremost economic historian and philosopher of economic thought, discusses his research into the history of economics along with its complex relationship to the natural sciences and the recent rise of neoliberalism. The conversation starts by focusing on his early work on the birth of neoclassical economics as an imitation of modern physics via energetic metaphors. We also discuss the subsequent impact of the computer metaphor and its influence on post-Second World War economic theory. Some of the most important aspects of the informa-tional turn in economics are discussed, such as the understanding of the market processes as a form of computation and the shift from a concern with the nature of the individual agent to the institutional framework of markets. This inevitably leads us to Mirowski's recent work, where he takes the informational turn in economics to its ultimate conclusions, arguing for an algorithmic understanding of markets. He calls this a theory of markomata, or a computational evolutionary economics. Finally, the discussion addresses the interdependencies between the general understanding of markets as superior information processors, the rise of neoliberalism and the recent financial crisis.
Dialogue 1995. Considers issues of the reconciliation of diverse measurements in different discip... more Dialogue 1995. Considers issues of the reconciliation of diverse measurements in different disciplines.
The Argument While there has been much attention given to experiment in modern science studies, t... more The Argument While there has been much attention given to experiment in modern science studies, there has been astoundingly little concern spared over the practice of quantitative measurement. Thus myths about the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in science still abound. This paper presents: (a) An explicit mathematical model of the stabilization of quantitative constants in a mathematical science to rival older Bayesian and classical accounts; (b) a framework for writing a history of practices with regard to treatment of quantitative measurement error; (c) resources for the comparative sociology of differing disciplines in this regard; and (d) a prolegomena to a critique of orthodox economics and accounting theories. The key to all these diverse themes is the realization that no one individual alone is capable of fixing the magnitude of a quantitative error estimate, and therefore the social construction of error must be given a more precise meaning, and that this occurs through the instrumentality of meta-analysis.
The Argument Many find it "notoriously difficult to see how societal context can affect in any es... more The Argument Many find it "notoriously difficult to see how societal context can affect in any essential way how someone solves a mathematical problem or makes a measurement." That may be because it has been a habit of western scientists to assert their numerical schemes were untainted by any hint of anthropomorphism. Nevertheless, that Platonist penchant has always encountered obstacles in practice, primarily because the stability of any applied numerical scheme requires some alien or external warrant. This paper surveys the history of measurement standards, physical dimensions and dimensionless constants as one instance of the quest to purge all anthropomorphic taint first in the metric system, then in the dimensions provided by the atom, then in physical constants intelligible to extraterrestrials, only then to end up back at overt anthropomorphism in the late 20th century. This suggests that the "naturalness" of natural numbers has always been conceptualized in locally contingent cultural terms. When I was bound apprentice, and learned to use my hands, Folk never talked of measures that came from foreign lands: Now I'm a British Workman, too old to go to school; So whether the chisel or file I hold, 111 stick to my three-foot rule. Some talk of millimetres, and some of kilogrammes, And some of decilitres, to measure beer and drams; But I'm a British Workman, too old to go to school, So by pounds 111 eat, and by quarts 111 drink, and 111 work by my three-foot rule. 1 This paper was inspired by some remarks by Martin Klein during his lectures at Yale on the history of early twentieth-century physics; but he cannot be held responsible for my interpretations. I also thank Ted Porter for his help with the philosophical issues.
IF OSCAR WILDE didn't say that an economist is a person who knows the price of everything and the... more IF OSCAR WILDE didn't say that an economist is a person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, he should have. We live in an era when most orthodox economists make a mockery of most of what is signified by that protean term "value" in our culture, and paradoxically are rewarded handsomely for it. Let me give a trivial but telling example. On the front page of the l>iew York Times of Sunday, March 4, 1990, there was an article describing how a professor of economics of impeccable credentials and lofty station had "put some noses out of Joint" by claiming to have developed a mathematical equation which would predict the quality of French red-wine vintages before they could be tasted and classified by the glitterati of the degustateiirs. The professor, who published his own wine newsletter, claimed to have reduced the quality of red Bordeaux to a single-valued index number, and then to have fit an ordinary least-squares equation to its putative primary determinants, which consist of winter rain, harvest rain, and average temperature during
... phy:" I was horrified to see the genteel poverty in which many faculty people li... more ... phy:" I was horrified to see the genteel poverty in which many faculty people lived. ... could not help but be intrigued (Morgenstern 1976, 807-8). At first Oskar Morgenstern proposed to ... Stone 1948) to cautious but enthusias-tic (Hurwicz 1945) to cautiously skeptical (Kaysen 1947). ...
... 12. See, for example, J. Rae, L$e ofAdam Smirh (New York, 1965), pp. 90-92; and W. Scott, Ad... more ... 12. See, for example, J. Rae, L$e ofAdam Smirh (New York, 1965), pp. 90-92; and W. Scott, Adam Smith and the Glasgow Merchants, Economic Journal, 1934, pp. 5068. ... Rimmer: Marshall of Leeds (Cambridge, 1960). Beckinsale: Trowbridge Woolen Industry, Wiltshire Arch. ...
Chapter 7 Markets Made Flesh PERFORMATIVITY, AND A PROBLEM IN SCIENCE STUDIES, AUGMENTED WITH CON... more Chapter 7 Markets Made Flesh PERFORMATIVITY, AND A PROBLEM IN SCIENCE STUDIES, AUGMENTED WITH CONSIDERATION OF THE FCC AUCTIONS PHILIP MIROWSKI AND EDWARD NIK-KHAH There are two positions we have to abandon. The first is the ...
"They have indeavor'd, to separate the knowledge of Nature, fro... more "They have indeavor'd, to separate the knowledge of Nature, from the colours of Rhetorick. . . . " Thomas Sprat, History of the Royal Society ... "The greatest thing by far is'to have a command of metaphor." ... Is rhetoric just a new and trendy way to epater les bourgeois? Unfortu- ...
... The physicists, such as Albert Einstein, Walther Nernst, Max Planck and Ernest Rutherford, wh... more ... The physicists, such as Albert Einstein, Walther Nernst, Max Planck and Ernest Rutherford, who attended the Solvay conferences appar-ently overlooked the ... social theorists at the turn of the century, to the extent that Max Weber felt impelled to write an essay explicitly attacking ...
... The evidence is also interpreted in terms of the 18th century debate between Adam Smith and H... more ... The evidence is also interpreted in terms of the 18th century debate between Adam Smith and Henry ... Bank East 3 Bank East 3 Date dividend India Consols Date dividend India Consols yield ... Pressnell, L. (1960), "The Rate of Interest in the Eighteenth Century" In L. Pressnell (Ed ...
... Move over, Philip; and out tumble all those economists, happy as clams to deploy their rigoro... more ... Move over, Philip; and out tumble all those economists, happy as clams to deploy their rigorous 'tools' on yet another social phenomenon. You want something, Doctor Pangloss? We've got it, in 29 flavours and all at bargain basement rates. 11 Black boxes and Pandora's Box ...
Discusses Biagioli's Gaming the Metrics. Argues STS has failed to comprehend the forces behind th... more Discusses Biagioli's Gaming the Metrics. Argues STS has failed to comprehend the forces behind the proliferation of citation metrics in modern scientific organization.
Review of Leonelli, Data-Centric Biology
This is one of the most important books published in sci... more Review of Leonelli, Data-Centric Biology This is one of the most important books published in science studies over the last few years, and generalist readers should not be put off by its seemingly narrow topic, namely the actualization and validation of the vast mass of biological data encoded in digital formats, so that it may be 'shared' amongst relevant scientists. One should take the subtitle seriously: the world is bloated with attempts by philosophers to clarify the fine points of empiricism in science, but almost none of that achieves anything near the level of insight and enlightenment achieved in this short book. Perhaps more surprisingly, few authors prove capable of grasping the profound transformations happening in the political economy of science with greater sensitivity than Leonelli. Her pungent observations deserve the attention of anyone interested in the meaning and significance of the 'Open Science' movement, something she has stressed in another recent publication (Leonelli et al. 2015). Leonelli starts out by seeking to link her questions to previous writings by Bruno Latour and Mary Morgan (Howlett and Morgan, 2011) on 'how facts travel,' but this may be a little misleading, since much of that work was inspired by old-fashioned images of 'knowledge diffusion' prevalent in economics and operations research in the latter half of the twentieth century. The problem here is that the metaphor of motion often implied that the thing moving was not profoundly altered by its motion and that is the diametrical opposite of Leonelli's lesson in this volume. A better metaphor might have been Leonelli describing the amount of work that goes into building the roads (and at another meta-level, the maps describing those roads) which allow the data to 'travel' between scientists in a discipline and then subsequently between distinct disciplines. And what a lot of work that involves! While there has been some important literature in infrastructure studies, I think it is
This article discusses the push to automate and commercialize scientific research, focusing in pa... more This article discusses the push to automate and commercialize scientific research, focusing in particular on the recent impact of AI large language models. It will appear in the journal Social Research; it also constitutes an outline of the topics covered in a forthcoming book from MIT Press.
This paper was delivered as the Aston Lectures at Oxford in May 2019. It describes the history of... more This paper was delivered as the Aston Lectures at Oxford in May 2019. It describes the history of open science initiatives in the pharma sector, in order to further gauge the track record of open science initiatives.
Almost everyone is enthusiastic that 'open science' is the wave of the future. Yet when one looks... more Almost everyone is enthusiastic that 'open science' is the wave of the future. Yet when one looks seriously at the flaws in modern science that the movement proposes to remedy, the prospect for improvement in at least four areas are unimpressive. This suggests that the agenda is effectively to re-engineer science along the lines of platform capitalism, under the misleading banner of opening up science to the masses.
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This volume breaks with the caricature of neoliberalism as a simple, unvariegated belief in market fundamentalism and homo economicus. It shows how neoliberal thinkers perceived institutions from the family to the university, disagreed over issues from intellectual property rights and human behavior to social complexity and monetary order, and sought to win consent for their project through the creation of new honors, disciples, and networks. Far from a monolith, neoliberal thought is fractured and, occasionally, even at war with itself. We can begin to make sense of neoliberalism’s nine lives only by understanding its own tangled and complex history.
Open Access link: https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/215796
ongoing international debate and a wide range of research on the intellectual and social history of neoliberalism.
This is one of the most important books published in science studies over the last few years, and generalist readers should not be put off by its seemingly narrow topic, namely the actualization and validation of the vast mass of biological data encoded in digital formats, so that it may be 'shared' amongst relevant scientists. One should take the subtitle seriously: the world is bloated with attempts by philosophers to clarify the fine points of empiricism in science, but almost none of that achieves anything near the level of insight and enlightenment achieved in this short book. Perhaps more surprisingly, few authors prove capable of grasping the profound transformations happening in the political economy of science with greater sensitivity than Leonelli. Her pungent observations deserve the attention of anyone interested in the meaning and significance of the 'Open Science' movement, something she has stressed in another recent publication (Leonelli et al. 2015). Leonelli starts out by seeking to link her questions to previous writings by Bruno Latour and Mary Morgan (Howlett and Morgan, 2011) on 'how facts travel,' but this may be a little misleading, since much of that work was inspired by old-fashioned images of 'knowledge diffusion' prevalent in economics and operations research in the latter half of the twentieth century. The problem here is that the metaphor of motion often implied that the thing moving was not profoundly altered by its motion and that is the diametrical opposite of Leonelli's lesson in this volume. A better metaphor might have been Leonelli describing the amount of work that goes into building the roads (and at another meta-level, the maps describing those roads) which allow the data to 'travel' between scientists in a discipline and then subsequently between distinct disciplines. And what a lot of work that involves! While there has been some important literature in infrastructure studies, I think it is