Purse Seine Net

This chapter takes as its starting point Michel Callon’s famous paper, ‘Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and fisherman of St Brieuc Bay’. After first introducing that paper and its core theoretical claims, the following sections attempt a re-reading of the famous ‘Tuna/Dolphin’ controversy, with a particular focus on the purse seine net, in light of Callon’s claims, and of the methods of science and technology studies (STS) generally. It draws attention in particular to the politics of purification which has, in significant part, characterized international regulatory strategies for dealing with this dispute, especially through the GATT/WTO system.