Common features of controversies

Controversies involve all kinds of actors – human beings, human groups, natural and biological elements, industrial and artistic products, economic and other institutions, scientific and technical artifacts, etc. Every controversy functions as a “hybrid forum,” a space of conflict and negotiation among actors that would otherwise happily ignore each other. A controversy is a meeting place of the most disparate topics; they form new alliances, new hybrids with each other. [Range & Diversity]—What topics and entities are brought into play?

Controversies display the social in its most dynamic form – Social unities that seemed indissoluble suddenly break into a plurality of conflicting pieces, under the pressure of internal oppositions. In controversies, any actor can decompose a loose network and any network, no matter how heterogeneous, can coagulate to function as an actor. [Fusions & Fissions] (…of Alliances & Oppositions)—What alliances and opposing are forming and transforming between which actors?

Controversies are reduction-resistant – Disputes are, by definition, situations where old simplifications are rejected and new simplifications are still to be accepted or imposed. In controversies, actors tend to disagree on pretty much anything, including their disagreement itself. That’s why issues are so difficult to solve, because they are impossible to reduce to a single resuming question. The difficulty of controversy is not that actors disagree on answers, but that they cannot even agree on questions. Every question itself can result in a ramification of questions. E.g., “is world temperature increasing?” Leads to actors arguing what world means (some area of the world? The world average? Surface or the atmosphere? Urban, rural, or wild areas?) Etc. [De-simplification] [Problematizations of Simplifications] (…of answers, question terms, questions)—What are people saying “it’s not so simple” about?  Which questions, question terms, answers, and answer terms are people problematizing?

Controversies are debated – Controversies emerge when things and ideas that were taken for granted start to be questioned and discussed. It used to be the case that economic growth was generally seen as good; but after pollution and global warming debates, people of even begin to wonder about de-growth as a desirable path. Controversies are discussions (even if not always verbal ones) where more and more objects are discussed by more and more actors. Who, before global warming, ever thought that Inuit communities and polar bears may have opinions on industrial strategies? [De-Grantification] [Apparitions of the Unexpected]—What unexpected or taken-for-granted ideas and things are being questioned and discussed?

Controversies are conflicts – The construction of a shared universe is often accompanied by the clash of conflicting worlds. No matter how trivial their objects may be, actors always take quarrels very seriously, for they know that social order and social hierarchy are at stake. Controversies decide and are decided by the distribution of power. Controversies are struggles to conserve or reverse social inequalities. They might be negotiated through democratic procedures, but often they involve force and violence.)—Which worlds will be affected by this or that controversial outcome?  How will they be affected?  IOW, what is at stake?  Which worlds, ways of life, activities, etc. are at stake?  Which social orders-arrangements or inequalities will be conserved or reversed or rearranged?

SOURCE:  Divining in Magma, Tommaso Venturini