” ‘Black boxing’ is described by Hajer as “perhaps the most fundamental of discursive
mechanisms. Making things appear as fixed, natural, or essential is the most effective way
of steering away latently opposing forces” (Hajer 1995: 272)”
(Kern, 2010: 180)
Hajer was using Callon and Latour’s notions, btw.
blackboxing is “the way scientific and technical work is made invisible by its own success. When a machine runs efficiently, when a matter of fact is settled, one need focus only on its inputs and outputs and not on its internal complexity. Thus, paradoxically, the more science and technology succeed, the more opaque and obscure they become.”[1]
Bruno Latour (1999). Pandora’s hope: essays on the reality of science studies. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
marchudson.net 