Judith Brouwer
based on knowledge without having to be physically present at a location.55 Latour
conceptualises networks as a vital part of acting at a distance as their networks were
'built to mobilise, cumulate and recombine the world.'56 He illustrates the concept
of acting on a distance through the example of a French fleet that sends letters to
Versailles, which Latour names the 'centre of calculation, about a newly discovered
island in 1787.57 The centre of calculation is, upon receiving new information, able
to compare this information to other sources, which enables the agents in the cen
tre of calculation to eventually make calculations based on all the available informa
tion - thus creating knowledge.58 From this perspective, the ZGW is the centre of
calculation while its members are the agents collecting information. Latour's model
is difficult to apply to academies as it remains unclear if academies used their cre
ated knowledge to actually act on a distance. Peter Burke's model of the creation of
knowledge is therefore more applicable to learned societies.
Burke argues that four stages are necessary to complete the process of turning
information into useful knowledge: gathering, analysing, disseminating, and em
ploying.59 The correspondence network of an academy is vital for all of these four
stages. First, the correspondence network is a means to acquire new information
from places other than the centre. The more widespread and active the network
is, the more information will reach the academy. Second, the gathered informa
tion is analysed to produce knowledge; this is, in other words, 'the process of
turning information into knowledge by means of practices.'60 Correspondence is
an insightful source of information as it was less established than texts ready for
publication. According to Kronick, letters 'represented a work in progress, rather
than work completed.'61 The final stage of the research process was the publication
in a journal. Letters were discussed within the academy; these discussions could
lead to contributions to the ongoing research before a publication.62 This stage
included comparing the information of letters, discussing letters in meetings
and critiquing and translating the letters. These practices turn information into
105
55 Bruno Latour, Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society. Cam
bridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1987, 218-219.
56 Latour, Science in Action, 228.
57 Latour, Science in Action, 215-218.
58 Latour, Science in Action, 233-237.
59 Burke, History of Knowledge, 46.
60 Burke, History of Knowledge, 58.
61 Kronick, Commerce of Letters, 30.
62 Kronick, Commerce of Letters, 30; John Carey, Scientific Communication Before and After
Networked Science. In: Information Culture 47, no. 3 (2013), 344-367, 348.
