CRITICAL THOUGHT, INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXTS, NORMATIVE PROJECTS - A REPLY TO GERGEN

While we welcome Gergen's (1997) comments, we dispute a number of his criticisms. First, actor-network theory (ANT) does not reduce persons to autonoma. Rather, its prime aim is to account for the emergence of persons within a network. Similarly, ANT does not draw back from attri buting responsibility; rather, it examines how the responsibility of a ctors (whether they be 'bad' decision-makers or 'entrepreneurial' scie ntists) is established. Next, contrary to Gergen's view of institution al pressures as 'occupational hazards', we reassert the importance of seeing these as partially constitutive of academic (postmodern psychol ogical) activity. Finally, while we agree with Gergen that all academi c 'tellings' privilege some form of ontology, we argue that this does not warrant an exclusively cultural ontology.