Machineries of Similarity and Difference

Name: Machineries of Similarity and Difference
Price: 150 AUD
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ISBN: 9780262553599

AIDS from Its Research Infrastructures

David Ribes

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English

MIT Press
26 May 2026

Science: general issues

An examination of three research infrastructures over three decades as they sought to support studies of HIV/AIDS across dramatic changes to the disease, the science, and its politics.

In Machineries of Similarity and Difference, David Ribes theorizes interoperability, or how to make different things work together. For the last 30 years, standardization has been the dominant social scientific motif for understanding coordination and collaboration across time and space. But across those years much has changed, in part through computational and other technical advances, in part through a new orientation to the value of similarity and difference. Interoperation is an ascendent social form.

To examine the production of equivalency, the author offers a book-length extended case study of three keystone research infrastructures that have been supporting investigations of AIDS for over 35 years-nearly since the beginning of the US epidemic, even before we knew of HIV. The book is thus an examination of historical epistemology and ontology with respect to research infrastructure, attending to the technical conflicts and social politics that play out within and across scientific arenas and social worlds.

By: David Ribes
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262553599
ISBN 10: 0262553597
Pages: 340
Publication Date: 26 May 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

David Ribes is Professor in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering and Director of the Data Ecologies Lab (deLAB) at the University of Washington.

Reviews for Machineries of Similarity and Difference: AIDS from Its Research Infrastructures

ENDORSEMENTS “In Ribes’ captivating book, the history of North American AIDS cohort studies, with all their statistical tedium, endless forms, and mundane paperwork emerges as an epic quest for interoperability.” —Lukas Engelmann, Professor, University of Edinburgh; author of Mapping AIDS: Visual Histories of an Enduring Epidemic “Ribes steadfastly resists data hype, debunking fantasies of a frictionless digital world and grounding us instead in the layers of material practices that make science possible. A great read!” —Nicole C. Nelson, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison; author of Model Behavior