Law, Science, and Technologies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertram Turner ◽  
Melanie G. Wiber
Keyword(s):  
Coming Out ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Legal Anthropology ◽  
Normative Power ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Governance Institutions

Over the past twenty years, scholars in both anthropology and law (L) have found the approaches and concepts in Science and Technology Studies (STS) useful to understand techno-scientific transformations of the world. Legal scholars recognized that new scientific discoveries and technology interfered in the processes of routinization of social practices, creating new norms and influencing law. In the legal approach to STS, however, the focus has been on the law of the state and/or law deriving from the production of global governance institutions. Meanwhile, the encounter between anthropology and law has always had to take into consideration normatively effective mechanisms of social ordering that were not conventionally identified as law. Thus, the adoption of an STS perspective in legal anthropology was more open to exploring the normative power invested in other domains, such as the built environment, technologies, and inventories of knowledge and convictions such as religion. While L and STS are viewed as mutually constitutive of modernity, anthropological studies of legal pluralism (LP) have focused in recent years on multiple normative orders generated by world-making initiatives, including the normative power of technology under the influence of neoliberalism. In this contribution, then, we bring together law, science and technology studies, and legal pluralism to explore how normative orders are affected by materiality, technology, and scientific knowledge. In discussing the intersection of these three knowledge regimes, we find particularly useful concepts coming out of Actor Network Theory such as co-production, translation, boundary objects, and infrastructure.

scholarly journals Discursive Contextures of Science: Euro/West-Centrism and Science and Technology Studies

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Prasad
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Embryonic Stem ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Knowledge And Practice

Science and Technology Studies (STS) by the very act of showing the multiplicity, contingency, and context-dependence of scientific knowledge and practice, provincialized modern science. Postcolonial interventions within STS have pursued this goal even further. Nevertheless, Euro/West-centrism continues to inflect not only scientific practices and lay imaginaries, but also sociological and historical analyses of sciences. In this article, drawing on my own training within STS – first under J.P.S. Uberoi, who was concerned with structuralist analysis of modernity and science, and thereafter under Andy Pickering, when we focused on material agency and temporal emergence and extensively engaged with Actor Network Theory - I emphasize the continuing role of Euro/West-centric discourses in defining the “self” and the “other” and in impacting epistemological and ontological interventions. More broadly, building on a concept of Michael Lynch’s, I call for excavation and analysis of discursive contextures of sciences. In the second section of the article, through a brief analysis of embryonic stem cell therapy in a clinic in Delhi, I show how with shifting transnational landscape of technoscience certain discursive contextures are being “deterritorialized” and left “stuttering.”

scholarly journals On Theory–Methods Packages in Science and Technology Studies

2021 ◽  
pp. 016224392110402
Author(s):  
Antti Silvast ◽  
Mikko J. Virtanen
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Theory Method ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Selection Of

Our review essay contributes to the long-standing and vibrant discussion in science and technology studies (STS) on methods, methodologies, and theory–method relationships. We aim to improve the reflexivity of research by unpacking the often implicit assumptions that imbue research conduct and by offering practical tools through which STS researchers can recognize their research designs and think through them in a new way. To achieve these aims, we analyze different compositions of theories, methods, and empirics in three different STS approaches—actor–network theory, the biography of artifacts and practices, and ethnomethodology—by employing the concept of a theory–methods package (TMP). A selection of theoretical cornerstone texts and case studies in infrastructure research from each tradition serves as our material. Our findings point, first, to differences between the TMPs of the reviewed approaches and to the internal diversity of theory–method relationships in each approach. Second, we found some intriguing similarities between the approaches and discuss potential complementarities of their theory–method fits.

scholarly journals Legal Pluralism and Science and Technology Studies: Exploring Sources of the Legal Pluriverse

2022 ◽  
pp. 016224392110696
Author(s):  
Bertram Turner ◽  
Melanie G. Wiber
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Legal Pluralism ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
Technological Transformation ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Global Modernity ◽  
Normative Order

In introducing the contributions to this special section, we explore the links between social and juridical concepts of normativity and science and technology. We follow the Legal Pluralism challenge to the notion of state law as the sole source of normative order and point to how technological transformation creates a pluralistic legal universe that takes on new shapes under conditions of globalization. We promote a science and technology studies (STS)-inspired reworking of Legal Pluralism and suggest expanding the portfolio of legally effective regimes of ordering to include the normativity generated by materiality and technology. This normativity is amply demonstrated in the case studies included in the papers which make up this special section. We conclude that the inclusion of approaches developed in STS research helps analytically to overcome what we view as an incomplete law project, one unable to deal with the technicized lifeworlds of a global modernity. The contributions to this special section illustrate that technomaterial change cannot be understood without recognition of the role of normative impacts, and conversely, the legal pluriverse cannot be understood without recognition of the normative role of techno-material arrangements.

scholarly journals Remaking Participation in Science and Democracy

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Chilvers ◽  
Matthew Kearnes
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Socially Responsive ◽  
New Framework ◽  
Made In

Over the past few decades, significant advances have been made in public engagement with, and the democratization of, science and technology. Despite notable successes, such developments have often struggled to enhance public trust, avert crises of expertise and democracy, and build more socially responsive and responsible science and innovation. A central reason for this is that mainstream approaches to public engagement harbor what we call “residual realist” assumptions about participation and publics. Recent coproductionist accounts in science and technology studies (STS) offer an alternative way of seeing participation as coproduced, relational, diverse, and emergent but have been somewhat reluctant to articulate what this means in practice. In this paper, we make this move by setting out a new framework of interrelating paths and associated criteria for remaking public participation with science and democracy in more experimental, reflexive, anticipatory, and responsible ways. This framework comprises four paths to: forge reflexive participatory practices that attend to their framings, emergence, uncertainties, and effects; ecologize participation through attending to the interrelations between diverse public engagements in wider systems; catalyze practices of anticipatory reflection to bring about responsible democratic innovations; and reconstitute participation as constitutive of (not separate from) systems of technoscience and democracy.

scholarly journals Science and International Relations: Brazil and the Geopolitics of Knowledge

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-315
Author(s):  
Damian Popolo
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Critical Geopolitics ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Strategic Resources ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
New Perspective

The article seeks to present a new approach to analyse Science and International Relations.  Three areas of social theory ought to be examined before a useful synthesis can be made.  The article proceeds to study how the disciplines of International Relations, Science and Technology Studies and Critical Geopolitics could be deployed to provide a unique approach to the understanding of the Science and International Relations nexus.  Each discipline has unique advantages but also serious limitations when it comes to the provision of a holistic understanding of the issue.  For instance, International Relations tends to relate questions on science to the notion of sovereignty, thus limiting research to the effect that science has on the ability of States to act.  Science and Technology Studies tend to neglect the role of International Relations in the development of scientific endeavours, whilst Critical Geopolitics has not yet embraced the symbolic power that knowledge generation and deployment techniques have on the successful exploitation of strategic resources.  Following this analysis a synthesis entitled "The Geopolitics of Knowledge" will be introduced.  This study makes substantial use of Actor-Network Theory as a methodology to analyse the Science and International Relations link from a new perspective. Finally, the article will introduce Brazil as a case study for this multidisciplinary approach.Keywords: Science; Brazil; International Relations; Geopolitics of Knowledge.

scholarly journals THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGICAL CONCEPTS OF DESIGN CULTURE

2017 ◽  
pp. 9-12
Author(s):  
Y. O. Bytsykina
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Design History ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Complex Concept ◽  
Design Culture ◽  
History Of

The article is devoted to introducing new theoretical frameworks and methodological concepts from the field known as science and technology studies (STS) and discussing their potential for design history. The concepts of design and culture are analyzed and compared within the article, providing the possibility of developing the complex concept of “design culture”. The study shows that design can be considered as a social and cultural phenomenon, that design historians may find that the sociology and the history of technology can provide an appropriate theoretical framework and methodological repertoire for studying design, not only as the part of art history. The article introduces main concepts from science and technology studies that might be of particular value to design history and culture, focusing on actor-network theory, script analysis and domestication.

scholarly journals ¿Distanciamiento social o distanciamiento de lo social? Un enfoque no antropocéntrico en antropología

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Terry
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Technology Studies

Los Estudios de Ciencia y Tecnología (Science and Technology Studies [STS]) y la Teoría del Actor-Red (Actor-Network Theory [ANT]), junto con la antropología “más allá de lo humano”, promueven un enfoque no antropocéntrico en las ciencias sociales, donde las entidades no humanas hacen parte del mundo social. Desde dicha perspectiva no antropocéntrica, este artículo tiene como objetivo cuestionar el uso de “distanciamiento social” como un término preciso, donde el calificativo “social” se asocia únicamente a seres humanos. Si el distanciamiento es un concepto clave para prevenir el contagio de COVID-19 entre seres humanos, sería más correcto hablar de distanciamiento físico o corporal. Al hablar de distanciamiento social, en realidad estamos distanciando lo social, reduciendo su complejidad, ya que está compuesto por entidades que no son necesariamente humanas o incluso visibles a nuestros ojos, como el nuevo coronavirus. Este artículo invita a buscar términos alternativos al concepto de “distanciamiento social” que nos permitan expresar mejor la complejidad de lo social de una manera menos antropocéntrica.

scholarly journals Writing Nature

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Asdal ◽  
Gro Birgit Ween
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Clear Cut

<div>This special issue of the Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies is interested in how nature, in different versions and forms, is invited into our studies, analyses, and stories. How is it that we “write nature”? How is it that we provide space for, and actually describe the actors, agents, or surroundings, in our stories and analyses? The articles in the issue each deal with different understandings of both the practices of writing and the introduction of various natures into these. In this introduction to the issue the editors engage with actor-network theory as a material semiotic resource  for writing nature. We propose to foreground actor-network theory as a writing tool, at the expense of actor-network theory as a distinct vocabulary. In doing this and pointing out the semiotic origins to material-semiotics we also want to  problematize a clear-cut material approach to writing nature.</div>

scholarly journals Trois regards sur la notion de « culture chinoise »

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-116
Author(s):  
Basile Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Interactional Expertise ◽  
General Argument ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Chinese Studies

Abstract Chinese studies are going through a period of reforms. This article appraises what could constitute the theoretical and methodological foundations of contemporary sinology today. The author suggests an approach of “Chinese culture” by drawing from recent frameworks of Science and Technology Studies (STS). The paper starts with current debates in Asian studies, followed by a historical overview of the concept of culture in anthropology. Then, two short case studies are presented with regard to two different STS approaches: studies of expertise and experience and the notion of interactional expertise, and the framework of waves and forms. A general argument is thereby sketched which suggests how “Chinese culture” can be understood from the perspective of materiality.

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