Obscuring Gendered Difference: The Treatment of Violence in Australian Government Alcohol Policy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duane Duncan ◽  
David Moore ◽  
Helen Keane ◽  
Mats Ekendahl
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
Alcohol Policies ◽  
Specific Policy ◽  
Political Effects

Abstract Despite public debate about alcohol and public violence among young people in Australia, the issue of masculinities or gender is rarely visible in alcohol policy. Instead, policy recommendations aimed at reducing violence focus on changing the availability and consumption of alcohol. Drawing on concepts from feminist and science and technology studies scholarship, this article analyses how “alcohol-related violence” is constituted as a specific policy object, and how it coheres to obscure men’s contributions to and experiences of violence. Attention to the political effects of these policy practices is necessary for the development of more equitable alcohol policies.

scholarly journals Technology, Public Participation, and the American Bureaucracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher George Torres
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Environmental Literacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Entrepreneurs ◽  
Decision Making Processes

This dissertation analyzes three participatory technology assessment (pTA) projects conducted within United States federal agencies between 2014 and 2018. The field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) argues that a lack of public participation in addressing issues of science and technology in society has produced undemocratic processes of decision-making with outcomes insensitive to the daily lives of the public. There has been little work in STS, however, examining what the political pressures and administrative challenges are to improving public participation in U.S. agency decision-making processes. Following a three-essay format, this dissertation aims to fill this gap. Drawing on qualitative interviews with key personnel, and bringing STS, policy studies, and public administration scholarship into conversation, this dissertation argues for the significance of “policy entrepreneurs” who from within U.S. agencies advocate for pTA and navigate the political controls on innovative forms of participation. The first essay explores how the political culture and administrative structures of the American federal bureaucracy shape the bureaucratic contexts of public participation in science and technology decision-making. The second essay is an in-depth case study of the role political controls and policy entrepreneurs played in adopting, designing, and implementing pTA in NASA’s Asteroid Initiative. The third essay is a comparative analysis of how eight political and administrative conditions informed pTA design and implementation for NASA’s Asteroid Initiative, DOE’s consent-based nuclear waste siting program, and NOAA’s Environmental Literacy Program. The results of this dissertation highlight how important the political and administrative contexts of federal government programs are to understanding how pTA is designed and implemented in agency science and technology decision-making processes, and the key role agency policy entrepreneurs play in facilitating pTA through these political and administrative contexts. This research can aid STS scholars and practitioners better anticipate and mitigate the barriers to embedding innovative forms of public participation in U.S. federal government science and technology program design and decision-making processes.

Challenges to the Story of Innovation

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
Michiel van Oudheusden
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Responsible Research And Innovation ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Public ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Responsible Research ◽  
Technological Decision Making

This chapter sets out the meanings attached to the concept of ‘innovation’ and asks how it has recently come to occupy the political and economic position it now holds. Drawing from science and technology studies, which has long sought to better incorporate the public in technological decision-making, it explores the impetus towards connecting ‘responsibility’ with ‘innovation’ and the context from which this derives. Finally, it examines how this impetus has become incorporated into various frameworks for Responsible (Research and) Innovation, and what is missing from this approach in terms of understanding the place of ‘innovation’ in the present political economy, and the place of politics in innovation.

The Revenge of the Humanities: Reality, Rhetoric, and the Politics of Postmodernism

1995 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Ward
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Organizational Strategies ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
The Status

The debate between scientific realists and postmodern relativists has been generally treated as a philosophical disagreement over the status of epistemology. Here, however, I use material from Bourdieuian social theory and science and technology studies to illustrate how both scientific realism and postmodern deconstructionism can be seen as political and organizational strategies used in the historical and ongoing struggle between scientific and literary fields and camps. I argue that just as scientific realism and experimentalism were used to dismiss the knowledge contributions of literary fields and to relegate them to secondary status in the seventeenth century, postmodern deconstructionism and its turn to rhetoric and textualism is now being employed as a strategy to counter the political and intellectual dominance gained by the sciences over the last few centuries.

scholarly journals Understanding migrants in COVID-19 counting: Rethinking the data-(in)visibility nexus

Data & Policy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalisa Pelizza ◽  
Stefania Milan ◽  
Yoren Lausberg
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Undocumented Migrants ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Critical Data ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic confronts society with a dilemma between (in)visibility, security, and care. While invisibility might be sought by unregistered and undocumented people, being counted and thus visible during a pandemic is a precondition of existence and care. This article asks whether and how unregistered populations like undocumented migrants should be included in statistics and other “counting” exercises devised to track virus diffusion and its impact. In particular, the paper explores how such inclusion can be just, given that for unregistered people visibility is often associated with surveillance. It also reflects on how policymaking can act upon the relationship between data, visibility, and populations in pragmatic terms. Conversing with science and technology studies and critical data studies, the paper frames the dilemma between (in)visibility and care as an issue of sociotechnical nature and identifies four criteria linked to the sociotechnical characteristics of the data infrastructure enabling visibility. It surveys “counting” initiatives targeting unregistered and undocumented populations undertaken by European countries in the aftermath of the pandemic, and illustrates the medical, economic, and social consequences of invisibility. On the basis of our analysis, we outline four scenarios that articulate the visibility/invisibility binary in novel, nuanced terms, and identify in the “de facto inclusion” scenario the best option for both migrants and the surrounding communities. Finally, we offer policy recommendations to avoid surveillance and overreach and promote instead a more just “de facto” civil inclusion of undocumented populations.

scholarly journals The Responsibilities and Obligations of STS in a Moment of Post-Truth Demagoguery

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve G. Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Free Press ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Technological Tools ◽  
Fact Checking ◽  
Scientific Expertise

Scientific expertise and the free press have come under sustained partisan attack with the political ascendance of right-wing nationalism. This has put some science and technology studies (STS) scholars in the difficult position of defending the legitimacy of science while maintaining a characteristic agnosticism toward “the facts.” In this essay, inspired by a reading of Noortje Marres’s (2018) critique of fact-checking services, I seek to relieve some of the background anxiety I sense that perhaps STS research paved a path for the rise of right wing authoritarianism and “post-truth” politics. We are not dealing with a process of fact making in this environment, at least not of the scientific variety. Instead, we are dealing with political demagoguery. As scholars, we should therefore equip ourselves with the appropriate analytic and technological tools, and as many as possible, for engaging this political moment.

scholarly journals Local Alcohol Policies in New Zealand: An overview of their implementation and effects on crime

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 73-79
Author(s):  
Lauren Tyler-Harwood ◽  
Andrea Kutinova Menclova
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
Detailed Data ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Alcohol Policies ◽  
Specific Policy ◽  
Licensed Premises ◽  
Crime Types

We document the implementation of local alcohol policies in New Zealand and then study their impacts on crime. A key contribution of our study is that we construct a detailed data set on local alcohol policies applicable across territorial authorities between July 2014 and January 2019. To our knowledge, we are the first ones to provide such a comprehensive overview. In a subsequent analysis, we find that local alcohol policies as recently implemented in New Zealand do not appear to have reduced crime. This result holds for specific policy dimensions and their stringency (e.g., closing times and geographic restrictions on issuing new licences), and is reasonably robust across crime types, days/times of occurrence, and socioeconomic subgroups. Our failure to identify significant reductions in crime following the imposition of local alcohol policies may partly reflect the policies being non-binding in some cases: for example, licensed premises had sometimes already operated within the restricted trading hours specified by a local alcohol policy.

scholarly journals Praksismagi? - praksis som tidens løsen og problem i videnskabs- og teknologistudier

2018 ◽  
pp. 61-76
Author(s):  
Casper Bruun Jensen ◽  
Christopher Gad
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Practice Theory ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
Practice Turn ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Practical Implications

In science and technology studies (STS) practice has become predominant both as analytical focus and as empirical object. Taking our point of departure in a brief genealogy of the ‘practice turn’, the central aim of this paper is to identify some analytical problems with current uses of ‘practice’. Centrally, we argue, the concept of practice has come to be inscribed with a certain kind of ‘magical’ explanatory power. In contrast, to current practice theory, we suggest that, rather than providing an explanatory framework, practice is what needs to be explained. We further suggest that this requires a simultaneous expansion of the concept, which will enable it to include thinking and theorizing as part of practice, and a theoretical practice minimalism. Finally, we suggest that these requirements are consequential for the political and practical implications of practice theory.

Methodologies and Models in Military Innovation Studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-134
Author(s):  
Burke ii Laurence M.
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Cultural Models ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
The Political ◽  
Military Innovation ◽  
Innovation Studies ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
New Models

Barry Posen’s 1984 book, The Sources of Military Doctrine, is considered to have kicked off the field of military innovation studies. While historians have made contributions to the field, it is the political scientists who have created new models of military innovation, likely because historians avoid the predictive connotations of “model”. This article first reviews the dominant models in the field that rely on the actions and decisions of individuals (as opposed to more diffuse cultural models) and places them in dialogue with each other. Second, it argues that historians should be less leery of “models”, since they create or use implicit models in their own work. Finally, this article proposes that the various models laid out in the first part of the article may be seen as specific cases of a methodology from science and technology studies, “Actor/Network Theory”, which is a promising new tool for analyzing military innovation.

scholarly journals (Dis)entangling Barad: Materialisms and ethics

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 918-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Hollin ◽  
Isla Forsyth ◽  
Eva Giraud ◽  
Tracey Potts
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The Political ◽  
Material World ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Agential Realism ◽  
Karen Barad

In the wake of the widespread uptake of and debate surrounding the work of Karen Barad, this article revisits her core conceptual contributions. We offer descriptions, elaborations, problematizations and provocations for those intrigued by or invested in this body of work. We examine Barad’s use of quantum physics, which underpins her conception of the material world. We discuss the political strengths of this position but also note tensions associated with applying quantum physics to phenomena at macro-scales. We identify both frictions and unacknowledged affinities with science and technology studies in Barad’s critique of reflexivity and her concept of diffraction. We flesh out Barad’s overarching position of ‘agential realism’, which contains a revised understanding of scientific apparatuses. Building upon these discussions, we argue that inherent in agential realism is both an ethics of inclusion and an ethics of exclusion. Existing research has, however, frequently emphasized entanglement and inclusion to the detriment of foreclosure and exclusion. Nonetheless, we contend that it is in the potential for an ethics of exclusion that Barad’s work could be of greatest utility within science and technology studies and beyond.

Kämpfe um Bergbau und die Möglichkeiten demokratischer Transformation

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (189) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Dietz
Keyword(s):  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Social Power ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Mining Project ◽  
National Governments ◽  
The Relationship

The article explores the political effects of popular consultations as a means of direct democracy in struggles over mining. Building on concepts from participatory and materialist democracy theory, it shows the transformative potentials of processes of direct democracy towards democratization and emancipation under, and beyond, capitalist and liberal democratic conditions. Empirically the analysis is based on a case study on the protests against the La Colosa gold mining project in Colombia. The analysis reveals that although processes of direct democracy in conflicts over mining cannot transform existing class inequalities and social power relations fundamentally, they can nevertheless alter elements thereof. These are for example the relationship between local and national governments, changes of the political agenda of mining and the opening of new spaces for political participation, where previously there were none. It is here where it’s emancipatory potential can be found.

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