Concretizing Simondon and Constructivism

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Lewis Feenberg
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Ecological Modernization ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
New Applications ◽  
Radical Transformation ◽  
New Framework

This article argues that Gilbert Simondon’s philosophy of technology is useful for both science and technology studies (STS) and critical theory. The synthesis has political implications. It offers an argument for the rationality of democratic interventions by citizens into decisions concerning technology. The new framework opens a perspective on the radical transformation of technology required by ecological modernization and sustainability. In so doing, it suggests new applications of STS methods to politics as well as a reconstruction of the Frankfurt School’s “rational critique of reason.”

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.

Three Schools of Thought on Freedom in Liberal, Technological Societies

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 176-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katinka Waelbers ◽  
Adam Briggle ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Alasdair Macintyre ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Freedom Of Choice ◽  
Technological Society ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Technological Culture

Are citizens of contemporary technological society authors of their own lives? With Alasdair MacIntyre (contemporary Aristotelianism), Bruno Latour (Science and Technology Studies) and Albert Borgmann (Philosophy of Technology), we discuss the shortcomings of traditional liberalism in terms of its ability to answer this question. MacIntyre argues that biological vulnerabilities and social interdependencies establish meaningful parameters within which reason and willing emerge. But MacIntyre ignores technologies as a third parameter. Latour defines humans as nodes in a socio-technical network, in which technologies are actors on par with humans. However, Latour adopts a purely external perspective, ignoring human intentions, desires, and reasons. Borgmann argues that although freedom of choice is severely restricted, sometimes one can still resist the rule of technology. But Borgmann denies the pluralism of modern societies. Although all three schools have their shortcomings, combined, they provide us with a valuable palette of insights on human agency in a technological culture.

scholarly journals Intimate Entanglements: Affects, more-than-human intimacies and the politics of relations in science and technology

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Latimer ◽  
Daniel López Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
The Third ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
Second Shift ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Third Shift ◽  
The Way

This article introduces Intimate Entanglements by proposing three interrelated shifts that result from juxtaposing experiences with different world-making practices at the intersection of care, technoscience and theoretical engagements with affect theory and Science and Technology Studies (STS). The first shift positions intimacy as not only relevant in STS but also as a more general epistemic concern of social scientific enquiry. The second shift is an exploration of the heterogeneous materiality of the intimate and, in particular, of its more-than-human constituencies. The third shift both reclaims and speculates about other politics of relations, including practical challenges (not only conceptual) to the way we do research. The article shows that the beings entangled, the materialities involved, the affects conveyed and the extension of the intimate all come to matter when science and technology is critically analysed, and that they challenge the traditional limits and geographies of the intimate. The paper also argues that this has important political implications for science and technology studies. By countering the invisibilisation of ‘intimate work’ through its usual association with the emotional and the domestic, the article contests the ready-made framing of the intimate as bound to the interpersonal, corporal and private. In so doing, the authors make visible the politics of relations that scientific and technological settings silently enact.

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.

Queere Praktiken der Reproduktion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Charlotte Dionisius
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Feminist Science ◽  
Technology Studies

Ein, zwei, drei oder vier Elternteile, »Sponkel«, »Mapas« und lesbische Zeugungsakte - wer oder was Familie ist und wie sie gegründet wird, hat sich vervielfältigt. Sarah Charlotte Dionisius rekonstruiert aus einer von den Feminist Science and Technology Studies inspirierten, queertheoretischen Perspektive, wie lesbische und queere Frauen*paare, die mittels Samenspende Eltern geworden sind, Familie, Verwandtschaft und Geschlecht imaginieren und praktizieren. Damit wirft sie einen heteronormativitätskritischen Blick auf die sozialwissenschaftliche Familienforschung sowie auf gesellschaftliche und rechtliche Entwicklungen, die neue Ein- und Ausschlüsse queerer familialer Lebensweisen mit sich bringen.

Corpi in interazione in ambienti di lavoro tecnologicamente densi

2012 ◽  
pp. 64-74
Author(s):  
Francesca Alby
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Embodied Interaction ◽  
Workplace Studies ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Nello Studio

Nello studio dell'interazione sociale e delle dinamiche organizzative, il corpo ha storicamente ricevuto un'attenzione marginale rispetto a quella data al discorso. Anche per questo, motivo e in linea con tendenze piů recenti, questo articolo prende in esame soprattutto il contributo dei movimenti corporei allo sviluppo dell'azione sociale e organizzativa. In particolare, verrŕ analizzato empiricamente in che modo la postura e il posizionamento corporeo possano essere utili risorse nel lavoro di gruppo, e, piů in generale, nel mantenimento di un'azione collettiva rapida e coordinata. Il lavoro ha diversi riferimenti teorici che vengono delineati nella prate introduttiva e utilizzati nell'analisi dei dati. In primo luogo un recente volume edito da Streeck, Goodwin e LeBaron (2011), che sistematizza e raccoglie i risultati di una linea di ricerca sviluppatasi gradualmente nelle quattro decadi passate e che gli autori chiamano embodied interaction. In secondo luogo, il riferimento č al contributo di due programmi di ricerca interdisciplinari, parzialmente sovrapposti: gli studi sul lavoro e sulle pratiche lavorative mediate da tecnologie (studi di ergonomia sociale: Mantovani, 2000; workplace studies: Luff, Hindmarsh e Heath, 2000 e in italiano: Zucchermaglio e Alby, 2005; Parolin, 2008; practice-based studies: Bruni e Gherardi, 2007), e gli studi sulla scienza e sulla tecnologia (science and technology studies ad esempio: Lynch e Woolgar, 1988 e, in italiano: Viteritti, 2011). L'analisi si basa su videoregistrazioni del lavoro di web designer all'interno di un'azienda con sede a Roma, azienda che si occupa di sviluppare e mantenere un portale internet. I risultati discussi nell'analisi empirica riguardano in particolare: a) come entrare e uscire dal gruppo: vengono analizzati alcuni dei meccanismi di coordinamento corporeo che rendono fluido l'ingresso e l'uscita dai gruppi di lavoro; b) come costruire il ritmo dell'interazione: i dati illustrano come in questo tipo di ambienti ad alta densitŕ tecnologica agenti umani e non umani interagiscano (nelle modalitŕ che vengono descritte) nel costruire il ritmo dell'interazione e dell'azione; c) come animare rappresentazioni statiche: viene mostrato come i web designer usino il loro corpo per animare rappresentazioni statiche dei siti internet che devono progettare rendendo visibili e condivisi processi di immaginazione congiunta assolutamente centrali per l'attivitŕ lavorativa in corso.

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