scholarly journals From Anthropologist to Actant (and back to Anthropology): Position, Impasse, and Observation in Sociotechnical Collaboration

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 169-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Stavrianakis

Anthropologists are increasingly invited to participate in collaborations with natural scientists, among other experts, in their capacity as anthropologists. Such invitations give pause for thought about the character of the positions and practices that an anthropologist can occupy and perform. This article draws on participant observation in the Socio-Technical Integration Research (STIR) project, an endeavor based at Arizona State University, which aimed to modulate scientific practice. I observe and analyze the disquiet of participating social scientists by questioning the epistemic, ethical, and affective parameters of such modulation, in which social scientists were ultimately positioned and framed as actants—and not engaged as thinking subjects—for the reflexivity of natural scientists toward natural scientific work. I describe how such a method for increasing and extending the scope of scientific reflexivity was ultimately bound to the dominant instrumental norms and values of contemporary technoscience. The article suggests that reflection on problems of collaboration through questions of position and mode of engagement opens the scope and parameters for contemporary anthropological inquiry into anthropological collaborations within domains of science and technology.

2020 ◽  
pp. 42-47
Author(s):  
Polishchuk I.Ye.

Першорядною задачею освіти є формування мислення як самоцілі, що створює для особистості мож-ливості задля здійснення керованого впливу на соціальні явища та процеси, використовуючи сучасні знання та новітні технології. Здатність людини успішно соціалізуватися не можлива без інтелектуаліза-ції, яка має досягатися в освітньому процесі.Автором статті була розроблена анкета та проведене опитування магістрантів І року денної фор-ми навчання Херсонського державного університету (опитано 187 осіб, 44% від загальної чисельності в 2019–2020 навчальному році). Більшість здобувачів продовжує навчання за напрямом підготовки бака-лавріату. Однак опитування засвідчило, що основні теми дисципліни «Основи наукових досліджень» були засвоєні не досить глибоко з причини малої кількості аудиторних занять. Для багатьох магістрантів незрозумілим виявилося співвідношення філософських підходів, загальнонаукових та конкретно-нау-кових методів, а також зміст новітніх методологічних принципів та підходів. Більшість здобувачів не змогла відповісти на питання щодо наукових результатів, які вони отримували завдяки використанню зазначених ними методів. Це свідчить про недостатній зв’язок методології як теорії та наукової прак-тики. Було також виявлено, що більшість магістрантів не пов’язує майбутню професійну діяльність із науковими дослідженнями. Ця обставина зобов’язує викладачів посилити відповідальність за форму-вання гідного відношення здобувачів вищої освіти до науки як соціального і професійного інституту та теоретичного мислення як основи будь-якої високопрофесійної діяльності.Слід знайти оптимальне колегіальне рішення (у кожному університеті ексклюзивне) стосовно під-вищення в навчальних програмах різних напрямів освіти «питомої ваги» методологічного складника, а також сучасних форм підвищення методологічної підготовки викладачів теоретичних дисциплін. The primary task of education is the formation of thinking as an end in itself which creates opportunities for individuals to exert significant influence on social phenomena and processes using modern knowledge and the latest technologies. The ability of a person to successfully socialize is unthinkable without intellectualization which must be achieved in the educational process.The author of the article developed a questionnaire and conducted a survey of the first-year full-time postgraduates (master’s degrees) at Kherson State University (187 people were interviewed, which is 44% of the total amount in the 2019–2020 academic year). Most degree-seeking students continue their studies in the bachelor’s degree program. However, the survey showed that the main topics of the course “Fundamentals of Scientific Knowledge”, which was studied for bachelor’s degree programmes, are not sufficiently captured due to the small amount of class hours. For many postgraduates (master’s degrees) the relationship between the philosophical approaches themselves, general scientific and special scientific methods, as well as the content of the latest methodological principles, turned out to be incomprehensible. It is a matter of concern that many degree-seeking students were not able to answer the question about the results they obtained in scientific work through the use of the methods they specified. This indicates a lack of connection between methodological theory and scientific practice in the educational process. It was also found that the majority of postgraduates (master’s degrees) do not associate their future professional activities with scientific research. This circumstance obliges teachers to strengthen their responsibility for forming a decent attitude of degree-seeking students to science as a social and professional institution, as well as to theoretical thought as the basis of any highly professional activity.It is necessary to find an optimal collegial solution (exclusive at each university) to increase the “specific weight” of the methodological component in the curriculum documents of different branches of education, as well as regarding modern forms of improving the level of methodological competences of teachers of various theoretical disciplines.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 618-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin Donahue Wylie

Museum displays tend to black-box science, by displaying scientific facts without explanations of how those facts were made. A recent trend in exhibit design upends this omission by putting scientists, technicians, and volunteers to work in glass-walled laboratories, just a window away from visitors. How is science conceived, portrayed, and performed in glass-walled laboratories? Interviews and participant observation in several “fishbowl” paleontology laboratories reveal that glass walls alter lab workers’ typical tasks and behavior. However, despite glass-walled labs’ incomplete and edited enactment of scientific work, displaying an active workplace valuably challenges visitors’ assumptions that science is passive and that museums are home only to facts and dead things. Thus, glass-walled labs do not destroy the black box that obscures scientific practice for nonscientists. Instead, they exemplify a glass box, a kind of black box that contains a performance of scientific work. Glass-boxing describes a common way in which museums present scientific practice—that is, by making it observable but incompletely so—by inviting the public to construct a rich understanding of science as human work.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliya Hoff

Despite targeted recruitment efforts, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) remain severely underrepresented in STEM graduate programs in the United States. As a result, the pool of scientists eligible to hold faculty positions remains overwhelmingly white. Increasing recruitment without addressing the underlying aspects of disciplinary cultures that reproduce systems of oppression is insufficient and short-sighted. Graduate programs socialize the next generation of scholars into disciplinary cultures by implicitly and explicitly communicating racialized and gendered ideas about what it means to be a good scientist. As a result, graduate education offers a critical opportunity to disrupt and transform science by interrogating disciplinary norms and values that guide decision-making, expanding definitions of scientific excellence, and providing scientists with holistic mentorship and varied forms of social support. Graduate programs must be intentionally retooled to support the persistence and well-being of BIPOC graduate students in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.


Author(s):  
G. G. Hembree ◽  
Luo Chuan Hong ◽  
P.A. Bennett ◽  
J.A. Venables

A new field emission scanning transmission electron microscope has been constructed for the NSF HREM facility at Arizona State University. The microscope is to be used for studies of surfaces, and incorporates several surface-related features, including provision for analysis of secondary and Auger electrons; these electrons are collected through the objective lens from either side of the sample, using the parallelizing action of the magnetic field. This collimates all the low energy electrons, which spiral in the high magnetic field. Given an initial field Bi∼1T, and a final (parallelizing) field Bf∼0.01T, all electrons emerge into a cone of semi-angle θf≤6°. The main practical problem in the way of using this well collimated beam of low energy (0-2keV) electrons is that it is travelling along the path of the (100keV) probing electron beam. To collect and analyze them, they must be deflected off the beam path with minimal effect on the probe position.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Huynh ◽  
Igor Grossmann

Ever since social scientists became interested in understanding intergroup dynamics, the topic of the “middle class” and its distinction from other groups in society became the central feature of a theoretical and empirical research enterprise. In this overview essay we discuss the beliefs, values and behavioral tendencies attributed to American middle class beliefs, and discuss their implications for understanding class-related norms and values. We end with a reflection over the historical trends that impact societal norms and the definition of middle class in the American society.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 32-48
Author(s):  
M. Louail ◽  
S. Prat

The standard ASUDAS scoring system (Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System) is used to assess dental morphological variations in modern humans. It is also frequently used to study, score, and compare morphological variations in fossil hominin taxa and to examine their phylogenetic relationships. However, using ASUDAS in studies of this type is under debate because it is based on modern Homo sapiens populations and does not appear to cover all variations observed in fossil Plio-Pleistocene homi- nins. Our observations and coding of 178 dentals casts of Plio-Pleistocene specimens based on ASUDAS and from the literature have confirmed the need to adapt the standard system to fossil hominins. In this initial study, we propose that the scoring procedures for some morphological characters need to be readjusted, while others could be standardized following the ASUDAS system.


Author(s):  
Armando Martínez Ríos

ABSTRACTMexico lacks a scientific culture. Investigations and reports show that only has a record of 38 thousand scientific and 0.5% global of registered patents in the world. Communications and electronics engineering (ICE) is one of the three formations in the school of mechanical engineering and electrical (ESIME) unit Zacatenco from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) Mexico. Among the objectives of this mentioned formation on its web site, is the form professionals with scientific and technological foundations; However, the curriculum includes only two subjects with these characteristics. Less than 1% of the graduates also choose to devote himself to scientific work. This paper shows the results obtained by means of a survey on the perception that students have about scientists in order to propose actions that foster a greater interest in them by the science and technology into their professional formation.RESUMENMéxico carece de una cultura científica ya que algunas encuestas muestran que solo se tiene un registro de 38 mil científicos y el 0.5% del total mundial de patentes registradas. Ingeniería en Comunicaciones y Electrónica (ICE) es una de las tres carreras de la Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Mecánica y Eléctrica (ESIME) unidad Zacatenco del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) México. Entre los objetivos de esta carrera mencionado en su sitio web, es el de formar profesionistas con fundamentos científicos y tecnológicos; sin embargo, el currículo, contempla solo dos asignaturas con estas características. Asimismo, menos del 1% de los egresados elige dedicarse a una labor científica. Este trabajo muestra los resultados obtenidos por medio de una encuesta sobre la percepción que los estudiantes tienen sobre los científicos con el fin de proponer acciones que fomenten un mayor interés en ellos por la ciencia y la tecnología dentro de su formación.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4e) ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Andoni Garritz ◽  
Andrés Raviolo

<span>La investigación en torno a las concepciones alternativas (Wandersee, Mintzes, y Novak, 1994; Arizona State University, 2001; Flores, 2002) constituye una de las principales y fecundas líneas de investigación en Didáctica de las Ciencias que ha contribuido, en buena medida, a su surgimiento y consolidación como disciplina o campo de conocimiento (Gil, 1994; Adúriz-Bravo e Izquierdo, 2002). La Didáctica de la Química forma parte de esta ciencia.</span>


Is human nature something that the natural and social sciences aim to describe, or is it a pernicious fiction? What role, if any, does ‘human nature’ play in directing and informing scientific work? Can we talk about human nature without invoking—either implicitly or explicitly—a contrast with human culture? It might be tempting to think that the respectability of ‘human nature’ is an issue that divides natural and social scientists along disciplinary boundaries, but the truth is more complex. The contributors to this collection take very different stances with regard to the idea of human nature. They come from the fields of psychology, the philosophy of science, social and biological anthropology, evolutionary theory, and the study of animal cognition. Some of them are ‘human nature’ enthusiasts, some are sceptics, and some say that human nature is a concept with many faces, each of which plays a role in its own investigative niche. Some want to eliminate the notion altogether, some think it unproblematic, others want to retain it with reforming modifications. Some say that human nature is a target for investigation that the human sciences cannot do without, others argue that the term does far more harm than good. The diverse perspectives articulated in this book help to explain why we disagree about human nature, and what, if anything, might resolve that disagreement.


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