scholarly journals Spaces between

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Roger A Søraa
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Field Experiences ◽  
Technological Innovations ◽  
Epistemic Practices ◽  
Interest In Science ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Scientific Knowledge Production

There is an increasing interest in Science and Technology Studies (STS), as the field experiences growth with respect to the scope of topics, methods and theories deployed to learn and uncover epistemic practices for scientific knowledge production, technological innovations, users and producers. 

scholarly journals Ecosystem approaches to health and knowledge-to-action: towards a political ecology of applied health-environment knowledge

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben W. Brisbois ◽  
Andrés Burgos Delgado ◽  
Douglas Barraza ◽  
Óscar Betancourt ◽  
Donald Cole ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Knowledge Framework ◽  
Knowledge To Action ◽  
Ecosystem Approaches

Abstract Political ecology pushes back against the apolitical and ahistorical ecologies frequently found in mainstream scientific accounts of nature and the environment, and has increasingly focused on how scientific knowledge is 'socially constructed.' In this article, we argue for political ecological engagement with the highly influential knowledge-to-action (KTA) movement in science about health and the environment. We introduce KTA using results of a survey conducted under the auspices of a Canada-Latin America-Caribbean 'ecosystem approaches to health' (ecohealth) collaboration, and then narrow our focus to a single illustrative ecohealth project, dealing with the health impacts of small-scale gold mining in southwestern Ecuador. We employ an ecology of knowledge framework for integrating insights from science and technology studies,illustrating the interacting actors, material artifacts, institutions and discourses involved in not only the generation but also the application of health-environment science. The origins of ecohealth research in the Americas reflect interacting epistemological and political factors, as sophisticated, complex systemic analyses of health-environment interactions occurred amidst increasing neoliberalization of knowledge production. Simultaneously, corporate actors such as large mining companies influenced both the distribution of healthdamaging environmental conditions in the Americas, and the ways in which they were studied. This analysis motivates our advocacy of specifically political ecologies of health-environment knowledge, in which inequitable power dynamics and non-human actors are foregrounded in studies of the social production and application of science. The political ecology of knowledge framework that we envision would allow for simultaneous consideration of how societal contexts influence scientific knowledge production, and how the resulting knowledge can be better applied to protect the health of communities facing environmental injustice. Key words: ecohealth; mining; praxis; science and technology studies; knowledge-to-action; Canada; Ecuador

scholarly journals Ontological Opportunism

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-51
Author(s):  
Anne Dippel
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
High Energy Physics ◽  
High Energy ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Feminist Science ◽  
Scientific Knowledge Production ◽  
Energy Physics

Understanding inanimate ‘nature-as-such’ is traditionally considered the object of physics in Europe. The discipline acts as exemplary discursive practice of scientific knowledge production. However, as my ethnographic investigation of doing and communicating high energy physics demonstrates, animist conceptions seep into the ontological understanding of physics’ ‘objects’, resonating with contemporary concepts of new materialism, new animism and feminist science and technology studies, signifying an atmospheric shift in the understanding of ‘nature’. Drawing on my fieldwork at CERN, I argue that scientists take an opportunist stance to animate concepts of ‘nature’, depending on whom they’re talking to. I am showing how the inanimate in physics is reanimated especially in scientific outreach activities and how the universalist scientific cosmology overlaps with indigenous cosmologies, as for example the Lakota ones.

Virtual Witnessing in a Virtual Age

2008 ◽  
pp. 1064-1081
Author(s):  
Steve Woolgar ◽  
Catelijne Coopmans
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Data Networks ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Virtual Age ◽  
Early Emergence ◽  
Technical Capacity

Despite a substantial unfolding investment in Grid technologies (for the development of cyberinfrastructures or e-science), little is known about how, why and by whom these new technologies are being adopted or will be taken up. This chapter argues for the importance of addressing these questions from an STS (science and technology studies) perspective, which develops and maintains a working scepticism with respect to the claims and attributions of scientific and technical capacity. We identify three interconnected topics with particular salience for Grid technologies: data, networks, and accountability. The chapter provides an illustration of howthese topics might be approached from an STS perspective, by revisiting the idea of “virtual witnessing”—a key idea in understanding the early emergence of criteria of adequacy in experiments and demonstrations at the birth of modern science—and by drawing upon preliminary interviews with prospective scientist users of Grid technologies. The chapter concludes that, against the temptation to represent the effects of new technologies on the growth of scientific knowledge as straightforward and determinate, e-scientists are immersed in structures of interlocking accountabilities which leave the effects uncertain.

scholarly journals Socio-epistemic analysis of scientific knowledge production in little science research

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Pepe
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Epistemic Practices ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
Scientific Knowledge Production ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conference Papers

The processes that drive knowledge production and dissemination in scientific environments are embedded within the social, technical, cultural and epistemic practices of the constituent research communities. This article presents a methodology to unpack specific social and epistemic dimensions of scientific knowledge production using, as a case study,  the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), a National Science Foundation “little science” research center involved in theoretical and applied work in the field of wireless communication and sensor networks. By analysis of its scholarly record, I construct a social network of coauthorship, linking individuals that have coauthored scholarly artifacts (journal articles and conference papers), and an epistemic network of topic co-occurrence, linking concepts and knowledge constructs in the same scholarly artifacts. This article reports on ongoing work directed at the study of the emergence and evolution of these networks of scientific interaction. I present some preliminary results and introduce a socio-epistemic method for an historical analysis of network co-evolution. I outline a research design to support further investigations of knowledge production in scientific circles.

Interdisciplinary Hauntings

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
Unfinished Business ◽  
Feminist Science ◽  
Technology Studies

This introductory chapter illustrates how scientific culture is not, in fact, a “culture of no culture.” Rather, it argues that categories of gender, race, class, sexuality, and nation were everywhere, constantly shaping science, its practitioners, its cultures, and scientific knowledge. Thus, the chapter traces the author's own scientific trajectories, moving from a disciplinary world of natures and cultures into an interdisciplinary one of “naturecultures.” It discusses the problem of methodology and contextualizes this study within the realm of feminist science and technology studies (FSTS), revealing the vast complexity of naturecultures which, furthermore, are underscored by the metaphor of the supernatural as “unfinished business.” The chapter asserts that ghosts, rather than a superstitious legacy of a past, are a haunting reminder of an ignored past.

scholarly journals HOW TO USE THE VISUAL IN SCIENTIFIC STUDIES? (FOLLOWING PETER GALISON AND LORRAINE DASTON)

2021 ◽  
pp. 117-130
Author(s):  
Михаил Андреевич Новиков
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Scientific Practices ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Visual Science ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
It Practices

В отличие от визуального как компонента научных практик, исследование научных визуализаций – достаточно молодая, совсем недавно начавшая набирать обороты область эпистемологии. Несмотря на свой «юный» возраст, данная сфера исследований уже успела обогатиться разного рода подходами, концептами и самостоятельными выводами. На наш взгляд, книгу Питера Галисона и Лоррейн Дастон «Объективность» можно рассматривать в качестве труда, который и привносит очевидные новшества в понимание того, как производится знание, в том числе знание о производстве знания, и суммирует все достижения современной эпистемологии и истории науки, в первую очередь эпистемологии визуального, или Visual Science and Technology Studies. Исходя из этого, делается вывод, что, помимо изучения объективности, авторы изобретают новый способ говорения о науке. Визуальное в науке, со всеми возможными способами его практиковать, позволяет авторам, так или иначе двигающимся в русле прагматических подходов, избежать экстерналистских вариантов объяснений производства знания. Это достигается благодаря тому, что исследователи рассматривают не какие-то локальные визуализации, но работают с целыми ассамбляжами образов, исходя из предпосылки, что визуальное – неотчуждаемая часть науки. Чтобы разобраться с тем, что из себя представляет «Объективность», невозможно не обратиться к работам, которые также исследуют визуальное. Оказалось важным продемонстрировать, что современные исследования зачастую проводятся на стыке разных дисциплин, причем предполагается, что строгие дисциплинарные различия для данных исследований столь же реальны, как и пасторальные идеалы. Возвращая статус отчужденным научным компонентам, подобные подходы демонстрируют, что наука отнюдь не сводится к каким-то исключительно априорным или трансцендентальным пропозициям. Напротив, подтверждается, что наука делается здесь и сейчас и невероятно близка к нам, а это значит, что нельзя просто так пройти мимо любого из практикуемых ею элементов. Unlike the visual as a component of scientific practices, the study of scientific visualizations is a young field of epistemology that has only recently begun to gain momentum. Despite its “young” age, this field of research has already been enriched by all kinds of approaches, concepts, and independent conclusions. In my opinion, Peter Galison and Lorraine Daston’s book Objectivity can be considered as a work which, besides bringing obvious innovations in understanding how knowledge is produced, including knowledge about knowledge production, summarizes all achievements of modern epistemology and history of science, first of all, epistemology of the visual or VSTS (Visual Science and Technology Studies). From this it can be inferred that, among other things, in addition to the study of objectivity, the authors are inventing a new way of speaking about science. The visual in science, with all the possible ways of practicing it, allows the authors, moving in one way or another in the direction of pragmatic approaches, to avoid externalistic versions of explanations of knowledge production. This is achieved by the fact that the researchers do not look at some local visualizations, but work with whole assemblages of images, based on the premise that the visual is an inalienable part of science. In order to understand what Objectivity is, one must refer to works that also investigate the visual. It turned out to be important to demonstrate that contemporary research often takes place at the junction of different disciplines, with the assumption that strict disciplinary distinctions for this research are as real as pastoral ideals. By reclaiming the status of alienated scientific components, such approaches demonstrate that science is by no means reducible to some exclusively a priori or transcendental propositions. On the contrary, it confirms that science is done here and now, and is incredibly close to us, which means that one cannot simply pass by any of the elements it practices.

Virtual Witnessing in a Virtual Age

2006 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Woolgar ◽  
Catelijne Coopmans
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Data Networks ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Virtual Age ◽  
Early Emergence ◽  
Technical Capacity

Despite a substantial unfolding investment in Grid technologies (for the development of cyberinfrastructures or e-science), little is known about how, why and by whom these new technologies are being adopted or will be taken up. This chapter argues for the importance of addressing these questions from an STS (science and technology studies) perspective, which develops and maintains a working scepticism with respect to the claims and attributions of scientific and technical capacity. We identify three interconnected topics with particular salience for Grid technologies: data, networks, and accountability. The chapter provides an illustration of howthese topics might be approached from an STS perspective, by revisiting the idea of “virtual witnessing”—a key idea in understanding the early emergence of criteria of adequacy in experiments and demonstrations at the birth of modern science—and by drawing upon preliminary interviews with prospective scientist users of Grid technologies. The chapter concludes that, against the temptation to represent the effects of new technologies on the growth of scientific knowledge as straightforward and determinate, e-scientists are immersed in structures of interlocking accountabilities which leave the effects uncertain.

scholarly journals Editorial

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-4
Author(s):  
Tarja Knuuttila ◽  
Sampsa Hyysalo
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Linux Kernel ◽  
Kernel Development ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Core Set ◽  
Mode 2 ◽  
The Moment

**Editorial** Science Studies 1/2007 is the first issue by its new chief editors Dr. Tarja Knuuttila and Docent Sampsa Hyysalo. The decision to appoint two editors-in-chief was motivated by the steadily increasing amount of submissions, as well as by the need to retain a good grasp of the range of focal areas that comprise science and technology studies. Tarja Knuuttila is a philosopher of science currently studying scientific modelling and representation especially in the context of computational science. Sampsa Hyysalo’s primary field is science and technology studies. He has studied change in professional and everyday practices by focussing on the development and appropriation of health ICTs. The change in its editors does not mark a great transition in the focus of the journal. Science Studies continues to be both an international and interdisciplinary journal welcoming contributions to the study of science and technology from different points of view and different disciplinary backgrounds whether philosophical, historical, sociological, psychological, educational or politicoeconomic. At the moment the journal receives contributions from all over the world, the most contributions coming from the US and from Northern European countries. The acceptance rate is 20,5 for the moment, but it will fall, since we are receiving an increasing amount of contributions. This shows that the interest towards Science Studies is steadily growing. As to our website, Science Studies is also happy to announce that it has digitized and published all of its articles from 1988 to 1997. The ten volumes which have been published comprise over 100 articles on Science and Technology Studies and represent one of the largest fully accessible online collections available today. We are committed to distributing the content of Science Studies to as broad an audience as possible at no cost. Moreover, we have decreased our moving wall from one year to six months, allowing for increased visibility and access to our most recent content. The present volume contains four full articles concentrating mainly on science and science policy. In “From Core Set to Assemblage: On the Dynamics of Exclusion and Inclusion in the Failure to Derive Beta Cells from Embryonic Stem Cells” Mike Michael et al. concentrate on a traditional STS-theme, that of experimenter’s regress. They contrast Collins’s core set model to an analysis in terms of assemblages in an attempt to show that scientific controversies need not end in the exclusion of the discredited faction of scientists from the core set. Rather, due to several reasons such as the ‘chronic uncertainty’ of stem cell research, the epistemically defeated faction can be rehabilitated because of the ‘social understandability’ of their strategies. ”Effects of ‘Mode 2’-Related Policy on the Research Process: The Case of Publicly Funded German Nanotechnology” by Andreas Wald and “Disentangling Transdisciplinarity: An Analysis of Knowledge Integration in Problem-Oriented Research” by Wolfgang Zierhofer and Paul Burger provide somewhat critical perspectives on the supposed advantages of Mode 2 policies and the very idea that transdisciplinary research, which is also referred to as Mode 2 science, represents a genuinely new model of knowledge production. Wald argues that nanotechnology research does not fit into the picture portrayed by Mode 2 literature, yet Mode 2-related policies are applied to it in the German context. As a result of this, policies are often considered harmful by the scientists. Zierhofer and Burger in turn seek to analyze the diversity of the supposed transdisciplinary mode of knowledge production in terms of various types of research objectives and related research instruments. Finally, Matt Ratto’s paper “A Practice-Based Model of Access for Science: Linux Kernel Development and Shared Digital Resources” presents a close-quarter analysis of Linux kernel development in order to build a model of access that would be apt for examining the increasingly distributed and digitally-mediated scientific work. This last paper is also a teaser for the next issue of Science Studies, which is a special issue on Free/Libre Open source software (FLOSS). Guest edited by Dr. Yuwei Lin and Prof. Lars Risan, Science Studies 2/2007 provides a set of highly interesting and in-depth studies on organization, work and development in FLOSS projects.

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