Social Representations in the Classroom

In this chapter, the authors briefly summarize relevant research in two distinct fields of research before suggesting their merging to show how teachers’ help might promote their pupils’ future growth, eventually challenging the current unequal social status quo between advantaged and disadvantaged groups. Two studies, conducted with original research methodology, illustrate the point and conclude with practical suggestions for effective helping relationships in the classroom, underlying the pivotal role of social interactions in fostering the child’s active involvement in relevant social groups. Relaunching and employing the concepts of contingent scaffolding, as a provisional structure of knowledge offered by the adult, the teacher’s capacity of fading, in accordance with the growing capacity of students, and the transfer of responsibilities from teachers to students, the “thirdness” in the knowing process and its potential role in changing existing unequal status quo stands out.

Technological Adoption as a Social Process in Food Centres in Singapore

Technological advancements in the digital economy have affected work cultures and labour displacements. Technological adoption is a highly social process, which involves resistance and failure to adapt by individuals in the midst of it. Therefore, there is a need to understand the everyday experiences of individuals who are impacted by technological changes in their work practices. Through ethnographic accounts of five field sites, this article aims to examine the effects of technology on work cultures in food centres in Singapore. Food centres were observed to be heavily dependent on complex human interactions, which often hindered technological implementations that were meant to simplify work processes. Nonetheless, the challenges can be mitigated through consultations with relevant social groups to improve technological incorporation.

Influencers as socio-technical actors: mapping the paths of influence and the traces of the digital influencers’ system in Italy

In recent years, digital influencers or digital opinion leaders have emerged as a global phenomenon, one providing a rich field of investigation for several disciplines from sociology to marketing. The goal of the paper is to study this phenomenon by adopting an ecological approach, not focusing only on a single dimension but observing the influencer system as an environment with its own rules and subjects, examining the other components of the system and tracing the relationships between them. The original contribution of this paper is to conceptualize influencers as socio-technical actors, i.e. as social subjects that operate within technological platforms, and to adopt an interdisciplinary approach, starting from sociological and marketing studies on the influencer phenomenon and then moving on to STS studies that have focused on the social shaping of technology to shed light on how the influencers are transforming the (social) media system in which they are inserted and then the chain of communication industry. The argument will therefore start by reviewing the theories that address this phenomenon and by sketching a genealogy, tracing its roots in the cultural and social context of the participatory web and web 2.0. It will move, then, to investigate the dynamics of shaping social media platforms, reviewing the studies that have investigated them, from the Social Shaping of Technology approach to platform studies. The paper will apply the analysis to the Italian context, unfolding the dynamics of influence with the support of the case study of ClioMakeUp (the leading beauty creator in Italy), examples, and grey literature from the Italian context. In the final part, the paper will map the traces of the influencer system in Italy and the communication chain, focusing on the processes of mutual shaping between brands, communication agencies, influencer enterprises, regulatory bodies, media, and of course platforms. The STS approach proved to be useful in disentangling the several actors of the system, but as platforms evolved the opportunities for mutual shaping have gradually diminished as the balance of power seems to be tending in favor of the platforms. More research is needed to further understand the concepts of closure, script, and relevant social groups within social media platforms.

Methodology, Legend, and Rhetoric: The Constructions of AI by Academia, Industry, and Policy Groups for Lifelong Learning

Artificial intelligence (AI) is again attracting significant attention across all areas of social life. One important sphere of focus is education; many policy makers across the globe view lifelong learning as an essential means to prepare society for an “AI future” and look to AI as a way to “deliver” learning opportunities to meet these needs. AI is a complex social, cultural, and material artifact that is understood and constructed by different stakeholders in varied ways, and these differences have significant social and educational implications that need to be explored. Through analysis of thirty-four in-depth interviews with stakeholders from academia, commerce, and policy, alongside document analysis, we draw on the social construction of technology (SCOT) to illuminate the diverse understandings, perceptions of, and practices around AI. We find three different technological frames emerging from the three social groups and argue that commercial sector practices wield most power. We propose that greater awareness of the differing technical frames, more interactions among a wider set of relevant social groups, and a stronger focus on the kinds of educational outcomes society seeks are needed in order to design AI for learning in ways that facilitate a democratic education for all.

Public policy instrument evaluation in service of enabling grand strategy discourse – Case of Horizon 2020 key indicators

The purpose of the article is to illustrate the problem of public policy evaluation in regards to the availability of the information. By that, we want to warn about the issue of a disabled discourse of relevant social groups and institutions in the European Union. For this article, we evaluate public policy instrument H2020. The evaluation covers the availability of the data, that should enable interim and ex-post evaluation. The article offers a soulution to the emerging issue. Through the prism of Cultural political economy, the evaluation results also indicate the issue of Europe 2020 instruments retention. Consistency and transparency are not needed only throughout the different policies and strategy goals but also throughout their retention to assure the set goals.

Technology, translation and society

Translation studies and social theories of translation tend not to deal adequately with questions regarding the role of technology in translation and have neglected the ways in which technologies, as non-human entities, embody and materialize hegemonic and power relations. This paper seeks to address this shortcoming by looking to science and technology studies (STS) for conceptual frameworks to help us to understand and articulate (a) how popular, deterministic perceptions of translation technology are perpetuated through the discourses of hegemonic actors, (b) how decisions regarding design and use of translation technologies may be studied with reference to their construction and interpretation by relevant social groups, and (c) how a critical theory of technology and an analytical focus on practices can help to focus our attention on the exercise of hegemonic control in the translation sector.

Social Construction of Technology

The chapter focuses on the Social Construction of Technology approach (SCOT) by Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker, introducing the reader to its initial formulation (1984), and to the subsequent extensions – and sometimes reformulations – elaborated in more than 30 year of empirical research. It first clarifies how the Empirical Programme of Relativism, elaborated by the Bath School to address the social construction of scientific facts, was adapted to technological artifacts. In particular the concepts of relevant social groups, interpretative flexibility, closure or stabilization are in-depth discussed. Regarding relevant social groups, the chapter dedicates a peculiar attention to users, sellers and testers, all understudied in the original formulation of SCOT. The chapter then clarifies SCOT’s take on materiality, and discusses its main differences with the idea of nonhuman agency proposed by Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Finally, it goes back to the Golem Trilogy to discuss with the author the specific take on politics implied by SCOT.

Entanglements

Based on several rounds of academic interview and conversations with Trevor Pinch, the book introduces the reader to the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), and in particular to the social constructionist approach to science, technology and sound. Through the lenses of Pinch’s lifetime work, STS students, and scholars in fields dealing with technological mediation, are provided with an in-depth overview, and with suggestions for further reading, on the most relevant past and ongoing debates in the field. The book starts presenting the approach launched by the Bath School in the early sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK), and follows the development of the field up to the so called “Science wars” of the ‘90s, and to the popularization of the main acquisitions of the field by Trevor Pinch and Harry Collins’ Golem trilogy. Then, it deals with the sociology of technology, and presents the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) approach, launched by Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker in 1984 and developed in more than 30 years of research, comparing it with alternative approaches like Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network theory. Five issues are addressed in depth: relevant social groups in the social construction of technology; the intertwining of social representations and practices; the importance of tacit knowledge in SCOT’s approach to the nonrepresentational; the controversy over nonhuman agency; and the political implications of SCOT. Finally, it presents the main current debates in STS, in particular in the study of materiality and ontology, and presents Pinch’s more recent work in sound studies.