Science and Technology Studies (Sociology)

The Regulation and Control of Internet

by Ebru Yetiskin

Dialectics of disassembly: heifer-care protocols and the alienation of value in a village dairy cooperative

by Lauren Martin

Lead author: Tad Mutersbaugh, University of Kentucky.

This paper examines ‘protocols’—instructions that inform project recipients about how technology is to be used. Our... more This paper examines ‘protocols’—instructions that inform project recipients about how technology is to be used. Our case study of ‘heifer-care’ protocols associated with a microdairy scheme raises two questions. First, we ask how these protocols effect a disassembly of social relations within the village—‘poisoning’ them, as coop members put it. Second, we raise the question of persistence: namely, how were village participants in the microdairy cooperative able to continue for over fifteen years despite a failure to produce milk and the deleterious effects upon village social relations? To address this paradox, we examine protocols from the standpoints of both science and technology studies (STS) and labor-process studies(LPS). STS supply a ‘boundary object’ concept that helps to explain protocol persistence; LPS provide a theory of alienation that furthers our understanding of how protocols alienate labor—via a spatiotemporal dislocation of value—and shape coop members’ subjective experience of development. By joining these theories, we hope to provide insights into the operations of protocols and suggest a theoretical liaison between STS and LPS that would provide STS with a better theory of subjective experience and LPS theory with an improved poststructuralist framing. As a matter of praxis, we also show how coop members recognize, in time, the mechanisms through which value is dislocated and respond by reworking their engagements with NGOs to capture a share of the value produced by their labor.

Tecnologia, Publicidade e Encantamento

by Pedro Mendonça

in Moisés L. Martins & Manuel Pinto (Orgs.) (2008) Comunicação e Cidadania - Actas do 5º Congresso da Associação Portuguesa de Ciências da Comunicação, 6 - 8 Setembro 2007, Braga, pp-2259-2272

The Perfect Solution: How Trans Fats Became the Healthy Replacement for Saturated Fats

by David Schleifer

David Schleifer. 2012 “The Perfect Solution: How Trans Fats Became the Healthy Replacement for Saturated Fats.” Technology and Culture 53(1): 94-119.

Trans fats became part of the American food system due to a complex interplay among activism, industrial technology,... more Trans fats became part of the American food system due to a complex interplay among activism, industrial technology, and nutritional science. Some manufacturers began using partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats, in the early twentieth century. Medical authorities began framing saturated fats as unhealthy in the 1950s. In the 1980s, activist organizations, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, condemned food corporations’ use of saturated fats and endorsed trans fats as an acceptable alternative. Nearly all targeted corporations responded by replacing saturated fats with trans fats, which fit easily into their existing products. Trans fats thus became the perfect solution to the political problem of saturated fats and to the technical problem of what to use in their place. Activists helped precipitate technological change, but by 1994, trans fats were no longer regarded as a solution. Instead, they became regarded as a new nutritional problem.

Material culture and symbolic interactionism

by Phillip Vannini

Published in the book Material Culture and Technology in Everyday Life: Ethnographic Approaches

Culture is what people do together (cf. Becker 1986; Ingold 2000).  Such a focus on collective doing, making, and... more Culture is what people do together (cf. Becker 1986; Ingold 2000).  Such a focus on collective doing, making, and the materiality and consequentiality of action-based cultural processes is what sensitizing concepts like “material culture” and “technoculture” are meant to highlight.  Conceptualizing culture as action and interaction is intended to downplay the importance of cognitive cultural dimensions such as values, beliefs, codes, and ideas and to emphasize instead bodily engagements, techniques, skills, habits, and the materiality of the world of interaction.  The scope of this chapter is to survey the ontological foundations of such ideas and therefore of perspectives that view material culture and technoculture as interaction.  By taking some license in blurring boundaries amongst theoretical traditions, in what follows I review four basic principles of pragmatism, symbolic interactionism, performance theory, and social semiotics.  The chapter is divided into four parts.  Each part reviews one of the four principles that distinguish this pan-theoretical perspective: diffused agency, semiotic power, ecology, and emergence.

Sistemas sociotécnicos, innovación y desarrollo.

by Leandro Lepratte

Does the history of engineering require the philosophy of engineering

by Alireza Seghatoleslami

From Kearton to Attenborough: Fashioning the Telenaturalist's Identity

by Jean-Baptiste Gouyon

History of Science, Vol.49 (1):25-60 (2011)

This paper, centred on two British figures of natural history film-making, Cherry Kearton (1871-1940) and David... more This paper, centred on two British figures of natural history film-making, Cherry Kearton (1871-1940) and David Attenborough (born 1926), examines how the figure of the natural history film-maker was historically constructed as one of expertise, and how such claims to expertise were sustained. A key element was for both character to demonstrate their intimacy with the natural world. The period under consideration spans from 1909, when Kearton started filming wildlife in Africa, to 1957, when Attenborough was offered the position of head of the BBC Natural History Unit, after he had produced three Zoo quest expeditions, thus demonstrating his skills at natural history television-making. In both cases the analysis is based on autobiographical documents and commentaries published in the British daily press. Regarding Attenborough, additional sources are the material found at the BBC written archives centre. The study makes use of the analytical tools and models developed in the constructivist history of science to make sense of the identity fashioning activities of knowledge producers, specially the notions of ‘bricolage’ and of performance. As the paper demonstrates, the public persona fashioned by the two individuals under scrutiny is an instance of two distinct types of expertise combined to form one identity. In order to appear as trustworthy natural history film-makers, Kearton and Attenborough will have to convince their audience of their expertise both as naturalist and as film-maker, hence the term ‘telenaturalist’ suggested to designate the hybrid identity thus fashioned.

The BBC Natural History Unit: Instituting natural history film-making in Britain

by Jean-Baptiste Gouyon

published in 'History of Science', 2011, Vol.49 (4): 425-451.

This paper is a discussion of the way natural history film-making got institutionalised on television as a culture of... more This paper is a discussion of the way natural history film-making got institutionalised on television as a culture of knowledge production, in Great Britain in the post-war period. It is centred on an examination of the establishment and the development of the BBC Natural History Unit (NHU), and how they positioned themselves in relation to the rising discipline of ethology and its practitioners. The paper starts in 1953, when the first natural history television programme was broadcast, and ends in 1979, when Life on Earth, the natural history series still considered a milestone in the NHU history, was aired. The paper highlights the notion of observation, and technologies of visualisation, as pivotal for the process under discussion. Emphasising the mastery of film technol-ogy became central to the fashioning of the natural history film-maker’s identity in contrast to the field researcher’s. The analyses bear on published insiders’ accounts, archival sources retrieved at the BBC written archives centre, and audio-visual material. The study makes use of methodological tools developed in visual anthropology. The visual artefacts produced by natural history film-makers are addressed as tools, with which things are done, and around which social relationship are negotiated. The paper suggests that the development of natural history film-making on British television in the post-war period can be seen as an attempt by naturalists to protect their culture from the threat posed by the development of the science of ethology, the NHU being fashioned as a new haven for natural history.

Back to Politics at Last Orthodox Inertia in the Transatlantic Conflict over Agro-Biotechnology

by Franz Seifert

published 2010 in Science, Technology & Innovation Studies 6 (2)

This study suggests that, despite the decisive function of scientific risk assessment in the regulation of potentially... more This study suggests that, despite the decisive function of scientific risk assessment in the regulation of potentially hazardous technologies, conventional political de-cision-making prevails if in protracted risk controversies scientific consensus can-not be achieved. An examination of Austria’s policy on agricultural biotechnology is presented to illustrate this point: For a number of years Austria has been up-holding national bans on various Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) even though these bans were deemed illegal by the European Commission as well as a WTO Dispute Settlement Jury. Since European and international regulations re-quire restrictions on biotech-products to be based on scientific evidence, for the longest time the dispute between Austria and the European Commission, seeking to lift the Austrian ban, consisted in the exchange of scientific opinions. When in-ternational pressure against the Austrian ban rose after a WTO judgment censuring the Austrian measure, only a political solution could bring about a (still provi-sional) settlement. The process is discussed against the backdrop of sociological debates questioning the pivotal status of science in government.

Creating a Canadian profession: the nuclear engineer, c. 1940-1968

by Sean Johnston

Canada, as one of the three Allied nations collaborating on atomic energy development during the Second World War, had... more Canada, as one of the three Allied nations collaborating on atomic energy development during the Second World War, had an early start in applying its new knowledge and defining a new profession. Owing to postwar secrecy and distinct national aims for the field, nuclear engineering was shaped uniquely by the Canadian context. Alone among the postwar powers, Canadian exploration of atomic energy eschewed military applications; the occupation emerged within a governmental monopoly; the intellectual content of the discipline was influenced by its early practitioners, administrators, scarce resources, and university niches; and a self-recognized profession coalesced later than did its American and British counterparts. This paper argues that the history of the emergence of Canadian nuclear engineers exemplifies unusually strong shaping of technical expertise by political and cultural context.

Tecnologia e Retórica, para uma retórica material da função útil, o exemplo do telemóvel

by Pedro Mendonça

in Media & Jornalismo (2010), nº16, vol. 9, nº1, pp. 183-200

The modal nature of ICT: Challenging historical interpretation of the social understanding and appropriation of ICT

by Marcus Leaning

Published in The Journal of Community Informatics, Vol 2, No 1 (2005). This paper was originally presented at the Community Informatics Research Network Conference in Cape Town in 2005 amnd won the best paper award.

This paper proposes a sociological model for understanding the social appropriation of information and communications... more This paper proposes a sociological model for understanding the social appropriation of information and communications technology (ICT). It is argued that the relationship between a media form and the society in which it is deployed is of key import in understanding how media is used. An account is given of the way in which the power of ICT to affect society has been understood. It is argued that positions within this debate are deeply tied to Western cultural beliefs and values. An alternate model of technology is proposed. In this model ICT is regarded as "modal" in operation, that is, it may operate differently in different situations.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

by Yaakov Garb

This is a short version of an essay "Change and Continuity in Environmental World-view: The Politics of Nature in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring," which appeared David Macauley, ed. Minding Nature: The Philosophers of Ecology, (New York: Guilford Press, 1996).

Constructing the Trans-Israel Highway's Inevitability

by Yaakov Garb

This essay describes the construction of inevitability in megaprojects. In order to move forward from being a... more This essay describes the construction of inevitability in megaprojects. In order to move forward from being a contested notion, one among many, a megaproject must grow and be stabilized within the awareness of different professional, decision-maker, and public groups, and, ultimately, overwhelm the space of possibilities. This sense of inevitability is one of the most valuable achievements for project proponents; undermining it, the crux of opponents' efforts.

In this essay, I describe the rhetorical strategies used by proponents of the 300 kilometer Trans-Israel Highway to make their project seem inevitable. These included the following:

1. Shaping and proliferating a problem definition (in this case, perceived congestion and an alleged "lag in road infrastructure") that pointed inescapably to the proposed project as solution.

2. Rewriting and telling the project's history as one of the inevitable unfolding and gathering momentum of a single long-established plan. This post-hoc account masks the project's halting, opportunistic, contested, and haphazard trajectory, its mutating nature, and the willful efforts necessary to propel it forward in the face of opposition.

3. A concerted effort to close debate onto issues internal to the project itself. Thus project proponents strove to limit discussion to issues such as the Highway's staging, costs, routing, etc., and exclude from debate any discussion of--and spokespeople for--issues outside this project "box," especially those that might have raised questions about the need for the box itself.

4. Attempts to bring the future forward, into the present: to achieve or present as already achieved, components of the project prior to its approval. These prefigurative "facts on the ground" symbolically and materially blur the contingency of project approval and preempt alternatives.

Together, these discursive-political ploys drew on and reworked the past, present and future so as to narrow the space of possibilities to a single outcome: the proposed project. These ploys are by no means unique to the Trans-Israel project; they are, I propose, regular accompaniments to any large project. Nor are they limited to "bad" projects; all the maneuvers described, with the possible exception of some aspects of item 3, are regular, perhaps legitimate features of the emergence of large projects. The observations below are thus offered both for their theoretical insight into the polito-rhetorical processes through which large projects are forwarded, and as a practical aid to those who wish to question and reverse the seeming inevitability of bad ones.

Examining the two cultures theory of fisheries knowledge: the case of the Northwest Atlantic bluefish

by Doug Wilson

Many accounts of fisheries knowledge have relied on a general contrast between fishers' knowledge and scientists'... more Many accounts of fisheries knowledge have relied on a general contrast between fishers' knowledge and scientists' knowledge. This 'two cultures' theory suggests that both training and experience lead fishers and scientists to think in systematically different ways about fish and that resulting breakdowns in communications is a primary reason for management failures. The paper traces seven disputes over bluefish science and argues that institutional factors, rather than differences in understanding, were more important in five of these seven disputes. In the final outcome the scientists rejected the "anecdotal" information of fishers, but not because they did not believe that it accurately reflected the condition of the stock. The reasons for this final outcome are to be found in the institutions governing the interactions between the two groups.

Knowledge, economy, technology and society: The politics of discourse

by David Rooney

The WSIS is centrally interested in knowledge and has defined for itself a mission that is broadly humanitarian. Its... more The WSIS is centrally interested in knowledge and has defined for itself a mission that is broadly humanitarian. Its development ‘talk’ is, rightly, replete with notions of equity, preserving culture, justice, human rights and so on. In incorporating such issues into knowledge society and economy discussions, WSIS has adopted a different posture towards knowledge than is seen in dominant discourses. This study analyses the dominant knowledge discourse using a large corpus of knowledge-related policy documents, discourse theory and an interrelational understanding of knowledge. I show that it is important to understand this dominant knowledge discourse because of its capacity to limit thought and action in relation to its central topic, knowledge. The results of this study demonstrate that the dominant knowledge discourse is technocratic, frequently insensitive to the humane mission at the core of the WSIS, and is based on a partial understanding of what knowledge is and how knowledge systems work. Moreover, I show that knowledge is inherently political, that the dominant knowledge discourse is politically oriented towards the concerns of business and technology, but that an emancipatory politics of knowledge is possible.

We spent a million bucks and then we had to do something: The unexpected implications of industry involvement in trans fat research

by David Schleifer

Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, 2011, published online ahead of print.

Many scholars assume that industry meddles in scientific research in order to defend their products. But this article... more Many scholars assume that industry meddles in scientific research in order to defend their products. But this article shows that industry meddling in science can have a variety of consequences. American food manufacturers long denied that trans fats were associated with disease. Academic scientists, government scientists, and activists in fact endorsed trans fats as a healthier alternative to saturated fats. But in 1990, a high-profile study showed that trans fats increased risk factors for heart disease more than saturated fats did. Industry funded a U.S. Department of Agriculture study that they hoped would exonerate trans fats. But the industry-funded U.S. Department of Agriculture study also indicated that trans fats increased risk factors for heart disease more than saturated fats. Industry quickly began developing trans fat alternatives. This confirms that corporations get involved in science in order to defend their products. But involvement in science can be the very means by which corporations persuade themselves to change their products.

No man is an island: categorising the individual in contemporary nutrition science

by Bart Penders

Penders, B. (2008). In: FoodInfo Online Features (19 Feb).

Genetics and practices of food, families, insurance and health care: From impact towards co-construction.

by Bart Penders

Horstman, K., Aarden, E., Geelen, E., Van Hoyweghen, I., Penders, B. & Vos, R. (2008). Tailoring Biotechnologies 4 (1/2): 23-40. [DOI: NA]