Gathering, Translating, Enacting. A study of interdisciplinary research and development practices in Technology Enhanced Learning
A PhD Thesis
This is an ethnographic case-study of research and development practices taking place in an interdisciplinary project... more This is an ethnographic case-study of research and development practices taking place in an interdisciplinary project between education and computer sciences. The Ensemble-project, part of the Technology Enhanced Learning programme (2008-12), has studied case-based learning in a number of diverse settings in Higher Education, working to develop semantic technologies for supporting that learning. Focussing on one of the six research settings, the discipline of archaeology, the current study has had three purposes. By opening up to scrutiny the practices of research and development, it has firstly sought to understand how a shared research question is answered in practice when divergent research approaches are brought to bear upon it. Secondly, the study has followed the emergence of a piece of semantic technology through these practices. The third aim has been to assess the advantages and disadvantages of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) in studying unfolding, open-ended processes in real time. Through critical ethnographic participation, multiple ethnographic research methods, and by drawing on ANT as theoretical practice, the study has shown the precarious and unpredictable nature of research and development work, the political nature of research methods and how multiple realities can be produced using them, and the need for technology development to flexibly respond to changing circumstances. We have also seen the mutual adoption and extension of practices by the two strands of the project into each others’ domains, and how interdisciplinary tensions resolved, while they did not disappear, through pragmatic changes within the project. The study contributes to the interdisciplinary fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS) where studies on the ‘soft sciences’, such as education, are few, and a new field of Studies in Social Science and Humanities (SSH) which is emerging alongside and from within the STS. Interdisciplinary endeavours between fields pertaining largely to the natural and the social sciences respectively have not been studied commonly within either field.
Author team diversity and the impact of scientific publications: Evidence from physics research at a national science lab
by Adam Worrall
Hinnant, C. C., Stvilia, B., Wu, S., Worrall, A., Burnett, G., Burnett, K., Kazmer, M. M., & Marty, P. F. (in press). Author team diversity and the impact of scientific publications: Evidence from physics research at a national science lab. Library and Information Science Research.
In the second half of the twentieth century, scientific research in physics, chemistry, and engineering began to focus... more In the second half of the twentieth century, scientific research in physics, chemistry, and engineering began to focus on the use of large government funded laboratories. This shift toward so‐called big science also brought about a concomitant change in scientific work itself, with a sustained trend toward the use of highly specialized scientific teams, elevating the role of team characteristics on scientific outputs. The actual impact of scientific knowledge is commonly measured by how often peer‐ reviewed publications are, in turn, cited by other researchers. This study examines how characteristics such as author team seniority, affiliation diversity, and size affect the overall impact of team publications. Citation information and author demographics were examined for 123 articles published in Physical Review Letters from 2004 to 2006 by 476 scientists who used the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory’s facilities. Correlation analysis indicated that author teams which were more multi‐ institutional and had homogeneous seniority tended to have more senior scientists. In addition, the analysis suggests that more mixed seniority author teams were likely to be less institutionally dispersed. Quantile regression was used to examine the relationships between author team characteristics and publication impact. The analysis indicated that weighted average seniority and average seniority both had a negative relationship with the number of citations the publication received. Furthermore, the analysis also showed a positive relationship between first author seniority and the number of citations, and a negative relationship between the number of authors and the number of citations.
Der parallaktische Blick: Der militarische Ursprung der Holographie
Chapter in Das holographische Wissen, edited by Stefan Rieger and Jens Schroter
The title of this chapter is meant to evoke at least three sources. The first – and perhaps the only obvious one –... more
The title of this chapter is meant to evoke at least three sources. The first – and perhaps the only obvious one – concerns the ability of holograms to display parallax, a shifting of visual viewpoint that allows a three-dimensional image to reveal background objects behind those in the foreground. This parallax view is a unique feature of holograms as visual media. A second allusion is to the American film The Parallax View (1974, director A. J. Pakula), a rather paranoid thriller focusing on conspiracy theories concerning government and corporations. To a casual observer, the bare details of the military origins of holography suggest just such cynical and centrally-directed development, although I hope to dispel such simplistic ideas here. And a third passing reference is to the book The Parallax View (2006) by Slavoj Zizek, a wide-ranging and deep exploration of duality in political views, ontological interpretations and scientific methods, among other topics.
Zizek’s theme, as well as Pakula’s, is relevant to my approach, which focuses on a parallax of both practice and intent. During the first successful decade of holography, conflicting viewpoints developed between distinct communities: the militarily-guided engineers who invented practical holography, and the later imaging scientists and artisans who stressed three-dimensionality and other attributes instead of the original goal of optical image processing. I argue that distinct groups of users had different perceptions of what holography is and what it is for.
Download (.pdf) Imaginative Research on Persuasion: Subverting Apparent Certainty
Published in New Ideas In Psychology, 29, 1 (2011)
Scienze del Clima e metodo scientifico tra Comunicazione della Scienza e Sociologia della Conoscenza
in "Epistemologia", 2010, 33(2): 235-256
(Climate Sciences and scientific method between science communication and sociology of knowledge)
Climate sciences are not yet able to establish actual increase in globally averaged temperatures with certainty, especially in relation to human activities. Although the majority of scientific community agrees that a phase of climatic instability is undoubtedly underway and we can talk about a current “Climate Change”, scientific and socio-political debates are still focused on the scientific relevance of the “Anthropogenic Global Warming” (anthropogenic greenhouse effect). The so-called “crucial proof” is still lacking. Starting from an analysis of several official reports, institutional sources and public discussions of last months, the paper examines the development of climate sciences through historiographical and epistemological categories of Sociology of Knowledge and Science Communication. Considering the complex relationships between science, technology and society, the definition of “scientific community” could be replaced by that of “scientific field”. Experimental data are only one of different tools used by scientific enterprise, indeed it should be taken into account others external factors, not necessarily related to laboratory activity and fieldwork, such as: negotiates, personal satisfaction, institutions, policy making, economy etc. Climatology is a case in point. Finally, the article analyses some interesting observations coming from cognitive approaches (cognitive theory of science), according to which science could be defined as an evolutionary and cultural phenomenon related to contingency (historical context).
Nucleare e mass media in Italia
in "Problemi dell'Informazione", 35, 2010: 177-192
(Nuclear energy and mass media in Italy)
The paper examines the difficult relationship between science,... more
(Nuclear energy and mass media in Italy)
The paper examines the difficult relationship between science, mass media and public opinion, referring to nuclear energy issue. Recovering the Morin's notion of "partecipatory democracy", the article try to define a more objective method for public communication of science in the media.
The consequences of predicting scientific impact in psychology using journal impact factors.
Co-authored with Zoe Walton
Published as Hegarty, P., & Walton, Z. (2012). The consequences of predicting scientific impact in psychology using journal impact factors. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 72-78
An academic journal’s impact factor (hereafter JIF) is an average measure of the citation count of individual articles... more
An academic journal’s impact factor (hereafter JIF) is an average measure of the citation count of individual articles published in
that journal. JIF is used to assess merit, predict impact, and allocate resources, but the actual number of citations to individual articles is only modestly correlated with the JIFs of the journals in which they are published. We counted PsycInfo citations to 1,133 articles published in nine leading psychology journals (1996–2005). Both article length (r =.31) and reference list length (r = .41) predicted log-transformed citation counts better than JIF (r = .27). Articles with fewer graphs and more structural equation models were more frequently cited. Citation count was better predicted by a model based on article length and citation count rather than JIF. When JIF was used to predict citation count, the impact of women authors and social science
research was underestimated. These findings distinguish impact in science, as measured by JIF, from actual impact in psychology, and they show the unintended consequences of using a measure of the former to predict the latter.
101 views
Seen by:
Informing, teaching or propagandising? Combining Environmental and Science Studies for undergraduates
Johnston, S.F. and Harvey, M. (2002) Informing, teaching or propagandising? Combining Environmental and Science Studies for undergraduates. PRS-LTSN Journal, 1 (2). pp. 130-140. ISSN 1741-4164
This article discusses recent experiences in the integrated teaching of Environmental Studies and Science Studies in a... more This article discusses recent experiences in the integrated teaching of Environmental Studies and Science Studies in a generalist curriculum at a new university campus in Scotland. At the University of Glasgow Crichton Campus over the past three years, a new mixed curriculum has been developed to combine coherently Environmental and Science Studies, perhaps the first such curriculum in the UK and equally uncommon in America. The Crichton curricum is intentionally multi-disciplinary, drawing closely on the nineteenth-century Scottish model successful exported to America. This generalist approach, emphasising broad philosophical principles, informs the courses and their inter-relationships.
Shifting perspectives: holography and the emergence of technical communities
Johnston, S.F. (2005) Shifting perspectives: holography and the emergence of technical communities. Technology and Culture, 46 (1). pp. 77-103. ISSN 0040-165X
Holography, the technology of three-dimensional imaging, has repeatedly been reconceptualised by new communities.... more Holography, the technology of three-dimensional imaging, has repeatedly been reconceptualised by new communities. Conceived in 1947 as a means of improving electron microscopy, holography was revitalized in the early 1960s by engineer-scientists at classified laboratories. The invention promoted the transformation of a would-be discipline (optical engineering) and spawned limited artist-scientist collaborations. However, a separate artisanal community promoted a distinct countercultural form of holography via a revolutionary technology: the sandbox optical table. Their tools, sponsorship, products, literature and engagement with wider culture differentiated the communities, which instituted a limited ‘technological trade’. The subject strikingly illustrates the co-evolution of new technology along with highly dissimilar user groups, neither of which fostered the secure establishment of a profession or discipline. The case generalises the concept of 'research-technologists' and 'peripheral science', and extends the ideas of Langdon Winner by demonstrating how the political dimensions of a technology can be important but evanescent in the growth of technical communities.
A Historian's View of Holography.
For practitioners immersed in their subjects, the history of holography may may seldom prompt deep reflection or... more For practitioners immersed in their subjects, the history of holography may may seldom prompt deep reflection or justification. Research is guided by straightforward scientific questions, and development may be impelled by technological and economic goals. Historians have their own cluster of motivations and questions, which this paper addresses.
Absorbing new subjects: holography as an analog of photography
I discuss the early history of holography and explore how perceptions, applications, and forecasts of the subject were... more I discuss the early history of holography and explore how perceptions, applications, and forecasts of the subject were shaped by prior experience. I focus on the work of Dennis Gabor (1900–1979) in England,Yury N. Denisyuk (b. 1924) in the Soviet Union, and Emmett N. Leith (1927–2005) and Juris Upatnieks (b. 1936) in the United States. I show that the evolution of holography was simultaneously promoted and constrained by its identification as an analog of photography, an association that influenced its assessment by successive audiences of practitioners, entrepreneurs, and consumers. One consequence is that holography can be seen as an example of a modern technical subject that has been shaped by cultural influences more powerfully than generally appreciated. Conversely, the understanding of this new science and technology in terms of an older one helps to explain why the cultural effects of holography have been more muted than anticipated by forecasters between the 1960s and 1990s.
9 views
Seen by:
Scenarios In Society, Society In Scenarios: Toward a Social Scientific Analysis of Storyline-Driven Environmental Modeling
by Yaakov Garb
Scenario analysis, an approach to thinking about alternative futures based on storyline-driven modeling, has become... more Scenario analysis, an approach to thinking about alternative futures based on storyline-driven modeling, has become increasingly common and important in attempts to understand and respond to the impacts of human activities on natural systems at a variety of scales. The construction of scenarios is a fundamentally social activity, yet social scientific perspectives have rarely been brought to bear on it. Indeed, there is a growing imbalance between the increasing technical sophistication of the modeling elements of scenarios and the continued simplicity of our understanding of the social origins, linkages, and implications of the narratives to which they are coupled. Drawing on conceptual and methodological tools from science and technology studies, sociology and political science, we offer an overview of what a social scientific analysis of scenarios might include. In particular, we explore both how scenarios intervene in social microscale and macroscale contexts and how aspects of such contexts are embedded in scenarios, often implicitly. Analyzing the social ‘work’ of scenarios (i) can enhance the understanding of scenario developers and modeling practitioners of the knowledge production processes in which they participate and (ii) can improve the utility of scenario products as decision-support tools to actual, rather than imagined, decision-makers.
Global Science and National Sovereignty: Studies In Historical Sociology of Science
co-edited with Grégoire Mallard and Catherine Paradeise
Routledge Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, 2009
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415963459/
Global Science and National Sovereignty: Studies in Historical Sociology of Science provides detailed case studies on how sovereignty has been constructed, reaffirmed, and transformed in the twentieth century by the construction of scientific disciplines, knowledge practices, and research objects. Interrogating the relationship of the sovereign power of the nation state to the scientist's expert knowledge as a legitimating – and sometimes challenging – force in contemporary society, this book provides a staggering range of case studies in its exploration of how different types of science have transformed our understanding of national sovereignty in the last century. From biochemical sciences in Russia, to nuclear science in the US and Europe, from economics in South Asia, to climatology in South America, each chapter demonstrates the role that scientists play in the creation of nation-states and international organizations. With an array of experts and scholars, the essays in Global Science and National Sovereignty: Studies in Historical Sociology of Science offer a complete redefinition of the modern concept of sovereignty and an illuminating reassessment of the role of science in political life.
Model migrations: mobility and boundary crossings in regional climate prediction
by Mike Hulme
This paper written with PhD student Martin Mahony explores the 'movement' of climate models drawing upon theories from STS and geographies of science.
The Hadley Centre’s PRECIS regional climate modelling system has been designed to fulfil the informational... more
The Hadley Centre’s PRECIS regional climate modelling system has been designed to fulfil the informational requirements of adaptation and development planners in the ‘global south’. Drawing on recent insights from science and technology studies and the geography of science concerning the mobility of scientific knowledge, this study investigates the institutional and discursive associations that enable the PRECIS modelling system to move between its UK birthplace and new sites of climate simulation. Document analysis and interviews with key personnel reveal the construction of regional climate modelling as an obligatory passage point for those seeking to adapt to future climates in developing countries. Furthermore, the operation of PRECIS across the boundaries of intersecting scientific and political worlds imbues the model with a level of epistemic power that has enabled the partial re-shaping of the global geographies of climate knowledge production. This new structuring of scientific practice is potentially empowering through the redistribution of climate modelling expertise, yet it may also contribute to the construction of climate prediction as a limit to adaptation. We argue that it furthers an epistemic hegemony that renders alternative ‘ways of knowing’ the climate either subordinate to or dependent upon the epistemic community centred on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and global governance mechanisms. The study illuminates the potential for geographers of science to make normative interventions in debates around the interplay of space, knowledge and power in contexts of environmental deliberation and governance.
The realization of sex and bodies: Discursive strategies in Swedish media representations of biomedical research on alcohol
Co-authored with Katarina Winter. Work in progress, paper presented by Katarina Winter at the 25th Conference of the Nordic Sociological Association, Oslo 4-7 August, 2011.
During recent decades, biomedical research on alcohol has increasingly entered the press scene. In particular, media... more During recent decades, biomedical research on alcohol has increasingly entered the press scene. In particular, media stories of health and lifestyle often rely on references to biomedical alcohol research. Furthermore, these types of story are frequently entangled in arguments about bodily sex differences. The purpose of this study is to analyze how sex and the body are realized (Kraus 2000) as objects of knowledge in Swedish media representations of biomedical alcohol research during the period between 1995 and 2010. Using discourse analysis, we address the issue of how these realizations are produced and, particularly, the discursive strategies used in transforming descriptions of sex and body into facts.
Data curation in scientific teams: An exploratory study of condensed matter physics at a national science lab
by Adam Worrall
Hinnant, C. C., Stvilia, B., Wu, S., Worrall, A., Burnett, K., Burnett, G., Kazmer, M. M., & Marty, P. F. (2012). Data curation in scientific teams: An exploratory study of condensed matter physics at a national science lab. In J.-E. Mai (Chair), iConference 2012 proceedings (pp. 498-500), Toronto, Canada, February 7-10, 2012. New York, NY: ACM. doi:10.1145/2132176.2132263
The advent of big science has brought a dramatic increase in the amount of data generated as part of scientific... more The advent of big science has brought a dramatic increase in the amount of data generated as part of scientific investigation. The ability to capture and prepare such data for reuse has brought about an increased interest in data curation practices within scientific fields and venues such as national laboratories. This study employs semi-structured interviews with key scientists at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory to explore data management, curation, and sharing practices within a condensed matter physics community. Findings indicate that condensed matter physics is a highly varied field. The field’s work practices and reward structures may impede the development and implementation of highly formalized curation policies focused on sharing data within the broader community. This study is an extension of a larger mixed-methods study to examine the life-cycles of virtual teams and will serve as a foundation for a larger survey of the lab’s user community.
Observations of the lifecycles and information worlds of collaborative scientific teams at a national science lab
by Adam Worrall
Worrall, A., Marty, P. F., Roberts, J., Burnett, K., Burnett, G., Hinnant, C. C., Kazmer, M. M., Stvilia, B., & Wu, S. (2012). Observations of the lifecycles and information worlds of collaborative scientific teams at a national science lab. In J.-E. Mai (Chair), iConference 2012 proceedings (pp. 423-425), Toronto, Canada, February 7-10, 2012. New York, NY: ACM. doi:10.1145/2132176.2132234
View poster: http://www.adamworrall.org/portfolio/publications/voss_poster_iconfere
Team-based scientific collaborations play a key role in the discovery and distribution of scientific knowledge. In... more Team-based scientific collaborations play a key role in the discovery and distribution of scientific knowledge. In order to determine the social and organizational factors that help support a scientific team’s successful transition from short-term experiments to long-term programs of ongoing scientific research, this study used observations of teams conducting experiments at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory to determine what teams actually do during these experiments. As part of a larger, ongoing research project using mixed methods, our findings describe hybrid teams at work, and demonstrate how multiple, overlapping, and nested lifecycles and information worlds play an important role in promoting successful and continuing scientific collaboration. The boundaries between worlds and efforts to span them are particularly important, requiring greater attention. Our future research will develop a model including these factors and add further practical and theoretical implications to those we have already identified.
Pervasive science
by Hub Zwart
H. Zwart (2010) Pervasive Science: Challenges of contemporary technosciences for governance and self-management. In: M.E.A. Goodwin et al (eds.) Dimensions of Technology Regulation. Wolf Legal Publishers, 189-202
According to Hegel, the basic assignment of philosophy is to capture the present in thoughts. When it comes to... more According to Hegel, the basic assignment of philosophy is to capture the present in thoughts. When it comes to understanding our present, an assessment of the technosciences and their impact on our view on nature, society and ourselves must be of key importance. A prominent feature of contemporary technosciences resides in their pervasiveness: the extent to which they pervade nature, society and human bodies, even on a molecular level, as well as each other. On the one hand, the 20th century is the era of the elementary particles, of identifying the elementary subatomic and molecular building blocks of matter and life. On the other hand, it is the era of complexity, of evolving systems. In both directions, our understanding of ourselves is challenged and deepened by technoscientific explorations. Increasingly, moreover, our technologies tend become nature-like. This allows us to embed them more adequately in natural systems, but it also opens up unprecedented opportunities for modifying natural systems, including human bodies. How are we to address the bioethical and biopolitical prospects and concerns implied in these developments?
