History and Past Activities
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History and Past Activities |
EASST - Conference "Worlds in Transition"
WORLDS IN TRANSITION
Conference of EASST and 4S,
Sept. 27-30, 2000, University of Vienna, Austria
Stream of sessions of the SSTNET
THE "TECHNOLOGIZATION" OF SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
Convenors:
Sociology of Science and Technology Research Network (SSTNET)
of the European Sociological Association: Raymund Werle, Luisa Oliveira, Franc Mali
Research Committee 23 Sociology of Science and Technology (RC 23)
of the International Sociological Association: Karel Müller
Abstract
The pervasive social significance of high technology has become increasingly transparent. Technologization, i.e. the ubiquity and multi-functionality of technology in contemporary societies, however, has not inspired social theory yet. The concept of "actants" in Latour's and Callon's actor-network-theory can be seen as one theoretical response to technologization. Others are provided by Foucault or Giddens and by social constructivism. But often technology plays a marginal role in social theory. The contributions in the first part of the sessions will reflect on this ambivalence of ubiquity of technology in social life and its relatively minor significance in social theory.
Apart from the general relation of technology to social phenomena a specific relation of technologization to science can be observed. Technology has had an impact on the development of science and scientific theories. Also the hierarchy between the disciplines is affected by technology. Technology related R&D attracts government and industry funding while other research has to struggle for reputation and funds. This goes along with normative changes in science. Concepts such as the entrepreneurial university, the triple helix of government-industry-academia relations or the mode 2 production of knowledge take these normative and institutional changes into consideration but they focus on technology based or technology oriented R&D ("Technoscience") rather than a broader understanding of science. The social study of science has to consider this relationship of science and technology, and the contributions to the second part of the sessions will analyze how it can be specified.
Thus the sessions deal with the two partly overlapping areas:
1. Technologization and social theory
2. Technologization and the science system
Agenda
Social (Scientific and Democratic) Control of Technology
1. Karel Müller: Expertocracy and Democracy: Problems of Public Control of Technology in New Democracies
2. Les Levidow: Technologizing Democracy? Deliberating Agricultural Biotechnology in Europe
3. Maarten Mentzel: The introduction of Science Based Technologies in European Societies: The Question of Political Legitimacy
4. Luisa Oliveira: The Makers of Technologized Society
5. John Monk: Cyborgs, Language and Technology
Social Theory of Technology: Concepts and Approaches
1. Cornelis Disco: Can (Neo)-Classical Social Theory Accommodate Technology and its Development?
2. Frans A.J. Birrer: Technology as Subliminal Enticement
3. Gotthard Bechmann: Technology as a Medium - a Constructivist Concept of Technology
4. Reiner Grundmann: Is Technology a Legitimate Object for Social Theory?
5. Moses A. Boudourides: Science & Technology Studies in the Information Society: A Social Study of the Internet
The Role of Technology in the Scientific Process
1. John Ziman: Non-instrumental Roles for Science
2. Petra Ahrweiler: Turing-Test and Social Science Hermeneutics - Some Software Aspects of "Verstehen"
3. Chris Caswill: Technologies and Research Agendas within the Virtual Research Council
4. Hasan Unal Nalbantoglu & Belkis Ayhan Tarhan: Technology as the Organization of Scientific Practice: a Turkish Case
5. Lech W. Zacher: On Technology, Education and Practical Activities: Some Roots of Disintegration
Responses of Academia to the Technologization of Science
1. Marja Häyrinen-Alestalo & Ulla Peltola: Universities Responding to the Pressure to Commercialize their Knowledge Production
2. Norma Morris: Researcher Perspectives on the Technologisation of the Biological Sciences
3. Franc Mali: New Challenges, But Old Views - Is it Possible for the Countries in Transition to Come to New Evaluation Models of Science and Technology?
4. Karoliina Snell: Breaking the Link Between Research and Education in an Entrepreneurial University
5. Aaro Tupasela: Intellectual Property Rights and Patenting: Can Centralized Technology Transfer Save Public Research?
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Abstracts: click on the links above.
Sociology of Science and Technology NETwork - last update: April 2006