scholarly journals STS as a Program of Ontological Disobedience: Koichi Mikami Talks with Steve Woolgar

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koichi Mikami ◽  
Steve Woolgar
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
Distinguished Career

Is science and technology studies (STS) a luxury that our society cannot afford anymore? In this interview, Koichi Mikami tries to learn lessons from Steve Woolgar’s distinguished career on how the kind of sensibilities treasured within the field of STS and the type of critical engagement that its researchers aspire to might be best exercised in a changing landscape of higher education and academic research. Woolgar explains how he, at some key moments in his career, managed to create “a room” for reflexive thought and critical engagement in domains that could otherwise have been dominated by simple deterministic discourses. He explains that the questions of how and to whom you sell your criticism deserve as much attention as what your criticism is. A reflection by Koichi Mikami follows the interview.

scholarly journals Presence, Absence, and Alterity: Fire Space and Goffman’s Selves in Postdigital Education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Gourlay
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Video Conferencing ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Synchronous Interaction ◽  
Network Space

AbstractThe literature on space in higher education has arguably been dominated by the concept of ‘learning spaces’. In this paper, I will argue that this construct, while appearing student-focused and creative, is ideologically circumscribed by an underlying social constructivism. Following Bayne et al. (2014), I draw on science and technology studies to consider social topologies, in particular regional space, network space, and their proposed fluid space, and the work of Law and colleagues on the category of fire space, derived from Bachelard’s (The Psychoanalysis of Fire, 1964) disquisition on the nature of fire. I work with this construct in an analysis of postdigital education, in particular looking at synchronous interaction via video conferencing software such as Zoom. Linking this analysis to the work of Goffman and his concept of the lecturer selves (Goffman in Forms of Talk, 1981), I argue that the concept of fire space may allow for a more nuanced and accurate account of the flickering, contingent nature of (co) presence, absence, and alterity, allowing for a more immanent account of digital interaction in ‘distance’ or ‘online’ education.

scholarly journals After Big Data Failed: The Enduring Allure of Numbers in the Wake of the 2016 US Election

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanni Loukissas ◽  
Anne Pollock
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Critical Engagement ◽  
Us Presidential Election ◽  
The Prestige

When widespread polling failed to accurately predict the 2016 US presidential election, producers and consumers of data didn’t abandon faith in numbers. Instead, they have reconfigured their relationships with big data. Producers are formulating redemption narratives, blaming specific datasets or poor interpretation, and the broader reception looks similar. Seeking an explanation for Trump’s unexpected victory, news audiences are calling out failed pre-election polling numbers, while at the same time embracing empirically dubious exit polls. This Critical Engagement piece argues that Science and Technology Studies scholarship has prepared us to see that polling errors would not undo the prestige and power of quantitative methods, but rather reveal the intensity of our attachment to data as a readily available arbiter. We show that data’s ambivalent qualities make it a durable ground for claims-making, with the capacity to be mobilized to do different kinds of work: blame, exoneration, and broader sense-making.

scholarly journals Trois regards sur la notion de « culture chinoise »

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-116
Author(s):  
Basile Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Interactional Expertise ◽  
General Argument ◽  
Technology Studies ◽  
Chinese Studies

Abstract Chinese studies are going through a period of reforms. This article appraises what could constitute the theoretical and methodological foundations of contemporary sinology today. The author suggests an approach of “Chinese culture” by drawing from recent frameworks of Science and Technology Studies (STS). The paper starts with current debates in Asian studies, followed by a historical overview of the concept of culture in anthropology. Then, two short case studies are presented with regard to two different STS approaches: studies of expertise and experience and the notion of interactional expertise, and the framework of waves and forms. A general argument is thereby sketched which suggests how “Chinese culture” can be understood from the perspective of materiality.

Queere Praktiken der Reproduktion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Charlotte Dionisius
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Feminist Science ◽  
Technology Studies

Ein, zwei, drei oder vier Elternteile, »Sponkel«, »Mapas« und lesbische Zeugungsakte - wer oder was Familie ist und wie sie gegründet wird, hat sich vervielfältigt. Sarah Charlotte Dionisius rekonstruiert aus einer von den Feminist Science and Technology Studies inspirierten, queertheoretischen Perspektive, wie lesbische und queere Frauen*paare, die mittels Samenspende Eltern geworden sind, Familie, Verwandtschaft und Geschlecht imaginieren und praktizieren. Damit wirft sie einen heteronormativitätskritischen Blick auf die sozialwissenschaftliche Familienforschung sowie auf gesellschaftliche und rechtliche Entwicklungen, die neue Ein- und Ausschlüsse queerer familialer Lebensweisen mit sich bringen.

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