230168 SE Knowledge relations under changing communication and information structures (2011W)

In recent years, new technological possibilities have emerged which have profoundly changed the ways in which knowledge is created, distributed and incorporated. Among other changes, the introduction of new information and communication technologies - as one form of major knowledge infrastructure - has participated in reordering classical knowledge relations within science and beyond. At the same time, debates have started asking whether expert knowledge as produced in research institutions is adequate for addressing complex societal problems, and other forms of knowledge have gained (at least discursively) in importance. Finally, also citizens are increasingly requested to acquire techno-scientific knowledge in order to make informed choices.
This seminar will thus address questions of knowledge orders in contemporary societies. It will investigate the relations between different kinds of knowledge, reflect on different roles of producers and consumers, and analyse different forms of representation and distribution. In doing so, the seminar aims at gaining a better understanding of what it means to live in contemporary knowledge/innovation societies. The goal is to critically assess the interplay between the social, the technical and the epistemic, i.e. between different epistemic practices, technologies and values.