230140 VO Knowledge and Technology Cultures: Central Issues, Questions and Concepts (2013S)

The lecture offers an introduction to central issues, leading questions and key concepts in the topical area of `knowledge and technology cultures`.
Part I of the lecture examines recent discourse on cultural, institutional and organizational change within and beyond academia. Particular attention will be given to `master narratives` of epochal changes in science and technology, such as the transition from discipline-based `pure science` to trans-disciplinary `entrepreneurial research`, strategically oriented `technoscience` and/or `socially distributed knowledge` (e.g., via digital information and communication technologies). How are epistemic politics and knowledge cultures, research practices and technical skills contextualized in and by those narratives?
Part II of the lecture, in turn, homes in on distinctive practices of scientific inquiry and technology design, technical training and technology use. Particular attention will be given to `situated apprenticeship`, its immediate circumstances and tacit politics. How does apprenticeship contextualize itself? A range of technically mediated settings and material cultures of everyday life will be examined in answer to that question at school, at work, in play, under repair or in care, on- or offline. An overall concern is the relationship between practice, policy and proficiency, as well as between various types of activity and orders of accountability (i.e., contextualization).
Part III of the lecture reflects upon the terms of critical engagement with if not against the `nexus of doings and sayings` (Schatzki 1996) out of which any material knowledge and technology (culture) appears to be crafted and contextualized.
The discussion class (No 230141) allows participants to deepen the topics addressed in the lecture by contrasting its three main perspectives: discourse analysis (Part I), practice description (Part II) and critical engagement (Part III). Selected texts, tutorial exercises, site visits and/or invited speakers (tbc) will facilitate that task.