230153 SE Understanding scientific and technological controversies (2011S)
Continuous assessment of course work
Labels
Registration/Deregistration
Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).
- Registration is open from Tu 01.02.2011 08:00 to Su 27.02.2011 23:59
- Deregistration possible until Th 31.03.2011 23:59
Details
max. 25 participants
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N
- Thursday 03.03. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum Physik Sensengasse 8 EG
- Thursday 10.03. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum Physik Sensengasse 8 EG
- Thursday 17.03. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum Physik Sensengasse 8 EG
- Thursday 24.03. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum Physik Sensengasse 8 EG
- Thursday 05.05. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum Physik Sensengasse 8 EG
- Thursday 12.05. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum Physik Sensengasse 8 EG
- Thursday 19.05. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum Physik Sensengasse 8 EG
- Thursday 26.05. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum Physik Sensengasse 8 EG
- Thursday 09.06. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum Physik Sensengasse 8 EG
- Wednesday 15.06. 16:00 - 18:00 Seminarraum Physik Sensengasse 8 EG
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
Both within science but also in contemporary democracies controversies emerging around scientific and technological issues have become of key-importance: they are not only becoming increasingly frequent but also more consequential for policymaking as well as for broader public consciousness. They are moments when common ground does no longer hold together alignments of support among different actors, when questions of implicit values and beliefs at work in science and technology get posed and when routine procedures suddenly are in need of explanation. In that sense they are privileged moments for analysts of science-technology-society relations as they render visible and allow the scrutiny of many of the routine technoscientific practices and assumptions as well as of the tacit cultural imaginaries and value structures which are part and parcel of any technoscientific developments.In this seminar we will follow a number of historical and contemporary technoscientific controversies (19th and 20th century) ranging from the struggle between Pasteur and Pouchet, over nuclear energy, evolution vs creationism, climate change to embryonic stem cells, to name but a few examples. For each case we will analyse how controversies emerge, what role specific cultural and social settings play and how a particular kind of knowledge, a specific "solution", takes shape, gets stabilised (or not) and becomes largely unquestioned. In doing so we will also engage with recent efforts to map different kinds of technoscientific controversies and present these outcomes in form of exhibits or web resources (e.g. www.mappingcontroversies.net) to wider publics. We will thus also address the question what such controversies and their public staging might mean for the relation of technoscience and society.
Assessment and permitted materials
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
Examination topics
Participants in the seminar will have to read a number of texts aiming at understanding the basic functioning principles behind controversies and present them in the seminar. In a second part of the seminar students will document and analysing a selected number of controversies in small groups and stage these controversies.
Reading list
Association in the course directory
Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:39