230164 SE Risky Entanglements? Theorising Science, Technology and Society Relationships (2011W)

In this seminar, you will be introduced to central theoretical frameworks of STS (the study of science, technology and society). Coming from other scientific disciplines and context, you may be a bit confused facing the sheer number of labels and categories that are used within STS to attribute theoretical approaches. Here, to newcomers and outsiders, it is often not clear what these labels signify. The seminar’s title 'risky entanglements' does not only describe the mutual relation between science, technology and society. It also accounts for the enmeshments of theories, methods, places observed and issues analysed etc. in what we call STS research. The aim of this seminar is to engage with theory in STS in a systematic way.
In order to do so, we will approach theories in STS with the image of a 'map' of the theoretical geography of STS that helps to systematize theoretical work in STS. In the course of the seminar we will zoom in and out this map in order to get a more comprehensive overview on the theoretical landscape of STS, e.g. looking a the larger field of society and technology and the question on how it has been theorized; or take a closer look into certain places such as laboratories and discuss how this special place of knowledge production could be approached theoretically and methodologically. We will also contextualize theories in STS in history, in what contexts and along which problems they have emerged, as well as how they relate to each other.
The aim of this seminar is to create confidence when you have to walk on the territory of STS theories on your own in the following semesters.
The theoretical approaches covered range from structural functionalism, sociology of scientific knowledge and the strong programme, interpretative theories (symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology), feminist science studies, actor network theory and co-production theories. We will engage with the laboratory as a particular and important place of STS and see how this place has been approached theoretically (constructivism, ethnography) and address how 'technology' is theoretically framed within STS (SCOT - Social construction of technology).