230187 SE Co-producing science and society. Theoretical approaches and empirical examples (2009S)

A central tenet of recent work on the processes of co-production of science and society is that the ways in which we know about the world are inseparable from how we choose to live in it. The production of scientific knowledge is inextricably interwoven with the creation of social order - and vice versa, particularly in the context contemporary knowledge societies social orders and societal futures are envisioned as to be based on scientific progress.
This course will introduce students to theoretical and empirical approaches to these issues. It will be divided into two parts. In the first, students will receive an introduction to central theoretical concepts, such as co-production, civic epistemologies (ways in which societies know things in common) or technologies of humility (ways of dealing with scientific and technological innovation processes and related risks), and to methodological issues in addressing these concepts, such as by comparison.
In the second part of the seminar, students will visit the international workshop "Nanotechnology Compared" (June 16-17), and will thus be able to grasp how these and other theoretical approaches are used in actual research practice.
In a concluding session, students' impressions of the workshop and possibilities and limits of the use of the discussed concepts in actual research practice will be reflected.

This course is aimed at advanced master students and PhD students, who are already familiar with basic concepts and approaches in the field of science, technology and society.