Science and Technology Reading Group

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The Science and Technology Studies Reading Group has the goal of bringing together faculty and students who share an interest in technoscience and the interdisciplinary perspectives that scholarship in Science and Technology Studies provides.

Science and Technology Studies (STS) is a rich and exciting interdisciplinary field that explores how society, politics, and culture affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these, in turn, affect society, politics and culture. Science and Technology Studies bundles research perspectives from the social sciences, humanities and STEM -fields. Research in Science and Technology Studies addresses some of the most pressing questions of our time: How is digitalization changing science, democracies and societies? In what ways does scientific and technical knowledge shape social and economic innovations? How do technical developments co-produce the future of our democracies? How can we open up dialogues and participation on these topics? How do the technosciences, as the dominant way of knowledge-making, transform power structures and decision-making?

The Department of Sociology gathers students and world-class faculty from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Many of them explore technoscientific questions in research and practice. Thus, our new student-led group offers a forum for students and faculty to address technoscientific questions from the rich perspectives of Science and Technology Studies.

We will explore some of the core topics in contemporary STS , review current research and major theoretical and conceptual approaches. The group is conceptualized in a manner that makes it accessible for students from all disciplines and backgrounds. Participants will gain some background knowledge to investigate and analyze urgent questions about the interplay of science, technology, and society from different (inter-)disciplinary perspectives. We will question prevailing assumptions, explore new conceptualizations and imagine how the world might be otherwise.

Our goals are twofold: (1) We want to provide participants with some of the key concepts and assumptions of STS and (2) foster discussions that will generate meaningful insights for each participant that will prove helpful in practice and research.

Conveners (2019-20): Robert Dorschel (rcd49@cam.ac.uk), A. V. Eireiner (ave23@cam.ac.uk)