|
Science and technology studies (STS) is the study of how social, political, and cultural values affect scientific research and technological innovation, and how these in turn affect society, politics, and culture. More than two dozen universities worldwide offer baccalaureate degrees in STS; about half of these also offer doctoral or master's programs. STS scholars tend to be inspired by one or both of the following: For the impacts of science and technology upon society, and vice versa, go to: Technology and society.
History STS is a new and expanding subject; for example, in 2005, four major U.S. universities announced new STS programs. Like most interdisciplinary programs, it emerged from the confluence of a variety of disciplines and disciplinary subfields, all of which had developed an interest -- typically, during the 1960s or 1970s-- in viewing science and technology as socially embedded enterprises. Early developments The key disciplinary components of STS took shape independently, beginning in the 1960s, and developed in isolation from each other well into the 1980s: During the 1970s and 1980s, leading universities in the U.S., U.K., and Europe began drawing these various components together in new, interdisciplinary programs. For example, in the 1970s, Cornell University developed a new program that united science studies and policy-oriented scholars with historians and philosophers of science and technology. Each of these programs developed unique identities due to variation in the components that were drawn together, as well as their location within the various universities. For example, the University of Virginia's STS program united scholars drawn from a variety of fields (with particular strength in the history of technology); however, the program's teaching responsibilities -- it is located within an engineering school and teaches ethics to undergraduate engineering students -- means that all of its faculty share a strong interest in engineering ethics. The "turn to technology" A decisive moment in the development of STS was the mid-1980s addition of technology studies to the range of interests reflected in science studies programs. During that decade, two works appeared en seriatim that signaled what Steve Woolgar was to call the “turn to technology”: Social Shaping of Technology (MacKenzie and Wajcman, 1985) and The Social Construction of Technological Systems (Bijker, Hughes et al., 1987). MacKenzie and Wajcman primed the pump by collecting a highly readable collection of articles attesting to the influence of society on technological design. In a seminal article, Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker attached all the legitimacy of the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge to this development by showing how the sociology of technology could proceed along precisely the theoretical and methodological lines established by the sociology of scientific knowledge. This was the intellectual foundation of the field they called the social construction of technology. The "turn to technology" helped to cement an already growing awareness of underlying unity among the various emerging STS programs. Professional associations The subject has several professional associations: Founded in 1975, the Society for Social Studies of Science, initially provided scholarly communication facilities -- including a journal (Science, Technology, and Human Values) and annual meetings -- that were mainly attended by science studies scholars, but the society has since grown into the most important professional association of science and technology studies scholars worldwide. The Society for Social Studies of Science members also include government and industry officials concerned with research and development as well as science and technology policy; scientists and engineers who wish to better understand the social embeddedness of their professional practice; and citizens concerned about the impact of science and technology in their lives. Proposals have been made to add the word "technology" to the association's name, thereby reflecting its stature as the leading STS professional society, but there seems to be widespread sentiment that the name is long enough as it is. Founded in 1958, the Society for the History of Technology initially attracted members from the history profession who had interests in the contextual history of technology. After the "turn to technology" in the mid-1980s, the society's well-regarded journal (Technology and Culture) and its annual meetings began to attract considerable interest from non-historians with technology studies interests. Less identified with STS, but also of importance to many STS scholars, are the History of Science Society, the Philosophy of Science Association, and the American Association for the History of Medicine. In addition, there are significant STS-oriented special interest groups within major disciplinary associations, including the American Anthropological Association, the American Political Science Association, and the American Sociological Association. STS sites STS professional associations | ||||||||
|
| |||||||||
 |
|
| |