Science & Technology Studies

Editorial

Antti Silvast — Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0300

Fieldwork in the Anthropocene

Tanja Bogusz — Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0300

Interdisciplinary sensitivity takes into account the epistemic upheaval of the Anthropocene. However, the still fragmented academic organization between nature and society counteracts intellectual progress. The paper explores the possibilities of enhancing collaboration between biology and sociology by providing an empirical reflection of common methodological grounds. Building on practice theory, pragmatism, science studies and sociocultural anthropology, I discuss current nature–society relationships through an ethnography of a taxonomist’s laboratory, followed up by a biodiversity expedition in Papua New Guinea. I address analogical thinking as a device for interdisciplinary collaboration through four modes of fieldwork enrollment: Ontological, disciplinary, transdisciplinary and experimental. The paper concludes with two arguments: Firstly, fieldwork could engender new knowledge in between differing epistemic cultures and, secondly, an analogical fieldwork approach based on the interrelatedness of experience, trial and cooperation facilitates promising pathways for sustainable futures of inquiry.

Technological Expectations and the Making of Europe

Jens Hälterlein — Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0300

In a case study approach, the paper traces how technological expectations have been influential in the creation of European institutions, R&D programmes and regulatory instruments and how they have contributed to processes of European integration. The first case study shows how the promises of a coming ‘Atomic Age’ have been mobilized to support the foundation of the European Atomic Energy Community and, thus, contributed to European integration in the post-WW2 era. The second case study analyses how the security stream within the EU’s framework programmes for R&D is shaped by the promise of ‘technosecurity’ and enacts the normative claim of the EU’s security integration in the post-Cold War era. The third case study analyses how the EU’s AI strategy and AI act articulates the vision of a ‘human-centric AI’ and how this vision is related to the EU’s current attempt to restore citizens’ trust in times of crisis.

Risk and Uncertainty in Telecare

Joni Jaakola — Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0300

In recent decades, technologically mediated ‘telecare’ solutions have become popular for making the care of ageing populations more efficient, productive and targeted in times of economic austerity and care deficits. While telecare has been implemented in care work, caring has increasingly become a practice of managing risks. This paper draws on ethnographic research on the telecare solution ‘Elsi’ in a Finnish care home setting and examines telecare as a form of risk management. The ‘Elsi’ telecare system is based on information gathered from floor sensors and alarms caused by different events, such as falls. The argument is that telecare practices deal in many ways with ‘uncertainty work’ that produces uncertain knowledge, uncertain entities and uncertain values. Furthermore, these uncertainties produce additional work, which creates more duties for the care worker.

The Logics of Invited and Uninvited Material Participation

Kate Weiner, Flis Henwood, Jacob Andrews , Catherine Will, Ros Williams — Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0300

This paper addresses debates concerning the ‘participatory turn’ in healthcare. It focuses on the case of blood pressure self-monitoring, understanding this as a form of patient participation at the level of individual care. Drawing and expanding on the work of Marres and Wynne and their notions of material participation and of uninvited engagement, we examine how patients’ home blood pressure self-monitoring is incorporated into clinical care, how the materials of blood pressure self-monitoring mediate participation and how we might characterise the practices of participation found within everyday clinical care. Our analysis makes new conceptual links, suggesting that, in this context, invited participation appears to align with participation made easy, while uninvited participation involves more invested, more engaged participation. We offer two further developments of these concepts. First, we trouble characterisations of invited and uninvited participation as distinct and separate, observing movement between these. Second, through applying the logics of material participation in a new context, everyday clinical practice, we suggest that the logic of participation made easy might be extended beyond lay people, to apply to professionals as well. Our analysis illustrates how materials are mobilised to facilitate invited and uninvited participation within the context of the on-going asymmetries in doctor patient relationships.

Paterson Mark (2021) How we Became Sensorimotor: Movement, Measurement, Sensation

Nona Schulte-Römer — Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0300

Hidalgo César A, Orghian Diana, Albo-Canals Jordi, De Almeida Filipa & Martin Natalia (2021) How Humans Judge Machines

Manh-Tung Ho — Mon, 15 May 2023 00:00:00 +0300