Sociology of Science & Technology

Cell phones in the news

2005-03-17T17:20:00.001-05:00

Cell phone survey shows love-hate relationship

More than 80 percent of cell phone users say the device has made their lives easier, a new University of Michigan survey shows. But 60 percent say that public use of cell phones has disturbed or irritated them...

Technology and development : The real digital divide

Encouraging the spread of mobile phones is the most sensible and effective response to the digital divide...

Driving 'n' dialing

Impairments of judgment, perception and reaction time caused by driving and dialing are approximately equal to the impairments caused by drinking the legal limit of alcohol, researchers say...

Presentations

2005-03-14T13:48:00.000-05:00

I've created presentation schedules for our final two classes on MAR 23 & MAR 30. Please check to see which day you will be presenting.

A few notes:

1) There are still people who have not signed up for their presentation. IF YOU DO NOT SEE YOUR NAME on these lists, please contact me immediately.

2) Each day there will be a TV/DVD/VCR, a computer and a data projector available to use. For multimedia presentations please come with files on CD, and COPIES SENT to me by email.

3) Each person has a MAXIMUM OF 5 MINUTES for their presentation. (You will be gently but unmistakably cut off!) In order to have time for all the presentations, it is important that you come prepared and keep within the time limits please.

4) Even if you are not presenting, it is your responsibility to ATTEND all the presentations and to COMPLETE A HANDOUT each week. Your attendance and the handout count towards your participation mark.

5) To make time for these presentations & discussion, please be prepared for class to RUN UNTIL 5:45 - 6:00 each week. I know it'll make for long classes, but I know you won't mind since you have no class during review week AND no exam ... Plus, I'm bringing hot drinks and snacks to keep us going ;)

I'm really looking forward to these couple of days and if you have any questions, just ask.

In the news

2005-03-14T13:26:00.000-05:00

BBC News: science risks being tainted by the excessive intrusion of commercialism and there is a need for greater public engagement with science.

What risks - if any - do you see associated with commercial interests supporting scientific research?

Do you "trust scientists to tell the truth"? Do you think "science makes a good contribution to society"?

Presentation schedule for Wed Mar 23

2005-03-13T22:15:00.000-05:00

Sarah Larmour, Julie Brown, Adrian Chong & Pam Palma - Technology and piracy

Marc Waters & Albert Stoffers - Sports broadcasting and television consumption

Brad Morrison, Jennifer Leng, Mike Pietowski + one - GM foods

Giulio Wan - Science, technology and anime

Kelly Aulenback & Ryan Siwy - Video games and socialisation

Jamie Walts, Meg Hierlihy & Christine Hogan - Educational technology and socialisation

Melissa Clow - C.S.I. and public perceptions of science

Kevin Conway & Alex Korovessis - Artificial intelligence

Brian Danaher - Automobiles and society

Michael Handelman & Marisa Vicckies - Sex & sexuality

Presentation schedule for Wed Mar 30

2005-03-13T22:13:00.000-05:00

Ken Doyle, Scott Willis & Rob Khan - Human cloning

Mitchell Blimkie - Technology and health care

Jeff Kelemen, Luc Biggs & Ben Postin - Material culture of sport

Jen Eysaman, Justin Davis & Christina Shurson - Technology and crime

Mike Cullen - Science and superheroes

Jeremy Citron, Joseph Witts, Crystal Lloyd & Daniel Wallerstein - Surveillance technologies

James Dockrill & Elizabeth Caracristi - Entertainment technology and socialisation

Nikolaus Sands & John Britton - Science, technology and sports supplements

Shawn McCallum, Pratik Lodha, Janice Laflair & Richard Harris - Ethics of human genetic manipulation

Some thoughts on sociology, science and technology

2005-03-11T10:02:00.000-05:00

If we look at the course syllabus it states:

"Although often assumed to be separate from the rest of society, scientific knowledge and practice share much in common with other forms of culture, and can profitably be studied as a sociological enterprise. A critical and nuanced understanding of the ways scientists work and of how technologies are developed and used allows us to make informed decisions and take responsible actions on the social, political and ethical aspects of scientific and technological progress."

If we look at the course web site, the class themes address:

"Science and technology as culture and practice - from the laboratories of high energy physicists to street uses of mobile technologies."

And if we review what we read and discussed about science as culture and practice we can see that our goal has been to understand how social interactions and cultural values influence how scientists work, how scientific knowledge is produced, how technologies are developed and how technologies are used.

So rather than looking for the effects of science and technology on society - which implies that they are somehow separate from society - our objective has been to see how our social and cultural lives simultaneously shape, and are shaped by, science and technology.

This involves questioning some of the traditional barriers between science, philosophy, politics, economics, ethics, sociology and anthropology. Rather than accepting these boundaries as 'normal' or 'natural' we have focussed on how the boundaries are made - and changed - in our daily lives. In this way science and technology can be understood in terms of processes with particular interests and values, instead of as neutral or objective products.

Not only does this impact our understanding of science and technology, but it asks us to critically evaluate our knowledge of sociology and anthropology as well.

Question for reflection & discussion

In what ways does this challenge the understandings and assumptions you bring to class?

Critical thinking skills

2005-03-11T09:29:00.000-05:00

10 practices to help us think critically while we read assigned articles, engage in class discussion and work on our research projects

1) Develop criteria for evaluation by clarifying issues, values and standards

2) Refine generalisations and avoid oversimplifications

3) Take into account relevant contexts and distinguish relevant from irrelevant facts

4) Recognise contradictions, discover the weaknesses in our positions and correct what is at fault in our procedures

5) Explore implications and consequences for ourselves and others

6) Develop insight into personal, social and cultural biases

7) Develop intellectual courage by allowing our minds to be changed

8) Develop intellectual humility by suspending judgment and being fair

9) Develop intellectual perseverance by not giving up when at first we do not understand

10) Develop our own perspectives by creating and exploring other ways of thinking

[See also: criticalthinking.org, Critical Thinking on the Web and Guide to Critical Thinking]

LECTURE - Cyberculture & identity

2005-03-10T09:29:00.000-05:00

Lisa Nakamura - "Race In/For Cyberspace: Identity Tourism and Racial Passing on the Internet" in The Cybercultures Reader

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LECTURE - Haraway's Cyborg

2005-03-10T09:27:00.000-05:00

Donna Haraway - A Cyborg Manifesto

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LECTURE - The Internet and WWW

2005-03-03T12:49:00.000-05:00

Janet Abbate - "The Most Neglected Element: Users Transform the ARPANET" from Inventing the Internet

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Further

The Difference Between the Internet and the World Wide Web

IEEE Timeline of Computing History

Computer History Museum

A Brief History of the Internet

A Brief History of the Internet and Related Networks

Hobbes' Internet Timeline

Netizens: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet

The World Wide Web: the beginning and now

The World Wide Web: A very short personal history

LECTURE - Computing

2005-03-03T12:13:00.000-05:00

Sherry Turkle - What Are We Thinking About When We Think About Computers?

Knowing | Identity | Aliveness

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Further

As We May Think by Vannevar Bush

The Gadget-Lover: Narcissus as Narcosis by Marshall McLuhan

The Machine Stops by EM Forster

Critical Art Ensemble : biotech art projects

2005-02-24T11:44:00.000-05:00

Critical Art Ensemble : artists dedicated to exploring the intersections between art, technology, radical politics and critical theory.

BioCom

"Philosophers may speculate on what it means to be a human being but today's geneticists will bring us a lot closer to the answer. Their studies yield important clues almost daily - about our intelligence and behavior, but especially about human diseases, from rare cancers to mental illness. It may take time, but science will develop reliable medical tests for detecting these genes early enough to intervene.

The researchers here at BioCom have two primary goals - to completely invade the flesh with vision and mapping technologies (initiating a program of total body control from its wholistic, exterior configuration to its microscopic constellations), and to develop the political and economic frontiers of flesh products and services..."

Cult of the New Eve

"Welcome to the Second Genesis. Brothers and Sisters, we are witnessing a remaking of the world. The Cosmos described by the religions of the world is dead. We are entering an Age in which the secrets of creation are not in the hands of God, nor are they at the blind mercy of Nature. We control our own destinies. All the promises that religions have made but failed to keep are now ours to fulfill. You no longer have to have faith, nor must you even believe. What was once considered a miracle is now or will soon be a common reality. Once and for all, we shall know that humankind is not spirtual - it is material..."

Society for Reproductive Anachronisms

"The Society for Reproductive Anachronisms (SRA) was formed in 1992 to combat the rationalization and instrumentalization of the reproductive process that is occurring in order to totally manage its service to the pancapitalist order... In opposition to these objectives, the SRA declares:

1. That it will resist all eugenic initiatives, whether they are represented by the retrograde rhetorics of race and reason, or in the new rhetorics of economic necessity.
2. That it will maintain the connection between sexuality and reproduction, and fight to sustain the human right to sexual pleasure in all arenas of life.
3. That it will retard and disrupt the commodification of the flesh.
4. That it will expose the hidden authoritarian politics of reproductive technology.
5. That it will create avenues for the voices of all public spheres to enter the discussion of the development and deployment of new reproductive technology. The SRA will defend and value the voice of the amateur and the nonspecialist.
6. That it will increase awareness of the interconnection of sexuality and social responsibility.
7. That it will provide ways and means to improve fertility and fecundity.
8. That it will push the parameters of scientific prejudice by celebrating anomalies and the inexplicable.
9. That it will vanquish the market mythology of hard-core genetic determinism.
10. That it will disturb the waters of capital’s gene pool."

And for people doing research on genetically modified foods, be sure to check out Contestational Biology and Free Range Grain.

Critical Art Ensemble : biotech texts

2005-02-24T11:23:00.000-05:00

Critical Art Ensemble : artists dedicated to exploring the intersections between art, technology, radical politics and critical theory.

"Once again, what appears to us in the mystical guise of pure science and objective knowledge about nature turns out, underneath, to be political, economic, and social ideology."

—R. C. Lewontin

Flesh Machine

"The two entities of posthuman existence most commonly postulated by cyber-visionaries, techno-critics, and machine designers over the past twenty years are the cyborg and downloaded virtual consciousness. While robots, androids, and artificially intelligent machines are also generally considered part of the posthuman family, they do not emerge directly out of human organics, and hence constitute a different line of development. Cyborgs and virtual consciousness, on the other hand, are dependent upon human individuals who desire or are condemned to interface with the machine. The cyborg is a being which typically has an organic platform integrated with a complex technological superstructure; virtual consciousness is the transference of being into digitized form so that it can exist in immersive informational landscapes. This latter vision of the posthuman is one in which the Enlightenment principle of increased domination of the mind over the body moves toward full realization of complete organic erasure. The posthuman condition is still only a potential, since fully integrated, first-order cyborgs (in which the organic platform and technological superstructure are completely interdependent) are still on the cultural horizon, and virtual consciousness is at best an entertaining speculation. Yet, both of these posthuman possibilities are already having a dramatic social impact..."

Molecular Invasion

"The problem now is that what was once thought to be impossible in terms of hybridity (the mixing of animal and plant for example) is now an actuality. Transgenic practices have thrown understanding of the natural order into an unresolved, contradictory rift, thus giving rise to a whole series of new questions about which authority may designate exceptions to the codes of organic purity. At present, there is no stable authority in regard to this matter, and hence a profound sense of ideological dissonance now haunts the western world... The real question of GMOs is how to create models of risk assessment that are accessible to those not trained in biology so people can tell the difference between a product that amounts to little more than pollutants for profit and those which have a practical and desirable function, while at the same time have no environmental impact. Making such decisions is further complicated by a general lack of understanding of safety testing procedures. For those without scientific training, the question of what constitutes scientific rigor seems to be a mystery, and reading a study on the safety of transgenic products appears to be a mountain that is too high to climb. The concerned public can be further bamboozled by specialized vocabularies. The result is that individuals are left with the implied obligation that they should just have faith in scientific, government, and corporate authorities that allegedly always act with only the public interest in mind..."

In the news

2005-02-21T09:29:00.000-05:00

Women scientists 'undervalued'
A study shows women scientists are better than men in gaining their first post but they miss out on promotion.

CSI shows give 'unrealistic view'
People have inflated expectations of forensic science thanks to the success of the CSI TV shows, real experts say.

Who Do You Trust More: G.I. Joe or A.I. Joe?
Is there still a good reason for military strategists to trust their judgments, or should they defer to a computer's calculations?

U.N. Calls for Clone Ban
A divided United Nations committee asks for a worldwide ban on all forms of human cloning. The U.S. religious right is jubilant, but many scientists take the occasion to blast political pressure on science policy.

Embracing the Artificial Limb
Biohybrid prostheses merge man-made devices with human muscles, bone and nerves. It's not just sci-fi, but it's not yet reality, either.

Baby Bot Learns to Stride Right
Using a 'passive-dynamic' design, researchers have created a robot, nicknamed 'Toddler,' that learns to walk the same way youngsters do. The bot can tread on any terrain, and falls and catches itself as it moves forward.

Finding new homes for old phones
Recycled and reconditioned handsets are getting a second lease of life in many poorer nations.

On Maneuvers With the Army's Game Squad
America's Army, a video game developed as a Pentagon recruiting tool, has gained an avid following. Now the Army has put the game developers through a boot camp to acquaint them better with the soldier's world.

Ba Humbugi! Let's Nameus That Speciesus
Scientists may be engaged in the pursuit of objective truth. But when it comes to naming species, they often let their hair down.

LECTURE - Humans and Posthumans

2005-02-17T08:57:00.000-05:00

On Licklider & human-computer interaction

What did Licklider believe should be the relationship between people and computers?

What did he assume about the 'nature' of 'men and machines'?

Man-Computer Symbiosis by J.C.R. Licklider

The Vision of Interactive Computing and the Future by Michael Hauben

Cybernetics, Time-sharing, Human-Computer Symbiosis and On-line Communities by Ronda Hauben

Machines to Think With by Howard Rheingold

On Moravec & robots

How does Moravec describe the relationship between human and technological evolution?

In the future, how will the boundaroes between humans and robots dissolve? What does this mean for humanity?

Hans Moravec, The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon

NOVA interview with Moravec

RoboSapiens : Evolution of a New Species + photos + review

Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics (1940) and Zeroth Law of Robotics (1985)

On Levy & artificial life

How does Levy describe the process of scientific research, discovery and innovation at USC?

What was the first sort of artificial life created? How was 'life' defined?

After Humans : Speculations on Artificial Life A Review of Steven Levy's Artificial Life

Fusebox : Artists and Artificial Life

The First Question: How do we define life?

On Stelarc & posthumans

How does Stelarc describe the relationship between the body and technology?

How does his vision of the 'post-human' challenge our understanding of subjects and objects, humans and machines?

Stelarc

The Body by Stelarc

Extended-Body : Interview with Stelarc

The Body Without Memory : An Interview with Stelarc

LECTURE - Humans and Machines

2005-02-17T08:16:00.000-05:00

The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Age of Intelligent Machines by Ray Kurzweil

Are We Spiritual Machines? : Ray Kurzweil Vs. the Critics of Strong A.I.

The Age of Intelligent Machines : The Social Impact of Artificial Intelligence by Margaret A. Boden

The Age of Intelligent Machines : A Coffeehouse Conversation on the Turing Test by Douglas R. Hofstadter

When Things Start To Think by Neil Gershenfeld

Beyond Computation : A Talk with Rodney Brooks by John Brockman

Cyborg Liberation Front : Inside the Movement for Posthuman Rights by Erik Baard

LECTURE - Reviewing science as culture and practice

2005-02-16T11:59:00.000-05:00

Traditionally we have defined science as natural, rational, objective, factual, and non-science as cultural, irrational, subjective, ideological BUT

Feyerabend: Experience is said to enter science at three points: testing, assimiliation of the results of the test and understanding of theories ... But experience arises together with theoretical assumptions, not before them

Kuhn: Scientific theories change because of paradigm shifts. Scientific method is a social enterprise where scientific worldviews are collectively agreed upon and changed.

Longino: Science follow norms and values generated from an understanding of the goals of scientific inquiry, and contextual values that belong to the social and cultural environment in which science is done.

Stengers: How do social and cultural practices and values shape science? How do science and technology shape social and cultural values and practices? What are the politics of sciece and scientific practice?

Latour: Labs and scientific objects are constructed according to sets of social processes. These processes ensure that labs become politically strong outside the lab. Understanding science then means understanding how science is used.

Traweek: Physicists are shaped by particular scientific (cultural) values and practices. Failure to adhere to these values and practices results in exclusion from the community.

Knorr-Cetina: Both nature and culture are shaped in the lab. Natural objects are brought under the control of social agents and social agents are transformed into scientific tools.

Haraway: Scientists distinguished humans from non-humans and males from females according to historically and culturally specific values and practices. These values have impacted life beyond the scientific community.

Fox-Keller: In scientific communities sex and gender involve power relations. What is possible and impossible in scientific practice is tied to these power relations.

Happy Valentines Day

2005-02-14T15:52:00.000-05:00

Love, Lust and Homo Sapiens

"Take the notion of the monogamous female and the promiscuous male. This pattern is supposed to be typical for both human and nonhuman primates. But field studies of nonhuman primates suggest that natural selection drives female primates to seek many male partners, argues primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy. Rather than wait for her evolutionary Prince Charming, what if the supposedly coy female best protects her genetic future by seeking out a whole pride of Charmings? ...

Following a similar line of skepticism, Brown University biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling wonders why some of her scientific colleagues assume that promiscuous human males who spread their seed are the important evolutionary players. Isn't it just as likely, she asks, that the females "were the ones who hedged their bets and slept with more than one male? ...

So what should we make of this landslide of evidence against the ultra-Darwinians' belief that mating is driven by rigid patterns of programmed sexual behavior? That we are more than puppets dancing to a preset tune. And perhaps 'that old black magic' is as good a way as any to understand how and why we love."

Citations and bibliographies

2005-02-12T12:38:00.000-05:00

For your projects, you will need to follow standard sociological citation and bibliography formats.

All direct quotes and paraphrased material must include IN-TEXT CITATIONS. Do not use footnotes or endnotes.

Examples:

According to Law (1996) actor-networks can often deal with inconsistency and complexity, but there remains a tendency towards drawing things together: controlling, limiting and mastering disorder with the network.

Joniken and Veijola (1997:360) argue that if masculine nomadic/travel metaphors are re-coded as homeless drunk or sex tourist, their prestige is undermined.

Tilley (1999) reminds us that the analysis of individual tropes in isolation abstracts them from their spatial and temporal contexts.

For Sheller and Urry (2000:739) the car, or more appropriately, the car-driver is a "hybrid assemblage, not simply of autonomous humans, but simultaneously of machines, roads, buildings, signs and entire cultures of mobility".

Note that if your paraphrased material comes from a specific page, you must include that page in the citation. If your paraphrased material summarises the article or book's main point, then the publication date is sufficient. All direct quotes must have both date and page.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES appear on a separate page and include each source you cite in the body of your paper. This list is always alphabetical, and for multiple sources by the same author, they are listed from earliest to latest.

Examples:

Joniken, E. and S. Veijola. 1997. The Disoriented Tourist: the figuration of the tourist in contemporary cultural critique. In C. Rojek and J. Urry (eds) Touring Cultures, pp. 341-365. London: Routledge.

Law, J. 1996. Traduction/Trahison - Notes on ANT. Available online at http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/papers/law-traduction-trahison.pdf (Last viewed January 17, 2005).

Sheller, M. and J. Urry. 2000. The City and the Car. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24(4):737-757.

Tilley, C. 1999. Metaphor and Material Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.

If you have a source that is not one of the examples above (i.e. a single-author book, a chapter from an edited book, a journal article or an online article) please ask about the correct formatting.

LECTURE - Feminist critiques of technoscience

2005-02-11T10:52:00.000-05:00

Further reading

Secrets of Life/Secrets of Death: Essays on Language, Gender and Science by Evelyn Fox Keller (library)

Reflections on Gender and Science by Evelyn Fox Keller (library)

Feminism and science edited by Fox Keller & Longino (library)

Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature by Donna Haraway (library)

Modest-Witness@Second-Millennium.FemaleMan-Meets-OncoMouse: feminism and technoscience by Donna Haraway (library)

Body/politics : women and the discourses of science edited by Jacobus, Fox Keller & Shuttleworth (library)

The Gendered Cyborg, edited by Kirkup, Janes & Woodward

Feminist Science Studies, edited by Mayberry, Subramaniam & Weasel (library)

Wonder Woman and Her Disciplinary Powers: The Queer Intersection of Scientific Authority and Mass Culture by Molly Rhodes in Doing Science + Culture, Reid & Traweek, eds. (library)

Feminism confronts technology by Judy Wajcman (library)

Technofeminism by Judy Wajcman

LECTURE - Sex and gender

2005-02-11T10:05:00.000-05:00

By this point in your education, you should all be familiar with the idea that sex is a natural or biological category consisting of males and females, and gender is a cultural category consisting of women and men. But everything we've studied so far would suggest that these categories are never homogeneous or pure.

For example, if we understand the production of scientific knowledge to always involve social and cultural elements, can we not assume that our understanding of sex is also influenced by broader beliefs and values? If that is so, how can we talk about sex as if it were an immutable concept. To put it another way, are there only two sexes? I'm guessing that most of you will say "Of course there are only two sexes!" But what sex, then, are hermaphrodites? Scientists refer to 'true' hermaphrodites in terms of "chromosomal mosaicism" or as "chimeric". Should we say they are neither man nor woman? Or both woman and man? In either case, we're creating a third sex - wo/man - and we can no longer say that there are only two sexes. In fact, hermaphrodites themselves often prefer the term "inter-sexed" which points specifically to a space between the sexes. And to this mix we can also add transsexuals, or people who actually change their (biological?) sex.

Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex by Alice Domurat Dreger

Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality by Anne Fausto-Sterling (library)

We can also talk about gender in terms that do not maintain the binary oppositions of woman and man, or masculine and feminine. For example, gender and sexuality encompass gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered individuals - all of which challenge our definitions of gendered behaviour, as well as the belief that heterosexuality is our only natural state. To compound matters further, we also know that different cultures attribute different meanings to all of these categories of sex and gender.

Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations by Serena Nanda

Gender and Anthropology by Frances Mascia-Lees and Nancy Johnson Black

Library subject search: Sex role -- Cross-cultural studies

The point of all of this is to illustrate how quickly we can find ourselves in a mangle of categories and identities, and how difficult it is then to say with any certainty that we know what the difference between sex and gender is.

The readings assigned for this week tackle these questions in ways that build on our earlier readings on science as cultural practice. Haraway (PhD in biology) tells the story of how scientists historically came to understand what separated humans from non-humans, and subsequently men from women. For example, by claiming the menstrual cycle as the defining characteristic of humans, our primary function became reproduction, and male aggression emerged as a necessary adaptation to the competition for females.

Evelyn Fox Keller (PhD in theoretical physics and molecular biology) looks at the career of Nobel-winning scientist Barbara McClintock, to examine how differences between sex and gender play out in terms of power in the scientific community. In Barbara McClintock's speech at the Nobel Banquet, she addresses the barriers she faced and the freedoms they offered.

In the news

2005-02-11T07:30:00.000-05:00

U.S. Scientists Say They Are Told to Alter Findings

Chimps' Sense of Justice Found Similar to Humans

Underground search for 'God particle'

Human cloning licence awarded to Dolly creator

Nuclear Now!

Science intends to tag all life

How to write an abstract

2005-02-07T17:48:00.000-05:00

You project proposal needs to include an abstract and while one of the best ways to see how abstracts are written is to read abstracts written by others, here are a few links to help you write your own:

How to Write an Abstract | The Abstract | Abstracts | Writing Abstracts

In the news

2005-02-07T11:27:00.000-05:00

Gadget growth fuels eco concerns
Technology firms and gadget lovers are being urged to think more about the environment when buying and disposing of the latest hi-tech products.

Digital Music At The Crossroads
Inexpensive, legal downloads are finally making a dent in less official ways of getting tunes.

Hobbyists fill in the weather map
Thousands of armchair sky watchers are pairing computers and consumer-grade meteorological equipment to share their observations of local conditions on-line.

Format wars could 'confuse users'
Technology firms Sony, Philips, Matsushita and Samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and video.

Art student wins Royal Mail Travel Award
Lucy Hibburd chose the topical and emotive subject of genetic modification as the campaign issue for her set of stamps.

Software re-enacts Rwanda's genocide
It has been a long journey from the Rwandan genocide in 1994 to an Edinburgh classroom in 2005, but a remarkable new computer program is being piloted to teach children about the genocide, about citizenship and about the tough choices adults often have to make.

Amateurs beat space agencies to Titan pictures
A group of enthusiastic amateurs managed to process raw images of Titan from the Huygens probe faster that any of the giant space agencies in charge of the mission.

The Shadow Internet
They take a single stolen file and pump out bootleg media by the millions. Inside the pirate networks that are terrorizing the entertainment industry.

Rocket Man
Richard Branson conquered the world. Now he wants to fly you to space. Get ready for Virgin Galactic and the new age of off-planet tourism.

Class reminders

2005-01-21T07:27:00.000-05:00

Jan 26 - Watch Minority Report in class. Don't forget to bring the assignment questions with you to help you take good notes during the movie.

Feb 3 - No class. Use this time to finish your film essay and work with your group on your project proposals. Don't forget to include Stengers' radical critique of scientific rationality in your project objectives.

[Note: If you have any questions or concerns during these two weeks, please email me.]

Feb 9 - Film essay due. The class lecture and readings are on feminist critiques of science and technology. We'll also spend some time working on project proposals.

Feb 16 - Project proposals due. The class lecture and readings are on hybridity. Graded project proposals will be returned so that you can continue your research over Reading Week.

LECTURE - Science as culture and practice

2005-01-20T09:19:00.000-05:00

Online papers

Sharon Traweek, Iconic Devices: Toward An Ethnography of Physics Images (pdf)

Sharon Traweek, Warning Signs: Acting on Images (pdf)

Lancaster University Centre for Science Studies - online papers (see in particular articles by Lucy Suchman and John Law)

Books and articles

Doing Science + Culture, edited by Roddey Reid and Sharon Traweek (library info)

Science as Practice and Culture, edited by Andrew Pickering (library info)

The Mangle of Practice by Andrew Pickering (library info)

Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts by Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar (library info)

Representation in Scientific Practice, edited by Michael Lynch and Steve Woolgar (library info)

Following articles from The science studies reader, edited by Mario Biagioli (library info)

Michel Callon, Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fisherman of St. Brieuc Bay

H.M. Collins, The TEA Set: Tacit Knowledge and Scientific Networks

Ian Hacking, Making Up People

Thomas P. Hughes, The Evolution of Large Technological Systems

Donald Mackenzie, Nuclear Missile Testing and the Social Construction of Accuracy

LECTURE - Doing science: materialities & socialities

2005-01-20T08:02:00.001-05:00

After hearing from several students that the assigned Latour readings were virtually incomprehensible - don't worry about it, they're quite dense - I decided to go straight into lab studies and we'll follow up with Latour* later.

So we began with Karin Knorr-Cetina's description of laboratories as more than just physical spaces where experiments, scientific research or treatments take place. Anthropological studies of lab work have indicated that natural objects are malleable, and not fixed entities. She argues that there are at least three features of natural objects that a lab science does not need to accomodate:

1) it does not need to put up with an object as it is (it can substitute transformed or partial versions)
2) it does not need to accomodate the natural object where it is (it can take an object out of its natural environment)
3) it need not accomodate an event when it happens (it can make events happens frequently enough for continuous study)

By detaching objects from their natural environments, scientists install them in a "new phenomenal field defined by social agents". In other words, "laboratories allow natural processes to be 'brought home' and to be made subject only to the conditions of the local social order". But Knorr-Cetina is not only interested in how labs can "improve upon natural orders" but also how they "upgrade" social beings to "instruments of scientific work".

With her example of how doctors' power was enhanced by their ability to perform autopsies (and see things patients couldn't see) or listen through a stethoscope (and hear things patients couldn't hear) we can begin to see how scientists work with the visual, auditory or electrical traces of objects, and with their components or extractions. To appreciate the power of these images, just think of how many movies or TV shows you have seen where a person's death is indicated only by the flatline of the heart monitor. Another example she gave was how astronomy changed from being a field science practiced only at night to an imaging science where astronomers could observe pictures of celestial phenomena at any time. In these ways, just as objects and processes are transformed into images and sounds, so too are scientists "reconfigured to ... act as bodily measurement devices by hearing and seeing signals".

Knorr-Cetina goes on to describe three ways in which scientists conduct laboratory experiments: through "technologies of correspondence", "technologies of treatments and interventions" and "technologies of representation".

"In the first case, objects in the laboratory stage real-world phenomena; in the second, they are processed partial versions of these phenomena; in the third, they are signatures of the events of interest to science."

When laboratories act as stages for experimental or simulated situations, scientists deploy a technology of correspondence, where every effort is taken to create an environment that corresponds to the outside world and is not "tainted" by the experimenter. In other words, when there is no way to observe the real-time phenomena, the experimental conditions or computer simulation stages the action. In the social science laboratory, "the 'objects' featured on the stage are players of the social form ... [where] they are called upon to perform everyday life in a competent manner." An example of this type of laboratory work would include simulating the effects of an earthquake or tsunami, or in the social sciences, observing how people use software or websites.

When lab work uses a technology of intervention, or procedures of manipulation, objects are "treated as processing materials and as transitory object-states". In either case, there is no assumption that these objects do - or should - correspond to real-world processes. In this type of laboratory work, the lab becomes a "workshop and a nursery ... where different plant and animal materials are maintained, bred, nourished, warmed, observed and prepared for experimental manipulation". In this scenario, scientists are not only researchers but also caretakers of the lab and its contents. Examples of this kind of laboratory work would include breeding disease-resistant sweet potatoes or developing new materials to protect soldiers in battle.

In the case where lab work involves the use of technologies of representation, "objects are not reconfigured as not-to-be-interfered-with performances of 'natural' events or as decomposable material ingredients of processign programs, but as signs". Analysis involves the progression from identifying outward signs or symptoms to "reconstructing the meaning and origin of these representations" and thereby identifying the underlying (invisible) situation or problem. An example of this kind of lab work is high energy physics, where detectors register particle traces and these signs are attached to underlying causal events (particle occurrences) that cannot be directly observed.

In summary, Knorr-Cetina's argument is that laboratories are not just sites which house experiments, but rather places and processes "that create new configurations of objects that [scientists] match with an appropriately altered social order".

In Sharon Traweek's study of physics laboratories, she devotes a chapter to scientists, or more specifically how people become scientists. In Pilgrim's Progress, she looks at the cultural values and practices associated with the phases of a physics education - from undergraduate student to graduate student and then to post-doctoral student or research associate. In each stage, the student and researcher is taught what makes a good science and, more importantly, what makes a great physicist. From learning about historical physics heroes to learning how to survive highly aggressive and competitive working conditions, the community is formed along particular lines. Even once a career in physics has begun, a physicist is still subject to the pressures of an elite group where one may become a leader, a statesman or, if one is great enough, a genius that is held up as hero to undergraduate students. At any stage a person may fail to meet the expectations of what constitutes a great physicist, and subsequently drop out of the field.

Of particular interest here is what kind of values inform the culture of physics. Traweek draws out detailed accounts of the novice who must demonstrate his comprehension of the material but is rarely allowed to design his own experiment, and the anxieties he feels about whether or not he will ever actually become a physicist. As he passes into the next rank, he learns the difference between mediocre and good experimental work, the importance of protecting the data, and how to "live and feel physics". His letters of recommendation describe him as meticulous, hard-working and, with the support of his girlfriend or wife, not distracted from his work by everyday life. When he begins to practice physics he will be constantly evaluated for inclusion into the community, and will feel the tensions between cooperative group work and the consistent message that "only competition and transgression will prevail". Even after making a major contribution to the group, he will still only "make it big" if he becomes a group leader with a reputation great enough to secure the best laboratory equipment and recruit the best new researchers to carry on his earlier work. If he eventually manages to direct a lab, he will tend only to the maintenance of its community and practice. Because he now works primarily with the "outside world" he will no longer actually practice physics. The most exceptional statesmen are considered physics geniuses and become heroes for undergraduates, almost mystical in their abilities and supporting a never-ending romance with science.

In each of these stages, Traweek argues that physics emerges as a story of men, not women:

"The scientist is persistent, dominant, and aggressive, ultimately penetrating the corpus of secrets mysteriously concealed by a passive, albeit elusive nature. The female exists in these stories only as an object for a man to love, unveil, and know. In their careers, physicists journey from romantic readings of others' lives, through handing on mimetic tales of heroic action and quests of survival, to becoming skilled practitioners of gossip and rhetoric. They complete the cycle by telling erotic tales about physics, tales transformed into romance for the next generation of neophytes, These stories reflect how physicists come to passionately care about who they are and what they are doing".

In summary, Traweek looks at the culture of physics and how the physics community passes on its particular values to successive generations. From her ethnographic field-work we can see that the scientific community not only teaches it members what constitutes a good and proper science, but also what makes a good and proper scientist. She also makes the case that these values shape and are shaped by broader cultural values outside the scientific community. In later lectures and readings, we will return to related feminist critiques of science.

Assigned reading

Karin Knorr-Cetina, "What is a laboratory?" from Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge, 1999

Sharon Traweek, "Pilgrim's Progress: Male Tales Told During a Life in Physics" from Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists, 1988

Bruno Latour, "Give Me a Laboratory and I Will Raise the World" in Science Observed: Perspectives on the Social Study of Science, 1983

Bruno Latour, "Opening Pandora's Box" from Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society, 1988

* For anyone who started to get into his way of thinking, you might want to check out his book Pandora's Hope. I'll use that in my lecture and to help orient people for the discussion of the other readings.

In the news

2005-01-19T09:35:00.000-05:00

These recent articles may be of interest for some people's research projects:

No Magic for Older Moms
"Over-50 mothers are increasingly common. But are they genetic moms? Not likely, experts say."

An Aerial Crime-Fighting Tool Banks on Portability
"If all goes well, this year a remote-controlled portable airplane will be taking to the air over Southern California, providing a low-cost eye in the sky for law enforcement."

Unwrapping the Biometric Present
"Congressional funding for a biometric system to track potential terrorists isn't likely to have much impact on the bad guys. But it will likely help the government keep track of you."

Cell-Phone Shushing Gets Creative
"As mobile phones become ever more ubiquitous, so too do those annoyed by inconsiderate chatterers. Designers across the country are finding ways to reduce the risk of coming to blows."

LECTURE - Isabelle Stengers and the radical critique of scientific rationality

2005-01-12T21:02:00.000-05:00

I finished today's lecture by introducing the work of Isabelle Stengers and what she considers to be the radical critique of scientific rationality - a perspective to which we will return for the remainder of the course.

At the beginning of The Invention of Modern Science, Stengers looks at why many scientists agreed with Kuhn's assessment of the social dimensions of scientific practice, but objected to related investigations by sociologists and anthropologists.

She points out that the social studies of science position that the relationship between scientists and the phenomena they study is not neutral is particularly problematic or threatening to proponents of an objective scientific method - but should not be confused with an accusation that science is false or that scientific knowledge is arbitrary.

She also points out that sociological and anthropological studies focus on how social and cultural values and practices shape science and technology, and how in turn science and technology shape social and cultural life. In contrast, Kuhn's account preserves the "autonomy of a scientific community in relation to its political and social environment." With this autonomy, the scientific community is constructed as the norm and as the "condition for the possibility of future science". In this scenario, scientists are not required to "account for their choices and priorities" and they do not need to "adopt a critical perspective on scientific knowledge and knowledge-making". In other words, the internal history, definition and practice of science are more important than any external, or broader, social and cultural factors and concerns.

For Stengers, the objective of studying science as culture and practice is to "articulate what we mean by science and what we mean by politics, and how the two shape and are shaped by each other".

I will use this "radical critique of scientific rationality" to guide our future discussions - and it may be considered the primary objective behind your research projects on the social and cultural implications of science and technology.

LECTURE - Scientific methods and knowledge

2005-01-12T20:19:00.000-05:00

Today's lecture opened the question of what constitutes scientific method and knowledge - and what does not.

We began by considering the differences between objective and subjective knowledge, and Karl Popper's criterion of demarcation, or his claim that "if a theory is falsifiable, then it is scientific; if it is not falsifiable, then it is not science". In other words, objective or scientific knowledge is understood to be distinct or separate from personal reflection or feelings, whereas subjective or non-scientific knowledge is considered to be biased, irrational or ideological.

The rest of the class looked at the logical tensions and limitations embodied in positivist, empiricist and falsificationist approaches to science.

We discussed a famous challenge to such approaches from Thomas Kuhn, who was among the first to claim that scientific theories change because of paradigm shifts - a point that clearly indicated that scientific method was a social enterprise where scientific worldviews are collectively agreed upon and changed.

Kuhn defines a scientific paradigm as: 1) what is to be observed and scrutinized, 2) the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed for answers in relation to this subject, 3) how these questions are to be put, and 4) how the results of scientific investigations should be interpreted. To better understand how this plays out in social terms, we took a closer look at Kuhn's accounts of the route to normal science.

The assigned reading by Feyerabend also offered a critique of empirical science based on the claim that, in principle, experience is not necessary at any point in the construction, comprehension or testing of empirical scientific theories.

The assigned reading by Longino begins with the claim that:

"It is, of course, nonsense to assert the value-freedom of natural science. Scientific practice is governed by norms and values generated from an understadning of the goals of scientific inquiry ... and contextual values [that] belong to the social and cultural environment in which science is done."

In asking how we may judge the claims of science, she positions the question as a matter of what constitutes acceptable (good) or unacceptable (bad) scientific practice - again, like Kuhn, drawing our attention towards how scientists socially and collectively practice science by accepting or rejecting particular kinds of knowledge.

Assigned reading

Paul Feyerabend, Science Without Experience, 1969

Helen Longino, "Good Science, Bad Science" from Science as Social Knowledge: Values and Objectivity in Scientific Inquiry, 1990

Further reading / listening

George Herbert Mead, Science and the Objectivity of Perspectives, 1938

Paul Feyerabend, from Against Method, 1975

Helen Longino, audio lecture on Truth and Relativism, 2004

Following articles from The science studies reader, edited by Mario Biagioli (library info)

Lorraine Daston, Objectivity and the Escape from Perspective

Roger Hart, On the Problem of Chinese Science

Geoffrey Lloyd, Science in Antiquity: The Greek and Chinese Cases and Their Relevance to the Problems of Culture and Cognition

Theodore M. Porter, Quantification and the Accounting Ideal in Science

Joseph Rouse, Understanding Scientific Practices: Cultural Studies of Science as a Philosophical Program

What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?

2005-01-06T19:26:00.000-05:00

The 2005 Edge Question : What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?

This is a fascinating collection of the different ways that scientists approach what it means to know something. As the editor writes, this is a "commentary on how we are dealing with the idea of certainty" and the answers range from the possibility of absolute understanding to examples of shared faith.

For example, Leo Chalupa writes:

"Here are three of my unproven beliefs:

(i) The human brain is the most complex entity in the known universe;

(ii) With this marvelous product of evolution we will be successful in eventually discovering all that there is to discover about the physical world, provided of course, that some catastrophic event doesn't terminate our species; and

(iii) Science provides the best means to attain this ultimate goal."

And Timothy Taylor explains:

"Truth and belief are uncomfortable words in scholarship. It is possible to define as true only those things that can be proved by certain agreed criteria. In general, science does not believe in truth or, more precisely, science does not believe in belief. Understanding is understood as the best fit to the data under the current limits (both instrumental and philosophical) of observation. If science fetishized truth, it would be religion, which it is not. However, it is clear that under the conditions that Thomas Kuhn designated as 'normal science' (as opposed to the intellectual ferment of paradigm shifts) most scholars are involved in supporting what is, in effect, a religion. Their best guesses become fossilized as a status quo, and the status quo becomes an item of faith. So when a scientist tells you that 'the truth is . . .', it is time to walk away. Better to find a priest."

Science and technology in the news

2005-01-06T10:24:00.000-05:00

Part of this course will involve keeping up with current innovations and issues in science, technology and society.

To get started, you can check out Discover's The Year in Science: Top 100 Stories of 2004 and here's a short list of sources that offer good ongoing coverage of science & tech:

Globe Technology
BBC News: Science/Nature and Technology
Wired Magazine and Wired News
NY Times: Technology and Science
Scientific American
Forbes: Technology
Nature: News
Technology Review

Feel free to add other links in the comments - there are tons online - and share your thoughts on any stories that catch your attention.

Welcome!

2005-01-04T17:23:00.000-05:00

I've set up this course weblog so that students of SOCI 2035 have a resource for topics related to science, technology, social and cultural life. Each week I'll post my lecture notes, as well as further reading for anyone interested in learning more. Along the way I'll also post links to interesting news stories and other weblogs.

But mostly I hope that it will serve as a place for you to start - and continue - discussions on your readings and research projects. You can also use this as a place to ask questions. I promise to answer them as quickly as possible, but I encourage other students to share what they know too! And don't forget that contributing to this blog is one of the easy ways you can earn class participation marks.

All students can post comments or questions after creating an account and you can customise your profile to share as much or as little about yourself as you want. If you'd like to share a link you think the class would find interesting, or start your own discussion, please just let me know and I will make sure you can add your own post.

There's just one thing you need to remember: this weblog is public. Your posts and comments are not anonymous and will be archived by Google so that anyone can find and read them. So have fun - but don't post anything you wouldn't want your mother to read!