SOCIOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY (Fridays, 15.30-16.50)

THIS COURSE WILL BE HELD ONLINE ONLY ON GOOGLE MEET

meet.google.com/mdw-pquc-eog

Lecturer: Filip Vostal, PhD (Bristol), filip.vostal@fsv.cuni.cz

Office hours: By appointment, email me

Course Description

The course gives an introduction of theories and approaches that are central for researching the interplay between society, science and technology. The course is designed for students with IR and security studies background (but not exclusively so) who are challenged to think more critically about what counts as technology and why, and how science and technology intervene in and with the wider world. Drawing on sociological (but also on anthropological, historical and philosophical) insights, we will explore major debates and perspectives in Science & Technology Studies (STS), such as Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and Social Construction of Technological Systems (SCOT). We will focus both on how science & technology co-shape social dynamics, but also on how society, as it were, gets inside science & technology. Hence we will examine the transformative power of science & technology to arrange and rearrange contemporary societies. But we will also ask: is it possible that the very design of technologies and the nature of scientific knowledge claims embody assumptions about the nature of society? How do culture, gender, ideological presuppositions, implicit theories about society enter into the very design of technologies, technological systems and scientific knowledge claims? The latter part of the course is specifically designed to provide opportunity for reflections and discussions of perspectives, theories, concepts and examples in sociology of science & technology that are related to IR and security studies.

Aims of the Course

After completing this course, students shall be able to:

- understand major theories and approaches that articulate the relationship between society, science and technology

- develop critical and reflexive mindset in relation to technological artefacts, technosystems and scientific knowledge claims

- productively “import” insights from science & technology studies to security studies

The Structure of the Course

1. INTRODUCTION, OR ‘DEFETISHIZING TECHNOLOGIES’ (23/2)

Introduction to seminar. Expectations, requirements, agenda, structure of each session. Why is Sociology of Science & Technology important? Technological mindset, technological fetish. Why we can’t think (about) technologies without thinking about historical development of science (studies). Why we cannot think about society without taking into account technologies. Technological determinism and/vs. social constructivism.

Readings:

Heilbroner RL (2009) ‘Do Machines Make History?’ In Technology and Society: Building Our

Sociotechnical Future, edited by DG Johnson & JM Wetmore, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 97-106 (first published in 1967).

Hughes TP (2009) ‘Technological Momentum.’ In Technology and Society: Building Our Sociotechnical Future, edited by DG Johnson & JM Wetmore, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 141-150 (first published in 1994).

2. ON ‘SCIENCE STUDIES’ (1/3)

We will trace origins & development of science studies from the mid 20^th century onwards. Collins’s piece is very useful in this sense – he advances a brief and very comprehensive history of ‘science studies’ (and how they turned into STS) and divides its history into three major waves. Yearley then asks provocative questions ‘just what makes science special?’ (i.e. in relation to other human pursuits). We will also discuss two fundamental conceptual – and to a very large extent conflictual – ‘programmes’ in science studies: the so called strong programme and empirical relativism.

Readings:

Collins H (2014) Are we all Scientific Experts Now? Cambridge: Polity, pp. 17-48.

Yearley S (2005) Making Sense of Science: Understanding the Social Study of Science. London: Sage, pp. 1-39.

3. OPENING THE BLACK BOX OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES (STS) (8/3)

Introduction to Science & Technology Studies (STS). Whats, whys, hows. We will discuss the basic contours of STS, its distinctive character in the web of the social sciences. We’ll also examine whether STS as can be treated as a method of inquiry as John Law suggests.

Video & Readings:

Watch discussion between Pinch, Kaiser, Picon, Winner available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9o2B47CArw

Law J (2017) ‘STS as a Method.’ In The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (fourth edition) edited by U Felt et al. Boston, MA: MIT Press, pp. 31-58.

4. WHAT, AFTER ALL, IS IN THE STS BLACKBOX? (15/3)

Some fundamental STS concepts will be discussed. Also, the question of where STS is situated in the broader structure of the social sciences and what makes it unique and unorthodox.

Readings: