The title refers to the theme of the 2008 joint meeting of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) and the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST). The two associations hold joint meetings every four years. The conference is scheduled for August 20-23 in Rotterdam , the Netherlands . The call is available online.

I’m a member of 4S (actually I was, I apparently let my subscription lapse without notice), but have yet to attend one of their conferences. Budget considerations are the prime reason, but the other factor has been what I see as a lack of attention to science and/or technology policy (which is common to the other STS societies I belong to), save for occasional analyses focusing on Europe . I’d encourage those who disagree with my characterization to comment and help me plumb the depths of my ignorance.

I did give this event extra consideration – even with the added travel expense – from the following passage in the call:

STS-approaches are no longer only relevant for understanding the production of science, technology and innovation; they also are relevant for understanding the co-production of science and technology with policy, democracy, law, and the organization of health care, among other major institutional matters. Similarly STS researchers have become increasingly involved with practices of technology development, policymaking, legal decision-making and governance in different fields, such as science and technology policy, environmental regulation, and health care. The balance between observation and participation seems to have changed in these consequential practices of ‘acting with’. Such engagement is currently a major topic of discussion within the STS field. Several workshops, editorials and special issues have already been published or are under way. The ‘acting with’, or interventionist approach is likely to have consequences for research methodologies, for researchers’ obligations toward different publics, and for the kind of products STS-researchers deliver. In addition, like other aspects of science and technology, interventions by STS researchers are themselves subject to contingencies and negotiations that can lead to unanticipated consequences.

I think the first sentence is false…

STS was always relevant to the interactions of science, technology, policy, and all the other forces mentioned in the second part of the sentence. So I am pleased to see mention of this trend. In my opinion, it hasn’t ‘crossed the pond’ very well, so I would not be surprised to see this focus on participation – on ‘acting with’ – to be driven by the European membership of these organizations.

I am concerned by how this interventionist approach is demonstrated. In conversations I’ve had with STS scholars (one of which you can read at The World’s Fair blog (scroll down to the comments to find the conversation), I find that we can be talking past each other about what it means to be ‘acting with.’ I hope to figure out why this happens in future discussions (and blog posts), but I suspect there are some ideological differences at play, as well as an interesting difference of perspectives on what is and isn’t (and what should and shouldn’t be) political in this ‘acting with.’

Where the 4S/EASST conference is concerned, I’ll be interested to see what happens. But as for me going, there’s a U.S. conference that overlaps, so I will probably not be going to the Netherlands.