ENVS 5110
Science and Society: An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies
Overview and Purpose of the Course
This course is part of a three course sequence that serves in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Graduate Certificate in Science and Technology Policy. However, you need not be enrolled in the Certificate to take the course and there are no prerequisites required to take the course.
Graduate study provides you with an opportunity to gain expertise within a particular disciplinary or interdisciplinary specialty. Such expertise is essential to the processes of creating new knowledge and integrating existing knowledge to produce novel insights. But society looks increasingly to experts to do more than conduct research and produce knowledge -- society looks to experts to play a central role in securing the benefits of the nation’s investment in knowledge, while at the same time, helping to protect against the misuse or unintended consequences of science and technology. In short, society expects experts to contribute to decision making in public, private and civic settings.
Understanding the roles of science and technology in broader societal context – as well as the influences of that context on the practices and uses of science and technology would thus seem to be a prerequisite to a successful career at the science-society interface.
This course seeks to contribute to such improved understandings by introducing students to the area of research typically characterized as “science and technology studies.”
In the core text for this class Sismondo (2010, pp. 10-11) characterizes the discipline of science and technology studies as follows:
Science and Technology Studies (STS) starts from an assumption that science and technology are thoroughly social activities. They are social in that scientists and engineers are always members of communities, trained into the practices of those communities and necessarily working within them. These communities set standards for inquiry and evaluate knowledge claims. There is no abstract and logical scientific method apart from evolving community norms. In addition, science and technology are arenas in which rhetorical work is crucial, because scientists and engineers are always in the position of having to convince their peers and others of the value of their favorite ideas and plans – they are constantly engaged in struggles to gain resources and to promote their views. The actors in science and technology are also not mere logical operators, but instead have investments in skills, prestige, knowledge, and specific theories and practices. Even conflicts in a wider society may be mirrored by and connected to conflicts within science and technology; for example, splits along gender, race, class, and national lines can occur both within science and in the relations between scientists and non-scientists.
We will begin the semester with a detailed exploration of Sismondo’s overview of STS and proceed to explore various facets of the field of study in depth. We will seek to integrate more theoretical perspectives with practical cases. You’ll have the chance to work on individual and group projects, and to help design parts of the latter phases of the course.
Do recognize that this course is being taught for the first time, so your feedback and critique will be important for helping to improve it for future generations of students.
BONUS MATERIAL (There will be lots in this class!)Those of you wanting to dig even deeper into the field of STS are encouraged to listen to this series of lectures prepared by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which touches on many of the themes of the course (and beyond) and involves many leader STS scholars: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2009/01/02/how-to-think-about-science-part-1---24-listen/ HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCEIf science is neither cookery, nor angelic virtuosity, then what is it? |
