What happened to provocation in science and technology studies?

Science and technology studies (STS) is an important and often controversial interdisciplinary field which has proved to be provocative and influential. But has its institutionalization and influence occurred at the expense of some of its provocative power? This paper considers the fate of provocative ideas associated with STS as they become appropriated and transformed by new social institutions and audiences. It aims to sketch a preliminary framework for analysing the social dynamics of the persistence and/or attenuation of its ideas and impacts. The argument reviews the main early aspirations and targets of STS. It suggests that changing emphases in STS can be understood as responses to successive versions of the principle of symmetry. It argues that the continual renewal and recruitment of audiences for STS is central to sustaining its capacity for provocation.     

The Primacy of Science in Modernity,of Technology in Postmodernity,and of Ideology in the History of Technology

The abrupt reversal of culturally ascribed primacy in the science–technology relationship—namely, from the primacy of science relative to technology prior to circa 1980, to the primacy of technology relative to science since about that date—is proposed as a demarcator of postmodernity from modernity: modernity is when ‘science’ could, and often did, denote technology too; postmodernity is when science is subsumed under technology. In support of that demarcation criterion, I evidence the breadth and strength of modernity’s presupposition of the primacy of science to and for technology by showing its preposterous hold upon social theorists—Marx, Veblen, Dewey—whose principles logically required the reverse, viz. the primacy of practice; upon 19th and 20th century engineers and industrialists, social actors whose practical interests likewise required the reverse; and upon the principal theorizers in the 1970s of the role of science in late 20th century technology and society. The reversal in primacy between science and technology ca 1980 came too unexpectedly, too quickly, and, above all, too unreflectively to have resulted from the weight of evidence or the force of logic. Rather, it was a concomitant of the onset of postmodernity. Oddly, historians of technology have remained almost wholly unacknowledging of postmodernity’s epochal elevation of the cultural standing of the subject of their studies, and, specifically, have ignored technology’s elevation relative to science. This I attribute to the ideological character of that discipline, and, specifically, to its strategy of ignoration of science.     

The Origin of the use of the Tin‐Glazed Earthenware Technique in the Production of the French Medieval Pavement of Suscinio

The medieval pavement found in its original state and place at the Breton castle of Suscinio is an interesting case study for answering questions about the origin of the tin‐glazed earthenware technique in France. Twenty‐eight decorated tiles (with transparent and tin‐opacified glazes) and eight clayey raw materials were examined using chemical and microstructural approaches involving petrographic, SEM–EDS and XRD analyses. By combining the results of provenance and technological studies with historical and archaeological data, it was possible to conclude that the pavement was a local product, made with imported technological skills, rather than an imported product or the result of local experimentation.     

Connecting meanings of ageing,consumption, and information and communication technologies through practice

Practices involving the consumption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are increasingly important to the maintenance of everyday life for older New Zealanders. Developing competency with ICT can provide a way of challenging negative discourses of ageing. Interviews with 20 older New Zealanders reveal that “keeping up” with the times, with changing technologies, and with others is a means by which to shape aged subjectivities. However, while competency in ICT practices enables participants to refute discourses of ageing that locate older people negatively as part of an aged digital divide, it can also work to reproduce this divide. Consequently, understanding the nuanced and situated nature of meanings related to ICT practice is necessary in order to interrogate normative assumptions associated with the “more than human” possibilities of ageing well.     

Occupational genders and gendered occupations: the case of water provisioning in Maputo,Mozambique

Taking issue with how associations between technical prowess or entrepreneurship and masculinity tend to be taken for granted or are seen as stemming from natural or intrinsic gender differences, over the last two decades feminist scholars have developed theoretical approaches to understand the gendering of professions and abilities as the performative outcome of particular cultures and histories. We build on these insights to explore how associations between masculinities, technology and entrepreneurship shape ideas and practices of small-scale water provision in Maputo. Our findings show how activities (i.e. technical craftsmanship, hard physical work) or abilities (i.e. risk-taking, innovativeness) regarded as masculine tend to be considered the defining features of the profession. This shapes how men and women make sense of and talk about their work, each of them tactically emphasizing and performing those aspects best fitting their gender. Our detailed documentation of men’s and women’s everyday involvements in water provisioning challenges the existence of sharp boundaries and distinctions between genders and professional responsibilities. It shows that water provisioning requires many other types of work and skills and male and female household members collaborate and share their work. The strong normative-cultural associations between gender and water provisioning lead to a distinct under-recognition of women’s importance as water providers. We conclude that strategies to effectively support small-scale water businesses while creating more space and power for women involved in the business require the explicit recognition and re-conceptualization of water provisioning as a household business.     

太仓半泾河古船可溶盐脱除技术研究

太仓半泾河古船发掘于近海河道,在保护修复工作开展前期,需采取脱盐处理。为全面了解船木含盐情况,针对不同部位不同树种的船体样品中的盐分种类与含量进行检测与分析。结果表明:船体样品所含以Cl~-和SO_4~(2-)为代表的可溶盐,采用超声波辅助加热去离子水浸泡法脱除,20 d可将Cl~-含量控制在1 mg/L,100 d可将SO_4~(2-)含量控制在1 mg/L。本研究结果可为后续保存工作提供有利条件。     

虚拟现实技术在淹城原貌再现中的应用研究

运用虚拟现实技术作为展示和研究平台,是快速全面地恢复大型遗址整体原貌的最便利、最经济、最全面和最直观的方法。     

湖北郧县人遗址石器的第二步加工

郧县人遗址中发现的石器第二步加工的特点是大部分用石锤来直接进行加工;打击方向垂直或接近于垂直;修整痕迹多浅、平;加工方向大部分为单向加工,少数为交互加工、转向加工的;在两刃或两刃以上的石器中,不同边缘的加工方向相同的多,不同的少。郧县人遗址中的石器特征与国内外的旧石器时代早期石器进行对比,在石器的第二步加工技术方面,有着自己鲜明的特点,从而构成了独具特色的“郧县人文化”。     

When climate justice goes wrong: Maladaptation and deep co-production in transformative environmental science and policy

Maladaptation to climate change is often portrayed as arising from the unjust exclusion of vulnerable people. In turn, analysts have proposed knowledge co-production with marginalized groups as a form of transformative climate justice. This paper argues instead that maladaptation arises from a much deeper exclusion based upon the projection of inappropriate understandings of risk and social identity that are treated as unquestioned circumstances of justice. Drawing on social studies of science, the paper argues that the focus on co-production as an intentional act of inclusion needs to be considered alongside “deep” or “reflexive” co-production, which instead refers to the non-cognitive and unavoidable simultaneous generation of knowledge and social order. These processes have linked visions of planetary justice with an understanding of climate risk based on global atmospheric change, and an assumption that community forms an antidote to individualism. The paper uses a discussion of adaptation in western Nepal to illustrate how such deep forms of co-production have significantly reduced understandings of “what” adaptation is for, and “who” is included. Maladaptation, therefore, is not simply unjust implementations of an essentially fair model of adaptation, but also the allocation of exclusionary visions of what and for whom adaptation is for. Debates about transformative climate justice therefore need to understand how their critiques of classical liberal justice generate exclusions of their own, and to engage vulnerable people in reframing, rather than just receiving, circumstances of justice. There is also a need to examine how these circumstances remain unchallenged within environmental science and policy.