Science and Technology Studies

“Students and scholars in the field of science and technology studies want to know how scientific knowledge is produced. We believe that the idealized accounts of knowledge productionare inadequate, given the complexity of the process they claim to describe. STS scholars seek to understand how science operates by analyzing historical case studies, observing contemporary scientists at work, examining representations of scientific ideas in textbooks or journals, and studying the infrastructure of scientific institutions. This interdisciplinary field brings together anthropologists, philosophers, historians, literary theorists, sociologists and some practicing scientists. The multidisciplinary nature of STS results from the wide variety of influences that contribute to the construction of scientific knowledge.”

“I became interested in science studies after I wrote Myths of Gender. Originally I had formulated my questions around the hunt for racism or sexism in science. But I encountered so many instances of good scientists doing what some would call “bad science” about race and gender that I began to wonder if there wasn’t something more generic about the production of scientific knowledge that I needed to understand. Thus began my search to understand more broadly how cultural setting—time and place—becomes part of the production of scientific knowledge. This led to my second book —Sexing the Body.”

For those who would like a broad introduction to the field of science studies I recommend the following books and web sites:

 

Resources

  • Dupre, John (2012) Processes of Life: Essays in the Philosophy of Biology. Oxford University Press
  • Hamdy, Sherine (2012) Our Bodies Belong to God: Organ Transplants, Islam and the struggle for Human Dignity in Egypt. University of California Press.
  • Kaiser, David and W.W. Norton (2011) How the Hippies Saved Physics
  • Tilley, Helen (2011) Africa as a Living Laboratory Empire, Development, and the Problem of Scientific Knowledge, 1870-1950. University of Chicago Press, 2011
  • Hackett, Edward et al., eds. (2007) The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. MIT Press.
  • Jasanoff, Sheila. (2007) Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States. Princeton University Press.
  • Wagner, Wendy and Rena Steinzor, eds. (2006) Rescuing Science from Politics: Regulation and Distortion of Scientific Research. Cambridge University Press.
  • Latour, Bruno. (2005) Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford University Press.
  • Irwin, Alan and Brian Wynne, eds. (2004) Misunderstanding Science?: The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology. Cambridge University Press.
  • Yearley, Steven. S. (2004) Making Sense of Science: Understanding the Social Study of Science. Sage Publications.
  • Clough, Sharyn. (2003) Beyond Epistemology: A Pragmatist Approach to Feminist Science Studies. Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Sismondo, Sergio. (2003) An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies. Blackwell.
  • Williams, S., L. Birke, G. Bendelow, eds. (2003) Debating Biology, Routledge.
  • Kourany, Janet A. (2002) The Gender of Science. Prentice Hall.
  • Jasanoff, Sheila et al., eds. (2001) Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. Sage Publications.
  • Biagioli, Mario, ed. (1999) The Science Studies Reader. Routledge.
  • Cetina, Karin Knorr. (1999) Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge. Harvard University Press.
  • Hacking, Ian. (1999) The Social Construction of What? Harvard University Press.
  • Hess, David J. (1997) Science Studies: An Advanced Introduction. New York University Press.
  • Kohler, Robert E. (1994) Lords of the Fly: Drosophila genetics and the experimental Life. Chicago University Press.
  • Latour, Bruno. (1988) Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society. Harvard University Press.

 

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