program with all the abstracts - Society for Social Studies of Science

TUESDAY, AUGUST, 19
001. 4S Publications Meeting
Special Event
1:00 to 3:00 pm
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
002. 4S Council Meeting
Special Event
3:00 to 6:00 pm
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
003. Registration
Special Event
4:00 to 7:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Lobby
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST, 20
004. Knowledge, Struggle, Transition
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
Chair:
Joaquim Toledo Jr, Unicamp
Participants:
Rethinking collective tacit knowledge Xiao Tan, Capital
Normal University
Collective tacit knowledge, proposed by Harry Collins, refers to
the social aspect and irreducible heartland of tacit knowledge.
It’s context sensitive, located in collectivity and can be only
acquired through social embedding in society by individual.
Mechanization is an important way to make tacit knowledge
explicit and somatic tacit knowledge is explicable with the
assistance of social prosthesis in this way. However, CTK can
not in principle be realized by any machine and is sheer
distinguished from STK. These claims need to be rethought.
First, CTK is the knowledge shared by a community and thus
need to be a rule-like knowledge to be owned beyond a particular
individual; otherwise it would be just an individual’s habit.
Although these rules are complicate and flexible among contexts,
they can eventually be dig out by some social science. It can be
somehow mechanized with the assistance of social prosthesis at
the same level of STK. Second, minimal embodiment thesis
implies that human can acquire CTK without relative practice,
and just by immersing in the language of community. The
criterion about whether we’ve grasped CTK is whether we could
be discerned from experts while we were talking about this CTK,
that is, a fully-functioned Chinese room. This is a circular
argument. Third, what is absolutely inexplicable is neglected,
such as subception, social prosthesis, etc. They are psychological
facts, or practical knowledge without representation.
Research in transition - The birth of transition research in a
Flemish technological research organization Robby
Berloznik, Flemish Institute for Technological Research
Transitions are processes of radical, structural change in a society
and its diverse socio-technical systems. They encompass
fundamental changes in the established structures, cultures and
modes of action. Consequently, transitions are long-term
processes - the typical time horizon covers several ‘generations’ typified by complexity and insecurity. This also counts for the
science system. But how does one then achieve on the short term
the needed structural change in a science and technology research
organization? In its mission statement, the Flemish Institute for
Technological Research (VITO) commits itself to promoting
sustainable development via scientifically underpinned advice
and support. Since 2010 experiments have been carried out in the
field of energy and mobility were ‘transitions’ and ‘transition
management’ are the guiding concepts for the effective
realization of sustainable development and for the research
intended to contribute to this objective. In November 2013 a
‘Transition Platform’ was created to implement transition
research on a wide scale throughout the organization. The
strategic choice to adopt transition management as a guiding
framework for VITO’s activities and research, as well as a
corporate responsibility, being made, the development of the
approach is only at the cradle, it is to be improved and
accelerated, by application in real-life projects. This paper will
illustrate by describing and analyzing the recent efforts at VITO
that given a vision, a strategy and a light formal framework,
guiding measures and by organizing learning cycles, research
managers and researchers can be motivated and enabled to
introduce transition research approaches in their ongoing
research projects and programs.
The transformations of the naval section of the technological
research institute: learning and institutional evolution Lucas
Rodrigo Silva, University of Campinas (UNICAMP); Leda
Maria Caira Gitahy, UNICAMP
This article discusses the process of learning and organizational
transformation of the Center for Naval and Ocean Engineering of
the Technological Research Institute (CNAVAL/IPT) from the
late 1990s based on desk research and interviews with key actors.
It is assumed that Public Research Institutions (PRIs) are entities
that create knowledge and skills and thereby learn and evolve
organizationally through an active process of relating to the
scientific, technological, economic and social environment. The
skills acquired are indicators of learning and organizational
change process. Because of this, we attempt to reconstruct the
trajectory of the naval section of IPT and its relation to the
political and economic context in order to identify the
circumstances that led to their organizational changes, learning
opportunities and the acquisition and/or loss of their
competences. The research shows how the context of the 1990s –
the political and fiscal crises, the dismantling of the naval sector
and the transformation of naval actors – threatened to disrupt the
research skills of the naval section of the IPT. The moment of
“recovery of the naval sector”, from the late 1990s, provides new
conditions for the restructuring of research competences of the
naval section of the Institute. The process of evolution of the
naval section of the IPT, in the transition to the 2000s, is linked
to a number of factors and measures, but, above all, is linked to
their participation in the research network “Center of Excellence
in Ocean Engineering” (CEENO), created by Petrobras.
The struggle for attention space: neopragmatism as an
intellectual movement Joaquim Toledo Jr, Unicamp
Historians of philosophy have focused mainly on individuals and
ideas, leaving aside intellectual networks and the lives of the
institutions in which they are embedded. One of the drawbacks of
this approach is a rudimentary understanding of processes of
intellectual change, which face the limitations of internalist and
rationalist reconstructions of the dynamics of change in theories
and ideas. Drawing on Randall Collins's path breaking work "The
sociology of Philosophies" (1998), this paper aims at broadening
the focus of traditional history of philosophy from individuals
and their supposedly free-floating abstract ideas towards
networks or groups of intellectuals and their collective struggle
for the ever limited attention space by means of quasi-strategic
recombination of intellectual capital. The case in focus will be
the intellectual changes taking place in the American
philosophical landscape by late 1970s. The struggle for attention
space inside the institutions of professional philosophy - breaking
down the hegemony of the analytic style in philosophy - is
integral to the revival of older, discredited philosophical
approaches. The paper draws broadly on Neil Gross's and Scott
Frickel's notion of "intellectual movements" (2005) as an
theoretical and methodological underpinning for analysing the
pragmatist revival in late 1970s in the US philosophical milieu.
Struggles of discourses on forest conservation and management
in Spain and the shaping of future human-forests
relationships Mireia Pecurul-Botines, Sustainable Research
Institute. University of Leeds
Drawing insights from interpretative policy analysis (Fischer,
2003; Yanow, 2000); this paper examines role of discursiveframes about forest conservation policies and their reaction with
the interpretation of the context in forest conservation policies in
Soria (Spain). The empirical part of this thesis examines conflict
and collaborative planning in the policy implementation of
Natura 2000, which is an instrument that promotes the
maintenance of biodiversity in Europe. A comparative case study
approach is used to analyse, on one hand, the conflict of the
Natural Park declaration in the Urbión Mountains; and in the
other hand, a civil society driven participatory process in a
Spain’s junipers forests in the “Sierra de Cabrejas”. Documents
and newspapers which relate to these processes were collected;
and 32 semi-structured interviews and observation notes were
undertook over three months of field-work. This material was
systematically analysed to uncover the relation between different
actors’ rationalities; their discourses and their institutionalization.
I propose six different types of rationalities - scientific,
economic, communicative, local-knowledge , right-based and
hierarchical – in order to analyse what could constitute the
justification for adopting certain view on what’s the problem and
its solution on the implementation of forest conservation
policies. My thesis is that this understanding might depend on the
evolution of human-environment relationships and other social
arrangements, shaped by the history of the site; and therefore the
type of policy adopted would influence further humanenviornment relationship. This is the main contribution of this
paper to STS studies.
005. Engaged STS in Engineering
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
Engineering and industrial settings are “microcosms” for studying and
acting on the many problems faced by Science and Technology Studies
(STS). Examples of topics to understand further and about which to
propose feasible solutions are: 1) how to speed up the development of tacit
skills for newcomers; 2) how to qualify and “trace back” the experience
that matters for perception and action; 3) how cognition and embodied
experience are intertwined in situated action; 4) how to treat technical
controversies when (both frontier and stabilized) technologies do not work
as expected on the shop floor; 5) how to help lay managers choose between
mutually exclusive opinions coming from distinct experts; 6) how to
facilitate the interaction of individuals coming from distinct forms of life,
especially when industrial plants are built in very remote areas; and 8) how
to deal with the power struggles between “scientific vs. local knowledge”
found in the interrelationships between “equipment designers vs.
equipment users”, “engineers and managers vs. supervisors and operators”,
and “foreign equipment suppliers vs. local buyers”. In this session, we
look forward to receiving papers that discuss or expand on these issues.
The goal is to illustrate that STS scholars have a role to play in designing
new ways of looking at and dealing with practical problems found within
the field of Engineering.
Chair:
Rodrigo Ribeiro, Federal University of Minas Gerasi - Brazil
Participants:
Regulating or increasing production variability? The role of
industrial operators in the prescriptive versus practice-based
approaches to work Samira Lima, Universidade Federal de
Minas Gerais - UFMG; Rodrigo Ribeiro, Federal University
of Minas Gerasi - Brazil; Francisco de Paula Antunes Lima,
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG
One of the major problems during the start-up of industrial plants
is reaching and maintaining the stability of the processes and,
thus, of the production. This means to decrease— as much as
possible—the existing variability in the raw material provided to
the plant, in equipment functioning and in their operation. For
managers, the way to achieve stability is by seeking “uniformity”
in all cases. Thus, in the same way machines should work
smoothly and consistently, there should be a “uniform operation”
between operators and between shifts. The assumption that
operators are only a source of variability underlies the growth of
“prescriptive approaches to doing and learning” (Ribeiro, 2013),
which focus on the control, uniformity and standardization of
operation, decreasing the scope and range of operators’ actions. It
is true that, in principle, novice operators may create variability
when they are still learning. However, this search for
“RoboOperators” does not take into account that the main job of
experienced operators is to regulate the variability coming from
all over the plant. This study analyzes a paradigmatic attempt to
control the actions of operators in a nickel plant by counting the
number of mouse “clicks” they make when operating the
automated plant from their screens in the control room. As a
result, we unfold the problems and assumptions underlying the
prescriptive approach to doing and learning in the case of
industrial plant operators and offer a proposal for identifying
when operators may be creating or regulating variability in both
stable and unstable operational scenarios.
Two forms of life and the real world: Contributions and Limits
of Design
and Operational Practices in the
Redesign of an Industrial Furnace Saulo Costa Val de Godoi,
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - UFMG; Rodrigo
Ribeiro, Federal University of Minas Gerasi - Brazil
A division of labor is found in highly-complex industrial plants
between those who design the technologies employed in the
production process and those who operate them. These design
and operational practices, however, converge at a certain point:
the moment at which such technologies are put to use during
initial plant start-ups. There is a great deal of friction between
individuals coming from these two forms of life when
technologies do not work as expected or break down: Are the
problems caused by design premises that were faulty from their
inception or by operators and shop floor engineers who did not
operate the technologies properly? In this study, we analyze a
case in which two huge industrial furnaces leaked in a US$3.2b
nickel plant, causing production to stop for one year. The
ongoing controversy over who was to blame is not addressed
here. Instead, we reconstruct the interaction between design and
operational practitioners who were forced to work together, after
the incidents, to propose a design of a new electric furnace. By
reconstructing the meetings and gathering the input of both
groups during the furnace redesign, we aim at understanding the
contributions, limits, and overlaps between these two practices.
This analysis will aid in future decision-making processes of
engineering companies and plant owners regarding what types of
input to consider as the most reliable when design and
operational practitioners disagree during the design phase– that
is, before technologies are built and tested in the real world.
The Role of Experience in Perception Rodrigo Ribeiro, Federal
University of Minas Gerasi - Brazil
Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception is comprised of
two main levels of analysis: the description of the general
foundation upon which all human perception occurs and that of
the lived, situated aspects of perception, as experienced by
individuals. These ”structural” and “situated” accounts of
perception assume, respectively, the existence of a general body,
which all human beings possess in principle, and of a historical
body, which is the product of an individual’s perceptual learning
or ‘synchronization’ with the world. A comprehensive and
faithful description of human perceptual experience has to
consider, simultaneously, the general, structural, individual, and
situational elements involved in perception. Such a faithful
description also must show the ways in which these aspects
impact each other leading to distinct outcomes. I am proposing,
here, a situated account of perception in which that which is
perceived is the result of the interplay of three aspects: a) the
embodied experience of individuals, b) the physical features of
the perceptual scene, and c) the context. None of these aspects
has an a priori primacy over or is, in principle, subsumed by any
of the others. We can, nevertheless, think of them as “forces”
competing for the definition of what will emerge as a “figure” or
recede into the “background” in each situation. In order to
support this account, the discussion in this paper draws on
empirical cases of perceptual skill and learning described in
research on apprenticeship in a large industrial plant near the
Amazon rainforest in Brazil.
El Programa Ingeniería 2030: Kit para Armar Un Nuevo
Ingeniero Juan Felipe Espinosa Cristia, Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
En la voz del Vicepresidente Ejecutivo de la ‘Corporación de
Fomento –Entidad Gubernamental que Organiza el Programael gobierno invita a ‘…a participar imaginando un país con más y
mejores oportunidades para todos... En ese sentido, esta iniciativa
de Corfo quiere aportar en la formación de ingenieros que serán
clave para construir un Chile más desarrollado y con mayor
reconocimiento internacional” (Cabrera, 2013) El foco del
programa, se encuentra en los siguientes cuatro pilares:
investigación aplicada, desarrollo y transferencia de tecnología,
innovación y emprendimiento. Como lo comenta Conrad von
Igel -Gerente de Innovación de Corfo- “Es fundamental que en
Chile contemos con instituciones que sepan reconocer estas
tendencias, adelantarse y proyectar el futuro…permitiendo que
los valores, métodos y competencias transmitidas a los futuros
ingenieros tengan vigencia por un largo período” (Cabrera,
2013). Preliminarmente, el análisis de los discursos de la Fase I
(cerrado y definido) y de la Fase II (cerrado y en definición) del
citado Programa, permite visualizar la producción de una entidad
que hemos venido a llamar ‘Venture Engineer’/Ingeniero
Arriesgado siguiendo una distinción de Neff(2012).
Paradojalmente, nos encontramos ante un proyecto de ingeniería
social respecto de la profesión de Ingeniero en Chile. Esta
ingeniería social heterogénea (Law, 1987), viene a definir un
profesional que siempre se construye su identidad profesional,
aceptando mayores niveles de riesgo en el desarrollo y ejecución
de sus actividades. Referencias Cabrera, E. (2013). Corfo lanza
iniciativa para posicionar a las escuelas de ingeniería del país
entre las mejores del mundo. La Tercera. Retrieved March 02,
2014, from
http://www.latercera.com/noticia/educacion/2013/01/657505712-9-corfo-lanza-iniciativa-para-posicionar-a-las-escuelasde-ingenieria-del-pais.shtml Law, J. (1987). Technology and
heterogeneous engineering: the case of Portuguese expansion.
The social construction of technological systems: New directions
in the sociology and history of technology, 111–134. Neff, G.
(2012). Venture labor: Work and the burden of risk in innovative
industries. MIT Press.
006. Dynamics in Engineering Practices
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Chopin
Chairs:
Andrés Felipe Valderrama Pineda, Aalborg University
Anders Buch, Aalborg University
Participants:
What Are the ‘Practices’ in Engineering Practice? Anders Buch,
Aalborg University
This paper will discuss – on a fundamental and conceptual level
– how we can conceive of and study engineering as bundles of
social practices, i.e. as important activities, work, doings and
sayings in the world. What will be of interest here is to
investigate how we – as researchers – should conceive the notion
of ‘practice’ when we engage in the study of engineering. It is
evident that engineering manifests itself through the dispersed
and concrete activities of individual engineers. But what – on a
conceptual level – institute these activities as engineering
‘practices’? What qualifies certain patterns of performances as
engineering ‘practices’? In Engineering Studies many
contributions have set out to describe and understand the
dynamics of engineering practices – either in educational
settings, work settings, or in the interplay between education and
work. But fewer have explicitly contemplated what should
actually be understood by ‘practice’ and how practices can be
investigated as social phenomena? This paper sets out to discuss
these questions by drawing on resources from the intellectual
tradition of practice theory (e.g. Reckwitz 2002, Rouse 2007,
Schatzki 2002). The paper will point to practice theory as a
useful resource for engineering studies and it will reflect on
methodological approaches of relevance to studies of engineering
practices.
Software engineering practices in the transition between
education and work life Vivian Anette Lagesen, Norwegian
University of Science and Technology
Research has since the early 1980s mainly focused upon how
men and women differentiate in terms of previous knowledge
and their level of passion for computers when they enter the field
of computer science (Dambrot et al 1985, Margolis and Fisher
2002, Lagesen 2005). What happens to the practices of doing
software engineering among men and women software engineers
in their transition from education to working life? Is the alleged
passion for computers among men software engineering
translated into particular practices, which are different from
women’s practices in software engineering and consultancy? And
if so, how? And what happens to the gender differences observed
in the educational setting? Do they persist or dissolve when
software engineers become professionals? This paper is based on
a study of in-depth interviews with 77 men and women software
engineers in 15 companies in three different countries; Norway,
Malaysia, and the US (Silicon Valley). We found that the
competencies, identities and practices that has been seen the most
efficient mechanisms for excluding (many) women in software
engineering education (in terms of knowledge, motivation,
practices, and identity-wise) may in fact be less important and
work less as an exclusion mechanism in the actual work setting,
and that there are spaces for women, de-facto spaces, but also
women-friendly spaces. The finding indicates a translation of
what is considered to be relevant, important interesting
knowledge, from being purely technical to become more applied
and ‘holistic’. It also shows how practices and motivations
among software engineers change in this transition.
Multiple design practices Søsser Brodersen, Department of
Development and Planning, Aalborg University; Rikke
Premer Petersen, Aaulborg University, Department of
Development and Planning; Ulrik Jørgensen, Aalborg
University
What is engineering design practice and where might we find it?
Drawing on practice theory (Shove, 2013) and empirical studies
carried out in two International companies situated in Denmark
we will open up these questions to explore the multiplicity of
design practices found among engineers. Based on the two cases
we describe multiple bundles of design practices and discuss how
these are enacted in specific situations. Looking into the different
meanings, competences and materials that collectively form the
building blocks of local design practices, our argument is that
design is not a well-defined discipline; rather it is multiple,
ambiguous and locally situated. Nevertheless, elements from the
local bundles of design practices can be rediscovered at other
sites, in different bundles of practices. In the discussion we look
at how educations and organisational structures among other
things influence these elements and thus help shape practices.
Administración del Conocimiento: Disciplina ineludible o
práctica alternativa para la adopción del enfoque de procesos
Maria del Pilar Trujillo Andrade, Instituto Politécnico
Nacional - UPIICSA; Angel Rivera, Instituto Politécnico
Nacional - UPIICSA
Las organizaciones se encuentran, frecuentemente, envueltas en
ciclos centrados en mejorar la forma en que hacen las cosas.
Estos esfuerzos contribuyen a alcanzar nuevos estados de
madurez, tanto en la concepción de su modelo de negocio como
en el desempeño del engranaje que se pone en marcha para
alcanzar sus objetivos. Uno de los marcos conceptuales y
metodológicos más socorridos para abordar dichos ciclos, es el
enfoque de procesos. Mismo que se comprende menos de lo que
instaurarlo, como paradigma de la gestión y el desempeño,
amerita; y cuya calidad de implementación se relaciona
indudablemente, con la forma en cómo se crea, se transfiere y se
aplica el conjunto de saberes implicados en su comprensión y
adopción. El propósito que guía el desarrollo de este trabajo de
investigación es describir y entender de qué manera la
administración del conocimiento (AC) como disciplina-directriz
tiene una influencia positiva en la conducción de las iniciativas
de mejora en las que toda entidad productiva se ve inmersa, en
aras de perfeccionar la manera en que genera el valor que ofrece
a la sociedad. Específicamente este trabajo aborda la manera en
cómo la AC influye en la adopción del enfoque de procesos en
una organización y advierte acerca de los riesgos de mantener a
la AC al margen de los procesos evolutivos de las
organizaciones. Nuestro estudio utiliza el enfoque cualitativo
para la obtención y análisis de los datos y utilizamos una
combinación de instrumentos metodológicos, tales como la
observación participante, el análisis de fuentes secundarias y la
aplicación y análisis de entrevistas semi estructuradas a los
participantes. Nuestros hallazgos indican que la AC es un
elemento teórico fundamental para lograr una adecuada adopción
del enfoque de procesos (EP), en este sentido, nuestros datos
revelan la existencia de un vínculo estratégico entre la AC y el
EP que se materializa de manera concreta en la existencia de
diversas estrategias de la AC durante los procesos de
implementación y adopción del EP.
007. Engineering Education in Action
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Dalí
Chair:
Jingjin Wang, STS, Tsinghua University
Participants:
Searching the human face of computer science curricula in
Brazil Miguel Jonathan, Universidade Federal do Rio de
Janeiro
In Brazil, as in other developing countries, graduates from
Computer Science and Computer Engineering university courses
may sometimes reach positions which allow them to act as
mediators between the technology and its applications within
society, besides being mere intermediaries of established
solutions, in Bruno Latour's parlance. Their education provides
the abilities to conceive what can be done and to build the
artefacts which will become new actants in the hybrid of people
and things that constitute the collectives in which we live.
Computer Science and its technological developments have
helped change the way people design and produce goods and
services, communicate and access information, manage
organizations, learn and entertain. Computers have gradually
become cheap, small, ubiquitous and easily operated by almost
anyone, being part of most people's lives. Yet, when we examine
the curricula of university courses, we find that they still show a
strong bias towards technical and scientific subjects, in much the
same way as they did 40 years ago, when computers were used
only by highly trained technical people for specialized
applications. Course contents keep being presented to students as
naturalized, neutral and universal knowledge, unrelated to
historical, political, sociological, cultural or other human
considerations. We propose to investigate the networks that
contribute to the development of computer curricula in Brazilian
universities, how they act to keep those curricula in relative
stability, and whether they have been preparing our students to
the role of mediators of computer knowledge or to become mere
intermediaries.
Education of Engineering Literacy for Non-Engineers Kiyoshi
Shibata, Chiba Institute of Technology
It is necessary to control introduction of new technologies into
society by the member of the society, with their understanding
the nature of engineering and engineers. But the engineering is
only taught in engineering schools. The followings are keys to
understand the nature of engineering and engineers. The society
means market for the engineers, according to the activities of
engineers’ societies. As their each specialty is limited to a narrow
area and they need to cooperate with each other to accomplish
the task, their responsibility tends to diffuse out in the society.
Although the engineer’s ethics has been introduced since late
1990s, the contents taught by engineers are mainly to avoid
trouble in market, such as PL issues or technical accidents, and
little attention is paid to the responsibility on societal
transformation. Originally, the engineering is to seek an optimum
solution in tradeoff systems. But they often lack the vision to
expand the boundary of the system, which is determined by nonengineers. On the other hand, general public rely on the
engineering and engineers very innocently. They often believe
that the engineering provides unique solution and unlimited
progress. The basic principles of engineering should be also
taught to avoid such misunderstanding. It is desirable to teach
them with practical problems, such as environmental, bio-ethical
or IT technology issue. The author trial on teaching both
engineering background and the social implemental issue will be
introduced and future tasks will be discussed.
Redrawing the Map: Engineering Education in Twentieth
Century China Jingjin Wang, STS, Tsinghua University;
Bing Liu, Tsinghua University
This essay argues that Engineering Education in twentiethcentury China is a rich topic that can be productively integrated
into research and teaching on the modern science and society. It
identifies major issues of Engineering Education in twentiethcentury China and demonstrates that they can prove useful to any
scholar who wishes to consider Engineering Education in a
comparative and trans/ international context. To illustrate these
points, this paper takes Tsinghua University as a specific case for
engineering education reform analysis in China and gives a
detailed analysis of the education revolution of Tsinghua
University in the 1950s. Tsinghua’s history makes it unique
among engineering schools in China, which plays a global role
and a leading role in China's higher educational institution.
Chinese Engineering Education was very international in
character. This paper gives a detailed analysis of the education
revolution of Tsinghua University. As for the research
methodology, the author applies empirical research, analysis and
interviews, and tries to apply multidisciplinary research
methodology and perspective that involves with history,
education and politics. This paper draws suggests some important
points for a fruitful investigation into the topic of Engineering
Education in twentieth-century China: first, revising the
conventional assumptions and categories about historical
narrative of modern science; and, second, breaking free from the
tunnel history of national science, discussing the relevance of
such subjects as scientific nationalism, Maoist mass science, and
transnational scientific networks for the understanding of science
in the twentieth-century world. Third, introducing multi-cultural
study into the study of the Engineering Education. The
Engineering Education not only has the root and development
logic of education itself, but also is made by the overall political
situation at home and abroad. Engineering Education should
comply with the rules of educational development. The
Engineering Education should coincide with the progressive
direction of the advanced education. The reform should deal with
several relations, and etc. Engineering Education should base on
the Problem-centered, practice-purport, scientific research-guide
and comply with the local practice.
Engineering Ethics in Japan: Its Retrospect and Prospect
Hidekazu Kanemitsu, Kanazawa Institute of Technology
At present, engineering ethics is introducing into engineering
education in many countries. In Japan just the same, engineering
academic societies and professional societies are dealing with
ethics education, and more than ten years have passed since
engineering ethics has been introduced into Japanese engineering
education. Many of current Japanese engineering ethics
education adapt the idea of “ethics as design,” which is derived
from Caroline Whitbeck. She criticizes that the existing ethics
ignored the “agent perspective” and emphasizes the benefit of
dealing with the analogy between ethical and design problems. It
is true that this idea makes ethical problems something that the
students can relate to. This approach will indeed be beneficial in
educating people so as to help them develop the ability to deal
with real-life ethical problems. However, the author thinks that
the agent-centered approach involves some shortcoming.
Namely, this approach involves the risk of considering ethical
problems without providing any justification. We cannot ignore
the claim that Whitbeck has only laid down rules for the art of
living well with regard to practical issues; it is suggested that this
approach should be supported by some kind of justification. In
this presentation, the author will examine the ethics-as-design
thesis, and then proceed to discuss the future prospects of this
approach and Japanese engineering ethics. He will conclude by
arguing that normative sources for evaluating moral design need
to be taken into account.
Interfacing with Poverty: How Students and Alumni Reflect on
Travel Affecting their Social Responsibility Development
Gregory A Rulifson, University of Colorado, Boulder;
Nathan Canney, Seattle University; Angela R Bielefeldt,
University of Colorado, Boulder
It is easier than ever to travel to a developing country, and more
people, from high school students to our grandparents, are being
exposed to and affected by personal engagements with poverty in
meaningful ways. As student interest in helping the
impoverished grows, more universities are supporting Engineers
Without Borders chapters and creating programs explicitly
framing engineering as one tool for poverty alleviation, thus
increasing student engagement with poverty. Could this demand
originate in those travel experiences and “voluntourism”? Are
there correlations between students’ previous travel experiences
and desires to engineer for the disadvantaged? To explore these
questions, we use data from interviews with first year
engineering students and engineering service program alumni, as
well as open responses from a survey regarding social
responsibility. We focus specifically on critical experiences that
help influence social responsibility development and how people
connect engineering to their personal prerogatives to help others
less fortunate than themselves. Interviewees describe that travel
to developing countries, disaster relief volunteering, and
involvement with engineering service programs in college
provide a context for reflection on their own comfortable
situations. We compare the moments leading up to the decision
of engineering as a major for the first year students and what
moments during college affected future decisions of alumni. The
alumni provide a glimpse of potential pathways for the firstyears. These in-person moments of exposure to poverty seem to
change how students view themselves as engineers and their
understanding of possible career paths within and sometimes
outside of engineering.
008. Engineers, Technology and Society
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Miró
In 2006, a new book series was launched by Morgan and Claypool
publishers. A brave undertaking by a newly formed publishing house,
supporting the belief by the Series Editor and today’s session host, Caroline
Baillie, that ‘society’ was the new ‘green’ and that increasingly engineers
were realizing the need to understand the social impacts of their work.
There are now 21 books in ‘Engineers, Technology and Society’, written
by STS scholars, engineers and philosophers from the Global North and
South. This session brings together authors from the series for the first
time, to discuss the purpose of their books, and the impact that they believe
they have had. The session will consist of each author presenting a short
synopsis of their book, and their experience of its impact. Finally all
authors will engage in a discussion with the audience about the potential
for moving engineers towards more socially just and responsible outcomes
by means of literature which bridges the gap between STS and practicing
engineers and students. Session abstracts include: Riley, D., Engineering
and Social Justice Lucena, J., Schneider, J., Leydens, J., Engineering and
Sustainable Community Development Bell, S., Engineers, Society and
Sustainability Blue, E., Levine, M., Nieusma D., Engineering and War:
Militarism, Ethics, Institutions, Alternatives Baillie, C, Jayasinghe, R.,
Smythe,T.,Mushtaq, U.,The Garbage Crisis: A Global Challenge for
Engineers Discussant Mitcham, C., Humanitarian Engineering: words in
search of meaning
Chair:
Caroline Baillie, UWA
Participants:
Engineering and Social Justice Donna Riley, Smith
College/National Science Foundation
In 2008 my book Engineering and Social Justice grew out of the
work of the Engineering, Social Justice, and Peace network,
which has sought since 2004 to create space for reflection and
action among engineers and others concerned about engineering's
relationship to injustice. I argued in the book that the profession
of engineering in the United States has historically served the
status quo, feeding an ever-expanding materialistic and
militaristic culture, remaining relatively unresponsive to public
concerns, and without significant pressure for change from
within. The book called upon engineers to cultivate a passion for
social justice and peace and to develop the skill and knowledge
set needed to take practical action for change within the
profession. This talk reviews how different threads from the
book, which mostly reflect the concerns of the ESJP network,
have been elaborated and acted upon in the intervening years,
and charts some paths forward from here. This talk forms part of
the integrated session ‘Engineers, Technology and Society,
hosted by Caroline Baillie, Series Editor of the Morgan and
Claypool Synthesis lectures of the same name. A short synopsis
of the book will be presented, together with experience of its
impact. Riley, D., (2008) Engineering and Social Justice in
Engineers, Technology and Society Synthesis Lectures, Morgan
and Claypool, Edited Baillie, C, 2008
Engineering and Sustainable Community Development Juan
Lucena, Colorado School of Mines; Jen Schneider, Colorado
School of Mines; Jon Leydens, Colorado School of Mines
Our book, Engineering and Sustainable Community
Development, presents an overview of engineering as it relates to
humanitarian engineering, service learning engineering, or
engineering for community development, often called sustainable
community development (SCD). The topics covered include a
history of engineers and development, the problems of using
industry-based practices when designing for communities, how
engineers can prepare to work with communities, and listening in
community development. It also includes two case studies -- one
of engineers developing a windmill for a community in India,
and a second of an engineer "mapping communities" in Honduras
to empower people to use water effectively -- and student
perspectives and experiences on one curricular model dealing
with community development. This talk forms part of the
integrated session ‘Engineers, Technology and Society, hosted by
Caroline Baillie, Series Editor of the Morgan and Claypool
Synthesis lectures of the same name. A short synopsis of the
book will be presented, together with experience of its impact.
Lucena, J., Schneider, J., Leydens, J.A., (2010) Engineering and
Sustainable Community Development in Engineers, Technology
and Society Synthesis Lectures, Morgan and Claypool
Engineering and War: Militarism, Ethics, Institutions,
Alternatives Michael Levine, UWA; Dean Nieusma,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Ethan Blue, UWA
Military institutions and interests have long influenced
engineering education, research, and practice and continue to
shape the field in the present. We provide a generalized
framework for responding to these influences useful to students
and scholars of engineering, as well as reflective practitioners.
Our analysis draws on philosophy, history, critical theory, and
technology studies to understand the connections between
engineering and war and how they shape our very understandings
of what engineering is and might be. First, we consider the ethics
of war generally and then explore questions of integrity for
engineering practitioners facing career decisions relating to war.
Next, we consider the historical rise of the military-industrialacademic complex, especially from World War II to the present.
Finally, we consider a range of responses to the militarization of
engineering from those who seek to unsettle the status quo. Only
by confronting the ethical, historical, and political consequences
of engineering for warfare, we argue, can engineering be sensibly
reimagined. This talk forms part of the integrated session
‘Engineers, Technology and Society, hosted by Caroline Baillie,
Series Editor of the Morgan and Claypool Synthesis lectures of
the same name. A short synopsis of the book will be presented,
together with experience of its impact. Blue, E., Levine, M.,
Nieusma D., Engineering and War: Militarism, Ethics,
Institutions, Alternatives (2013) in Engineers, Technology and
Society Synthesis Lectures, Morgan and Claypool, Edited
Baillie, C, 2013
Engineers, Society, and Sustainability Sarah Bell, University
College London
Sarah Bell, University College London and University of
Western Australia This talk is based on the book Engineers,
Society and Sustainability (Bell, 2011). To date, engineering
contributions to sustainability have focused on reducing the
environmental impacts of development and improving the
efficiency of resource use. This approach is consistent with
dominant policy responses to environmental problems, which
have been characterised as ecological modernisation. Ecological
modernisation assumes that sustainability can be addressed by
reforming modern society and developing environmental
technologies. Environmental philosophers have questioned these
assumptions and call into question the very nature of modern
society as underlying the destruction of nature and the
persistence of social inequality. Engineering has a clear role to
play in ecological modernisation, but its role in more radical
visions of sustainability is uncertain. Moving from vision to
reality, engineers have an important role in mediating between
the values of society, clients, the environment and the
possibilities of technology and the aim of this book is to begin
this process of mediation with future engineers. This talk forms
part of the integrated session ‘Engineers, Technology and
Society, hosted by Caroline Baillie, Series Editor of the Morgan
and Claypool Synthesis lectures of the same name. A short
synopsis of the book will be presented, together with experience
of its impact. Bell, S., (2011) Engineers, Society and
Sustainability in Engineers, Technology and Society Synthesis
Lectures, Morgan and Claypool, Edited
The Garbage Crisis: A Global Challenge for Engineers Caroline
Baillie, UWA; Randika Jayasinghe, University of Western
Australia; Toni Smythe, UWA; Usman Mushtaq, Queens
University
This talk is based on the recent book The Garbage Crisis: A
Global Challenge for Engineers (Jayasinghe et al, 2013).
Managing waste in a socially and environmentally acceptable
manner is one of the key challenges of the 21st century. Waste
often follows the path of least resistance and ends up being
dumped on and processed by marginalised communities
throughout the world. Solid waste management is not a mere
technical challenge. The environmental impact, socio-economic,
cultural, institutional, legal, and political aspects are fundamental
in planning, designing, and maintaining a sustainable waste
management system in any country. Engineers have a major role
to play in designing proper systems that integrate stakeholders,
waste system elements, and sustainability aspects of waste
management. We present examples from across the globe that
highlight the inequalities surrounding waste and the part
engineers can play in co-creating socially just solutions for its
management. This talk forms part of the integrated session
‘Engineers, Technology and Society, hosted by Caroline Baillie,
Series Editor of the Morgan and Claypool Synthesis lectures of
the same name. A short synopsis of the book will be presented,
together with experience of its impact. Randika Jayasinghe, Toni
Smythe, Usman Mushtaq, Caroline Baillie (2013) The Garbage
Crisis: A Global Challenge for Engineers, Morgan and Claypool
publishers
Estado, ingeniería y territorio: el Ministerio de Obras Públicas
de la Nación en Argentina Anahi Ballent, Instituto de
Estudios de la Ciencia y la Tecnología. Universidad
Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina
El trabajo aborda la etapa inicial del desarrollo del MOP (18981914) analizando los vínculos entre políticas públicas sobre
infraestructuras territoriales, conformación de una burocracia
técnica de ingenieros y cambios en la ingeniería como disciplina
y profesión. El trabajo, desde una perspectiva histórica
selecciona obras de distintos sectores de la producción del MOP
que considera emblemáticas de las políticas estatales del período
y condensadoras de la articulación de temas propuestos. La
creación del MOP fue producto de una complejización del
aparato estatal en el campo de las obras de infraestructura
económica y estatal y de la importancia creciente que adquiría
dicho campo dentro de los planes de gobierno a nivel nacional.
Se trata de un momento particular dentro de un proceso más
amplio, que incluyó, además de la ejecución de obras de
envergadura, la acción del Departamento de Ingenieros dentro
del Ministerio del Interior, la creación del MOP de la Provincia
de Buenos Aires en 1885, la sanción de la Ley de Obras Públicas
775 en 1876 y la creación de la carrera de Ingeniería dentro de la
FCEyN de la UBA en 1866. El aumento de la importancia de las
obras públicas dentro de los planes de gobierno estimuló la
consolidación de las ramas de la ingeniería, cuya formación en el
país registraba el primer graduado en 1870. En 1895 se formó el
Centro Nacional de Ingenieros que comenzó a incidir en los
debates públicos a través de su revista La Ingeniería (1897)
Discussant:
Carl Mitcham, Colorado School of Mines
009. Imagining Energy Futures
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Moliere
With the construction of large-scale solar fields spanning continents and
cultures, the resuscitation of nuclear energy in the developing world, and
the uneven forging of carbon markets across diverse cultures, epistemic
domains, and expertises, STS scholars must take stock of the theoretical
tools we apply to these complex, rapidly emerging energy-society domains.
The proposed panel session, “Imagining Energy Futures” will present
research on how existing STS-derived theoretical frameworks are being
used, adapted and challenged to illuminate the political, epistemic and
social dimensions of energy configurations emerging from state, regional
and sub-national endeavors, particularly in the Global South. Chad
Monfreda grapples with contested formations of sociotechnical imaginaries
animating sub-national attempts by California and partner states in
Indonesia, Brazil, Peru, Niger, and Mexico, where the legitimacy of
participants is contested alongside the role of markets and the objects such
markets are designed to govern, namely the climate and forests. Sharlissa
Moore refines and applies sociotechnical systems theory to understand how
a vision for a renewable energy system that traverses North Africa and
Europe is being shaped at the local and national levels in Morocco.
Monamie Bhadra tracks the fraught production of necessary political
fictions and an attestive public sphere that might legitimize and make
robust India’s emerging democracy through its struggles with nuclear
energy. The three presentations of contemporary energy-society domains,
with discussant, Dr. Clark Miller, aim for both theoretical rigor and
empirical richness to show how energy systems are being imagined around
the world, and through this imagining, altering societal relationships.
Chair:
Monamie Bhadra, Arizona State University
Participants:
The Solar Haj: Morocco’s Role in Mediterranean Energy
Integration Sharlissa Moore, Arizona State University
Numerous international organizations, including the Desertec
Industrial Initiative and the World Bank, are supporting largescale renewable energy development in North Africa. They
envision that the electricity grid between the European Union and
North Africa will be integrated and renewable energy sold
between north and south by 2050. This study seeks to understand
how regional sociotechnical systems are envisioned by studying
the development of this vision and its anticipated societal effects.
This talk will focus on Moroccan perspectives on regional
renewable energy integration. Morocco is an interesting case
study because, in addition to its prospects for successfully
meeting ambitious domestic renewable energy goals, it is
expected to be the region’s largest renewable energy exporter.
The methods include 60 interviews conducted with
policymakers, energy company representatives, and researchers
in Morocco and European Union countries, plus interviews
conducted with citizens living near in Ouarzazate— Morocco’s
first solar energy zone. The study finds that green electrons are
not viewed as a good in-and-of-themselves in Morocco. Rather,
Moroccan renewable energy policy focuses on intermediary
goals, such as developing a national innovation system, creating
jobs, and developing a local industry. Officials envision
Ouarzazate will one day attract a “solar pilgrimage (haj),” as the
world’s premier destination for solar energy development and
research. While Morocco supports the eventual export of
renewable energy, its national goals for renewable energy are
rarely considered in the discourse on regional energy integration.
Greater North African ownership of this regional vision will be
needed to achieve it.
Carbon Markets, Forests, and the Re-Imagination of the Global
Chad Monfreda, Arizona State University
In 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger tried turning
California into a global climate change leader. Standing with
counterparts in forest-rich states of Brazil and Indonesia,
Schwarzenegger spearheaded the Governor's Forests and Climate
Task Force (GCF)—an effort to re-imagine sub-national
governments as key players in global environmental governance.
Anticipating the delivery of a global carbon market by 2015, the
GCF aimed to make itself into a test-bed for trading carbon
credits from Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest
Degradation (REDD+). The first part of the talk will explore how
the GCF re-imagined forests, climate, and markets to position
sub-national governments as indispensable global actors and
how, in doing so, reconfigured ideas about how global
environmental problems should be known and governed. By
2010, however, global, sub-national, and local developments had
thrown the GCF's relevance into question. The near-term
prospect for a global carbon market had collapsed, while
governors began to question if the initiative's political risk
outweighed its reward. Meanwhile, indigenous groups and local
activists in the Global South joined with environmental justice
activists in the North to oppose the GCF, which they saw not as a
sub-national solution to global problems but as a dangerous
channel for global capital to exploit already poor and
marginalized local communities. The second part of the talk will
look at how these developments forced the GCF to further reimagine forests, climate, and, especially, the rightful role of
markets, with significant ethical, political, and epistemic
implications for global environmental governance.
Forging necessary political fictions through nuclear energy in
India Monamie Bhadra, Arizona State University
The Indian government’s unwavering commitment to expanding
its nuclear capacity has spawned decentralized, diverse and fierce
resistance in rural India in the last few years. Fishermen, farmers,
uranium miners and elite activists articulate a broad suite of
sociopolitical, economic and technical concerns spanning
livelihood destruction, cultural disintegration, new forms of
colonization, and anxieties about risk and safety. In this talk, I
place contemporary Indian anti-nuclear protests in the context of
Western European and American anti-nuclear protests in the
1970s and 1980s to illustrate the similarities in scope, agenda,
constituents and strategies, but also critical differences,
particularly the Indian protests’ anchor in the “environmentalism
of the poor.” Through these comparisons, I argue that because of
the historical instrumental use of science to legitimate public
actions in liberal democracies, the sweeping, alternative social
imaginaries animating early Western protests have narrowed
considerably in the present day to standard concerns about risk
and safety. In contrast, the Western preoccupation with
depoliticizing power through technical objectivity was weak in
Indian political culture; the attestive gaze of Indians was rooted
more in religious and moral discipline than in scientific
rationality. Moreover, Indian environmentalists viewed science
as an instrument of state-sanctioned violence through
development projects. Now, the persistent public exposure of the
turbulent mixing of ethics and politics in struggles over
determining India’s nuclear future poses serious problems for
arriving at politically legitimate decisions. Yet the political
parsing processes may give rise to “necessary political fictions”
that can ground both a robust Indian democracy and energy
policies.
Discussant:
Shobita Parthasarathy, University of Michigan
010. Inter-cultural Communication Within and Beyond Science
and Technology
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat I
The problem of communication, inter-cultural translation, and knowledge
dissemination is at the heart of Science and Technology Studies. A wide
range of mechanisms of communication and collaboration have been
described in the STS literature, including boundary objects, trading zones,
interactional expertise, trust, and so on. They all can facilitate inter-cultural
knowledge exchange and transfer within or beyond the boundaries of
scientific communities. However, communication between heterogeneous
communities still proves to be difficult and raises several challenges for
those involved in them. This session aims to cohere a multi-disciplinary
perspective on how cross-boundary knowledge exchange can be best
understood and probed at different 'levels' of scientific boundaries. We seek
a diversity of perspectives in order to analyse: the innermost boundaries
between the different micro-cultures of single scientific fields, the
disciplinary boundaries between different sciences such as are necessary
for collaborative multi- and interdisciplinary projects and the outermost
boundaries between monolithic scientific cultures and other institutions and
wider publics.
Chairs:
Tiago Ribeiro Duarte, University of Brasília
Luis Ignacio Reyes-Galindo, Cardiff University
Participants:
Mediating communication: Trust, interactional expertise, and
the fractal model Tiago Ribeiro Duarte, University of
Brasília
The STS literature has shown that communication and
collaboration between heterogeneous scientific communities is
fraught with difficulties, which are related to a number of reasons
including: the diversity of technical languages in science, the
wide range of instruments and machines deployed by different
expert communities, the different skill-sets hold by different subcultures of research, their heterogeneous epistemic cultures, and
frequently their non-convergent interests. The STS literature has
also described a number of mechanisms of communication that
seek to bridge the gaps between heterogeneous scientific
communities, such as boundary objects, trading zones,
interactional expertise, and trust. This paper seeks to identify the
role of trust and interactional expertise in mediating crossdomain scientific communication and their interplay at different
levels of analysis. I examine them in narrow fields of
investigation such as paleoceanography and in wider fields of
investigation, such as climate-change science. To do so, I deploy
the fractal model, a model developed by Collins, which suggests
that there is an analogous structure at different levels of analysis
in terms of the distribution of interactional and contributory
expertise. The main contribution of this paper is to work out how
these two important mechanisms of communication are related to
different ‘fractal levels’. The present work is based on interviews
with climate-change scientists and with members of some of its
sub-areas of research, particularly with paleoclimatologists. It
also draws on material collected from participant observations of
scientific meetings.
Probing the social boundaries of scientific knowledge: the
heartlands and hinterlands of physics Luis Ignacio ReyesGalindo, Cardiff University
The presentation will concentrate on the aims and preliminary
results of two on-going research project centred on analysing the
social boundaries of physics: from the 'innermost' boundaries
between fields of subject specialisation; to the ‘outer’ boundaries
that delineate mainstream physics from unorthodox physics;
ending at the ‘outermost’ boundaries that separate ‘professional’
physics from non-professional or ‘illegitimate’ physics (or what
is stigmatised as ‘crank’ science in scientists’ popular accounts).
The starting point of both research projects and the main topic of
the presentation is an empirical analysis of the arXiv e-print
server’s moderation and reclassification policies, chosen as
representative of scientific practice because arXiv is now a
ubiquitous dissemination channel for many subject areas in
physics and has a growing presence in various other scientific
fields. arXiv’s reflexive policing of its own, nested
reclassification/moderation boundaries, plus arXiv user practices,
have emulated the creation of the three types of boundaries
mentioned at the start, thus providing a solid illustration of realworld boundary work in science. I will discuss how this research
can help us understand problems surrounding the publication,
communication and absorption of knowledge in the intra- and
inter-science domains: how ‘raw’ highly esoteric knowledge can
or cannot be assimilated by non-specialist publics through open
access repositories and the related problem of how and if nonspecialists can genuinely contribute to pools of expert
knowledge.
The Distinction Between Experts and Non-Experts:
Methodological Consequences for Research in Science
Communication Aline Guevara Villegas, Institute of Nuclear
Sciences National Autonomous University of Mexico
The presentation will centre on a novel Public Science
Communication (PSC) research project that analyses cultural
exchanges between scientific experts and wider publics
surrounding the study of cosmic rays at HAWC (High Water
Altitude Cherenkov), an international project in Puebla, México,
where scientists and indigenous local communities must live side
by side and interact with each other. The project challenges the
distinction between experts and non-experts often taken for
granted in PSC studies. I will argue that this assumption
introduces theoretical prejudices that impede the production and
testing of multidirectional methodologies to study exchanges,
mobilizations and transformations of beliefs and attitudes
between diverse cultural knowledge systems. Two major
methodological pathways will be identified in PSC research
using de Certeau’s classification between “mystic” and
“folkloric” forms of PSC in order to demonstrate a prejudice that
is common to both forms: the ideal that it is possible to recover a
“pristine origin” version of scientific knowledge that is ‘lost’ in
PSC exercises. Two real-world sociological frameworks of PSC
analysis will be used to illustrate de Certeau’s forms and my
subsequent critiques: multi-region studies that focus on analysing
how ‘raw’ scientific data affects citizens; and Collins’ expertise
framework on exchanges between ‘core-sets’ and lay publics. I
will showcase how these and other similarly prejudiced
programmes uncritically admit the expert vs. non-expert
distinction in order to stratify epistemologies and constrain PSC
analysis to identifying how paraphrasing of expert knowledge fits
’ideal “pristine origin” science, and how these dominant
frameworks curtail new forms of PSC such as the one proposed.
Innermost and Outermost Scientific Communication: Different
or Analogous Processes? Carina Cortassa, Centro REDES
The purpose of this talk is to point out that the public circulation
and appropriation of scientific and technological knowledge can
be understood on the basis of the approach developed to analyse
in which way it is shared in the innermost circles of the
specialised communities, integrating the intrinsic social
dimension of knowledge and knowledge subjects as well as its
epistemic specificity. In the first section, the issue will be
sketched in terms of the social epistemology view embraced,
among others, by P. Kitcher, A. Goldman or M. Kusch, that
tackles the nature of the cognitive exchanges among scientists
focusing on the role of credit and authority attribution, reliability
and trustworthiness judgement, trust and epistemic deference. An
akin model, it will be argued, is somewhat appropriate to
describe and understand the assessing mechanisms and its
constraints adopted by other groups of agents – publics in general
or in particular, stakeholders – regarding scientific statements
when they go beyond the borders of the experts scope to enter in
the public sphere of dialogue and debate. In order to support this
hypothesis, a few outcomes of a qualitative research that shows
these mechanisms at play will be summarized in the third section.
Concluding remarks will highlight the interest of the proposed
view with respect to the current mainstream lines of research in
the field – namely, the ethnographical-contextual approaches –,
given its potential for bringing together the epistemic and nonepistemic dimensions that conditions the links between experts
and lay-people.
An Intercultural STS Approach to the “Troubles” of
Marginalized Youth Roberto Domingo Toledo, INSHEA,
France
My research focuses on controversies around “conduct disorder
and other behavior disorders such as “impulsivity” that are
frequently associated with it in the “scientific” literature of
various disciplines within psychology. I have been examining
ways in which public health approaches to so-called “deviant”
behavior can contribute to racial exclusion in the U.S., France,
and Brazil. Inter-cultural communication, interactional expertise,
and trust building are at the heart of my methodology. As a
philosopher and sociologist involved in STS research, I will
discuss how I used participant observation and open-ended
discussion methods in numerous workshops related to “behavior
disorders” [troubles du comportement] and “delinquent” youth in
French medico-social and psychological (neuropsychiatric,
psychoanalytic, ethnopsychiatric) institutions. I have acquired a
first-hand perspective on the types of theories being taught in a
range of fields within psychology. In order to challenge the
subtle racism within current approaches to behavior disorders, I
conducted research in France and Brazil on hip-hop-based
intervention methods to reveal alternative discourse and
practices. Establishing communication between hip-hop and
mainstream professionals, and helping to overcome the numerous
cultural barriers separating them, has allowed me to challenge the
boundaries of science by examining an array of practices that
situate themselves closer or father from medicine. The
particularly innovative practices in hip-hop based institutions,
such as the rapidly globalizing Central Única das Favelas based
in Rio de Janeiro, indicate that “well-articulated propositions”
(Latour) emanating from community movements can enrich the
practices in formal psychology.
011. Laboratory Experiments: Alternatives and Dynamics
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat II
Chair:
Luciana de Souza Leao, Columbia University
Participants:
The taste bud and the form. Ethnography of sensory labs
Thomas Vangeebergen, FNRS-Université de Liège/ CSI Ecoles des Mines
Sensory analyses present an opportunity to challenge classical
dualism, especially when it is about taste. During long-term
fieldworks, I accompanied several types of sensory expert panels,
which had the mission to discriminate different sorts of products
and define their respective sensory profile. I was interested to
observe the period of training to understand how those people
had acquired their expertise, and how their attention toward their
own sensations were entangled to scientific infrastructures.
Randomized Evaluations in the making Luciana de Souza Leao,
Columbia University
Implementing a randomized evaluation in really remote areas of
the developing world is a huge taskforce that involves multiple
actors and resources. It requires not only the work of economists
and policy specialists, but also a enormous coordination effort
between government and NGOs, fieldwork coordinators, the
beneficiaries of the policies being evaluated, funding agencies,
survey firms and other policy monitoring agents on the ground.
Following Latour (1987) and Eyal (2013), the main goal of this
paper is to trace the network that needs to be in place to make
randomized evaluations plausible, reproducible and
disseminated. Particularly, I highlight the multiple actors and
resources involved in implementing a randomized evaluation; the
framing that has to be done to turn a real-life situation into a
“laboratory” and to persuade others that it is possible to treat it as
such. Data for this research comes from my experience in
implementing randomized evaluation in Brazil and Peru during 4
years for two of the three main institutions involved with
randomized evaluations, as well as from international
conferences, workshops and seminars that I attended from 20102013 as a “field expert”.
American Behavioral Scientists, Taiwanese Technocrats, and
Social Laboratory of Fertility Control in the 1960s Yu-Ling
Huang, State University of New York at Binghamton
This paper examines the rise of American behavioral sciences, its
influence on the population establishment, and its imprints on the
large-scale fertility control programs in Taiwan during the 1950s
and 1960s. Historians of American social sciences note that the
postwar emergence of behavioral sciences was a product of Cold
War ideology and intellectual agenda; yet, the American
behavioral sciences’ impact on the academics and policy-making
of foreign countries is less studied. The science studies on
postwar population control emphasized biomedical aspect while
ignored the role of social knowledge in programs. Drawing on
archival materials and published population studies, I engage
above literatures from the approach of social knowledge in
making and practices. I investigate the work of Drs. Bernard
Berelson and Ronald Freeman, two American behavioral
scientists who designed and guided the Taichung Study—an
exemplary family planning program in the less-developed world
in the 1960s. Berelson, a communication scholar of the
Population Council, and Freedman, a sociologist in the
University of Michigan, believed that behavioral sciences—with
the focus on how motivation, incentive, communicational tool,
and social network affected human behaviors and social
change—could contribute to the solution of social problems
relevant to sex, reproduction, and family. Meanwhile, the
Kuomintang technocrats in “Free China”, due to geopolitical and
bio-political concerns, sought for effective measures to reduce
fertility rates. The American behavioral sciences lent cultural
authority to the family planning programs, while the authoritarian
regime’s governing capacity to infiltrate the society made “social
experiments” like the Taichung Study possible.
A mobilização do saber em atividades repetitivas na indústria
têxtil Vitor Guilherme Carneiro Figueiredo, UNIFEI;
Michelle Karine Figueiredo, 3186237491; Leonardo
Gonçalves, UFMG
Este estudo apresenta algumas definições relacionadas à
competência e ao conhecimento tácito. Por meio de uma revisão
bibliográfica é possível caracterizar a mobilização dos saberes e
o desenvolvimento do conhecimento tácito nos sistemas de
produção taylorista/fordista e toyotista. Contrariando alguns
estudos tradicionais, essa pesquisa apresenta um estudo de caso
numa indústria têxtil que comprova as estratégias de regulação,
os saberes coletivos e a mobilização do conhecimento tácito em
tarefas aparentemente simplistas e rotineiras. É necessário
mencionar que mesmo trabalhos considerados como
“aparentemente simples” possuem características de
complexidade. O pressuposto metodológico adotado nessa
pesquisa é a etnografia tradicional narrativa. A etnografia oferece
a possibilidade de fazer descrições detalhadas sobre as práticas,
além de permitir incluir também o significado dessas ações e os
motivos por trás delas. Como resultado foi possível verificar a
relação conflituosa entre as possibilidades e impossibilidades de
regulação da carga de trabalho, o desgaste do corpo implicado na
gestão da complexidade do trabalho e as exigências sociais que
eventualmente podem entrar em contradição com as necessidades
de regulação do corpo.
Epistemologías sociales y modelos de experimentación María
Soledad López, Universidad Nacional de La Plata - Facultad
de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación
En las últimas décadas del siglo XX y principios del siglo XXI se
han desarrollado más ampliamente perspectivas (extended mind,
extended knowledge, cognitive integration, entre otras) que
reformulan el concepto de cognición en sentido general al
interior de varias disciplinas relacionadas entre sí como la
neurociencia, la psicología cognitiva, la filosofía de la mente.
Estos estudios se basan en experimentos y modelos
(computacionales y matemáticos) cuyas implicancias derivan en
dos proposiciones que pretenden fundamentar: * el aspecto social
(el medio en sentido general de híbrido) no es sólo parte sino un
elemento constitutivo de los procesos cognitivos como así
también del contenido de los estados mentales; afirmación que se
aleja de la idea de la mente como una realidad interna y del
conocimiento como algo no extendido/distribuido; * la existencia
y justificación de las propiedades de los colectivos y de los
sistemas emergentes en su interacción con las características de
unidades/agentes individuales, cuya centralidad la adquieren
conceptos como redes a gran escala, sistemas dinámicos. A partir
de un análisis de aquellos experimentos y modelos realizados y
aplicados ahora en distintas áreas de las ciencias humanas, el
presente trabajo busca abordar dos problemáticas: a) la naturaleza
del objeto de análisis de distintas variantes de una epistemología
social y su relación con los criterios de la epistemología definida
en sentido tradicional; b) cómo se comprende el rol del aspecto
social de estas epistemologías en la justificación de teorías
(científicas).
Science in Captivity Cristina Visperas, UCSD
This paper puts forth the prison space as a proper object of
historical laboratory studies and hence a scene of science in
action. Putting Bruno Latour’s analysis of scientific networks in
dialogue with Allen Hornblum’s account of experiments at
Holmesburg prison, it points to entanglements between scientific
practice and institutional surveillance and control of black
bodies. Thus, the paper follows from scholarship on scientific
and medical research on slavers and plantations, including the
works of Harriet Washington and Richard Sheridan. Occurring
from 1951 to 1974 and spear-headed by renowned dermatologist
Albert Kligman, the non-therapeutic experiments conducted at
Holmesburg demonstrates the mundane, everyday nature of
violence in prison research. Hence, this paper avoids marking
prisons as sites where science went wrong, as it were, but takes
seriously the injury internal to scientific practice, theory, and
discovery. To this end, the paper highlights an infamous
photograph taken of a prisoner’s back, a photograph circulated in
popular media and which helped generate humanist narratives
around ethical conduct in human experimentation. How did a
visual record of everyday prison research – specifically, a rather
unremarkable check-up performed by one examiner – assume the
status of spectacularized violence in the popular imagination?
Thus, the paper tracks the photograph’s different but over-
lapping orders of meaning, demonstrating how it occupies the
intersections between science and the public – a conceptual
boundary very early on troubled by the sociology of scientific
knowledge.
012. Fermentation / Fermentación
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Mozart
Chairs:
Heather Paxson, MIT
Deborah Heath, Lewis & Clark College
Participants:
Germs, homes and health: Keeping bacteria at bay in Canada
Carlos Novas, Carleton University
In Canada, the recent FightBAC initiative encouraged consumers
to “fight back” against harmful pathogenic bacteria present in
foodstuffs and to reform their domestic food preparation routines
in order to keep this enemy from harming their family, and more
broadly, the Canadian health care system and economy. The
FightBAC campaign can be considered as part of long-standing
historical efforts to educate the Canadian public about the health
risks posed by bacteria present in foods and in the home more
generally. This paper examines how Canadian public health and
medical professionals since the early 20th have sought to
communicate to the public the risks posed by pathogenic bacteria
in foodstuffs. Analytic emphasis will be placed on studying how
medical authorities problematize foodstuffs and domestic spaces
as sites where bacteria reside, the measures that are suggested to
minimize the potential for bacteria to contaminate household
members, and the ways in which pathogenic bacteria are
represented in popular public health discourses. Through this
analysis, the paper seeks to highlight the gendered dimensions of
popular public health campaigns, in addition to how they play
upon conceptions of citizenship and nationhood.
Narrating Fermentation: American Scientists Tell of the
“Good,” as well as the "Bad," Microbes that Make Cheese
Heather Paxson, MIT
Fermented dairy products are ubiquitous in North American
diets. But while eaters may enjoy the bubbling and stretching of
mozzarella on pizza, and appreciate the earthy flavors of blueveined Gorgonzola in a salad, many remain unaware that the
cheeses they love are created by encouraging the flourishing of
select microbes. This, at least, is the concern of the American
Academy of Microbiology (AAM). This paper reports from an
invitation-only AAM colloquium convened in June 2014 to
address the perceived lack of public knowledge of cheese
microbes. Charged with explaining, in accessible yet
“scientifically accurate” language, the roles that microbes play in
the manufacture of cheese and the promotion of (or threat to)
public health, the colloquium is tasked with producing an “FAQ”
(Frequently Asked Questions) booklet to address the following:
“What diversity of microbes is found in cheese? How do
microbial communities shape the development of a cheese as it
ages? How are contaminants prevented during cheese-making to
preserve both the flavor and health of the cheese?” As an
anthropologist invited to participate in the discussion, I draw on
previous research, as well as STS insights on the making and
promulgation of scientific knowledge, to analyze the AAM’s
efforts as a negotiation between “Pasteurian” and “postPasteurian” microbiopolitics (Paxson 2008). Might artisanal,
post-Pasteurian sensibilities be influencing the “scientific
knowledge” of microbiologists? What implications might this
have for public health and consumer choice? How will the
AAM’s public advocacy square with the recommendations of the
heavily lobbied U.S. Food and Drug Administration?
When Yeast’s Waste is Human’s Energy: Paradox in a Brazilian
Biofuel Fermentation Lab Nicole Labruto, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Neo-Malthusian anxieties about global food supply are driving
Brazilian biochemists to create “second generation” fuel
technologies through the fermentation of the waste product of
sugarcane ethanol production, a fibrous pulp called “bagasse.”
Because these “advanced” biofuels take no additional cropland to
produce, they are upheld as a waste-to-energy solution to the
agricultural zero-sum game of “food versus fuel.” This paper
looks at biofuels from a different angle, arguing that Brazilian
biochemists’ focus on the fermentation process itself confounds
normative understandings of “waste” and “energy.” If considered
from the vantage point of the yeasts fermenting sugarcane pulp
into fuel alcohol, ethanol becomes the waste product of anaerobic
digestion, and bagasse is the energy that “feeds” microbes. This
paper examines the contingencies of what counts as “production”
and “consumption” through the case study of Brazilian
biochemical ethanol experimentation. By analyzing interviews
with and scientific publications by a team of Brazilian
researchers, I investigate how scientists’ implementation of
fermentation allows novel considerations of both waste and
energy by taking a bioscientific perspective that focuses on the
activity of ethanol-producing yeasts. Yet these same scientists
simultaneously rely on normative (and opposite) understandings
of waste and energy through their political and ethical stances on
human food supply and waste reduction. This results in material
substances that are at once their own opposite to biochemists:
bagasse and ethanol are both waste and energy, albeit at different
scales of conceptualization. This tension reveals deeper
contradictions present in ecosystemic renderings of a natural
world.
Vines, Wines and Qualisigns: Vineyard and Cellar
Biogeographies Deborah Heath, Lewis & Clark College
Terroir, or the taste of place, connotes the site-specific
intersection of nature and culture in both the vineyard and the
cellar. One recent study, which sent wine social media into
overdrive, describes what the authors call “microbial terroir,”
microbial biogeographies for particular viticultural regions,
suggesting a biological basis for both regional variation in quality
and prospective mechanisms for controlling viticultural
outcomes. Based on fieldwork in France, Sicily, Georgia, and the
US, this paper examines the relationship between the
biogeographies of particular wine regions and production
practices and what Charles Peirce called the “qualisigns” through
which the potential for quality is invoked. The technoscientific
disciplines associated with viticulture and enology and the techne
(art/craft) of the grape grower and winemaker both attend to a
complex array of factors including grape varietals and rootstocks,
soil type, climate, altitude, and a microbial consortium of yeasts,
bacteria, and enzymes implicated in fermentation. There are
markedly different approaches to orchestrating interactions
among these factors, including a notable dichotomy between
highly manipulated industrial wines and the minimally
interventionist convictions of the so-called natural wine
movement. In contrast to the pursuit of standardized industrial
outcomes through, e.g., the use of commercial yeasts and
established “international” cultivars, natural winemakers favor
place-based “native” yeasts and grapes. Increasingly, larger
producers seek to follow their lead, as market demand for vins de
terroir increases, with wine scientists seeking technoscientific
explanations for site-specific particularities.
013. (Re)Thinking the Bioeconomy I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Picasso
Chair:
Vincenzo Pavone, CSIC - Consejo Superior Investigaciones
Cientícas
Participants:
Imagining the value(s) of ‘population laboratories’ in
biomedical sciences Erik Aarden, Harvard University
Recent developments in the life sciences have widely been
perceived as holding great economic promise; both private
capital and states looking for new economic opportunities have
embraced the potential of the bioeconomy. To no small extent,
large collections of data and human tissue, collected in so-called
‘biobanks’, form a physical manifestation of these expectations,
imagined as a veritable treasure trove for emerging bioeconomies. But how do such aspirations of economic
valorization relate to more traditional conceptions of large-scale
research in epidemiology aimed at population health? To what
extent have the state-based ‘population laboratories’ of
epidemiology become a supply-line for private capital – and with
what effect on public values? In this paper, I investigate and
compare three public ‘population laboratories’; state-supported
infrastructures for collection population health data and tissue
materials that aim to pursue public health and economic
objectives to differing degrees. Each of these are situated in
specific socio-political contexts; the Framingham Heart Study in
the United States draws a line from the American cardiovascular
epidemic in the mid-twentieth century to genomic research
today; the now defunct Singapore Tissue Network served to
facilitate medical research for economic aims for ten years; and
the Million Death Study in India seeks to gather cause of death
data in a country with ghastly public health statistics. Thus, while
each of these cases is substantially different, they provide
thought-provoking insights into the relations between
populations, disease risks, state responsibilities and imaginaries
of public and private value(s) in contemporary biomedical
research.
Imperative to Collect: A Case Study of Six Biobanks Dragana
Lassiter, UNC-Chapel Hill; Jean Cadigan, UNC-Chapel
Hill; Henderson Gail, UNC-Chapel Hill
Biobanks are becoming critical components in researchers’
efforts to cure, treat, or prevent cancer, diabetes, and many other
diseases. In the past years, research of genetic associations with
common complex diseases has created a drive for larger numbers
of specimens as a statistical requirement. Some scholars have
aptly noted this move from biobanking for science to a science of
biobanking and raised the issue of biobank size as an ethical
issue. Drawing on interviews with employees of six US
biobanks, we look at how biobank size matters in their everyday
work. We argue that the drive to collect more specimens despite
employees’ concern that they will be underutilized reveals a
certain value in collecting itself, which we call an imperative to
collect. We contend that this imperative to collect demonstrates
the necessity to consider specimens as objects and thus situates
biobanks within other collecting practices in European art and
science.
Production of Biovalue in Global Bioeconomy:
Biotechnological Commodification Chih-hsing Ho,
Academia Sinica
In the politics of the life sciences, biobanks are regarded not only
as modern assemblages of human tissue and genetic information
but also as unsettling relations between persons and things.
According to John Locke’s labour theory of property, an
appropriator may claim the “fruits of labour” over a resource by
mixing her or his labour with it in the course of production.
Locke’s epistemology presupposes the distinction of subject and
object and the object may become property of the subject who
works on it. For Locke, ownership is a natural right which
implies exclusive possession for particular individuals as a form
of social control of the arrangement of resources. Nevertheless,
applying Locke’s theory to the human body and genetic
information in the post genomic era remains complex. Even
though new technology has brought with it various innovative
forms of potential property, such as cell lines, biobanks, DNA,
genome and genealogies, concerns are raised when the increasing
association of market and science gradually transforms human
tissue and DNA into commercial property that blurs the
distinction of persons and things and makes the new creature
possible to be exchanged in the marketplace in the form of
commodities. By analysing the well-documented John Moore
case, this paper opens up profound debates about ownership of
the human body and body parts. It argues that even though the
Moore case tends to prevent human tissue from being
commodified by refusing to recognise self-ownership of human
body parts, in the reality of bio-banking, the presumed gift model
implied from using consent to replace property renders patients
and research subjects powerless in a capitalist market system in
which biotechnological commodification has turned human
tissues and body parts from waste to resources of biovalue.
Pattern and Dynamics of Science-Based Innovation:The Case of
BGI YouZhao Gou, Tsinghua University in China
Post-Academic Science is the extension of academic science to
the industry. In the late 90s, the development of biological and
pharmaceutical industry increasingly depends on the
breakthrough of science. “Science-Based Innovation” paradigm
provides us a new picture of the interaction between science,
technology and industry: science is no longer regarded as
"reservoir for public knowledge", emerging enterprise and
industry can be directly derived from the breakthrough of frontier
science.
The change of the production mode of knowledge
promotes the evolution of the research institutions. The
emergence of new type of research institutions which load the
missions of both knowledge creation and industry development
further speeds up the integration of science and industry. Beijing
Genomics Institution(BGI) in Shenzhen China is a typical
example. It is the world’s largest genetic research center. Its
success is due to conforming to the science-based innovation
paradigm.
In our study, we applied field research and
literature analysis to analyze BGI. We found that BGI is a new
type of research institution that plays a dual role of enterprises
and research institution. BGI achieves the integration of
production of knowledge and use of knowledge. Its affiliated
enterprises use the scientific achievements from its research
institute to make profit in market, and the money will be invested
back to support the research institute. Symbiotic evolution exits
between science, technology and industry.
This study
reveals a new trend of the development of contemporary research
institutions in the context of interaction between S&T and
society. We try to open the “black box” about the process of how
to form the innovation ability by promoting the interactions
between scientific ability, technical skills and production
capacity. This study will help us to understand the characteristics
of science-based innovation mode and its dynamic process.
Natural in the context of reproductive technologies Maya
Fisher, Tel Aviv University
This paper present an ongoing study in which I examine, using
observation and interviews, the meaning of ‘natural' as perceived
by Clinical Embryologists (CEs) and physicians within their
daily work at In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinics. I find (i) that
the notion of nature, as described by the feminist literature is far
from that entertained by CEs and physicians, whose views
regarding the meaning and the value of “natural” and
“naturalness” are derived from their scientific ontology and their
professional and moral commitment. (ii) CEs and physicians
hold different opinions regarding the meaning and the value of
“natural” and “naturalness”, a difference which is well
exemplified by their attitudes to two protocols that are used to
achieve fertilization: insemination and intracytoplasmic sperm
injection (ICSI). In insemination one egg and about fifty
thousand sperms are incubated together in a petri-dish, so some
natural selection among sperm can occur. In ICSI one sperm is
selected and is injected into an egg. ICSI gives, according to biomedical literature, a higher rate of fertilization we would expect
all to prefer ICSI. I found that CEs prefer to use insemination in
all cases not involving male infertility while physicians, regard
both protocols as equally “natural” and recommend usage
according to the clinical circumstances. I discuss these findings
suggesting that complex notions like "natural" and naturalness
require multiple approaches taking into consideration the way in
which people with different aims and commitments construct the
term and adjust it to the context of their life and work.
Discussant:
Eric Deibel, Delft, University of Technology
014. In Search of "Lines of Flights" with / in / to / for / by Latin
America and Elsewhere I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Quinquela
Chair:
Ivan da Costa Marques, Universidade Federal do Rio de
Janeiro
Participants:
O conceito de Ciência e Cidadania presente nas escolas
brasileiras. Elika Takimoto, CEFET-RJ; Antonio Augusto
Videira, UERJ
Desde a década de sessenta, currículos de ensino de ciências com
ênfase em CTS vêm sendo desenvolvidos em muitos países. Tais
currículos apresentam como objetivo central preparar os alunos
para o exercício da cidadania e caracterizam-se por uma
abordagem dos conteúdos científicos no seu contexto social.
Neste trabalho, pretendemos discutir criticamente como a
abordagem CTS tem sido feita e mostrar como se dá a relação
escola-cidadania na maioria das escolas brasileiras. Para tanto,
analisamos cuidadosamente os documentos oficias que prestam
orientações e diretrizes para a educação no Brasil à luz da
experiência profissional de um dos autores deste trabalho que
leciona há quase vinte anos em escolas particulares e públicas
como professor de física. A educação sempre esteve a serviço de
um determinado tipo de cidadania. Se tomarmos em consideração
que vivemos em um país que condenou milhares de pessoas a
uma vida demarcada por condições de miséria, desemprego,
violência, e demais indicativos de condições sociais inaceitáveis
e as políticas sociais que o atual governo está implantando,
acreditamos que o assunto ‘cidadania’ presente nos documentos
oficiais brasileiros deverá ser, no mínimo, mais esclarecido.
Ainda nessa esteira, perguntamo-nos em que medida os
professores de ciências ajudam a formular um determinado
conceito de ‘ciência’ e de que forma eles têm contribuído para o
fortalecimento de vínculos com correntes político-educacionais
que apenas alimentam a mera reprodução de um sistema.
Quipu – Revista Latinoamericana de História de las Ciencias y
la Tecnologia: comunidade epistêmica Márcia Regina
Barros da Silva, Universidade de São Paulo - USP
Em torno dos anos 1980 os estudos sobre a história das ciências e
das tecnologias na América Latina se modificaram com adoção
de novas abordagens e perspectivas. Para este processo foi
crucial a revista Quipu – Revista Latinoamericana de História de
las Ciencias y la Tecnologia, que circulou com certa regularidade
entre os anos 1985 e 2000, pertencente à Sociedade Latino
Americana de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia, criada em
1982. Dela participaram pesquisadores atuantes nos estudos de
ciência, de diferentes países e a partir de diferentes
especialidades, fazendo dos artigos veiculados um significativo
conjunto de textos e autores para o entendimento sobre a história
do nosso conhecimento sobre a história das ciências latinoamericanas. A ênfase do movimento foi na constituição de uma
‘diferença metodológica’ que se daria nos modos de relatar os
conteúdos da história das ciências e tecnologias latinoamericanas e suas relações com outras regiões produtoras de
C&T, principalmente Europa. O que este conjunto de autores
buscava era constituir bases para uma narrativa que daria
unidade, coesão e coerência aos novos estudos, num processo
coletivo suficientemente forte para indicar a formação uma
comunidade epistêmica dedicada à investigação e à comunicação
de novos acordos e novos entendimentos sobre o que tinha sido e
o que poderia vir a ser a ciência e a tecnologia na América
Latina.
O que os Estudos CTS podem fazer com e para o Brasil? Uma
resposta antropofágica e alguns exemplos Ivan da Costa
Marques, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
O panorama comparativo em que geralmente se colocam as
avaliações das propostas de pesquisa no Brasil descortina-se a
partir da pergunta “quais as contribuições do Brasil para este
campo?” Os Estudos CTS não são exceção. E é esta a pergunta
que norteia os pesquisadores brasileiros em seu afã de conseguir
respeitabilidade internacional. No entanto, talvez principalmente
para o pesquisador de um país que não faz parte da OCDE, há
outras perguntas que, se explicitadas, fazem vibrar outras
frequências. Nossa pergunta é “O que os Estudos CTS podem
fazer pelo Brasil?” Veremos que a pergunta ainda não está bem
posta, mas tentarei mostrar que sua formulação explícita e a
busca de suas necessariamente múltiplas respostas são cruciais
para que os Estudos CTS possam efetivamente intervir
provocando e participando de mudanças locais, ensejando por
este caminho uma respeitabilidade local anterior à almejada
respeitabilidade internacional. O maior perigo de não formulá-la
é cair no lugar comum de “ornamento contraditório” em que
sobrevive boa parte das atividades científicas no Brasil,
acomodadas em “torres de marfim” ou “falsas e arrogantes
bolhas de primeiro mundo”. Ofereço aqui uma resposta
antropofágica e alguns exemplos. A parte antropofágica sugere
resgatar o Iluminismo europeu e “comê-lo”, “comer o
estrangeiro”, lembrando que comer não significa rejeição mas,
pelo contrário, o máximo de absorção seletiva: 1) absorção da
ousadia iluminista de sair da menoridade e pensar
autonomamente; 2) rejeição da tutela das ciências europeias na
construção dos nossos modos de existência.
Laboratórios Tupiniquins: Produzindo Moedas, Culturas e
Outros Bichos Luiz Arthur Silva de Faria, Universidade
Federal do Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ
O trabalho é uma primeira aproximação deste pesquisador com a
construção de redes / mercados brasileiros relacionados ao
estímulo à produção cultural, onde as chamadas moedas sociais
estão presentes. As redes aqui investigadas são as da Produtora
Cultural [email protected], um “arranjo produtivo de Pontos de
Cultura de Pernambuco ligados às temáticas do audiovisual,
mídia livre e cultura digital” e do Fora do Eixo, “uma rede
colaborativa e descentralizada de trabalho constituída por
coletivos de cultura pautados nos princípios da economia
solidária, do associativismo e do cooperativismo (...)”. O artigo
talvez se enquadre no que Sergio Sismondo chama de um
“Programa Engajado” de pesquisa, proposta que busca criar
pontes entre duas abordagens do campo conhecido no Brasil
como Estudos CTS (Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade), a saber,
aquela que “aborda e frequentemente desafia perspectivas
tradicionais na filosofia, sociologia e história da ciência e
tecnologia (…) [e a que] foca em reformas ou ativismo (…).” A
texto aborda diferentes mediações performadas pela Internet nos
casos pesquisados, bem como estranhezas e acusações de
irracionalidade identificadas em momentos em que as redes
estudadas cruzam com redes mais estabilizadas. Procura, na linha
dos Estudos CTS, e mais propriamente da Teoria Ator-Rede,
seguir brevemente as proposições das Conchas e dos Cards,
moedas que são indissociáveis de crenças, valores, visões de
mundo, e de novas proposições de redes de conhecimento
confiável.
Controvérsias da rede sociotécnica do biodiesel no Brasil
Daniela Alves, Universidade Federal De Viçosa
As pesquisas envolvendo fontes e recursos energéticos se
constituem em uma área de intensas controvérsias globais e
locais, envolvendo diversos grupos de interesses, atores e
intermediários em uma agenda que é ao mesmo tempo política,
econômica, ambiental e tecnocientífica. Este estudo apresenta
resultados de um mapeamento sobre as controvérsias públicas a
respeito da utilização do biodiesel como alternativa tecnológica
ao diesel, no Brasil. Este trabalho é fruto de uma cartografia em
materiais publicados na mídia e artigos científicos. Além disso,
foi realizada observação em um laboratório de biodiesel da
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Abordamos os atores e
intermediários que compõem o Programa Nacional de Produção
e Uso do Biodiesel, vigente no Brasil desde 2005. Objetivamos
responder as seguintes questões: Quais interesses foram
alinhados neste programa? Quais interesses foram descartados?
Como o conhecimento científico foi mobilizado para resultar na
combinação atual? Os principais resultados apontam que as
principais controvérsias constatadas nas redes de concepção e
adoção do biodiesel no Brasil se referem às matérias-primas (soja
versus oleaginosas brasileiras) e à amplitude do marco
regulatório (expansão do programa versus retração do programa).
Os discursos e práticas mobilizados são de ordem ambiental
(emissão de gases efeito estufa na produção e no uso, emissão de
materiais particulados e hidrocarbonetos no uso); ordem
econômica (relação entre oferta e demanda de óleo; risco
inflacionário; competição com alimentos); ordem social
(agricultura familiar versus agricultura empresarial da soja; selo
social); ordem tecnocientífica (matérias primas estabilizadas
versus matérias primas selvagens; viscosidade).
Complejidad, Políticas y Estudios de la CTI en América Latina.
Los casos de Chile y Colombia Ronald Domingo Cancino
Salas, Depto. Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la Frontera;
Luis Antonio Orozco, Universidad Externado de Colombia;
Cristhian Fabian Ruiz, de R&R Conocimiento e Innovación
SAS; Ricardo Bonilla J., Colegio de Estudios Superiores de
Administración CESA; José Roberto Coloma Zapata,
Universidad de La Frontera
Actualmente, cada vez más se discute críticamente la noción de
sistemas de ciencia, tecnología e Innovación en América Latina.
El aspecto central, es que la aceptación acrítica de estos modelos,
no logra observar las relaciones entre lo esperado por la política y
los fenómenos emergentes en productividad, redes y lógicas de
comunidades científicas.La ponencia, propone que es posible en
la actualidad asumir el problema de la complejidad reflexionando
críticamente sobre nociones provenientes de la teoría de los
sistemas complejos. Por ello, se propone una lectura teórica de
los enfoques dominantes en los ESCT y de Políticas de CTI
desde la óptica de los sistemas complejos (teorema de la
emergencia, autoorganización, por ejemplo). Con ello, se
propone una metodología de modelamiento de las relaciones
entre políticas y dinámicas de producción de conocimiento
articulando elementos de la ciencimetría, el análisis de políticas
públicas y la prospectiva. Se ejemplifica el análisis con el estudio
de los casos de los sistemas de ciencia y tecnología de Chile y
Colombia, mediante una modelación sistémica y compleja.
015. Combining Scientometrics and Indexes with Studies on
Gender in Science
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Soldi
Chair:
Anne-Sophie Godfroy, Science Norms Decision (university
Paris Sorbonne & CNRS)
Participants:
Participación de mujeres científicas en la química colombiana
(1971-1999) Roy Waldhiersen Morales Pérez, Universidad
Nacional de Colombia; Yuri Jack Gómez Morales,
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
La historia de la institucionalización de la química en Colombia
es un programa de investigación reciente. Los estudios
adelantados han centrado su interés en construir un mito
fundacional común a la comunidad científica local, retratar el
origen de los programas de formación, la organización de
laboratorios y otros centros de investigación. En los últimos años,
se ha dado un giro para estudiar desde la biografía y el estudio de
caso el proceso de institucionalización, que ha permitido develar
tensiones y conflictos por el poder en el ensamblaje del campo.
Sin embargo, se advierte la ausencia de estudios en relación con
las revistas científicas nacionales del campo, y un discurso
hegemónicamente androcéntrico, que desconoce la participación
y contribución de las mujeres científicas al campo de la química
en Colombia. En tal sentido, el presente trabajo abarca desde una
perspectiva histórico bibliométrica el estudio de la Revista
Colombiana de Química (1971-1999), entendiéndola no como un
producto terminal del proceso de institucionalización sino como
un punto de paso obligado, un actante del proceso de
construcción social de la química como campo científico. No
pretendemos hacer uso de la bibliometría como una herramienta
universalizante y en sí misma objetiva, sino entendida esta como
artefacto socio-técnico, y desde una perspectiva de
conocimientos situados, buscamos reconocer la participación y
contribución de las mujeres científicas al campo de la química
colombiana, lo que creemos ofrece una mirada privilegiada para
comprender las dinámicas del ensamblaje de este campo al ser
ellas actores excluidos de los relatos oficiales.
Creating Pregnant Lived Body and Feminist Subjects Yu O
Yang, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
For centuries women’s bodies experience has never been looked
subjectively investigated, It is rare for feminine thinking to
highlight the subjective experience women have in this profound
situation. All research and practice tends to focus on using
medical tests and technology to control women’s bodies,
women’s experience of prenatal care is poorly understood,
mechanic and disempowering. In pregnancy, a woman’s body
goes through complex changes in shape and size, It is a state split
between past and future. In the hustle and bustle of the clinic in
Taiwan, women are wheeled around to various check-ups, but
their voices are often drowned out by the “objective neutral”
management of medical facilities. This causes women to feel
neglected and lowers the value of the embodied and humiliating
experience. The purpose of this study was to emphasize the
pregnant body’s experiences. The theoretical basis was on
embodiment as a mode of being in the world. Method: 23
participants were included in this study and the descriptive data
analyzed by phenomenological interpretive method. The result
showed women’s pregnant body experience can be concluded as
following four essential themes: The Blurred Bodies, The
Doubling up Body, The Mystery of The “Other’s” Body and The
Sacrificial Body. This women’s self evidence can be provided for
professionals to better understand their voice and creating critical
knowledge and empower women subjectively and collectively.
Indexes and indicators: Translating the real world into numbers
creates a new social reality. The GenderTime case AnneSophie Godfroy, Science Norms Decision (university Paris
Sorbonne & CNRS)
This paper is based on the experience of research in EU-funded
projects about gender and science over the last ten years and
present epistemological reflections on the creation of indicators
and indexes. Comparing has become virtually an obligation for
the majority of European-funded research. Translating the real
world into numbers is a key task for providing policy makers and
governments with appropriate monitoring tools. Defining the
indicators is not only a technical issue, but also implies
philosophical considerations about policy making. Moreover,
replacing a description in words by a description in numbers
creates a new social reality (Desrosières 2008). It also produces
new possibilities for comparison through the commensuration
process (Espeland & Stevens 1998). New spaces for equivalence
and comparison are created, where ranking and benchmarking
become possible. The effects of such equivalence making may be
the idea of equal opportunities between the different terms; it
may be also competition, ranking and the requirement to achieve
a given norm. Statistical data is therefore used as evidence and as
an instrument of governance (Porter 1995). Such a perspective
must be challenged at different levels. At the level of the
construction of classifications, translation into numbers does not
construct a reflection of the world; it transforms the world and
reconfigures it a different way. This process requires discussion
and consensus on adopted conventions (Desrosières 2008). At the
level of policy making, it creates decisions to improve indicators
and rankings, which does not always imply improving the
experience under measurement.
Perceptions of the Work Environment in Universities and
National Research Institutes: The Role of Gender and
Bureaucracy in Three Low-Income Countris Paige Miller,
University of Wisconsin, River Falls; Antony Palackal
Varghese, Loyola College of Social Sciences; Mark Schafer,
Louisiana State University; Wesley Shrum, Louisiana State
University
This article examines the relationship between sex and sector of
employment and perceptions of the work environment among a
sample of researchers in three low-income areas: Ghana, Kenya,
and Kerala India. Specifically, we ask the following questions:
1) Are there differences in men and women’s assessment of the
research environment in terms of their satisfaction with funding,
ratings of problems associated with communication and
coordination, and sense of autonomy? 2) Do contextual factors—
primarily sector of employment but also controlling for home
region—account for these differences? 3) Does the effect of sex
on perceptions of the work environment vary across sector and
location? 4) Are there other factors—family status, education,
and professional experience—that mediate the relationship
between sex, context and perceptions of the work environment?
We explore these issues by examining data gathered in 2010
from universities and national research institutes. Findings
indicate that women in universities tend to assess the research
environment more negatively than do men and those working in
national research institutes.
Detección y análisis de “comunidades bibliográficas” en las
publicaciones CTS de Latinoamérica Daniela de Filippo,
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
En la actualidad la consolidación del campo CTS permite
identificar fácilmente a los principales actores regionales e
internacionales. Uno de los procedimientos más utilizados para
conocer la actividad científica en un área es el estudio de su
producción. Así, desde hace más de 4 décadas, la bibliometría ha
sido una herramienta de suma utilidad para el análisis
cuantitativo de la actividad científica, centrada en el análisis de
las publicaciones. El presente trabajo analiza la visibilidad de la
producción científica de instituciones Latinoamericanas en el
campo CTS en revistas del mainstream science. Tras desarrollar
una metodología ah hoc (a través de una selección de revistas y
de palabras clave) se ha identificado el corpus documental propio
del ámbito CTS utilizando como fuente la base de datos Web of
Sciences. Se ha obtenido un conjunto de documentos que ronda
las 30.000 publicaciones (un 3% de Latinoamérica). Tras el
tratamiento de la información se han obtenido los principales
indicadores bibliométricos de actividad, especialización, impacto
y colaboración. Para profundizar en el estudio del contenido de
las publicaciones e indagar en las relaciones intertextuales, se
han utilizado técnicas de bibliographic coupling para identificar
las llamadas “comunidades bibliográficas”. Con esto se pretende
detectar cuáles son los temas abordados por investigadores de
Latinoamérica que trascienden el ámbito local y analizar las
interrelaciones entre los distintos actores. Conocer cuáles son los
aspectos de la producción de la región que adquieren relevancia
internacional y analizar si este comportamiento difiere del que se
produce con la producción local, es el objetivo último del
estudio.
016. Locating Science, Policy and Indigeneity in the Americas
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Verdi
Indigeneity and science have historically been co-constituted. Scientific
research has been instrumental in generating and regulating knowledge
about indigenous populations in colonial and postcolonial contexts.
Scientific authority, moreover, has often rested on the maintenance of
boundaries between scientific and traditional knowledge and the
assumption that scientific knowledge transcends context. The papers in this
panel examine different ways that indigenous groups have implicitly and
explicitly critiqued this history and challenged modes of scientific
knowledge production. We address the ways indigenous actors and the
researchers who work with them complicate categories of researcher,
subject, activist, and policy-maker in scientific enterprises. While scientific
research has served as a conduit for colonialisms, it has also provided an
important site for articulating notions of decolonization. This panel asks:
how might scientific research have been involved in the emergence of
indigeneity as a powerful category of political identity and action on a
global scale? This panel brings indigeneity to the forefront of conversations
about the making of science in the North and South and looks for commonground in diverse geographic regions and scientific agendas. However, we
also take seriously the articulation of multiple indigeneities in the context
of specific agendas for scientific research and policy. Finally, we apply a
critical approach reflexively and ask what practices are essential to
producing ethically-informed Science and Technology Studies research
about indigenous science. What new languages do we need, as researchers
ourselves, to speak about the interpersonal, professional, and political
relationships that characterize sciences of the indigenous?
Chair:
Tess Lanzarotta, Yale University
Participants:
Decolonizing Medical Practice: Activist Critiques and New
State Projects in Bolivia Gabriela Morales, Yale University
The Bolivian government is in the midst of overhauling rural
healthcare delivery by expanding low-cost, primary care based
on indigenous frameworks of health and well-being. Since the
election of President Evo Morales in 2005, the state has sought to
move away from neoliberal models of governance toward a
centralized, redistributive system. Influential factions of the
Morales administration have also promoted an ideological project
of “decolonization” that proposes Bolivian indigenous notions of
community and reciprocity as viable alternatives to capitalist
development. State policies like an expansive new national health
program, Salud Familiar, Comunitaria e Intercultural (SAFCI), or
Family, Community, and Intercultural Healthcare, propose to
redress health inequalities in rural areas by adapting models of
development long promoted by Andean activist movements. In
this paper, I undertake a genealogy of this emergent model of
healthcare, examining how Andean activist groups have
mobilized alternative understandings of health in their critiques
of capitalism and biomedicine. I also explore how the Bolivian
state officials propose to transform these activist projects into
policy. In doing so, I contribute to ongoing discussions about
medical knowledge production and its intersection with ethnicity
and class in postcolonial contexts. I raise questions, moreover,
about the potential of these alternative, activist frameworks to
transform dominant modes of scientific and medical practice.
Training the Anthropologist: Xavante Interlocutors and
Research Roles in Brazilian Anthropology Rosanna Dent,
University of Pennsylvania
One week into her 1976-1977 fieldwork with the Xavante of
central Brazil, anthropologist Nancy Flowers was delighted when
an elder from the community took it upon herself to teach a
lesson on social organization. As the woman began to explain,
she scolded Nancy for failing to write down what she was saying
right away. Often referring to other researchers, Nancy’s hosts
commented on the “correct” behavior of the anthropologist
throughout the year she spent with them. Both researcher and
informants molded their behavior based on previous community
experience with warazú (non-Xavante) researchers. But beyond
simple admonitions to always carry a notebook, over the second
half of the 20th century,the Xavante influenced their scientific
visitors by demanding political engagement and support in their
struggle for land rights and self-determination. This paper
examines the ways that researchers and research subjects are
mutually constituted and inextricably linked. Working with the
example of the Xavante community of Etênhiritipá, it asks how
and when daily sustained interactions of fieldwork modified
research objectives, and contextualizes these seeming minutia in
larger political changes taking place in Brazilian society. It
examines how researchers responded to the contrasting political
pressures from Xavante informants and wider society in order to
provide a window into the development of research ethics in
Brazilian anthropology. Finally, it contributes to the ongoing
discussion of the limitations and possibilities of indigenous
subjects’ interests finding adequate representation through
contemporary frameworks of scientific and biomedical research.
Vulnerable Populations: Sovereignty and Science in Arctic
Alaska Jennifer Brown, University of Pennsylvania
Since the 1940s, epidemiologists and virologists have viewed
Arctic Alaska and Alaska Natives as a natural laboratory.
Scientists used the high prevalence of diseases like helicobacter
pylori and hepatitis b to demonstrate the vulnerability of
relatively isolated populations of Alaska Native people. This
vulnerability allowed for the establishment of the Alaska Area
Specimen Bank (AASB) in Anchorage, Alaska at the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention's Arctic Investigations Program.
Following the Indian Self Determination Act of 1975, Alaska
Native Tribal Health Organizations assumed management of
their healthcare system and in 2004, they assumed shared
ownership of the AASB. The shift in ownership is emblematic
of the larger movement of tribal governments to assert
sovereignty over scientific endeavors involving indigenous
territory or populations. Once seen as resources in a natural
laboratory, Arctic Alaska Natives have now become equal
partners, natural experts on tribal health or changing climates, as
a result of a dynamic political landscape. This paper examines
the relationship of the scientists and tribal organizations through
the lens of sovereignty, showing how fluctuating power
dynamics have influenced scientific discourse. In particular, I
explore the construction of vulnerability as used by AASB
scientists and Alaska Native communities to justify specific types
of research. Vulnerability in the face of disease or catastrophic
climate change validates public health interventions by scientists
and increasing control of research access by tribal governments.
Knowledge co-production on territories with stakeholders to act
for sustainability Roberto Cittadini, Labintex INTA
Argentina / UMR Innovation, INRA, France; Claire Ruault,
GERDAL, FRANCE; Christophe Soulard, UMR Innovation,
INRA, France
The project called Observatory of Territorial Dynamics (20132016) is part of a partnership between Labintex-INTA
(Argentina) and INRA-SAD (France) conducted under the
responsibility of Roberto Cittadini, Argentine researcher based in
UMR Innovation (France). This project consists in a comparative
analysis of different “observatories”, designed as a research
device about dynamics of territories. Our research question is :
in which conditions the production of knowledge within
partnership research devices about territories and about
agricultural practices contribute to support innovation processes
to more sustainable agrifood systems? The project has started in
2013 and we use the strategy of comparative analysis as
suggested by Glasser and Strauss (1967) and we base our
methodology on case study (Michell, 1983). In this presentation,
we will refer to one of the case studies, the DAUME Project
(Durabilité des Agricultures Urbaines en Méditerranée). 2014 is
the last year of execution of the project DAUME and the main
task programmed is the development of workshops, for
restitution to the stakeholders of the main results of the research,
in the different territories studied. The aim of these workshops is
“to produce a shared reasoning between researchers and
stakeholders concerned by sustainability issues of urban
agriculture , useful for lightening the action, by crossing
researchers knowledge and stakeholders knowledge about
common questions.” Different theoretical approaches teach us
about the difficulty of understanding between stakeholders
located at different positions in the social field (Darré 1996,
Bourdieu 1995, Habermas 1987), on the need of “translation”
that require scientific knowledge (Callon 1986 Lattour 2013) and
the importance of understanding that agricultural practices are
part of a socio-technical system (Thomas, 2000, Hughes, 1986).
In this context the aim of this presentation is to share the strategy
of restitution, grid analysis and the first results of the analysis of
the processes of co-production of knowledge for the action,
between researchers and various stakeholders in the areas studied
in the DAUME Project.
Arctic Medicine, Epidemiology, and ‘Eskimo’ Blood: The
Beginnings of Indigenous Biomedical Communities in
Alaska Tess Lanzarotta, Yale University
This paper focuses on the research undertaken by Yale virologist
John Rodman Paul in Alaska beginning in the late 1930s and
explains how this early example of Alaska Native peoples’
enrollment into biomedical research contributed to a longer
process of biomedical community building. Over a series of
decades, Paul collected blood samples and shipped them to his
specimen bank in New Haven, CT. He famously used these
samples to establish the mechanism of acquired immunity for
poliomyelitis, but also relied upon them to demonstrate the
promise of serological epidemiology as a research technique. He
insisted that Alaska Native communities provided ideal
populations for studying human genetic diversity, disease
ecology and physiology. Paul also called for greater attention to
what he called ‘arctic medicine,’ which became a major focus of
the World Health Organization by the early 1960s, effectively
ensuring the continued presence of researchers in Alaska. The
scientific labor performed by Alaska Natives within this
emerging bioeconomy became a fundamental part of how their
communities, relationships, and collective identities were
constituted. My paper asks: When research continues
indefinitely, are the categories of researchers and subject
adequate to describe the relationships that characterize
bioeconomies? What modes of life and labor are found in
communities that have developed their economies alongside a
scientific research apparatus? I use Paul’s work to address these
questions and to show that the histories of biomedical
communities, with their particular economic and ethical
landscapes, contain formative encounters that set the terms for
contemporary debates over indigenous biomedicine.
017. The Human Body in Advanced Biomedicine:
Transformative Trials, Experimental Practices
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
This panel investigates practices of clinical and translational research in
contemporary biomedicine by focusing on enactments of the human body
and the subject/object tensions they involve. Recently clinical research has
been of considerable interest to STS and adjacent fields. Empirical studies
have focused on knowledge production and validation of evidence in
randomized controlled trials (RCTs)(Abraham, 2007; Wahlberg &
McGoey, 2007; Will, 2007; Will & Moreira, 2010) the institutional,
regulatory and economic contextures of clinical research and its recent
globalization (Fisher, 2009; Petryna, 2009; Sunder Rajan, 2006; Wahlberg
& McGoey, 2007; Waldby & Cooper, 2014), or the impact of new actors
(e.g. patient advocacy groups) and actants (e.g. biomarkers) in trial design
and conduct (Callon & Rabeharisoa, 2008; Epstein, 2008; Keating &
Cambrosio, 2012). Clinical research and its “gold standard” paradigm of
RCTs have historically emerged in the context of pharmaceutical
regulations, where drug products were tested in human subjects. Yet today,
contemporary biomedicine with its various translational practices (Sunder
Rajan & Leonelli, 2013) appears to profoundly disturb this neat imagined
object/subject relation: first, advanced therapies are often based on human
bodily materials, such as stem cells; second, the body of the patient tends to
be relocated to a “human proxy” in the context of clinical research, such as
humanized animal models, disease-in-a-dish models, or computer
simulations. This double relocation is shaping and enacting the human
(body) not only in the clinical encounter, but in a great variety of social and
institutional contexts: it raises the question of how the human body –
understood as a relational entity, both subject and object of biomedicine –
is reconceptualized and enacted in advanced biomedicine. We ask how
such advanced biomedicines have challenged and transformed existing
regimes and logics of clinical research. What bodily and technologically
mediated relations can be found in those emerging settings? How can we
make sense of various new bio-objects (Vermeulen, Tamminen, &
Webster, 2012) entering the clinic; and what is their role in (re-)shaping
objectivities and subjectivities in the clinic and beyond? In brief, we invite
papers that explore various aspects of how clinical research and its implicit
notions and enactments of the human body is reshaped in contemporary
advanced biomedicine, and what, if any, changes in epistemic, social, and
normative orders these transformations involve. References Abraham, J.
(2007). Drug Trials and Evidence Bases in International Regulatory
Context. BioSocieties, 2(1), 41–56. doi:10.1017/S1745855207005042
Callon, M., & Rabeharisoa, V. (2008). The Growing Engagement of
Emergent Concerned Groups in Political and Economic Life Lessons from
the French Association of Neuromuscular Disease Patients. Science
Technology Human Values, 33(2), 230–261.
doi:10.1177/0162243907311264 Epstein, S. (2008). Inclusion: The politics
of difference in medical research. Chicago University Press. Fisher, J. A.
(2009). Medical research for hire: The political economy of pharmaceutical
clinical trials. Rutgers University Press. Keating, P., & Cambrosio, A.
(2012). Cancer on Trial. University of Chicago Press. Petryna, A. (2009).
When experiments travel: clinical trials and the global search for human
subjects. Princeton University Press. Sunder Rajan, K. (2006). Biocapital.
The constitution of postgenomic life. Durham, N.C./London: Duke
University Press. Sunder Rajan, K., & Leonelli, S. (2013). Introduction:
Biomedical trans-actions, postgenomics and knowledge/value. Public
Culture. Vermeulen, N., Tamminen, S., & Webster, A. (Eds.). (2012). Bioobjects. Life in the 21st Century. Wahlberg, A., & McGoey, L. (2007). An
Elusive Evidence Base: The Construction and Governance of Randomized
Controlled Trials. BioSocieties, 2, 1–10. Waldby, C., & Cooper, M. (2014).
Clinical Labor. Tissue Donor and Research Subjects in the Global
Bioeconomy. Duke University Press. Will, C. (2007). The Alchemy of
Clinical Trials. BioSocieties, 2. Will, C., & Moreira, T. (2010). Medical
Proofs and Social Experiments: Clinical Trials in Shifting Contexts.
Chairs:
Paul Just, University of Vienna, Dpt. of Political Science/Life
Science Governance (LSG) Research Platform
Christian Haddad, University of Vienna
Participants:
Autologous biopolitics: governing the experimental use of
patient-own stem cells Christian Haddad, University of
Vienna
In the last years, regenerative medicine has emerged as a new
biomedical approach and biopolitical project that promises to
“revolutionize” medicine and to absorb both the crisis of
pharmaceutical innovation and the various limits of Western
health care systems. RM is based on the idea that our bodies are
designed to heal themselves and that stem cells constitute its
essential regenerative building block (Webster, 2013).The last
decade has seen increased efforts to bring stem cells to the clinic.
This turn to translation has been accompanied by various
methodological, practical, regulatory and ethical problems and
problematiziations. My paper focuses on autologous adult stem
cell treatments. “Adult” stem cells are found in various tissues
such as bone marrow or fat, and can be easily extracted. These
cells are typically intended for autologous use, i.e. extracted from
and clinically used in the same patient. Such procedures have
given rise to practices that challenge or dodge the authority of
biomedical innovation regimes, grounded in the incremental
process of clinical trials, regulatory review and marketing
approval. Moreover, it reshapes the subject-object relation
implied in clinical-experimental settings, as “active ingredient”
and human recipient coincide in the identical human body.
Drawing on cases from Germany, the United States, and South
Korea, this paper investigates the biopolitics of autologous stem
cell treatments in the broader context of struggles over clinical
translation and access to innovative medicines. It contributes to
social studies of biomedicine and particularly the bio-objects
research agenda (Vermeulen,Tamminen and Webster, 2012).
Keywords: biopolitics; clinical research; bio-objects; drug
development; stem cells References: Vermeulen, Niki, Sakari
Tamminen and Andrew Webster (2012): Bio-Objects. Life in the
21st Century (Surrey, Ashgate). Webster, Andrew (2013): The
Global Dynamics of Regenerative Medicine. A Social Science
Critique (London, Palgrave MacMillan).
Travelling through brain/histories: bio-objects in clinical
research trials Paul Just, University of Vienna, Dpt. of
Political Science/Life Science Governance (LSG) Research
Platform
Knowledge production in biomedicine has tended to be
organized in double-blinded randomized clinical trials (RCTs) as
they have constituted the gold standard in medical research and
drug development. Yet recently various discourses and actors
have challenged RCT-based knowledge production, as especially
regenerative medicine trials have increasingly blurred the lines of
its inherent paradigm of evidence. The intracerebal
transplantation of fetal tissue has constituted a restorative, but yet
experimental approach for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease
since the late 1980s. Starting with trials in single patients in
Sweden, hundreds of open label studies worldwide, and in the
aftermath of two large NIH double-blinded RCTs at the
beginning of the millennium it is now a EU flagship project
called TRANSEURO that puts the regenerative paradigm again
to the test. Based on my ethnographic research including
participatory observation, +30 qualitative expert interviews and
document analysis my paper will (1) reconstruct and interpret the
regenerative history of Parkinson’s disease. By following fetal
tissue on its travel to and through the brains of Parkinson’s
diseased patients I will (2) understand transplants and clinical
trial participants as bio-objects in order to open up the
epistemology of clinical trials and its inherent experimentality.
Finally (3) I will ask how regulatory struggles considerably
impact on regenerative medicine, clinical research and the
constitution of fetal cells as bio-objects, which in turn challenge
and redefine the notion of ‘evidence’ within biomedical
knowledge production. Keywords: knowledge production,
biomedical research, biopolitics, evidence, Parkinson’s disease
Public participation and self-care practices: How runners
negotiate medical expertise in the everyday management of
injury Patricia Campbell, University of Calgary/Red Deer
College
This paper investigates the ways in which laypersons reflexively
negotiate various medical and health expert discourses in
managing the everyday uncertainties surrounding their own
health. This negotiation is theorized as a form of public
participation in terms of the social production of knowledge and
practices of self-care. While much STS literature has focused on
how organized collectives, such as AIDS activists, have
challenged the domination of medical expertise, little attention
has been paid to the everyday context of laypersons’ participation
in managing health uncertainty. Participants recruited from the
Running Mania.ca website were interviewed to investigate how
they had accessed and used expertise to manage their runningrelated injuries. The preliminary results suggest that selfidentification as a runner is clearly aligned with active health
management; however, participants’ constructions of healthy
bodies (i.e. those that can run) often challenge expert medical
constructions of health. Participants seem to value running
experience as a component of expertise, both in medical
practitioners and peers, suggesting a coproduction of a hybrid
expert discourse produced in the interaction between running
knowledge and medical knowledge. Most participants seek
expertise both online and face-to face although face-to-face is
generally perceived as more trustworthy. Participants’
assessment of social networks as mediators of expertise is mixed:
some see it as valuable and others see it primarily as a means of
support. Contrary to Beck’s hypothesis, participants generally do
not seem to feel a lack of control regarding their health due to the
vast, potentially conflicting, resources available. Overall,
runners’ self-care practices illustrate how expert medical
discourse is actively negotiated and shaped in the context of
everyday life, illustrating microsites of public participation.
Competition over Expert Authority in the New Field of Human
IVF Jung-Ok Ha, Seoul National University
Is human IVF (in vitro fertilization) the extended version of
animal IVF or is it human fertility? Such a question may seem
odd today. Nevertheless, the question ignited controversy in the
1980s when the term “human IVF” first appeared, creating
competition between experts. This paper focuses on the
competition over expert authority between obstetrics/gynecology
clinicians and embryology scientists in the 1980s when human
IVF began to take root as a new field in Korea. Here I refer to
human IVF not as a discipline but as a field because IVF is “an
amalgam of thoughts, a mixture of habits, an assemblage of
techniques” (Mol & Berg 1998), not a coherent prima facie. The
process of mixing and assembling that which is originally
different is neither simple nor peaceful. The new establishment
of a field inevitably requires a process of determining the
“dominant professional” (Oudshoorn 1994) through competing
with rivals and making the field appealing to outsiders. This
paper aims to provide insight into the human IVF field in light of
its developmental history through analyses of academic journals,
in-depth interviews with experts, and analyses of discourses over
the issue, all of which reveal how the experts regarded this new
field as an extended version of their own expertise. Expert
authority is not self-evident but results from social politics. This
insight is gained when we consider human IVF as a social reality
and when we pay attention to the construction of that reality, not
regarding it as a natural object.
018. Theorizing STS from the Southern Cone: The Geopolitics of
Science in the Global South
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
For the first time, the 4S conference will be held in Argentina. This is
professionally and epistemologically significant for several reasons. Not
only has the field of STS sought its paradigmatic cases of science and
technology from the North, particularly the United States and Europe, but
sites of STS professionalization -- its institutions and academic centers -have also reflected Northern bias. The placement of 4S in Argentina, we
hope, reflects the growing movement in the literature to engage with
knowledge production from the global South, opening critical spaces for
theoretical interventions into the study of science in diverse milieus. This
panel examines science in, around, and about Argentina in an effort to
sketch a history of the interaction between Argentina and science, which
this conference both reflects and participates in. Jimena Caravaca examines
the idea of "Latin America" in the history of capitalism and the
transnational interaction of French and Argentine economists. Marco
Ramos explores the intersection of postcolonial and Cold War politics as
British (anti-)psychiatrist David Cooper attempted to turn Buenos Aires
into a "Third World" laboratory. Flipping the center-periphery model,
Eugenia González reflects on Argentina as the global center for
psychoanalysis by examining the impact of psychoanalysis on university
psychology programs. Finally, Alejandra Golcman examines how
European ideas translated into local practices in Argentine psychiatric
institutions during the twentieth century. These papers will inspire
discussion on the geopolitics of social science and the place of Argentina in
the past, present, and future of STS.
Chairs:
Marco Antonio Ramos, Yale University
Alejandra Golcman, ISES-IDES/UNGS-CONICET
Participants:
International, regional or local economic
liberalism? Political economy and international experts in
Latin America, 1850-1890 Jimena Caravaca, IDES-CISCONICET
The proposed work analyzes the calls to the French experts Jean
Gustave Courcelle-Seneuil and Paul Pradier-Fodéré to Chile and
Peru, respectively, in the second half of the 19th century. From
those experts, it explores the limits of application of the
supposedly universal theorizations in contexts of economic,
political and social as the Latin American. Along with this, the
paper discusses the construction of a regional and local economic
liberalism that combined elements of theories "imported" through
these experts, with notions which have emerged from national
experience and with a series of references less explicit but
equally present in political and academic debates. Finally, we
analyze the impact that these visits had in Argentina, both in the
academic and political space. Some of the issues that we want to
unravel are: how is social knowledge appropriate in different
contexts?, do theoretical references, both implicit and explicit,
mix to get a new kind of knowledge?, is the a concept of "Latin
America" as a region in the economic debates of this period?,
what type of relationship exists between international experts and
contracting officers for their services? On that last point, our
hypothesis is that the hiring of these experts must be read as a
sign of rationality and political strategy rather than define it
purely from economic and ideological subjugation.
Antipsychiatry in Transit: Hippie Communes, Postcolonial
Laboratories, and Cultural Imperialism in Cold War
Argentina Marco Antonio Ramos, Yale University
In 1970, psychiatrist David Cooper arrived in Argentina from
England to bring antipsychiatry – the then growing movement
that attacked the legitimacy of traditional psychiatry – to the
“Third World,” as he described Argentina. Cooper’s goal was to
create a new kind of antipsychiatric practice through the
development of “politico-therapeutic communes” and an
“International Center of Teaching and Learning” for the “Third
World.” However, his antipsychiatric project failed. Not only
was his personality difficult for Argentines, but his ideas - and
his attempt to diffuse them - were also unsavory. Argentine
psychiatrists and intellectuals argued that British antipsychiatry
did not have respect for revolutionary popular movements in
Latin America and concluded that Cooper’s antipsychiatry was a
form of cultural colonialism. This paper discusses the cultural
encounter between the politically volatile world of Argentine
mental health and Cooper’s brand of antipsychiatry from
England in the 1970s. As I argue, Cooper’s embodied
performance of antipsychiatry – his long red beard, hippy
clothes, New Age lifestyle as a “guru,” communal love-life, and
postcolonial dream of a Third World laboratory for psychiatric
knowledge – frustrated leftist Argentine practitioners suspicious
of British imperialism. This paper investigates the complicated
“contact zone” between British antipsychiatry and Argentine
mental health to shed light on broader concerns about
counterculture, the travel of First World knowledge, and the
polarizing politics of the Cold War in Argentina.
A historical perspective on university psychology curricula in
Argentina: A recent look at major authors and theories
Eugenia González, UNCuyo-UNCórdoba-CONICET
From the creation of psychology university programs, this
discipline in Argentina has gone through a progressive
institutionalization process. This has led to the constitution of
professional and academic associations, the profession’s legal
recognition, the increase in the demand for this kind of study, and
consequently, the greater importance of psychologists' role in
culture, society and politics. In 2004, the Argentinian state
declared psychology programs of “public interest”, because they
affect inhabitants’ health. Since then, these programs have
become subject to evaluation and accreditation processes. This
fact implies that they must adjust themselves to certain standards.
This institutionalization process has been affected by the
influence of psychoanalysis in Argentinian psychology. This
assumption is confirmed by different social and historical studies
from both disciplines. In our research, I delve into the features of
this phenomenon in a recent period. I have carried out this
research from 2000 to 2012, in diverse Argentinian universities.
In this context, my work attempts to delimit specifically the main
authors and theories that are in circulation among courses of
psychology programs (psychopathology courses), in public and
private Argentinian universities. For this purpose, we remark
which authors have been cited the most, in which theoretical
orientation it is possible to include them, which is their
nationality and which kind of texts are cited mostly. We make
this work through a bibliometric analysis. In this way, we try to
observe in what extent psychoanalysis is spread in psychology
university classes in the Argentina of the twenty-first century.
The diagnosis of psychosis in Argentina: from ideas to practices
(1895-1930) Alejandra Golcman, ISES-IDES/UNGSCONICET
This paper‘s main objective is to try to understand the clinical
gaze of Argentine psychiatrists between the late nineteenth
century and 1930. This analysis will focus on the diagnosis of
psychosis. Psychosis worried and occupied specialists during this
period, particularly regarding the description and understanding
of its main symptoms: delusions and hallucinations. To develop
this research, I will analyze, on one hand, theoretical texts
concerning psychosis from foreign physicians, as well as local
productions about the disease and its symptoms within
Argentina. In so doing, I attempt to determine the theoretical
lines that Argentine physicians followed for the production of
scientific knowledge, the foreign texts that were most commonly
used by Argentine psychiatrists, the concepts and names they
employed, the theoretical profiles of the leading psychiatric
journals at that time and how they related to transnational
contexts. On the other hand, I attempt to compare and contrast
these theoretical ideas in the hands of the Argentine doctors with
the daily practices of physicians treating psychosis among
women in a neuropsychiatric hospital. I will develop this analysis
from the particular case of Neuropsychiatric Hospital Esteves of
Lomas de Zamora, Buenos Aires.
Discussant:
P. Sean Brotherton, Yale University
019. Unmaking Gender
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Chopin
The focus of this panel is to consider how alternative configurations of
politics and representation facilitated by contemporary information and
communication technologies may destabilize the status of the female
subject inscribed in narrative conventions and political legacies. The sites
discussed in the papers are themselves not radically new: comic books,
social network platforms, and holographic depictions. However, by
analyzing how designers, technicians, educators, and activists fabricate
gender when making new artifacts, this panel continues the critical feminist
project of unmaking stereotypes. Both meanings of representation play a
role in the analyses, e.g. how gendered subjects are visually depicted, and
how they may participate in politics. Careful attention to the construction
of becoming—i.e. the context of production— marks these papers, which
take inspiration from recent trends in feminist technology studies.
Chair:
Martha Lampland, University of California, San Diego
Participants:
You Talkin’ to Me?: Visualizing the Student in Science
Education Comics Erika Cheng, University of California,
San Diego
As science education comics, the explicit function of The
Cartoon Guide to Physics and The Manga Guide to Physics is to
teach the reader some basic physics concepts. These comics can
be thought of as a communicative and organizational technology,
using a combination of words and images to present scientific
concepts and knowledge. But what does presenting science
concepts via comics entail? By comparing the two works, I
explore interrelations between knowledge, representation, and
subjectivity. For instance, what notion of science is presented
and how do the formal characteristics of these works as comics
shape that notion? Furthermore, the question of representation
goes beyond questions of what to questions of who. Both these
comics confront an issue not often encountered in standard
textbooks — the problem of having a concrete representation for
the abstract science student and/or the abstract science teacher.
Having a concrete visualization raises the issue of gender
stereotypes (in these two books in particular) and the
positionality of the reader in relation not only to the information
presented but also to the characters in the comics. I argue that the
differing presentations of ostensibly the same information orient
the reader towards not only different notions of what science is
but also towards differing subject positions as a science student.
Hatsune Miku and the Design of the Virtual Pop Star Thomas
Conner, University of California, San Diego
Virtual pop stars are non-corporeal characters presented as
singular musical performers with the appearance of agency. In
recent years such characters have been digitally projected onto
concert stages, such as the Tupac “hologram” performance in
2012. In Japan, several original digital “idol singers” exist, the
most popular being Hatsune Miku. While virtual pop star
presentations in the U.S. have been largely photo-realistic
animations, Miku and her fellow digital idols are depicted as
anime-style figures, each adhering to certain (pop) cultural
templates. This study examines the creation and design of virtual
pop star presentations via interviews with technicians, artists, and
entrepreneurs about their creative motives, theoretical
negotiations, and the presentations’ performance outcomes.
Miku’s performance content is entirely fan-generated, a unique
complication of agency that both reinforces and challenges
gender and political status.
“This is Just Practice!” Women’s Work in a Time of Revolt
Joan Marie Donovan, University of California San Diego
The social upheaval of 2011 led to citizens occupying public
spaces all over the globe. This study compares two of these
manifestations, 15M in Barcelona and Occupy Wall Street in the
USA, through their use of the social media platform Twitter. The
spread of occupation as a tactic can be attributed to activists’
repurposing of corporate social media platforms and inventive
organizational strategies in the midst of a global economic and
social crisis. Importantly, 15M and Occupy each have their own
logic of how Twitter accounts should be used, managed, and
distributed as a resource. While these activists do not hack
directly into Twitter to achieve these ends, this study illustrates
how they hack around its services to meet their needs. Because
the internet has become a ubiquitous tool for business, activists
are able to draw on networked resources and do information
work from nearly everywhere at any time. This study links the
flexible space and time of capitalism with the history of
information labor by addressing how the gendered legacies of
information production and sharing shape these networked social
movements. In doing so, it highlights the intervention by women
into activist discourses, where they may otherwise be silenced or
remain invisible.
Of foreigners and females. Performing embodied identities in
scopic media Niklas Woermann, SDU Odense, Uni of
Constance; Heiko Kirschner, University of Dortmund
Germany
Internet-mediated forms of sociality today reach far beyond the
now commonplace social networks. An important part of social
media use is made up by what Karin Knorr Cetina (2013) has
described as scopic media - media which do not just transmit and
store information, but turn otherwise isolated situations into
synthetic situations in which face-to-screen interactions occur.
Prominent examples include video chats, webcam sex or online
gaming. We argue that such scopic forms of social media require
a theoretical (and possibly methodological) treatment that differs
from existing approaches to interactive social media. Scopic
media do not only represent bodily identities; they rather demand
immediate bodily attention of users and thus establish situations
of embodied acting. In our contribution, we first make
suggestions on how to systematically distinguish interactive from
scopic media. We then explore a case of intensive bodily work in
face-to-screen interaction: semi-professional computer gaming,
or eSports. We then explore how embodied identities are both
hidden and artfully re-constructed in online live streams of
competitive computer game matches. We close with observations
regarding the paradoxical but prominent role of gendered and
racialized identities in a global community which is at its core
entirely oriented towards dis-embodied virtual battlefields.
020. Medicine, Politics, and the Struggle with Sex I
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Dalí
Chair:
Sari Irni, University of Tampere, Finland
Participants:
Rejuvenation and the beginnings of the Chilean endocrinology
as a problem of sex, gender and eugenics. Marcelo Sánchez,
Universidad de Chile
In the late nineteenth century began to appear in Revista Medica
de Chile, references to experiments of " rejuvenation " which
were carried on in Europe. By the twentieth century starts an
appropriation of the Austrian Eugen Steinach experiments . This
process highlights the figure of the Italian professor Juan Noé
and a young Chilean student, Ottmar Wilhelm . Between 1923
and 1926, Wilhelm developed a series of experiments on the
bodies of dogs , bulls, pigs and patients in the public health care
system . In the meantime, in the Revista Medica de Chile were
published the Voronoff experiences in France , related with the
transplantation of testicular tissue from anthropoid to man. The
work of Wilhelm and dissemination of the work of Steinach, lay
the foundations for a nascent Chilean endocrinology and also
present significant issues in a critical interpretation . Four aspects
are highlighted in the work: the mythic potential of "
rejuvenation " , the search for biological causes of homosexuality
, the anthropocentric interpretation of animal behavior and a
point of arrival in eugenics as a new social gospel.
Sex Transformations as Side Effect: Renegotiating Sexed Life
with Steroids Sari Irni, University of Tampere, Finland
The ontological ambiguity of the phenomena of ‘sex hormones’
is well established. Despite ‘their’ capacity to, for example,
stimulate the growth of breasts and beard, and affect the form of
genitals, these substances also ‘govern the processes of cell
growth’ – – ‘affecting most, if not all, of the body’s organ
systems’ (Fausto-Sterling 2000: 193). Using Finnish medical
journals as illustrative material this paper argues that the cases
where these phenomena have not been regarded first and
foremost as ‘sex’ hormones deserve more attention in the history
of science and technology. For example, when in the 1960s
Finland oestrogens were aimed for the treatment of men’s
atherosclerosis and androgens for women’s menopause, and
when anabolic aspects of androgens where considered useful for
enhancing women athletes’ performance, the effects on sex
characteristics became unwanted side effects and risks (to the
binary system of two sexes) rather than the effects which defined
what these steroids ‘were’. This paper suggests that the
development of steroid chemistry by the 1960s also resulted in a
continuous tension between the technological possibilities of
steroids and the intelligibility of sex, where the boundaries of
sexed life became contested in yet new ways. This paper argues
for a focus on this tension, including for example, the
negotiations about steroids’ sex transforming side effects. Such a
focus complicates the history of sex hormones and sheds new
light on the ways in which steroid products have been part of the
history of the negotiations and transformations of sexed life.
Testosterone trafficking and care networks Esther Ortega,
Santiago de Compostela University
In the last years, I have been following the practices of some
transgender activists and collectives in relation to some health
practices in the Spanish state context. Hormonal treatments are
considered necessary in the diferent versions of sex reassignment
protocols for trangender health, known as Standards of Care
(SoC) and edited by the World Professional Association for
Transgender Health (WPATH). Two years of medical treatment
(it means hormonal) are required in order to acquire legal
recognition of sex change in the Spanish national legislation
(Law 3/2007). Testosterone is a political technology; it
empowers trans men because, among other things, allows them to
be recognised as men in the public space. On the other hand,
testosterone is a very powerful tool in endocrinologist’s hands
which provide testo-prescriptions to trans people. Hormonal
technologies have been considered as very efficient technologies
and have remain unquestioned in the medical processes of sex
reassignment. In other works, I have discussed hormonal
treatment for trans people in the medical technologies framework
as blackboxing processes - in ANT terms -. However, in this
presentation, I want to suggest that the existence of testosterone
trafficking coming from dosage surplus of medical prescriptions,
could be analysed as a kind of unblackboxing of hormonal
technologies. This process is embedded into informal care
networks in trans community and, interestingly, these networks
are claiming for a reorganization of care practices associated to
transgender health in the Spanish context.
Economy and Eros: Sexual Ideology as Cultural Technology
Kirk Fiereck, Columbia University / University of
Pennsylvania
Considering theory as technology suggests an examination of
which interpretation of Marx one might consider themselves
before and after. This paper considers Moishe Postone’s
reinterpretation of Marx’s theory as a new technology for
considering the epistemological and political trajectories of
Marxism(s) as well as deconstruction in the particular context of
contemporary South African cultural politics articulated around
gender and sexuality. This paper examines two inextricably
related processes of value production and circulation. This dual
process is configured around the constitution and
interrelationship of the banal and the spectacular. Such a process
is evinced by the spectacular ordinariness of discourses of sexual
violence in contemporary South Africa. In this way, my analysis
is inspired by Njabulo Ndebele’s moral injunction to rediscover
the ordinary by exploring the complexities of quotidian sociosexual life in lieu of a myopic focus on the sexual spectacle. In
South Africa multiple cultural fields of sexual and gender
identities vie for hegemonic influence. These fields have given
rise to two dominant sexual ideologies, secular-liberal and
traditional-nationalist, that individuals inhabit to produce
symbolic and economic value along divisions of race and class.
In thinking the relation between economy and eros, both widely
construed, this paper considers how sexual personhood is
mediated both by capital as well as culture, thus interrogating the
relation between these concepts. Specifically, I ethnographically
explore how individuals performatively enact and valorize forms
of human capital. I do so while attending to the fact that there is
more than one history of (human) capital that operates in this
context where neoliberal economic reforms have encouraged the
widespread and readily recognizable capitalization of culture.
021. Os desafios para a filosofia no século XXI
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Miró
Chair:
Rossano Rosario Pecoraro, Universidade Federal do Estado do
Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO)
Participants:
O filósofo da ciência como sujeito do verbo estudar Maria
Helena Silva Soares, UERJ
Os escritos de Gaston Bachelard clamam por um retorno da
filosofia ao “estudo”. Tendo em vista, ainda no século XX, que a
técnica modificaria as relações entre as ciências e o mundo, o
filósofo francês se dedicou a repensar um caminho para a
filosofia da ciência. A filosofia da ciência moderna, que ora
privilegiava a soberania do sujeito cognoscente, ora proclamava a
autoridade da própria experiência, não conseguia mais encaixar
seus discursos no contexto das ciências contemporâneas
marcadas pelo surgimento da Microfísica e o constante avanço da
Técnica. Era preciso, então, um retorno da filosofia ao
laboratório, à ciência, pois "há mais possibilidades na
organização racional que na organização natural, há mais
substâncias químicas no laboratório que na natureza". Faz-se
necessário um contato com as novas formas do fazer científico
para que a filosofia possa pensá-lo. Assim, a fenomenotécnica
surge no pensamento bachelardiano como uma proposta
filosófica de estudo dos novos diálogos que se abrem entre uma
ciência da técnica que produz mundo, produz fatos. O presente
trabalho abordará dois artigos, "Númeno e microfísica" (19311932) e "Luz e substância" (1934), que apresentam a filosofia da
ciência como fenomenotécnica, ou seja, como uma prática
constante de estudo das construções e retificações científicas; e
também uma comunicação, "Crítica preliminar do conceito de
fronteira epistemológica" (1934), proferida por Bachelard em
Praga, que critica a ideia metafísica de fronteira entre
conhecimento científico e não-científico. Para Bachelard, apenas
as ciências podem determinar suas próprias fronteiras e, por isso,
tais demarcações surgem mais como possibilidades em si
mesmas de ultrapassá-las, do que como um obstáculo
intransponível. A filosofia científica deve ser essencialmente
uma pedagogia científica. Uma incansável busca por conhecer e
compreender essas fronteiras como novas possibilidades. O
filósofo dedicado às ciências deve ser, portanto, o eterno sujeito
do verbo estudar. Pretendemos, com isso, compreender e
verificar a atualidade e a importância do pensamento
bachelardiano para as discussões em filosofia, ciência e
tecnologia no presente século.
Técnica em Heidegger e a leitura de Sloterdijk. Evandro
Bilibio, UFFS - Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul
Segundo Heidegger, o provocar e produzir (deixar acontecer) tem
como resultado a transformação da natureza em algo disponível,
à mão; na terminilogia pós Ser e Tempo, em um fundo de
reserva. Esse processo que provoca, prepara e transforma a
natureza em fundo de reserva é o famoso dispositivo/armação –
Gestell. Safranski, seguindo Heidegger, acreditará que a
humanidade perdeu o controle sobre esse processo, a tal ponto
dele mesmo (o processo) ter se tornado nosso destino.
Dominados, então, por esse processo, a tal ponto de termos nos
perdido nele, o que resta? Abandoná-lo? Optarmos por ela, mas
aceitarmos que estaremos recusando as características que nos
tornam humanos? Nem um, nem outro. Sloterdijk será a chave
interpretativa usada pelo autor do artigo para entender essas
questões. Com o objetivo de contribuir com a compreensão da
técnica fez um breve resumo do ambiente histórico em que se
gestou a discussão no séc. XX com o objetivo de localizar a
famosa fala de Heidegger sobre a técnica e o surgimento de
alguns preconceitos com respeito à temática. Sloterdijk é
introduzido com o objetivo de apontar e fornecer a possibilidade
de pensar-se a técnica em outro aspecto. Nesse sentido, Sloterdijk
e sua interpretação/leitura da Carta sobre o Humanismo de
Heidegger é imprescindível para entender a proposta desse
trabalho, qual seja, apresentar a técnica – distituida de seus
preconceitos – e como o novo/único meio mediático possível da
contemporaneidade.
Condição Humana e Tecnologia: um estudo sobre as filosofias
de Andrew Feenberg, Hans Jonas, Hannah Arendt e Giogio
Agamben. Priscilla Cavalcante Normando, Universidade de
Brasília - Observatório do Movimento pela Tecnologia
Social na América Latina (OBMTS/UnB)
O trabalho propõe um estudo que correlaciona o papel da
tecnologia como determinante para as pessoas e suas condições
de vida nas filosofias desenvolvidas por Andrew Feenberg, Hans
Jonas, Hannah Arendt e Giorgio Agamben. Tomamos como
ponto de partida a indissociabilidade entre vida, tecnologia, ética
e política para analisar e sintetizar o que é a condição humana e
quais os desdobramentos deste conceito para entendermos o
mundo chamado de contemporâneo.
Filosofia, Bíos e Poder na era da Biotecnologia Rossano
Rosario Pecoraro, Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio
de Janeiro (UNIRIO)
O objetivo da nossa contribuição é mostrar algumas questões
decisivas que surgem na relação entre filosofia, vida e poder na
era da biotecnologia. Vida e corpo, com efeito, parecem ser o
autêntico objeto das dinâmicas políticas e das ações institucionais
de cunho jurídico, estatal, político e tecnológico do nosso tempo.
Mas quais seriam os fundamentos teóricos dessas práticas? Quais
os critérios, as regras, os fins dessa operação? Quais os
princípios-guias e os efeitos das intervenções biotecnológicas? O
nosso tempo enfrenta uma situação extremamente delicada na
qual se dá a passagem de uma “política de administração da vida
biológica” para uma “política que prevê a possibilidade da
transformação artificial da vida”. A vida e o corpo escreve
Esposito em Termini della política “tornam-se terrenos de
decisões que dizem respeito não somente aos seus limites
externos – por exemplo o que a diferencia da vida animal ou
vegetal – mas também os seus limites internos”. O avanço da
biotécnica e os progressos das ciências biológicas constroem
novos horizontes de sentido em que a ampliação das antigas
possibilidades de ação se soma à invenção, e disponibilização em
larga escala, de inéditos instrumentos de intervenção. “O que
antes era ‘dado’ como natureza orgânica e podia quanto muito
ser ‘cultivado’, move-se atualmente, como já notou Habermas no
campo da “intervenção orientada para um objetivo”. É nesse
contexto histórico-conceitual que o nosso discurso se insere.
Essencial, para o seu desdobramento e a sua fundamentação, será
o diálogo com uma série de autores, in primis Friedrich
Nietzsche, Michel Foucault e Roberto Esposito.
Los mitos transmitidos por la enseñanza de las ciencias: una
reconstrucción de las nociones ingenuas sobre la naturaleza
de las ciencias a partir de la filosofía de la ciencia. Loreto
Mora Muñoz, universidad nacional autónoma de méxico
Es la transmisión de las tradiciones epistemológicas dogmáticas
mediante la educación lo que ha fomentado un arduo campo de
investigaciones (Bonilla et al, 2012), comprobando que existen
‘visiones deformadas’ y ‘mitos’ sobre la actividad científica y
sobre las ciencias(McComas, 2005; Fernandez et al, 2002); a
partir de ahí se propone averiguar qué aspectos de las
concepciones filosóficas y epistemológicas, que en las
investigaciones educativas suelen atribuirse mayoritariamente al
positivismo lógico y a la 'concepción heredada', provienen de los
escritos filosóficos de los intelectuales que comúnmente suele
asociarse a dicho movimiento. Sobre todo en la actualidad, donde
las propuestas filosóficas teóricas más influyentes versan sobre
pluralismo y multiculturalidad en la actividad cientifica
(Lombardi y Pérez Ransanz, 2012; Chang, 2012; Longino et al,
2006; Mitchell, 2003), se evidencia que las investigaciones
educativas siguen encontrando transmisión de nociones ingenuas
respecto de la naturaleza de las ciencias. Así, el fenómeno
educativo dentro de las ciencias además de ser un contexto de
promoción de paradigmas y tradiciones, de instrucción de
científicos según Kuhn (2006), y de ser un contexto de
conformación de la actividad científica, de configurar la
construcción del conocimiento según Echeverría (1999), es
también un contexto de construcción de identidades asociadas a
dichas tradiciones y a las actividades, es un espacio de definición
del ser científico, como sujeto participante, y del ser de la propias
ciencias, como actividad humana. El fenómeno educativo dentro
de las ciencias es también un espacio de construcción ontológica
en su carácter de transmisor y promotor de tradiciones
epistemológicas identitarias.
022. Anthropology and STS: Dis/Encounters and Potential
South-North Exchanges I
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Moliere
In their 1986 "Anthropology as Cultural Critique" Marcus and Fischer
described the relationship between anthropology and science studies as
being one of mutual learning. Their assessment was published when US
cultural anthropologists were establishing scientific cultures as legitimate
objects of ethnographic and theoretical inquiry within anthropology. Since
the 1970s both this sub-field of anthropology and the interdisciplinary field
of STS have developed their own distinctive concepts, methods,
interpretive approaches, and forms of collaboration. Both have successfully
established, institutionalized, consolidated, and maintained separate
academic infrastructures (jobs, funding, workshops, circuits, etc.), although
STS is more visible internationally. Meanwhile, the relationship between
anthropology and STS has changed considerably and tensions have
surfaced about their different approaches to research and public
engagements. This panel addresses the current relationship between
anthropology of science and STS with a focus on current possibilities for
renewed dialogue and cross-fertilization. It will contribute a discussion of
the theoretical and methodological developments in both fields, as well as
those in transit between STS and anthropology, as they gain traction in the
global South. We will present and debate on-going research in
anthropology of science and technology from different traditions to map
out differences and alternatives that are emerging from anthropology and
STS research in the global South. For this panel, anthropologists will
present their research work in progress on the study of disasters, science
and engineering publics, sociotechnical infrastructures, intersecting
science/state policies, and global knowledge work while exploring the
methodological and theoretical Anthropology/STS borderlands.
Chair:
Gary Downey, Virginia Tech
Participants:
Modeling Amazonian Environments: some considerations on
the science-policy interface in Brazil Marko Alves Monteiro,
State University of Campinas
This presentation will discuss, through an ongoing ethnography
of a scientific project, some challenges of thinking through the
science-policy interface in Brazil and of doing STS inspired
multi-sited ethnographies. The specific focus is on one
international research project which tries to build policy-relevant
knowledge about the Amazon, based on coupled models of landuse change, climate and socio-economic drivers of deforestation.
The use of models aims to provide an understanding of critical
feedbacks between climate, land use and socioeconomic changes,
which may enable the construction of early warning systems for
potentially irreversible losses of critical environmental services
in the Amazon. In tackling such complex multi-institutional and
multi-national scientific endeavors in Brazil, questions arise
concerning the specific geopolitics of knowledge production in
large multinational projects; the challenges of doing work
between disciplines, combining social, natural and modeling
sciences; and the related difficulties of incorporating human
variables into complex models of climate and environment.
Relating to policy, the growing use of models suggests potent
new issues for STS, concerning the politics of constructing
infrastructures of knowledge for policy. As such structures
provide the means for measuring, monitoring and assessing
variables of interest, they help redefine problems such as
deforestation and its meanings both locally and globally. As such
definitions become embedded in policies, technologies and
concepts, their “social life” becomes an exciting object of study
for ethnographers from both STS and Anthropology, suggesting
rich points of interface between these two communities of
practice which deserve further reflection.
From Technical Rationalities to Sociotechnical Relationalities
Luis Felipe Rosado Murillo, UCLA
In this presentation I discuss the practice of 'hacking' with a focus
on its constitutive ties of technical, moral, political, and
economic nature. Based on ethnographic research among
hardware and software engineers at 'hackerspaces' in China,
Japan, and the United States I address the emergence of a form of
computing expertise at the intersections of established
institutional contexts of science and engineering practice and
transnational collaborations around Free Software development
and Open Source hardware engineering. Drawing from classic
and contemporary social theory, I discuss a relational approach to
ethnographic research, intersecting anthropology and STS to
activate renewed forms of engagement with our co-participants
within and beyond academic settings. One of the main questions
I pursue concerns the conditions of participation in transnational
technical collectives. What are the skills, political orientations,
and moral dispositions which are desired and fostered by
collaborative groups of developers and engineers in Free
Software and Open hardware? And what does the difference
between disparate dispositions speak to the question of gender
and power imbalance, as well as socioeconomic and cultural
differences that crosscut the distributed work around
collaborative technologies? In order to tackle these questions, I
focus on the cultivation of engineering skills, political
orientations, and forms of ethical reasoning in the context of
career trajectories and project histories. The shift in focus from
technoscientific rationalities to relationalities, I contend, is meant
to enable new forms of ethnographic engagement by reshaping
the relationship between anthropology and STS in respect to our
forms of attending to our research co-participants.
Forecasts and Controversies in the Ontogenesis of Climatic
Realities Renzo Taddei, Federal University of São Paulo
Climate scientists often complain that forecasts are constantly
subject to a variety of forms of political interference. Focusing on
the performative dimensions of science communication, and
using an analytical approach centered on the ontological
dimensions of social action, this talk attempts to address the
questions of what talking about the future in times of climate
change is (and creates). In other words, political controversies
and new communication technologies recreate the climate(s),
while the multiple forms of representing and enacting the risks
associated with climate recreate governance(s). In this
perspective, climate forecasts /are/ forms of political interference,
not (only) in the critical sense, but ontologically. What
implications do these things have for the lives of collectivities,
given that these processes of recreation occur inside of the
cleavages of what Descola called "ontological regimes", or what
Latour termed "modes of existence"? This talk is grounded in
ethnographic research carried out among climate scientists and
the so-called “rain prophets” and “rainmakers” of Brazil.
Articulating STS in Contemporary Indian Contexts Aalok
Khandekar, Maastricht University
Much recent interest in STS scholarship in India has come from
within institutions of design, engineering, and other technologybased research and education. Scientists, engineers, and
designers based at such institutions—once heavily critiqued for
planning and implementing postcolonial state-directed
technocratic modernization projects such as the construction of
big dams, nuclear research, and technologies of green
revolution—evince a keen interest in understanding and
incorporating insights into the workings of technoscience that
STS scholars have to offer. This results in a double-bind: on the
one hand, this affords excellent opportunities to establish and
institutionalize robust centers of STS scholarship, on the other
hand, it perhaps makes more difficult to keep pressure on core
questions concerning social and epistemic justice, and ways in
which technoscience can be complicit in their perpetuation.
Indeed, it is such a double-bind that has resulted in a primarily
oppositional relationship between the domains of the statedirected technoscientific establishment on the one hand, and that
of social science scholars and civil society activists on the other.
In this paper, I ask how STS scholars located in the global North
might collaborate with various actors towards navigating this
paradox. A key role for these STS scholars, I want to suggest is
that of translators between these distinctive domains of language
and practice. Translation, as Timothy Choy (2005) suggests,
makes knowledge come to matter as expertise by helping it move
across domains and hence gain authority. It also makes possible
articulation—the discursive constitution of a contingent
collectivity across difference.
Discussant:
Michael MJ Fischer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
023. A circulação de ideias e a produção do conhecimento entre
países: filantropia, convênios e colaboração internacional no
desenvolvimento da C&T
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat I
Chair:
Priscila Faulhaber-Barbosa, Museum of Astronomy and
Related Sciences (Brazil)
Participants:
Ciencia, Tecnología y Progreso entre Estados Unidos y Chile a
inicios del siglo XX Miguel Muñoz, Universidad
Tecnológica Metropolitana
Se describen tres vías mediante las cuales científicos, ingenieros
y médicos chilenos de inicios del siglo XX sostuvieron relaciones
con sus pares de Estados Unidos: la participación en Congresos
Científicos Panamericanos, las visitas a Chile de representantes
de instituciones de investigación norteamericanas, y la
celebración en Estados Unidos de Exposiciones Internacionales
(1901 y 1915). De tales vías se sirvieron exponentes de las
ciencias y tecnologías chilenas para conocer los adelantos que
ese país estaba consiguiendo desde la segunda mitad del siglo
XIX. También comenzaron a considerar a Estados Unidos como
un referente de progreso que se sumaba a Europa, el referente
predominante del siglo XIX. Esto se constata en aspectos como
la enseñanza de las ingenierías, la adopción de nuevos programas
de estudio, el interés de autoridades políticas y del ámbito de las
ciencias y las tecnologías por enviar estudiantes a especializarse
en Estados Unidos y, en general, en el fortalecimiento de estos
lazos con el país del Norte. La investigación realizada siguió una
metodología cualitativa-descriptiva, basada en el análisis de
discursos y documentos: principalmente, publicaciones de
especialistas chilenos y norteamericanos en revistas chilenas del
ámbito científico y tecnológico, así como en libros de la época y
sesiones de congresos científicos. Se contribuye al abordaje de
las dinámicas de las comunidades científicas y tecnológicas de
países latinoamericanos que han sostenido relaciones con Estados
Unidos a inicios del siglo XX, dando cuenta de su rol activo en la
transmisión de conocimientos (véase Quintero, 2009; Cueto,
2000).
Entre a Clínica e o Laboratório: Fundação Rockefeller,
Filantropia e Práticas Científicas – Minas Gerais, 1917 –
1949 Paloma Porto Silva, Universidade Federal de Minas
Gerais
Esta pesquisa pretende estudar o processo de inserção da
filantropia científica norte-americana em Minas Gerais - Brasil
nos anos de 1917 a 1949, a partir do acordo firmado entre o a
Escola de Medicina de Belo Horizonte e a Fundação Rockefeller.
Para tanto, analisaremos o processo de financiamento de
atividades científicas na área de pesquisa biomédica e a
consolidação do laboratório na prática clínica, para demonstrar
que a medicina experimental teve papel fundamental para a
consolidação da área da bioquímica durante a primeira metade do
século XX. A tentativa norte-americana de formar mão de obra
qualificada para atuar na saúde pública constituiu-se de um
empreendimento complexo, que envolveu jogos de acomodação
de interesses políticos, científicos e profissionais. Apesar do
modelo de ensino médico da Escola de Medicina de Belo
Horizonte, nos seus primeiros anos, apontar para a influência do
modelo alemão de cientificidade em sua estrutura curricular, a
falta de reconhecimento científico no âmbito nacional e a falta de
professores qualificados para assumirem as cadeiras propiciaram
o acordo com a Fundação Rockefeller. Tal parceria consistia em
proporcionar bolsas de estudos para a formação de médicos nos
Estados Unidos e financiar a construção de bibliotecas e
equipamentos para atividade científica, de modo a deslocar o
eixo de influência da produção de conhecimento no Brasil da
Europa para os Estados Unidos. Portanto, este projeto pretende
analisar o percurso do dr. José Baeta Vianna, médico mineiro
que, como outros médicos mineiros, receberam bolsas de estudos
nos Estado Unidos e voltaram ao Brasil para lecionar disciplinas.
De volta à Escola de Medicina de Belo Horizonte, Baeta Vianna
assumiu a cadeira de Química Orgânica e Biológica, organizou a
Biblioteca da Faculdade de Medicina, cujo prédio foi construído
com apoio financeiro da Fundação Rockefeller e formou vários
médicos a partir dos modelos e práticas das ciências de
laboratório norte-americanas.
The global creation of Latin American mathematics in the midtwentieth century Michael Jeremy Barany, Princeton
University, Program in History of Science
While the first part of the twentieth century witnessed great
efforts toward mutual awareness and integration among major
centers of Western mathematics, the period following the second
world war, with its new international institutions and aspirations,
saw such efforts fan out toward a growing and increasingly
connected set of mathemticians in the developing world. Private
philanthropic interests like the Rockefeller Foundation, scientific
confederations like the International Council of Scientific
Unions, and supranational entities like the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization joined with
academics at established universities and institutes to pour
money, books, and manpower into an efflorescence of centers
and programs at a national and regional level outside the
traditional confines of elite mathematics. Drawing on internal
documents and fellowship files from the archives of several
organizations and institutions, I explore the intellectual, political,
and material circumstances culminating in the creation of the
Latin American Center for Mathematics, which opened in 1960
in Buenos Aires, in order to characterize the emergence in this
period of what, for the first time, began to look like a global
mathematical community. This international "mission" (in
UNESCO's favored terminology) to develop Latin American
mathematics was felt "tanto técnica como moralmente" (as much
technically as morally), to borrow a phrase from a UNESCO
memorandum. Despite its reputation as an insulated and otherworldly discipline, mathematics here becomes one of many
contested tokens in the technical, pedagogical, political,
economic, and ideological constitution of a modern Latin
America and a postwar international world.
The Institute of Social Science and boundary demarcations
Priscila Faulhaber-Barbosa, Museum of Astronomy and
Related Sciences (Brazil)
This paper offers a contribution to the Social Studies of Science
by analyzing the significance of the Institute of Social Science
(ISS) of the University of California at Berkeley (UCB), focusing
on the relationships between Robert Lowie and Curt
Nimuendajú. Founded in 1932, during the depression, under the
influence of the Social Science Research Council, the ISS was
supported by Rockefeller Foundation and ICB funds. ISS
supported projects on “economic and cultural boundaries”,
relocating to the social domain the former biological metaphor of
botanic germination. This Institute supported projects that went
beyond domestic US issues, embracing social problems in other
countries such as Mexico and the Brazilian Amazon. The
boundaries demarcations between scientific fields were
established in disputes for monopolizing professional authority
and control over resources by a group of scientists who also used
this control to exclude others. However historical constraints
imply that these delimitations vary according to specific contexts.
Competition produces the distinction between properly scientific
activities, in which, for instance, an armchair inquiry would have
higher prestige than other activities such as fieldwork. The
scientific field demarcates what it denominates as properly
scientific, separating this from the unstructured spheres that
escape understanding and academic control, which are thus
thrown into the margins of a structured production of knowledge.
I understand that subventions for scholarly research in the
Western part of the US are a resonance in the scientific field of
moving-frontier theories.
Demography, Global Capitalism, and the Geopolitical Order
after World War II Emily Rose Merchant, University of
Michigan
Following World War II, governments and international and nongovernmental agencies in the global north (the wealthy industrial
countries of North America and Western Europe) turned their
attention to the prospects for economic development in the global
south (the poorer countries of Latin America, Africa, and Asia
that produced primary materials for industry in North America
and Western Europe). The economic development project
enlisted scientists of all kinds; this paper examines the role of a
new type of science – demography, or population science. In
1945, demography was still a small and little-known field
without a coherent set of methods or a clear research agenda. In
the second half of the twentieth century, however, in the context
of shifting geopolitical alignments and decolonization, powerful
interests in the global north sought legitimacy and guidance from
demographers in their efforts to promote development in the
global south while maintaining access to materials, markets, and
labor for multinational corporations based in the global north.
These interests sponsored the rapid expansion of the field of
demography while shaping its research focus, theories, and
methods. Drawing on analysis of archival documents and
demographic scholarship, the proposed paper details the coproduction of demography, global capitalism, and geopolitics in
the second half of the twentieth century. It assesses the ways in
which corporate, philanthropic, and national interests in the
global north shaped the growth of population science, and
explores resistance to emerging demographic theories about the
path to development in the global south.
024. Psicología y los estudios en Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad
(CTS) I
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat II
Chair:
Catriel Fierro, Facultad de Psicología - Universidad Nacional
de Mar del Plata
Participants:
A multiplicidade das práticas psicológicas:seguindo as pistas de
uma Divisão de Psicologia Aplicada Arthur Arruda Leal
Ferreira, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; Bruno
Foureaux Figueredo, UFRJ
Este trabalho visa trazer à cena os diferentes modos de produção
de subjetividades engendrados pelas práticas psicológicas
clínicas e os modos de tradução e articulação entre elas. Tal
investigação tem como base a Epistemologia Política de Isabelle
Stengers e Vinciane Despret e a Teoria Ator-Rede de Bruno
Latour e John Law. Para estes autores, o conhecimento científico
se produz não como representação da realidade através de
sentenças bem formadas, mas como modos de articulação entre
pesquisadores e entes pesquisados. De modo geral, estes modos
de articulação podem engendrar um efeito de recalcitrância
(problematização das hipóteses, conceitos, instrumentos ou
mesmo questões da pesquisa) ou docilidade (extorsão de uma
resposta) por parte dos entes investigados. Como estes modos de
articulação podem ser estudados nas práticas clínicas? Utilizando
instrumentos metodológicos oriundos da etnografia e da pesquisa
cartográfica, nossa proposta é acompanhar técnicas terapêuticas
vindas de orientações distintas (Psicanálise, Terapia cognitivacomportamental, Psicanálise existencial, Gestalt-Terapia e
Análise Institucional Francesa) na maneira como estão sendo
performadas na Divisão de Psicologia Aplicada da Universidade
Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Para tal, além da descrição do campo
e dos artefatos presentes nas práticas terapêuticas, foram
entrevistadas pessoas em início de terapia, estagiários e a equipe
de triagem. Em tais entrevistas é buscada uma composição
conjunta na produção de conhecimentos (o “pesquisar com”),
onde os pesquisados são considerados co-experts. Neste artigo
estão destacados os resultados obtidos a partir destes encontros e
observações, as alterações promovidas na pesquisa por este
contato e novas proposições de investigação.
Un acercamiento desde la Psicología del Aprendizaje a la
Comunicación pública de la ciencia Astrid Bengtsson,
Centro Atómico Bariloche-Instituto Balseiro
Las sociedades democráticas actuales demandan que las
instituciones científico-tecnológicas compartan sus avances con
la población lega, y a ésta le exige tomar decisiones diariamente
que implican cierto conocimiento científico en distintos niveles.
A pesar de ello, las actividades de comunicación pública de la
ciencia suelen no pasar por un proceso de evaluación como otras
instancias vinculadas a la ciencia y tecnología. Presentamos un
estudio en dos Fases en las que se exploran las concepciones de
investigadores en Física desde la perspectiva de las Teorías
Implícitas del Aprendizaje en relación a la educación científica y
a la divulgación científica en general, y a la divulgación de la
ciencia a partir de textos, en particular. El estudio se llevó a cabo
por medio de dos abordajes: Cuestionario de concepciones sobre
educación y divulgación científicas y Referato de un texto
divulgativo. Analizamos la información obtenida por medio de
métodos cuantitativos y cualitativos: análisis de categorías,
distribución de frecuencias, Análisis de correspondencias
múltiples, Análisis de correspondencias simples, Clasificación
jerárquica ascendente, entre otros. Los resultados mostraron
perfiles conceptuales en relación a cómo se concibe la educación
y la divulgación científicas. Concluimos que las concepciones
operarían como filtros en diversas manifestaciones que
involucran cuestiones relacionadas con la divulgación, como la
evaluación o la composición de textos divulgativos para público
lego.
Psicología, autoayuda y subjetividad. El caso de la Terapia
Cognitiva Conductual Nicolás Viotti, CONICET; Korman
Guido Pablo, CONICET-UBA
El psicoanálisis en Argentina parece no ser ya el recurso de
atención psicológica dominante. La creciente difusión de las
llamadas nuevas psicoterapias en base a modelos de eficacia,
centradas en trastornos específicos, con duración limitada e
inspiradas en el modelo del cliente ha producido una
diversificación del campo psi que ha traído fuertes controversias.
Este trabajo pretende indagar en las formas de producción de
conocimiento psicológico en tanto un particular modo de
existencia centrado en la autonomía individual. Para ello
analizamos los recursos de autoayuda que son parte de las TCC:
manuales para pacientes, tareas para el hogar (registro de
pensamientos automáticos fuera de la sesión y ejercicios de
exposición), mostrando las redes socio técnicas que se establecen
entre expertos, manuales, saberes, técnicas y pacientes/clientes.
Cartografia de uma Guerra Psi: Sobre a Possibilidade de
Diálogo entre Diferentes Psicologias Natalia Barbosa
Pereira, UFRJ
Este trabalho visa colocar em foco as atuais tensões políticas
observadas no campo das práticas psicológicas entre as Terapias
Cognitivo-Comportamentais e a Psicanálise. Partindo de uma
experiência de trabalho com dispositivo clínico para tratamento
de autistas orientado pela Reforma Psiquiátrica no Rio de
Janeiro, o projeto procura dar encaminhamentos à questão da
possibilidade de pensar um trabalho em equipe interdisciplinar
que leve em conta a própria pluralidade do campo psicológico.
As diretrizes da reforma psiquiátrica brasileira impõem uma nova
maneira de a psicologia, assim como as outras disciplinas
convocadas a atuar no campo da saúde mental, se relacionarem
umas com as outras: no trabalho interdisciplinar. A questão da
impossibilidade de diálogo e conflito entre as diferentes
concepções de ser humano que cada abordagem psicológica
coloca em prática, porém, tornam impossível se pensar a
interdisciplinaridade interna ao campo da psicologia. Outro
problema que a falta de diálogo coloca é a impossibilidade de
ampliação do debate, que mesmo se referindo à escolha de
políticas públicas, no caso políticas em saúde mental, continua
restrito à especialistas. Assistimos atualmente a uma crescente
politização deste debate, com a participação de movimentos
sociais, e a publicização de seus termos, através da internet e
outros meios. Cartografar estas novas atuações e refletir sobre os
termos comuns sob os quais o diálogo pode ser construído são as
principais contribuições pretendidas por este trabalho.
Las vicisitudes locales-globales del riesgo psicosocial para la
regulación del trabajo Hernan Camilo Pulido-Martinez,
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; Luz Mery Carvajal Marin,
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Los procesos de expansión de la psicología dentro del mundo del
trabajo, desde los países productores de este conocimiento a
aquellos en donde llega como producto foráneo, han sido
frecuentemente considerados como una cuestión de
modernización, progreso y bienestar, o bien como un asunto
relacionado con la aculturación y la subordinación. Con un
ánimo de balance entre las posiciones apologéticas y
catastróficas en relación con el papel que tiene la psicología
dentro de los procesos laborales contemporáneos, en esta
presentación se considera “el viaje” intercontinental del
Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionarie (COPSOQ) desde
Europa hasta su lugar de aplicación en Bogotá, Colombia. Se
busca hacer visible la multitud de conexiones y flujos distantes
que hacen posible el uso de la psicología para intervenir las
condiciones locales de trabajo. Para ilustrar las contiendas que se
libran en el mundo psico-laboral, se consideran fragmentos de un
mapeo etnográfico que muestran las vicisitudes de la psicología
cuando busca regular el trabajo como riesgo y los riesgos del
trabajo a través de los usos de la tecnología relacionada con el
riesgo laboral.
Los Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia en la Historiografía de la
Psicología Catriel Fierro, Facultad de Psicología Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata
El campo de la historia de la psicología se constituyó
clásicamente como una tradición positivista y personalista que
definió las escuelas, corrientes teóricas y desarrollos tecnológicos
en psicología de forma ahistórica, sin aludir entre otras cosas a la
coyuntura social constitutiva de los adelantos y desarrollos
psicológicos. La visión empiricista y naturalista del conocimiento
de la clásica historia de la psicología fue criticada y desafiada
hacia la década de 1970 por los desarrollos de la llamada nueva
historia de la psicología. La consideración (y paulatina
incorporación) de los constructivismos epistemológicos, de los
adelantos en sociología del conocimiento y de la ciencia y de los
marcos explicativos historicistas dieron origen a un novedoso
marco historiográfico, usualmente denominado crítico. A partir
de una revisión de la propuesta historiográfica clásica en
psicología, se trazan relaciones entre los desarrollos en sociología
del conocimiento y de la ciencia y dicha historiografía. A partir
del análisis fuentes y autores usualmente considerados como
vitales y revolucionarios en este área, se argumenta que en
medida considerable el auge de la historia revisionista en
psicología, como también su desarrollo académico e
investigativo, debe mucho a los estudios sociológicos,
especialmente a los denominados estudios sociales de la ciencia.
Se concluye que una profundización de los vínculos entre la
historiografía psicológica y los análisis sociológicos y
tecnológicos de la ciencia –especialmente la revalorización de
una historia sociológica que contemple factores institucionales y
profesionales – permitiría una comprensión más acabada de
episodios, controversias y tradiciones (históricas y
contemporáneas) en psicología.
025. Revisiting Closure, Stabilisation and Black Boxing through
Unfinished Artefacts
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Mozart
Chairs:
Peter Dunajcsik-Maxigas, IN3/UOC, Metatron Research Unit
Eduard Aibar, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Participants:
Open Source Experiments: How to Open the Tangible World?
Christoph Schneider, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology,
Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis
Open Source Hardware is experimental. Its unfinished, or better,
unfolding, tangible artefacts set out to re-design ecologies of
people, knowledge and objects that are so far largely dominated
by industrial relations. This tension, however, is full with
promises, yet also uncertainties. Since experiments are
enablers/producers of the new and unknown, I suggest, the re-
design Open Source Hardware aspires to is best understood as an
experimental process that addresses interdependent dimensions.
The question of how to produce unfolding open artefacts is
linked to the question of how socialities are made that unfold
them. And both are linked to the question of how to circulate
knowledge that enables the repeatability and extension of
artefacts and community building. Whereas Open Source
Software has established routines for this, Open Source
Hardware has to find ways for sustaining its practices. The
inclusion of new people and new artefacts transforms the cultural
practices of Open Source, yet also challenges its existing
routines. Drawing on a qualitative study of an Open Source laser
cutter and action research with a FabLab community my paper
takes 'experiment' outside the laboratory as a useful descriptive
and political metaphor for the recent transformations of the Open
Source culture. In such experiments 'openness' is no guarantee
but a possible outcome. How can we keep experimentation with
the hypothesis of 'Open Source everything' going on?
Revisiting closure, stabilisation and blackboxing: Peer
production of Unfinished Artefacts Peter DunajcsikMaxigas, IN3/UOC, Metatron Research Unit
My argument can be summarised in three points. First, open
hardware development is not primarily a question of licencing.
On the contrary, open hardware development is a techno-social
practice, which includes social norms and design principles.
Second, as a social practice it is distinguished by gestures which
serve to fend off closure, stabilisation and black boxing. These
are conscious design decisions about functionality of artefacts
and providing support for users. Third, the social practices of
open hardware reposition engineering expertise through
conflating education, research and production. The figure of the
hardware hacker destabilises the professional vs. amateur
dichotomy, together with its associated tradeoff between
competence and authenticity. The peer production of open
hardware by hackers thus enables STS researchers to refine their
understanding of the distinct roles of closure, stabilisation and
blackboxing in technology development, as well as in the
democratisation of research. I propose to call this constellation
“unfinished artefacts” to emphasise the difference from open
hardware as a licencing paradigm and to encapsulate my more
subtle field experience in the terminology. The presentation is
based on multi-sited ethnographic research for constructing
object biographies of small scale electronic artefacts. In
particular, the argument is driven by the case study of the “r0ket”
conference badge, produced by the members of the muCCC
hackerspace in Munich, Germany.
What’s in a password? Redefining “technical solidarity”
through decentralized data storage Francesca Musiani,
MINES ParisTech; Melanie Dulong de Rosnay, Institut des
Sciences de la Communication du CNRS
Early 2007: online data storage flourishes. Several Internet giants
propose storage platforms, with one common denominator: the
“cloud”, and the increasing remoteness of data from users it
implies (Mowbray, 2009). In this context, Drizzle, a small Swiss
start-up, makes an unusual choice: its cloud storage platform will
mainly be composed of portions of the users’ hard disks, directly
and collaboratively linked in a peer-to-peer network. Building on
the analysis of Drizzle’s “peer-to-peer cloud”, this paper
discusses how changes in the architectural design of networked
services affect data circulation, storage and privacy - and in
doing so, reconfigure the articulation of the ‘locality’ and the
‘centrality’ in the network, at both the technical and the
governance levels (Akrich, 1989: 39). We argue that ultimately,
decentralizing the cloud leads to a de-stabilization and restabilization of the techno-legal relationship between user and
service provider. Local data encryption first, and their
fragmentation afterwards - both conducted client-side - are
proposed by Drizzle as evidence that the provider “does not even
have the technical means” to betray user trust. In particular, the
paper examines how the password, that remains locally stored in
each user’s P2P client, is not only defined as the guarantor of
privacy by design but becomes a form of disengagement of the
service provider with respect to security issues: a detail whose
importance may seem small at first, but eventually leads to
changes in the forms of “technical solidarity” (Dodier, 1995)
established between users and provider. References Akrich, M.
(1989). De la position relative des localités. Systèmes électriques
et réseaux socio-politiques. Cahiers du Centre d’Études pour
l’Emploi, 32 : 117-166. Dodier, N. (1995). Les Hommes et les
Machines. La conscience collective dans les sociétés
technicisées. Paris: Métailié. Mowbray, M. (2009). The Fog
over the Grimpen Mire: Cloud Computing and the Law.
SCRIPTed, 6(1): 132-146.
Free Software developers' organizational culture Matheus
Guimarães Mello, Universidade Federal de Goiás
This paper assumes that the expansion of the Information
Technologies (IT) in the last two decades should not be
decontextualized from the recent restructuring of capitalism and
its consequences. One major ongoing process is the precarisation
of labour relations, by which companies throughout the world
emphasizes flexible work contracts, short-term projects and
outsourcing. In this context, IT organizations play a pivotal role,
as they handle the information for the new forms of work
managing. At the same time, working in IT is, since its
emergence, adapted to the flexibility scheme. Nevertheless, the
development of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is
inseparable from its original hacker ethics. The hypothesis in this
research in progress is that the values of sharing knowledge and
peer working of the hacker culture is significant to understand
the relationship between developers’ continuous processes of
socialisation (identities formation) and the organizational culture
of the company/foundation. The study will focus whether there
are conflicts, negotiations and adaptations between the
developers’ previous values and the manner they arrange their
collective work. Thereby, the goal is to understand technology,
culture and work as a whole. To this end, semi-structured
interviews (during an exploratory and a complementary stages)
and a virtual survey among Brazilian FOSS developers will be
conducted. These will consider the life course (and socialisation)
as the main analytical unit, for it highlights the people who
embody a culture of sharing and also stands behind the technics.
Difusión y organización de comunidades de software libre en
Argentina Agustín Zanotti, CIECS UNC-CONICET
El concepto de libertad referido al software se resume en el
acceso al código fuente de sus aplicativos y sistemas, en
condiciones que permitan su reproducción, modificación y nueva
puesta en disponibilidad en el dominio público. Sobre la base de
producción entre pares y el uso de plataformas de trabajo
colaborativo, el software libre posibilita la construcción y
apropiación colectiva de herramientas y conocimientos, al tiempo
que ha demostrado su capacidad de generar innovación y
eficiencia en los procesos de desarrollo. En estrecha relación con
el avance del software libre, comenzaron a proliferar en
diferentes regiones agrupaciones entre usuarios, entusiastas y
programadores. Desde grupos de usuarios hasta organizaciones
más complejas, estos se auto-definen como comunidades. Las
mismas forman una base horizontal de asociación y sirven para
intercambiar recursos, trabajar en proyectos colectivos y
promover el uso y la extensión de este modelo. Allí se crean
además vínculos, significados y experiencias compartidas. En la
ponencia ofrecemos una caracterización de los grupos presentes
en Argentina: nos referimos a sus dinámicas de organización y
funcionamiento, así como su evolución hasta la actualidad y
algunas tendencias recientes. El recorrido planteado nos devuelve
una imagen de conjunto del espacio comunitario local, que busca
complejizar ciertas interpretaciones y dar cuenta de su diversidad
real. El estudio toma por base entrevistas en profundidad a
referentes de las comunidades, observaciones de campo, análisis
de sitios web, listas de distribución y documentos, realizados en
el periodo comprendido entre 2010 y 2012.
Peer production and academia: faculty perceptions and practices
about Wikipedia Eduard Aibar, Universitat Oberta de
Catalunya
Recent empirical studies show that Wikipedia is heavily and
frequently used by over 80% of university students to carry out
different assignments and tasks. However, the attitude of
university faculty does not seem so positive: academics and
scientists perceive Wikipedia with scepticism or cynicism and
very few become editors. Though Peer Production projects share
many features with traditional scientific practices there are also
important differences regarding authorship, publication, and lay
people involvement. The present movement towards Open
Science and Open Research pleads for importing some peer
production mechanisms into the realm of science and academia,
but it is not clear whether both cultures and ways of knowledge
production are fully compatible. This study is based on a large
survey (913 valid responses) to all faculty members in two large
public universities in order to analyze their perceptions, attitudes
and practices on Wikipedia. Our results show that the overall
quality of Wikipedia articles is highly valued and most faculty
members are also regular users – though they don’t like to tell:
Wikipedia seems to be for academics what porn is for polite
dinner conversations. Few faculty members actually use it for
teaching purposes. In the end, two important factors play a role in
shaping faculty views: (a) their colleagues’ perceived opinions
and practices and (b) academic disciplines. Finally, we have
detected signs of a certain conflict between standard academic
procedures of knowledge building and the open collaborative
model of peer production on which Wikipedia rests.
026. Biovalue and Biocapital: Critiques, Rethinks and Futures
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Picasso
Chair:
Kean Birch, York University
Participants:
Biopolitics, surplus population and multinational mining
megaprojects Isabella Alves Lamas, Centre for Social
Studies - University of Coimbra
Multinational mining megaprojects are embedded in a tension
associated with mechanisms of the exercise of power, tending to
crystallize power structures that are more appropriated to assure
the interests of stockholders than stakeholders. The multinational
corporation is conceived as a significant source of political
power, as a privatized authority that has great influence in the
contexts in which it operates through the management of people,
some of them considered surplus to the dynamics of the activity
of extracting minerals. In this sense the corporations are being
responsible for perpetuating, although allegedly silently,
multiples forms of violence in the life of people. The Mark
Duffield’s conception of biopolitics, i.e a form of political
governance responsible for managing the processes of life at the
aggregate level of the population, allows us to include in the
analysis the relationship between population, states, territories
and multinational corporations in the international system.
Instead of ‘extermination techniques’, biopolitics have
engendered into ‘development ones’. For instance, the technical
“docilization” of surplus population stands for the profit-driven
dynamics of capitalism, so that people may not stand as threats to
the order and way of living that are prevalent in the western
developed world. Thus, to the extent that the surplus population
continues to be produced and reproduced, the tension between
the need for order and progress challenges remain requiring
urgent solutions and development as a series of technologies
involved in securing the western neoliberal way of life is
continuously re-invented.
Global Biopolitics of Multiple Embryo Transfer Chia-Ling Wu,
National Taiwan University
Assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) create the health risk
of multiple pregnancy, and has become the major regulatory
issue for the international community of reproductive medicine.
This paper analyzes how the international community as well as
individual countries manages the risk through different strategies.
Archival data for this paper includes newspapers, newsletters of
related organizations, conferences, academic research, and
governmental documents. Focusing on the risk management of
multiple embryo transfer from 1980s to the present, I compare
and contrast the three models: the technical model through fetal
reduction and embryo quality control; strict standardization
through statutes to limit the clinical practice; and the medical
dominance model which gives IVF experts the local autonomy to
manage the risk. I use the policy-making processes of Belgium,
Sweden, US and Taiwan to reveal the mechanisms that shapes
the diverse regulatory path. I present how the global and local
regulatory regime, the competing perception of success and
failure among stakeholders, and the gender system affected the
regulatory trajectories of multiple pregnancy in different
countries.
Risks and Myths: Recurring Histories for Life Science Futures
Mark Robinson, Princeton University
Recent theorization about the complex interplay of the life
sciences and neoliberalism has attempted to get at the ways that
liberal economies co-evolved alongside epistemologies in the life
sciences in ways that suggests an inextricable entanglement.
Scholarship thusly emerged that followed the category of life
itself as becomes the object of capitalistic intervention and
function. However, this theorizing may sideline critical
specificities that leave these transformations without people,
context or place and misses, for example, the subterranean
swelling of risks that leak onto people, institutions and publics.
This paper suggests that recent social theory that attempts to map
the colocation of financial logics within the new epistemologies
of the life sciences performs a critical simplification. Taking up
the particular case of the rise of translational neuroscience at the
research university in the U.S., this paper explores the rapid
transformation and increasing privatization of university research
via translational science and suggests that these programs may be
better understood as part of a system of recalculated corporate
risk. What particular circumstances and specific histories
informed the push towards making university-based neuroscience
research more conducive to commercial investment? How does
one transform academic concerns into state and market concerns?
This paper emerges from a project focused on how recent
narratives of life science innovation leaves out vital contextual
specificities and in so doing, misses important considerations
regarding the role of finance in making sense of historically
contingent shifts in the meeting of the life sciences and
capitalism.
From “Oocyte Donors” to “Human Subjects”: Oocyte
Donation, Reproductive Labor, and the Neoliberal State in
California and New York Erin Allyson Heidt-Forsythe, The
Pennsylvania State University, University Park
In this paper, I forward that oocyte donation in stem cell research
becomes the vehicle for the expansion of neoliberal visions of
state political and economic powers. While the state is generally
seen as a barrier to privatized markets, I employ a statist
approach: the US states use political institutions to further a
medicalized neoliberal organization and oversight of human
oocyte donation. While others have pointed to the deregulation
and privatization of tissue economies in the US as indication of
neoliberalization (Waldby and Mitchell 2006), two cases of
regulation of oocyte donation in stem cell research support the
claim that states as political actors are actively complicit in
creating neoliberal economies around oocyte donation. Given the
expansive political and economic powers of the states in the US
in oocyte donation within stem cell research, I challenge the
prevailing belief of that oocyte donation is being deregulated at
in the US states. To demonstrate these shifts in political power
and economic power at the state level, I use two cases of
legislative oversight of oocyte donation—in New York and
California between 1999 and 2009. In regulating oocyte donation
in stem cell research, these two legislative histories demonstrate
how political institutions are positioning themselves as active
participants in the global promissory economies of stem cell
research. In transforming the definitions of labor in producing
research material, and hollowing out the democratic structures
that oversee such labor, states are neoliberalizing the future of
bodily cells, regenerative medicine, and political power in
biotechnology.
Rethinking value in the bio-economy: Assetization, corporate
governance and materiality Kean Birch, York University
The material turn in science and technology studies has
influenced a number of scholars who analyze the bio-economy,
especially when it comes to positing latent value in biological
material (e.g. tissues, cells, blood, etc.). However, in focusing on
the latent (or intrinsic) value of this biological matter, these
scholars ignore how value is created and managed by an array of
financial actors including investors, stockbrokers, analysts, etc.
In this sense, value in the bio-economy is not constituted (solely
or mainly) by scientists or engineers, nor by technoscientific
knowledge. Value in the bio-economy is a construction of the
economic activities of life science investors and businesses as
these financial actors organize and manage a range of tangible
and, especially, intangible assets. What this means for STS is that
it is as important to look at economic and financial processes; the
one discussed in this paper is assetization. In order to understand
this process, it is necessary to analyze economic knowledge and
practices including corporate governance, (e)valuation and
accounting in order to understand another form of materiality
altogether. This paper will analyze assetization in order to
provide a new perspective on value as currently conceived in
analyzes of the bio-economy; in order to do this it will draw on
qualitative research on financial investors, stockbrokers, etc. in
the UK life science sector.
027. In Search of "lines of flights" with / in / to / for / by Latin
America and Elsewhere II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Quinquela
Chair:
Javiera Barandiaran, University of California, Santa Barbara
Participants:
A batalha dos UNIX-compatíveis brasileiros: todos contra o
SOX Márcia de Oliveira Cardoso, Universidade Federal do
Rio de Janeiro
Na década de 1980, a empresa estatal brasileira Cobra
desenvolveu um sistema operacional chamado SOX, com
características semelhantes as do sistema UNIX, da empresa
norte-americana AT&T, já difundido e utilizado na Europa e
Estados Unidos na época. No mesmo período, outras fabricantes
brasileiras de computadores também desenvolveram sistemas
baseados no código fonte do UNIX. Este trabalho descreve os
movimentos executados pela Cobra para tornar o SOX um
padrão brasileiro e uma alternativa ao UNIX e as implicações
resultantes destes atos, já que a AT&T não havia liberado o
licenciamento do UNIX para o Brasil. Durante a segunda metade
da década de 1980, o SOX foi acusado de não ser um UNIXcompatível: para muitos faltavam-lhe a portabilidade e a
facilidade na programação de seus aplicativos. Para combater
estas acusações, e (re)constituir a posição do SOX como um
sistema UNIX-compatível, a Cobra optou por uma certificação
internacional, de um grupo europeu. Porém, a certificação
produziu um resultado indesejado, pois as empresas
amplificaram suas vozes pelo licenciamento do UNIX, acusando
a Cobra de tentar impor um padrão de sistema sem debate.
Utilizando a noção de discurso de Paul Edwards, um sinônimo
para as “interações materiais, institucionais e linguísticas”, o
trabalho identifica os discursos que suportaram e foram
suportados pela batalha, bem como as associações (fracas ou
fortes) que conduziram ao apagamento do SOX, que poderia
estar em produção nos dias de hoje.
O Marketing e o automóvel (FNM – FIAT) Alfa Romeo 2300.
Eduardo Nazareth Paiva, Universidade Federal do Rio de
Janeiro; Ivan da Costa Marques, Universidade Federal do
Rio de Janeiro
Como fugir do Marketing ao abordar um artefato tecnológico
consumido em escala industrial? Ele é Arte ou Ciência? Chegam
a dizer que o Marketing é tudo! Abordar artefatos, como os
automóveis, implica na mobilização de objetos vindos de outros
mundos além daqueles da Ciência & Tecnologia. São coisas, por
exemplo, do mundo dos Negócios, encantado por suas
propagandas, transladando e justapondo elementos heterogêneos
(termodinâmica, mecânica, asfalto, paixão, gasolina, álcool e
açúcar, economia, inflação, empregos, moda, poder, etc.).
Quando colocamos os óculos do Marketing, parafraseando
Annemarie Mol, enxergamos “o automóvel múltiplo”. O (FNM FIAT) Alfa Romeo 2300 foi fabricado no Brasil entre os anos de
1974 e 1986. Inicialmente e até 1978 ele foi produzido em
Xerém, Rio de Janeiro, nas instalações da outrora estatal
brasileira Fábrica Nacional de Motores, então adquirida pela Alfa
Romeo em 1968. Entre 1977 e 1978 a Alfa Romeo foi comprada
pela Fiat Diesel no Brasil. Em 1978 sua linha de montagem foi
transferida para a FIAT Automóveis em Betim, Minas Gerais,
onde o modelo foi produzido até 1986. Em termos de Thomas
Kuhn, a tradução paradigmática do mote “A propaganda é a alma
do negócio” foi usada para estabilizar este artefato, estabelecendo
consensos sobre o que devia ser mostrado e o que devia ser
escondido nas disputas que buscaram aquela estabilização.
Usamos suas propagandas, inscrições do Marketing, para seguir
atores heterogêneos envolvidos, mais ou menos circunscritos, na
construção do (FNM-FIAT) Alfa Romeo 2300, mais uma caixapreta do mundo dos negócios (e de incontáveis outros).
Cerâmica vermelha e mineração de argila no estado do Paraná,
Brasil: tecnologias, impacto ambiental e possibilidades de
análise Roberto Carlos Massei, Universidade Estadual do
Norte do Paraná/CCHE/Jacarezinho
Esta comunicação objetiva apresentar pesquisa que venho
realizando desde 2009. O projeto consiste em recuperar o
processo técnico de produção da cerâmica vermelha, entender a
mecanização e o impacto ambiental que a extração desse recurso
mineral provocou inicialmente na região denominada “Norte
Pioneiro”, no Estado do Paraná, Brasil, e em outras quatro
regiões produtoras desse tipo de artefato no estado. A pesquisa
tem ouvido pessoas envolvidas na atividade: trabalhadores,
proprietários e outros atores. Além das fontes escritas, sobretudo
relatórios técnicos, as fontes orais têm sido fundamentais.
Portanto, a ênfase metodológica é a História Oral. Os
depoimentos permitem recuperar as experiências e aprofundar
histórias de vida de homens e mulheres colocados quase sempre
à margem ou ausentes da documentação escrita, e compreender
como transformam a argila em artefato cerâmico, os modos de
viver e como essas pessoas intervieram no e alteraram o
ambiente em que viveram e vivem. As técnicas que foram
passadas de geração a geração ainda estão presentes no processo.
No entanto, constituiu-se e sobrepôs-se um discurso sobre
tecnologia que descredenciou e deslegitimou esses
conhecimentos repassados por mais de um século e os subsumiu
à produção. É preciso analisar esse discurso. Por fim, chega-se a
uma conclusão parcial após consulta a relatórios de órgãos
oficiais: observa-se que há uma alta incidência de doenças
respiratórias no “Norte Pioneiro”. Ao lado da alteração das
margens dos rios, provocada pela mineração da argila, este é
também é um outro impacto importante que a atividade provoca
no ambiente.
Cuando la experticie supera al conocimiento legitimado. Hanta
Virus controversial. Cristina Gabriela Flores, Universidad
Nacional de la Patagonia Austral-Unidad Académica Caleta
Olivia
En 1995 en “El Bolsón” se produjeron varios decesos por una
infección transmitida por ratones. El Ministerio de Salud de la
Argentina organizó una campaña contra la Fiebre Hemorrágica
Argentina. El Director del hospital de El Bolsón no acuerda con
este protocolo y se convierte en su propia experiencia de
laboratorio. La percepción de la situación desde Buenos Aires no
es la misma que la de las Comarcas entre los paralelos 41° y 42°
Latitud Sur, y pone en alerta a todas las instituciones de la
región. Basados en este dilema la comunidad local y las
instituciones de la región convergen en comenzar una campaña
de prevención fundada en la experticie de los expertos y en el
conocimiento local. Las notas de campo, el registro de las
reuniones con las autoridades locales, expertos, instituciones y
sociedad, dan muestra del trabajo cooperativo para la búsqueda
de una solución. Las noticias de los medios gráficos documentan
la historia de la crisis, la folletería y la observación de campo
junto a los pobladores, ayudan a la construcción del paisaje
cordillerano del momento. El concepto de experticia permite ver
cómo un experto en un campo determinado puede interactuar en
tres niveles: el de inexperto, como experto interactivo y experto
contribuyente al campo de análisis. Este estudio de caso da
cuenta de la permeabilidad de la frontera entre el público lego y
el experto y de la contribución de la construcción social del
conocimiento a la resolución de una situación de crisis.
Vulnerabilidade socioambiental e o arcabouço institucionallegal da indústria do petróleo em Macaé (RJ) Rafael
Nogueira Costa, PPGMA, UERJ; Carlos José Saldanha
Machado, FIOCRUZ
Propor reflexões em relação à utilização do termo grupos
vulneráveis, categoria trabalhada em ações de gestão dos
conflitos ambientais, principalmente pelos gestores ambientais do
Ibama. Propor uma comparação entre como o termo é trabalhado
na literatura acadêmica, incorporada no arcabouço institucionallegal e, como ele é implementado pelos agentes econômicos,
consultorias pedagógicas e as empresas de petróleo na Bacia de
Campos, tendo como análise final o município de Macaé.
Observaremos com base em documentos oficiais, que grupos
foram escolhidos em diferentes Programas de Educação
Ambiental (PEA), desenvolvidos no contexto do licenciamento
ambiental federal das atividades marítimas de exploração e
produção de petróleo e gás. Serão analisados seis programa de
Educação Ambiental em desenvolvimento na Bacia de Campos
desde 2012, são eles: i) Desenvolvimento e fortalecimento da
pesca artesanal - OGX (BC); ii) Projeto NEA-BC - Petrobras
(BC); iii) Projeto Pólen – Petrobras (BC); iv) Projeto de
Monitoramento Socioambiental – BP (BC); v) Projeto de
Educação Ambiental com Quilombolas – Shell (BC); vi) Projeto
de Educação Ambiental com mulheres pescadoras – Statoil.
Espera-se com este estudo, ampliar as reflexões a respeito da
incorporação do termo grupos vulneráveis no licenciamento de
petróleo, buscando responder as seguintes questões: Qual é a
relação entre grupos vulneráveis e a expansão do setor petrolífero
em Macaé? Como os agentes econômicos incorporam a categoria
dos grupos vulneráveis no licenciamento ambiental federal
referente às atividades de exploração de óleo e gás?
Trust in Rules: Environment, Science and Law in Chile Javiera
Barandiaran, University of California, Santa Barbara
Trust in numbers grew among government agencies in the U.S.,
UK and France as a way to protect autonomy and shape
accountability, according to historian Ted Porter (1995).
Objectivity is thus shaped not undermined by politics.
Quantification as identified by Porter has continued, but
compared to a century ago today policies are also global.
Governments around the world face increasingly similar
demands for democracy, accountability and environmental
stewardship from their citizens, and respond with increasingly
similar policy tools. These assume the same knowledge
institutions, bound by similar relationships, exist around the
world. For example, global climate change debates have focused
intently on issues of measuring, reporting and verification
(MRV), green national accounts, and indicators of climate
change-induced loss and damage or ecosystem services. This
presentation explores the politics of objectivity in Chile through
one such policy already widely in use: environmental impact
assessments. The size, funding, organization, and history of
Chile’s scientific institutions are unlike those of the U.S., UK or
France. Also different are Chile’s traditions for technocratic
government, commitment to free markets, and development
goals. Using material from in-depth interviews and government
documents, I compare four recent environmental controversies
managed through the environmental impact assessment process
to analyze whether numbers are the basis of trust in Chile. I find
government agencies trust in rules more than numbers, leading to
restrictive forms of accountability, frustrating participatory
experiences, and declining trust in government.
028. Beyond Hybrids and the Post-Colonial
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Soldi
As an academic discipline STS focuses on the emergence of ideas,
practices, things and the relationships between them. It treats such
emergences as local, even where the local mobilises global networks and
what emerges acquires stability for very long periods of time. Its most
ambitious authors have been able to develop from such case studies
metaphysical theories about the nature of our world at large and of the
politics necessary to sustain it. Yet, one might argue that their disciplinary
focus on science, the modern and its knowledge forms not only excludes
much of that world, past and present, but makes it exceedingly difficult to
escape the metaphysics that ground science and modernity in the first
place. Our panel addresses these questions directly through a series of
ethnographic and historical investigations into fundamental building blocks
of Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine in the contemporary world: the uses of
five phases theory in clinical practice; notions of qi; ideas about holism;
Chinese medicine’s engagement with the nation state; the coming-intobeing of Ayurvedic drugs. Our papers locate the emergence and
deployment of these building blocks in the encounter of non-western
traditions with the modern yet seek ways of framing that encounter in
analytics that go beyond the dialectics of power, domination, and hierarchy
conventionally employed to this end in an effort to refresh STS as a
discipline while simultaneously pointing to important global
transformations of our time.
Chairs:
Volker Scheid, EASTmedicine Research Centre, University of
Westminster, London
Wenda Bauchspies, Georgia Institute of Technology
Participants:
Alternative Qi: Science and Spirit in the Making of Modern
Chinese Medicine Ruth Rogaski, Vanderbilt University
Qi （氣）was once the foundational concept of learned Chinese
cosmology. While traditional cosmology is no longer the basis
for elite learning in China, qi itself has survived as a key
component of a modernized, globalized “Traditional” Chinese
Medicine. What is the nature of this modernized, globalized qi?
In the United States, qi is usually translated as “vital energy,” and
is often perceived by lay consumers as that unique element which
makes Chinese medicine more “spiritual” than the science-based,
mechanistic practice of biomedicine. How has qi negotiated
divisions between science and spirit in the modern world? This
paper explores one crucial chapter in the history of qi: the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Chinese
physicians encountered Western science and medicine through
translations of texts on chemistry, hygiene, and anatomy. While
these physicians perceived of qi as a quintessentially “formless”
entity distinctive to Chinese medicine, at the same time, they
identified near equivalents to qi from among a wide range of
concepts they found in Western science, including gas,
electricity, and magnetic fields. When confronted with ‘science,’
these physicians did not feel compelled to define qi as a spiritual
or supernatural entity, an “Other” to science. Instead, their qi
was immanent, accessible, rational, and could even physically
explain manifestations of phenomena (such as ghosts and
dreams) which Western science found impossible to explain. As
such, these physicians entered a global dialogue at the turn of the
century, as experimenters in endeavors ranging from
developmental embryology to spirit photography to
psychoanalysis sought to probe the relationship between
‘science’ and ‘spirit’ in the modern world.
Neither Donkey nor Horse The Medical Struggle over China’s
Modernity Sean Hsiang-lin Lei, Institute for Advanced Study
& Academia Sinica, Taiwan
This talk is part of a larger project that aims to answer one
question: How was Chinese medicine transformed from an
antithesis of modernity in the early twentieth century into a
potent symbol and vehicle for China’s exploration of its own
modernity half a century later? Instead of viewing this transition
as a derivative of the political history of modern China, it argues
that China's medical history had a life of its own and at times
even influenced the ideological struggle over the definition of
China’s modernity and the Chinese state. Far from being a
“remnant” of pre-modern China, Chinese medicine in the
twentieth century co-evolved with Western medicine and the
Nationalist state, undergoing a profound transformation—
institutionally, epistemologically, and materially—that resulted
in the creation of a modern Chinese medicine. Nevertheless, this
newly re-assembled modern Chinese medicine was stigmatized
by its opponents at that time as a mongrel form of medicine that
was “neither donkey nor horse,” because the discourse of
modernity rejected the possibility of productive crossbreeding
between the modern and the traditional. Against the hegemony of
this discourse, the definitive feature of this new medicine was the
fact that it took the discourse of modernity (and the
accompanying knowledge of biomedicine) seriously but survived
the resulting epistemic violence by way of negotiation and selfinnovation. Offering a long-term historical study, this talk
concludes by exploring the implications of the modern history of
Chinese medicine for issues that concern the STS community.
The Southeast Asian Infrastructure for Transnational
Biomedicine Ara Wilson, Duke University
The development of capacities in biotech and biomedicine in
Asia has reorganized the cartography of bioscientific modernity.
How did this infrastructure for transnational biomedical practice
come about? My contribution focuses on research on
transnational medical services in Southeast Asia. Rather than
attributing this capacity to the importation of Western technology
into Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, the paper draws on
historical and STS scholarship, new materialist theories, and
preliminary field research to show how the salient infrastructural
assemblages were the consequence of specific 20th to 21st
century local histories. In particular, the paper analyzes how the
changing nexus of sovereignty, capital, and social identity within
north-south and Asian contexts marshaled domestic resources to
install the operational infrastructure. It highlights the place of
immaterial domains of affective labor, state practices, and
cultural identity in the infrastructural capacities for biotech
modernity, for enacting Western-international standards and
establishing national comparative advantage in biotech services.
This example offers an exploratory discussion of post-colonial,
cultural-political-economic analysis of infrastructure for
transnational bioscience in the global south.
Multiple Encounters Between Science Holism and Chinese
Medicine Volker Scheid, EASTmedicine Research Centre,
University of Westminster, London
In China and around the world patients, practitioners and
academics alike consistently define holism as one of the core
attributes of Chinese medicine. Yet, holism is not a native
Chinese concept but one deeply enmeshed with the development
of modern western thought and science, and with thinkers as
diverse as Friedrich Engels, Jan Smuts, and Gregory Bateson. It
was ‘discovered’ by Chinese medicine physicians as late as the
mid-1950s in an attempt to emphasise that their tradition was
more than a mere assemblage of empirical practices. Since then,
holism in Chinese medicine has put to a number of widely
different uses, establishing convergences with Maoist science,
cybernetics, 1960s counter-culture, ecology and, more recently,
systems biology. I propose that exploring the multiple emergent
interfaces between holism, Chinese medicine and modern science
(all to be conceived in the plural) create possibilities for
exploring the metaphysics of worlds in which things
conventionally posited as opposites - science and tradition, East
and West - in fact co-constitute each other. These reflections
contribute to debates within the STS community as to what
contributes the discipline’s appropriate domains of inquiry, as
well as what roles STS scholars might play within these domains.
Drawing on my own situatedness as a trans-disciplinary
academic and a Chinese medicine practitioner I will argue for
forms of active engagement that add new perspectives and
thereby value to encounters that are, in any case, already taking
place.
029. Genomics and Justice: Meaningless or Revolutionary?
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Verdi
Despite decades of critiques of the value of genomic knowledge, over the
course of the last decade we have witnessed a re-articulation of the value of
genomics through hinging it to the construction of just societies. This
panel explores how this has happened through exploring how concepts of
justice are mobilized in and through genomics practice on an international
scale. It critically interrogates the often too-easy fusing of justice and
science asking how these domains are articulated through scientific
practices, politics, and social movements. Spanning the Americas, Europe
and Africa, these papers offer a comparative perspective of global
genomics mediated by multiple and conflicting conceptualizations of the
relationship between science, justice and the social good. We will pay
particular attention to processes of racialization and discourses of racial
justice and injustice. We ask how race and justice are conceptualized and
materialized through contemporary genomics work. How do conceptions of
race, indigeneity, genomics, and justice work together towards new
configurations and reiterations of individual and collective transformation?
Through ethnography, laboratory studies, and archival research, this panel
explores what is being done and what might be done in the space of
genomics and justice.
Chair:
Lindsay Adams Smith, University of New Mexico
Participants:
The Postgenomic Condition: Meaningless Genomes, Just
Societies Jenny Reardon, University of California, Santa
Cruz
While assembling the 3 billion nucleotide sequence of the human
genome into machine-readable form might have been a
tremendous technical feat, it left unanswered the fundamental
question: what does the sequence mean? In the decade after the
Human Genome Project, this turn to the question of meaning—
the question of the uses, significance and values of the human
genome sequence—marks what I call the postgenomic condition.
This talk explores how in the absence of any clear biomedical
breakthroughs, human genomics continued to generate hope
through promises to generate a more just world. It focuses on the
emergence of this strategy in efforts to recruit African Americans
into human genomic research at the turn of the millennium.
Given the enduring legacy of slavery, and the importance of
including African Americans in the body politic to conceptions
of social justice and freedom in the United States, it is perhaps
not surprising that early efforts to yoke genomics to justice
focused in part on efforts to include African Americans. Based
in fieldwork at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and
historically black universities and colleges, this talk explores the
opportunities, but also the problems for ethics, justice, and
knowledge these efforts posed. It ends with reflections on what
this turn to justice reveals about the contemporary conditions of
knowledge and politics.
Making Genocide Visible: Forensic DNA, indigeneity, and
competing frames of justice Lindsay Adams Smith,
University of New Mexico
In 2012, the former president of Guatemala, Efraín Ríos Montt,
was convicted of genocide for his role in the scorched earth
campaign that massacred 200,000 Guatemalans and destroyed
the economic and social fabric of the Highlands. Although this
landmark conviction was quickly overturned, the case was
heralded as a victory for Mayan peoples, international human
rights, and genocide as a legally viable crime. The case
explicitly connected population genetics, indigenous identity, and
human rights law to establish the violence of the period as aimed
at the destruction of a people that were culturally, linguistically,
and biologically unified. In this paper, I bring together an
analysis of the court proceedings with ethnographic fieldwork at
the forensic DNA laboratory responsible for the identifications to
interrogate the relationship between justice, indigeneity, and
genomic knowledge in Guatemala. I unpack this tight linking of
forensics and justice, tracing the racialization of indigenous
groups through forensic anthropology and forensic DNA.
Forensic DNA in human rights contexts has been held up as the
lynch-pin in a universal “right to identity” and fundamental to
communities and families “right to know” reifying DNA as
capable of rendering justice, closure, and healing through
identification. Through a close analysis of this failed first in
human rights law, I suggest that multiple and competing forms of
genetic work in the laboratory, the courtroom, and the
community underlie the deep stakes of race and citizenship in the
ongoing friction between transitional justice and social justice in
Latin America.
Genomic Justice in South Africa Noah Tamarkin, Ohio State
University
This paper considers the politics of race, genomics, and justice in
South Africa through an examination of three South African
genomics projects that have been envisioned as capable of
delivering justice. The first of these is a genetic study conducted
between 1987 and 2000 that aimed to substantiate the oral history
and ethnic recognition claims of the Lemba, a group of black
South Africans with links to Jews. The second is the use of DNA
forensics in humanitarian efforts to identify remains of antiapartheid political activists. The third is plans for a massive
expansion of a criminal DNA database along with DNA
collection at crime scenes in the wake of passage of what was
dubbed in the media “the DNA bill.” Each of these genomics
projects articulates with racialized histories, and each employs
different concepts of justice. Why is genomics appealing in each
instance? How and by whom has each project been imagined as
producing justice?
Genetic Ancestry Testing and the Pursuit of Reparations for
Chattel Slavery Alondra Nelson, Columbia University
From the “40 acres and a mule” promised (but never given to)
newly freed enslaved men and women in the 19th century to 21st
century reparations activism, U.S. political history has been
punctuated the efforts of bondspeople and their descendants to
seek restitution for unpaid slave labor. This struggle for
reparations took a novel turn in 2004 when genetic ancestry
testing was introduced as evidence in a historic class action
lawsuit (Farmer-Paellmann v. FleetBoston) in which leading
contemporary corporations that profited from chattel slavery
were sued for the unremunerated wages and work of men and
women of African descent. This talk examines the use of genetic
ancestry testing in this civil court case and considers how the
limited efficacy of scientific data is brought into relief when
acknowledgment and justice are the ends that are sought. I argue
that ultimately equality, rights, and ethics are not easily tethered
to or readily settled with DNA evidence. Moreover, the current
preoccupation with the genetic resolution of social problems may
contribute to decline of already corporatized and waning civil
rights activism, to the further slide of citizenship prerogatives
into consumption practices, and to the transposition of justice
into technique.
Discussant:
Tania Pérez Bustos, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
030. Funding Opportunities at the National Science Foundation
Business Meeting
1:00 to 2:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
031. Scientific Technique in the Shaping of Criminal Justice
Knowledge, Practice and Expertise
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
The papers in this panel explore distinctive ways in which scientific
techniques are re-shaping legal knowledge, practice and ‘expertise’ in the
field of criminal justice, with a particular focus on sexual assault. All
explore how aspects of the field of criminal justice and its associated legal
constructions are challenged, modified or created by the introduction of
expert knowledge derived from sources such as biomedical research,
clinical intervention, risk assessment and actuarial prediction. As
individuals, discourses, and practices move between clinical, law
enforcement, court, and legislative settings, scientific knowledge, evidence,
and techniques are variously constituted and reconstituted in ways that
refract political and legal debates. These debates first highlight contestation
over which practitioners and disciplines claim epistemological authority,
particularly through the invocation of competing forms of expert
knowledge as well as expert versus lay communities. In particular, some
papers consider how such conflicts illustrate the ways in which the
invocation of objectivity masks the social bases and implications of
arguments which continue to mark sexual assault as distinct from other
types of illegal behaviour. Finally, these discussions engage with deeper
questions about whether and how science should inform state responses in
relation to criminal justice, including substantive questions about how legal
actors understand and make determinations about justice, fairness, and
culpability.
Chairs:
Jacqueline Tombs, Glasgow Caledonian University
Mary Mitchell, University of Pennsylvania
Participants:
Sexual assault and the constitution of medico-legal expertise:
power, dynamics and variability at the nexus of science,
medicine and law Lesley McMillan, Glasgow Caledonian
University; Deborah White, Trent University
The systematized collection and use of forensic medical evidence
in sexual assault cases has become commonplace in criminal
justice systems across numerous regions. Whilst the North
American hospital-based Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner
[SANE] model is increasingly held up as the gold standard for
both health care and efficacious evidence collection, there remain
other professional configurations surrounding the production of
this expert evidence collected from women’s bodies for use in
court. Drawing on in-depth interviews with doctors and nurses
working in one part of England from an Economic & Social
Research council (ESRC) funded study (Res-061-23-0138) on
attrition in rape cases, we examine a model centred on forensic
medical examiner/forensic nurse practitioner teams who produce
medical evidence in law enforcement settings. We explore the
dynamics, power relations and (contested) practices that arise
when legal, medical and scientific ‘worlds’, each with their own
language, technologies, priorities, hierarchies and
epistemologies, intersect in the unique space deemed as medicolegal expertise. What are the consensuses, asymmetries, and
points of struggle for technical credibility and authority that
arise? More importantly, what are the implications of this
particular professional node for the shaping of forensic evidence,
and for the cases and lives of the victims of sexual violence? We
argue that, contrary to popular notions of forensic evidence
collection and utililization as objective and technologically
driven practices, critical examinations of the specificities of
particular medico-legal configurations reveal not only the social
character of evidence production, but the contextual and variable
nature of both experts and expert evidence.
Abstract title: ‘Technologies of Risk, Sentencing and Justice’
Jacqueline Tombs, Glasgow Caledonian University
This paper discusses judicial perceptions of how the emergence
and development of a ‘science of actuarialism’ in relation to
penal matters has affected the ability of judges to arrive at a ‘just
sentence’ in specific cases. The argument draws on findings from
a series of in depth qualitative research interviews with judges
practicing in the higher and lower courts in Scotland. The
research interviews and wider multi-method research on
sentencing (funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation) took
place at a time when actuarially based methodologies and
techniques of risk assessment had become increasingly
influential at all stages during the criminal justice process,
including sentencing. The penal objective, originally of
predicting the future specifically for ‘dangerous offenders’, soon
saw its expression in a variety of forms and formats – in parole
prediction tables, sentencing guidelines and a whole raft of risk
assessment techniques – providing prototypes for predicting the
likelihood of reoffending for low level recidivist offenders as
well as serious sexual and violent offenders. The paper focuses
on how judges view the obligation to call for and make use of
such actuarial technologies and procedures when making their
own day-to-day sentencing decisions. In particular, it discusses
the concerns that judges have about the impact of this shift on the
nature of the sentencing task and the implications it has for our
notions of justice.
Rehabilitating sex offenders? Pedophilia and the dilemmas of
sexual identity Rose Corrigan, Drexel University
The legal status and moral acceptability of sexual contact
between adults and children has varied widely over the course of
human history. In the US sexual contact between adults and
children has long been prohibited under both traditional and
modern sexual assault statutes. Recently, some researchers and
self-described “minor-attracted persons” have argued that
pedophilia is a type of sexual identity, not simply a form of
aberrant behavior. These advocates invoke biomedical research
that first described adult-oriented lesbian, gay, and transgender
sexual identity as an immutable trait resulting from factors such
as neurohormonal, genetic, or birth order characteristics. Arguing
that adult sexual attraction to children is similarly biological in
origin and resistant to change, researchers describe pedophilia as
a problem for which ongoing therapeutic management to help
pedophilic adults avoid acting on their desires—rather than
achieving a psychological cure or imposing a legal punishment—
is the desired form of social intervention. In attempting to
redefine pedophilia as a form of sexual identity, participants
invoke a host of expert discourses and types of knowledge:
scientific findings are interpreted through legal doctrines that
distinguish between “status” and “conduct”; the expertise of
lawmakers is challenged by “lay experts” from the community of
minor-attracted persons; and public health models of addiction
and harm reduction are juxtaposed with criminal justice claims
about retribution and deterrence. Such discussions highlight
continued political contestation over the source and status of
sexual identity as constituted through the uneasy intersection of
science and law.
La ciencia y la justicia en el desarrollo sostenible/Science,
Justice, and Sustainable Development Jairo Puente Bruges,
Universidad Industrial de Santander, Universidad Santo
Tomas, Colombia
In recent years discussion in both science and STS communities
has refocused from science and ethics to science and justice.
Aristas de la justicia: un dialogo interdisciplinario entre la
Filosofía y los ESOCITE/ Faces of Justice: Towards an
interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophy and STS
Javier Aguirre, Universidad Industrial de Santander,
Colombia; Rachel Tillman, SUNY Stony Brook
El reciente interés de los STS por el tema de la justicia puede
relacionarse con la similar situación que vivió la filosofía política
hace algunas décadas. Para la filosofía occidental antigua,
medieval y moderna – temprana el concepto de justicia era el
principio guía de sus reflexiones. Sin embargo, con el avance de
la modernidad y la autonomización y diferenciación de los
subsistemas políticos, jurídicos, económicos y burocráticos, la
pregunta por la justicia se volvió superflua e irrelevante. Con
ello, la filosofía política prácticamente se quedó su contenido y
cedió su lugar privilegiado de análisis a las disciplinas
independientes y empíricamente orientadas de la sociología, la
ciencia política, la teoría del derecho, etc. Las pregunta por la
naturaleza de “lo político” y del “sistema político justo” fueron
reemplazadas por preguntas relacionadas con “las políticas
públicas”, “el sistema político eficiente y estable”, “lo jurídico”,
y otras similares. Desde la década del 70, al menos en el ámbito
de la filosofía anglosajona y europea, el problema de la justicia y
su relación con la filosofía política y la sociedad en general se ha
revitalizado. En el caso anglosajón, por ejemplo, la obra Teoría
de la Justicia de John Rawls constituye un punto de quiebre a
partir del cual la filosofía política recupera su perspectiva sobre
el problema de la justicia para pensar las sociedades
contemporáneas y desarrollar análisis críticos sobre las
instituciones sociales y políticas de las mismas, como lo
demuestra la importancia que en los últimos años ha adquirido el
trabajo filosófico de autores como Jürgen Habermas, Will
Kymlicka, Robert Nozick, Michael Sandel, Martha Nussbaum,
etc. En general se podría decir que estos análisis filosóficos
contemporáneos han permitido evidenciar que apelar a la idea de
justicia significa, entre otras cosas, apelar a una perspectiva
normativa edificante que contextualiza las acciones individuales
en un marco de referencia colectivo e institucional. La justicia,
afirmó Rawls, es la primera virtud de las instituciones sociales.
Como tal, representa una idea de “deber ser” que tiene que ser
útil para inspirar, guiar y delinear la estructuración de realidades
sociales que van más allá de lo individual y de lo presente. A la
vez, sin embargo, se trata de una idea relacionada
constitutivamente con las instituciones sociales que ya existen y
que, de cierta forma, la explican y justifican. Normatividad,
edificación, colectividad, interdependencia temporal y espacial
aparecen entonces como una especie de “aristas de la justicia”
que podrían ser usadas para analizar críticamente las prácticas
científicas y tecnológicas contemporáneas. Es por esto que este
texto pretende contribuir en el debate del panel – mesa redonda
Building Bridges: Science and Justice in Institutional Contexts al
presentar esas “aristas de la justicia” como elementos que deben
ser tenidos en cuenta a la hora de abordar el reciente interés por
la justicia de los estudios sobre ciencia y tecnología. Al hacer
esto es posible entender mejor el mencionado interés, a la vez
que se entiende de forma más apropiada la relevancia y la
naturaleza misma de la idea de justicia.
Discussants:
Rose Corrigan, Drexel University
Mary Mitchell, University of Pennsylvania
Jenny Reardon, University of California, Santa Cruz
Brian Wynne, University of Lancaster
032. New Designs for Engagement: Theories and Practices of
Material Deliberation
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
STS scholars are increasingly asked to facilitate wide-ranging
conversations with diverse publics, especially around issues pertaining to
emerging technologies. As such, the methods of public engagement are
often held up to scrutiny and subject to renovation. Since the theories and
practices underpinning the design of public engagement have indelible
influence at every step—from the framing that motivates participation, to
the choice of methods, to the nature of the outcomes—they are worthy of
reflection and critique. This panel takes a close look at a novel project
called Futurescape City Tours: a constellation of public engagement
activities composed of an urban walking tour; varied, place-based
interactions between citizens, stakeholders, and experts; and image-based
deliberative sessions. The Tours also experimented with digital storytelling,
guided visits in interstitial urban atmospheres, and making temporality a
focal point of technological reflection. The Tours were developed by
researchers at the Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS) at Arizona
State University, and implemented in six cities in North America. This
panel examines some of the theoretical perspectives (obduracy,
wayfinding, tempered futures, material deliberation) that underpin the
design of the Futurescape City Tours and explores how those ideas were
translated and performed.
Chair:
Cynthia Selin, Arizona State University
Participants:
Triggering Tempered Futures: Temporality in Public
Engagement with Urban Nanotechnology Cynthia Selin,
Arizona State University
The design of public engagement exercises is increasingly
becoming a locus of attention in STS with the recognition that
power, politics and persuasion are at play in the practices and
practicalities of such exercises (Delgado, Kjolberg & Wickson
2011, Horst & Irwin 2010, Kleinman et al 2009). In this paper, I
hone in on the temporalities of public engagement, plucking out
how past, present and future are configured and triggered in a
public engagement project on urban nanotechnologies. Inspired
by science fiction author, William Gibson, who said, “The future
is already here, it is just unevenly distributed”, the public
engagement project the Futurescape City Tours approaches the
future in an intentionally tempered mode, acknowledging
obduracy, the historical contingency of public values, and the
layering of time in technologies of engagement. More than an
examination of the intricacies of timing in deliberative processes,
this paper proposes a nuanced approach to how temporality is
conceived and deployed to include investigations as to how time
becomes situated in place, frozen in moments and used as
leverage for publics to reflexively grapple with both the
certainties and uncertainties of socio-technical change.
participatory Technology Assessment (pTA) as Technological
Wayfinding Gretchen L Gano, Arizona State University
Kevin Lynch (1960) wrote the classic work in urban planning,
The Image of the City, coining the term wayfinding. Often
referenced, but rarely consulted in depth today, this short work
provides a rubric for thinking about the relationship between
people and their urban living spaces. The work translates this
gaze into a way of looking at the material complexity in our
urban spaces. Lynch outlines five hallmarks of imageability:
paths, landmarks, regions, edges (barriers), and nodes
(intersections) and thus offers us a decipherable methodology for
engaging with place. By articulating more precisely how urban
publics experience the everyday, Lynch’s rubric assists planners
in producing livable urban infrastructure. This paper looks at the
intersection of three important strands: STS interpretations of the
influence of technological systems, everyday experiences of
technologies on the street, and the future moment. This paper
revisits and updates Lynch, using his categories of imagability to
make sense of public perceptions of unseen technics and
shrouded systems in our cities. Rather than using the qualities of
imageability to identify opportunities to improve the design of
material urban landscapes, this paper uses the material to identify
collective capacities that surface in the participant panel as a
function of an experiential walking tour.
(Urban) Politics and Obduracy: Persistent Power and Resistant
Technologies Jathan Sadowski, Consortium for Science,
Policy & Outcomes; Cynthia Selin, Arizona State University
Cities are complex and dynamic, yet also immobile and obdurate.
They oppose change in numerous ways. The dearth of literature
on the subject of obduracy—and in STS engagements with cities,
in general—exposes an unfortunate gap that requires further
attention. While Anique Hommels (2005, 2008) has filled in
foundational conceptual aspects, there’s room to build a layer of
political thought into engagements with obduracy. The future is
not open ended for new technologies to freely populate, but is
always already conditioned by contemporary social, material,
economic, and political circumstances. Understanding the how,
why, and effects of their relative obduracies is crucial. This paper
better theorizes politics and obduracy by demarcating an
analytical distinction between: 1) obdurate politics: when politics
become stable and resistant to change due to ‘natural’ or
emergent obduracy creation, and 2) politics of obduracy: when
obduracy is created and used as a mode for maintaining a
political regime. As an illustrative case, we look at the use of
urban surveillance technologies as a way of rolling-out and
maintaining neoliberal politics in the urban environment. We
then conclude by exploring how theories of material deliberation
and methods of urban walking can be effective ways to engage
with and govern (urban) obduracy.
Mediating Futurescapes: A Visual Methodology for Public
Engagement with Sociotechnical Futures Carlo Andres
Altamirano, Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes
The Futurescape City Tours (FCT) is a model of citizen
engagement and deliberation around the critical role of
technology in the urban environment. It uses a particular
methodology based on the observation and representation of the
urban landscape through a participatory photographic account of
technological change within a city, that draws from emerging
interdisciplinary methods of analysis of the visual that promotes
a critical account on the governance of technology. Drawing
from empirical data taken during the various iterations of FCT in
2013 in six different cities of North America – ethnographical
accounts, interviews and visual material generated – this paper
demonstrates the various roles that the use of photographic image
plays in the mediation of citizen’s experience as urban walkers:
The image as 1) an eye sharpener within the visual construction
of meaning of the urban space; 2) as mediator in the power
dynamics associated to deliberation practices by giving equal
voice to participants within the dialogue on sociotechnical
futures; and 3) as a rich source of data for the visual
representation and definition of the dynamic aspects of a city’s
identity based on citizen’s concerns. This paper explores the
relevance of visual methodologies within the realm of STS in
order to stimulate a scholarly practice on the role that a visual
language plays within a sensorial experience and deliberation of
place and time change, as those particular narratives generated by
FCT stand as model for the different pathways that
sociotechnical schemes follow within the various contexts in
which science, technology and innovation processes are
understood.
Place, Space and Hope in the Interstitial City Roopali Phadke,
Macalester College
While STS scholars have a long standing interest in the spatial
disciplines, such as architecture, planning, and geography, few
have asked what a spatially informed and engaged STS can
accomplish. Guy and Coutard in their 2007 article “STS and the
City” suggest pathways for an urban technological politics that
can “break free from an intellectually and politically disabling
technological pessimism”. They call out the potential for STS
research to aid in producing what David Harvey has referred to
as “spaces of hope” (2000). The Futurescape City Tours provide
a model for public deliberation that may be particularly well
suited for understanding how urban interstices can emerge as
places of opportunity. This paper examines the “walking”
agency experienced by participants on the Futurescape City
Tours. In particular, I draw attention to how participants
perceived the many empty and derelict spaces in their cities, such
as underpasses, abandoned buildings and the left-over margins of
energy distribution and production. While these vague terrains
are often thought to represent decay and neglect, tour participants
imagined the remaking and repurposing of these sites with a
sense of hopefulness. They saw the potential to inscribe new
futures onto otherwise blank spaces. Using examples from
several Futurescape Tour cities, this presentation also connects
with the landscape architecture and urban planning literature on
the potential for informal and interstitial places to serve as
“social breathing spaces”. As these scholars have argued, because
interstitial spaces lie outside of the official zones of regulated
commerce, recreation and residence, they may serve as
transgressive places that enable a counter public imaginations to
emerge. This presentation examines how creative sparks emerged
from interrogating the interstitial, tempered wildness of a city
through experiments in material deliberation.
Images as Authoritative Knowledge in Public Engagement with
Emerging Technologies Kathryn D de Ridder-Vignone,
Postdoctoral Fellow, Arizona State University / Assistant
Professor, James Madison University
Images and visualizations play an important role in the
generation of scientists’ authority, but those visual
representations do not always fulfill their promise as objective
scientific knowledge (Daston and Galison 1992; Lynch and
Woolgar 1990). Literature on public engagement delineates
several models of communication (top-down, two-way, bottomup), but the role of images in those models is not clear
(Lewenstein 2010).In 2012, Davies, et al, argued that “material
deliberation” should include forms of knowledge not easily
recognized as the “reasoned discourse” assumed to be the source
of scientific authority. They argued that public engagement
activities “should…acknowledge the whole person, including the
affective, intuitive and embodied” and “the situated and
relational nature of the deliberative process” (352–353). When
“affective, intuitive, and embodied” features are included in
deliberative activities, how do they affect the learning outcomes
and authority of the participants’ knowledge? This research
conducts a visual discourse analysis of photographic images and
associated writing and discussion created by participants in a
multi-day public deliberation event to demonstrate the authority
of images and visualizations made by nonscientists to represent
the present and potential futures of emerging technologies. This
study argues that visual forms of communication are powerful
means of facilitating critical dialogue and representing citizens’
values, desires, concerns, and curiosities about emerging
technologies. I examine “material deliberations” as the work
participants do to place knowledge (science/technology) into
context (values, desires, emotions) (Wagner 2011; Latour 1986).
Preliminary data suggest that visual representations allow
participants to formulate more complex, critical, and creative
thinking.
033. Transmissions, Entanglements and Mess: the Possibilities
and Pitfalls of New Forms of Description
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Chopin
Chairs:
Kat Jungnickel, Goldsmiths, University of London
Amanda Nita Windle, University of the Arts, London
Participants:
Crafting Complexities in Public Engagements: The Bicicultures
Project Sarah Rebolloso McCullough, University of
California - San Diego; Adonia Lugo, League of American
Bicyclists
By setting our own knowledge production processes in motion,
can we remake the spaces through which we move? The
knowledge leveraged to advocate for changes in policy and
infrastructure is often data-driven, using quantitative models that
simplify the mess of everyday life and ignore cultural factors that
are not easily measured. Bicicultures seeks to introduce the
complexity of cultural analysis and everyday living into public
and policy conversations about bicycling. To do this, we combine
traditional modes of academic knowledge dissemination with
community-engaged practices of expertise exchange. The
Bicicultures network includes academics from different
disciplines studying bicycling cultures and community
practitioners enacting cultural change. Inspired by theory on
situatedness, the project not only studies actor-networks of
bicycling, but actively creates and participates in them. Such an
approach demonstrates how perspectival knowledge can become
expertise. This presentation shares the work-to-date and future
plans of Bicicultures as a model for expert knowledge
generation, sharing, and dissemination. We created Bicicultures
as a strange assemblage driven by opportunity and impromptu
strategy rather than tradition and convention. In lieu of
institutionalization, we seek to attach in a para-sitic fashion
(Marcus 2000) to existing structures: existing conferences
provide the gathering point for events, existing organizations are
supporting partners, and our most “real” presence is virtual, in
the form of a listserv and website. Despite (or perhaps because
of) this amorphous form, Bicicultures is actively changing
conversations by building human infrastructure necessary for
cultural change in the politics and practice of movement and
public space.
Dressing in your data and other forms of sociological
storytelling Kat Jungnickel, Goldsmiths, University of
London
Sociology’s continued impact and relevance relies not only on
what it says but also how it tells stories of the social. Context, as
we are taught, matters. This is possibly more important than ever
given researchers are increasingly using the very devices and
practices as those they study to make, curate and share their
work. In this talk I present findings in a series of garments from
'Freedom of Movement: the bike, bloomer and female cyclist in
late nineteenth century Britain'. This a sociological research
project explores the intersection of gendered forms of mobile
citizenship, new technologies and public space through the lens
of ‘convertible’ cycle wear patents designed and lodged by
middle and upper class women from 1890-1900. This period was
a flashpoint of dress reform, new mobility and communication
technologies and agitation around women's rights and freedoms.
Inventively, the project approaches this subject matter by
interweaving archival data with the sewing of new Victorian
cycling wear from patents in collaboration with contemporary
craftspeople (a tailor, weaver and artist). I will discuss the
challenges of making archival materials (into) matter – What
happens when sewing, cycling and sociology collide? How might
new modes of storytelling invite us to re-imagine and re-inhabit
our research and the social worlds in which they are situated?
What does wearing your research offer understandings of
inventive methods and knowledge transmission?
Nature is Closed: The language of land management during the
2013 US government shutdown Melanie Armstrong,
University of California, Berkeley
In 2013, the 4S annual meeting convened in San Diego during a
partial shutdown of the United States government. Without a
budget allocation, governing institutions had come to a halt. For
17 days, much of the public outrage and media attention fell
upon public lands, gated and closed without funds to operate.
One protester spray-painted words of outrage on a road block at a
national park: “Nature is Free!” Citizens’ confusion over gated
parks illuminated a gulf between popular conceptions of
untouched nature and the reality of day-to-day management of
public lands. Using examples from 2013, this paper explores how
people reconcile the role of government in managing natures
with lingering Romantic ideals of wild, untamed places. I argue
that land management agencies employ language practices that
effectively erase their own work on the landscape. Moments of
crisis, such as the 2013 shutdown or any number of
environmental events, expose the human labor upon the
landscapes, as well as the inadequacy of language to describe
environmental places—and problems—created by humans. In the
midst of last year’s standoff, 4S scholars gathered to discuss, in
part, how science shapes policies for managing environmental
crises, rationalizing governance and making nature knowable.
STS theory creates the possibility for discourse that recognizes
the social nature of environmental problems, imagining
stewardship practices that are adaptive, resilient and just. The
paper concludes with examples from participant observation of
land management practices, where language embraces the
messiness of socio-environmental landscapes in hope of building
sustainable futures.
Sound Systems, Drum Machines, and Contested Soundscapes
of Rio de Janeiro Alexandra Lippman, University of
California, Irvine
In anticipation of hosting the World Cup and the Olympics, Rio
de Janeiro began to enact measures to reorganize and “re-sound”
the city. Re-sounding Rio has included attempts at containing
sound through constructing sonic barrier technology and a new
high-profile Museum of Image and Sound. In favelas, sound
system performances of funk carioca, an Afro-diasporic
electronic dance music, have been subject to police repression
and legal restrictions. Additionally, these efforts to discipline the
sounds, musics, and rhythms of Rio extend Brazil’s history of
noise ordinances and measures aimed at suppressing AfroBrazilian musical and sonic expression. This presentation
explores the practices of regulating, containing, and silencing
both sound and music through contests over acoustic space. My
research is based on 15 months of ethnography, music studio
surveys, interviews, and archival production in Rio de Janeiro
(2008-2012). I focus on how sound reproduction (and
suppression) technologies are deployed to modify soundscapes
with Brazil’s global reputation in mind. Furthermore, I reflect
more generally on how the composition of acoustic space
constitutes a key site for experiencing the city. Finally, I argue
that shifting soundscapes provide an occasion to re-site Brazil as
an emerging power while amplifying local contests over
property, propriety and power. To avoid silencing the--at times-noisy complexity of my data, I include field recordings in my
presentation to engage with the particularities of sound. I
contribute to STS through attending to ongoing cultural aspects
of technological appropriation and the relations between sonic
technologies, affect, and space.
Visualising Complex Data: A Workshop Approach to
Infographics and Knowledge Transmission Amanda Nita
Windle, University of the Arts, London
Research in digital R&D is often a fast paced with an emphasis
on presenting results and findings (knowledge transmissions)
both quickly and clearly. Infographics are often considered as a
way of doing this for many disciplines including STS (albeit with
an emphasis on explanation and description). With highrendering capability in computation and the proliferation of
infographics in the UK’s broadsheets and in public exhibition
spaces more complex infographics seem to be within reach of a
wide range of actors. The complex visualizations I will discuss
are combinations of familiar techniques like combining a radar
chart with a pie chart. This paper is based on 5 years of
workshops initially aimed to help graphic design novices
understand theory through practice. Subsequently, the workshop
has been developed for professionals including financial analysts,
performance researchers for washing machine technologies,
insurance journalists, lawyers, designers for investment banks
and cooperative housing associations, ethnographers, business
start-ups and entrepreneurs in the UK, Japan, Brazil, France and
Italy. Complex infographics do not save time but require a
sustained commitment to exploring new methods and
combinations often ahead of (if not apriori) of content
production. Infographics can be a reductionist tool to simplify,
combine and contrast data. However, as explored as a thoughtful
processual method the infographic becomes a tool for something
else, for slowing down. This paper will demonstrate the
workshop method as a performative explanation of method
whilst building on the explanatory mode of recording workshop
methods (Venturini, 2010).
034. Medicine, Politics, and the Struggle with Sex II
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Dalí
Chair:
Roosa Toriseva, University of Tampere, Gender Studies
Participants:
Facial Profiling: Race and the Body in U.S. Cosmetic Surgery
Alka Menon, Northwestern University
Ethnic cosmetic surgery (ECS), an elective practice that changes
a patient’s appearance through modification of racial markers,
can be understood as technological manipulation of one’s
physical appearance to conform to specific ethnic norms. This
study examines how ECS surgeons and patients conceptualize
race and ethnicity at the phenotypic level in a genomic era. From
a content analysis of 80 procedural guides and standards
published in the U.S. for ethnic-specific facial surgeries for men
and women from 1993 to 2012 and analysis of an online
discussion forum on ECS, I find that standardization contributes
to the construction and maintenance of symbolic and material
boundaries between racial and ethnic groups. In discourses both
offline and online, ECS represents a (re)investment in the
physical materiality of race as a mode of asserting racial and/or
ethnic authenticity. The practice of ECS paradoxically reveals
that physical markers of ethnicity are mutable--literally, via the
surgeon’s scalpel--even as it simultaneously relies on and
reinforces established notions of ethnic difference. In this sense
the drive to realize social identities in cosmetic surgery may
result in a biological re-inscription of ethnic and cultural
stereotypes. This study contributes to the STS literature on race,
bodies and biomedicine. While STS scholars have been attentive
to race and to bodies in their analyses of biomedicine and
biotechnologies, this study explicitly bridges that bifurcation in
studying bodies in race and race in bodies.
Lideranças femininas no contexto dos Institutos Nacionais de
Ciência e Tecnologia (INCTs): primeiras aproximações
Elizabete Mayumy Kobayashi, Universidade Federal de São
Carlos; Camila Carneiro Dias Rigolin, Federal University
of São Carlos (UFSCAR), Brazil; Maria Cristina Innocentini
Hayashi, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCAR),
Brazil; Carlos Roberto Massao Hayashi, Universidade
Federal de São Carlos; Márcia Regina Barros da Silva,
Universidade de São Paulo - USP
Este artigo tem um caráter interdisciplinar ao analisar a categoria
“gênero” pela perspectiva dos Estudos Sociais da Ciência e
Tecnologia e da História das Ciências, tendo como objeto de
estudo projetos com liderança feminina que participam dos
Institutos Nacionais de Ciência e Tecnologia (INCTs). Os
resultados preliminares da pesquisa demonstraram que dos 122
projetos dos INCTS, apenas 18 (14,8%) estão sob liderança
feminina e 104 (85,2%), são coordenados por homens. Os
resultados obtidos estão organizados em indicadores
cientométricos que foram construídos com base em
documentação oficial sobre os INCTs e na produção científica e
tecnológica dessas pesquisadoras líderes desses Institutos. Esses
dados trazem à tona a expressão “teto de vidro”, ou seja, sugerem
que a exclusão vertical e hierárquica das mulheres no topo da
carreira científica também está presente nos INCTs. Esse
resultado se desdobrou em outra pesquisa. Nessa etapa, nos
concentraremos em descrever e analisar a trajetória acadêmica e
profissional dessas mulheres. Esse número pode se configurar na
constituição de uma elite científica feminina. O termo “elite” é
utilizado na Historiografia com um sentido amplo e
descritivo.Para delinear, analisar e descrever o perfil desse grupo,
nos apoiaremos no método prosopográfico ou de biografias
coletivas, como forma de reconstituir a trajetória social dessas
mulheres.A biografia coletiva nos permite revelar características
comuns, ao observar esse grupo social em sua dinâmica interna e
em seus relacionamentos com outros grupos e espaços,
auxiliando na compreensão de redes e configurações.
Intersex: a Medical Emergency or a Naturally Gendered Body?
Roosa Toriseva, University of Tampere, Gender Studies
“Intersex” is a term that is nowadays used to describe a form of
embodiment that does not correspond to the binary body ideal
consisting of a clearly male and a clearly female body. Intersexed
bodies actually question this binary model through their
existence. Focusing on intersex and especially the medical
treatment of intersex is a burning issue since medical treatment
of intersex is going through significant changes. Furthermore, the
medical treatment of intersex in Finland, where my study focuses
on, is not consistent in Helsinki University Hospital and Oulu
University Hospital, where most intersexed people are treated in
Finland. The purpose of my study is to analyse how medical
professionals working with intersex understand gender. I have
interviewed three Finnish doctors, who work with intersexed
people, in order to find out how they view gender and how this
view affects their attitude towards intersex and medical treatment
of intersex. Despite the fact that intersexed bodies show that a
binary model of gendered bodies does not depict the diverse
reality of gendered bodies, intersexed bodies are not always
granted the right to exist. On the contrary, they can be surgically
operated away. Questioning this medical practice that tries to
hide the diverse nature of gendered bodies makes it possible to
question the naturalness of a binary gender system. This in turn
makes it possible to create an understanding of gender that
acknowledges the diversity of gendered bodies instead of hiding
it.
035. Fluid Praxis: Performing, Knowing and Governing Water
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Miró
Understanding the ways that hydrologic knowledge shapes and is shaped
by water governance requires us to be “un-disciplined” and fluid scholars.
We are forced to range nomadically across disciplinary boundaries in order
to explore the full range of contact between knowledge practices, water
institutions, publics, infrastructures and the multiple uses and materialities
of water. Exploring epistemic cultures and practices across our cases, we
attempt to follow the co-production of institutions, infrastructures and
flows of knowledge, power, and water. Drawing from feminist and postcolonial studies of science, political ecology, cultural geography, critical
animal studies, institutional analysis and eco-cultural hydrology, this panel
explores the productions, circulations and performances of water
knowledge across four waterscapes. Wesner looks at the Bonneville Dam
Fish Hatchery as an “open laboratory” where constructed encounters with
science and nature normalize hatchery practices and expertise. Goddard’s
paper investigates the evolution of the scientific and technical construction
of stormwater’s perceived value and its role in shaping the imaginaries of
hydro-politics in Los Angeles, California. Woelfle-Erskine and Sarna
explore the role that other-than-human agents and actants such as beaver,
fire, dams, algae and salmon play in shaping knowledge of water flows and
organizing our relationships with water. We engage questions of scale,
materiality, discourse and expertise across these four cases. We turn
reflexively to interrogate the role that STS-inflected water scholarship does
and should play in our understandings of water and our collective attempts
to imagine more socially and environmentally just water futures.
Chairs:
Daniel Reid Sarna-Wojcicki, University of California,
Berkeley
Jess Goddard, University of California, Berkeley
Participants:
Living Boundary Objects: constructed encounters with science,
nature, and Herman the Sturgeon at the Bonneville Fish
Hatchery Ashton Wesner, University of California, Berkeley
The Bonneville Fish Hatchery in Oregon’s Columbia River
Gorge is constituted of technological artifacts and processes that
serve the needs of problems posed by scientists across industry,
conservation, and ecology. The facility upholds contemporary
environmental and commercial conservationist efforts to
maintain threatened fish populations in the Columbia, while also
catering to the public as a tourist destination for education and
entertainment. Visitors journey through exhibits narrating salmon
spawning and repopulation, feed fish, and meet “Herman” the
Sturgeon, the Hatchery’s popular mascot fish. In this essay, I
analyze the Hatchery as an open laboratory and natural history
museum where constructed encounters with science and nature
normalize hatchery practices and expertise, while veiling the
larger political stakes of river industrialization and preservation
ecology. Specifically, I interrogate how interactions between
visitors and Herman produce certain kinds of relationships of
pleasure and proximity. I use the concept of nonhuman charisma
to expand previous notions of boundary objects operating in the
borderlands between laboratory and museum spaces. I argue that
“meeting Herman” is a socially and materially structured
moment that both upholds and unsettles some of the dominant
logics that structure conventional science and natural history.
This analysis prompts larger political and ethical questions about
the role of “flagship” species in environmental governance and
river management networks. Whether the multi-faceted, extrahuman, and expansive spaces, generated by Herman and other
similar “mascots”, make possible relationships between people
and fish that are structured around emotions and senses, rather
than fact or utility, remains to be fully addressed.
Mobilizing local knowledge and expert science in beaversalmon worlds: Cases from California Cleo Woelfle-Erskine,
University of California, Berkeley
Along rivers where Pacific salmon spawn, human collaborations
to recover diminished runs increasingly bring other species —
beavers, redwoods, more— into entangled symbioses. Like
Tsing’s and colleagues’ Matsutake Worlds, beaver-salmon
worlds require broad and transformative restoration, not only to
landscapes as “nature” but to eco-cultural landscapes. Also like
Matsutake Worlds, beaver-salmon worlds are fertile sites for
citizen science. Drawing on in-depth interviews with scientists,
regulators, and citizens in three California watersheds, I analyze
people’s motives for engaging with beaver as stream restoration
partners. In the Scott Valley, ranchers are primarily motivated by
their interest in increasing groundwater recharge for agriculture.
On the mid-Klamath, the Karuk tribe and watershed council
members aim to improve habitat for culturally and economically
valuable salmon. I find both of these motives on Salmon Creek,
where beaver are locally extinct and salmon hover on the brink of
extinction; I also find a desire to re-create unruly (ecological)
edges where species like salmon, elk, and beaver can repopulate.
Many residents who have participated in citizen monitoring or
restoration projects share this view, which reflects a change in
ontological stance towards what Eduardo Kohn describes as “an
ecology of selves”. I examine incipient efforts to re-introduce
beaver to increase streamflow in light of (1) emerging scientific
knowledge of beaver’s hydro-ecological effects and (2)
regulatory advocacy by “beaver believers” to mobilize this
scientific evidence to change the legal status of beaver in
California from a non-native nuisance to a commensal species.
The Social and Scientific Language of Water Management
Kristan Cockerill, Appalachian State University
Despite recognition among scholars and practitioners that
‘solving’ water management problems is a misplaced concept,
popular and academic literature rely on the word ‘solution’ in
discussing water management concerns. Because water is a
natural resource, science is routinely invoked as a source for
solutions. A focus on ‘solving’ creates a simplistic expectation
that some person or institution is responsible for implementing a
science-based solution. The reality, however, is that water
management is a wicked problem and hence defies solution.
Managing water is a social responsibility and it will require
consistent attention in the future, as it has throughout human
history. The language used to frame a problem that consistently
calls for a science-based solution can, by this framing alone,
affect how people think, feel, behave toward the problem. A
simplistic insistence on ‘solving’ sets scientists and water
managers up to fail and may subsequently decrease public
support for more complex policy discussions that could provide
long-term management strategies. As a preface to rethinking
water management strategies, academics, journalists, resource
managers, and the public need to reconsider the language used to
frame water management concerns. Changing our language can
help us recognize our own culpability in creating water problems
and our responsibility in managing this most essential resource.
This work contributes to STS as it explores how science and
popular discourse shape policies for managing socioenvironmental landscapes and explores ways to address the mess
inherent in wicked problems.
Contested science in the context of policymaking: the case of
Brazilian policy on family agriculture and biodiversity
conservation Maria José Teixeira Carneiro, Universidade
federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro; Juliano Luis Palm,
Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro; Daniel
Delatin, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro;
Laila Sandroni, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de
Janeiro
The contribution of science in public policy formulation becomes
increasingly frequent and necessary not only to look for more
effective responses to increasingly complex questions raised by
contemporary society, (some of them generated by science itself,
as the urgency of the biodiversity conservation as a mechanism
for neutralizing the effects of global warming and decreasing
water resources), but also by the need to construct a legitimated
discourse for regulatory actions and for the formulation of
government measures face a society that is organized in
participatory decisions forums. Based on the concepts of
coproduction (Jasanoff) and translation (Callon), this paper aims
to: a) identify and analyze the relations between scientists (social
and environmental) and governmental instances during the
knowledge production process to support developmental
activities in the realm of family farming and biodiversity
conservation, b) identify and analyze the perception of policy
makers about science and how this perception affects the use of
scientific knowledge for decision making in policy, c) based on
the information of the previous items, we intend to explore the
understanding of the contested nature of science and its
implications in the application of science in the context of public
policies in Brazil. The empirical basis of the reflections
presented is resulted of interviews carried out for social
scientists during the year 2013, with policy makers at the
Brazilian Ministries of Agrarian Development and of
Environment and with researchers from universities and research
centers in Brazil.
Las ontologías múltiples del agua y el mercurio en los
acueductos comunitarios de Bogotá, Colombia Edisson
Aguilar Torres, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
El manejo del agua es un tema altamente controversial, en el que
suelen ponerse a debate modelos de Estado y de manejo de los
recursos naturales. Como se trata de un asunto amplio, una buena
vía para explorarlo es indagar por la forma en que comunidades
organizadas gestionan sus recursos hídricos. El análisis de formas
de gestión local del agua puede dar cuenta tanto de prácticas de
apropiación del territorio como del papel que las experticias
juegan en la resolución de conflictos socio-ambientales. En
Colombia, ante la escasa presencia del Estado en las áreas rurales
y peri-urbanas, las comunidades de esas zonas han construido sus
propios sistemas de abastecimiento y gestión del de agua: los
acueductos comunitarios. En el año 2011, la Secretaría de Salud
de Bogotá emitió una alarma por posible presencia de mercurio
en las fuentes hídricas que abastecen los acueductos comunitarios
de la zona rural de Ciudad Bolívar (una localidad bogotana) y,
ante esa alarma, la comunidad negó la contaminación y aseguró
que se trataba de una estrategia gubernamental para quitarles el
control de sus recursos hídricos. El análisis de esa controversia
“híbrida” (que involucra expertos y ciudadanos), por medio de la
observación etnográfica y del rastreo de las diversas fuentes en
que esta quedó registrada (prensa, documentos técnicos y de
política pública), es una buena vía para entender un conflicto
socio-ambiental complejo, que no solo involucra el acceso al
agua, sino también concepciones del territorio y relaciones de
confianza/desconfianza entre expertos, ciudadanos y Estado.
Multiple waters, scalar politics and epistemic diversity in
Klamath waterscape governance Daniel Reid SarnaWojcicki, University of California, Berkeley
This paper explores the multiple scales of watershed governance
by following the way water and power flow through the
watershed communities of the Klamath Basin in Northern
California. By investigating the multiple scales and spatialities
through which the actors and institutions of the Klamath make
sense of, manage and use water, I set epistemic diversity to work
towards coming to terms with water’s multiple materialities. I
first attempt to chart the emergence of watershed governance in
the Klamath and map out the constitutive entanglements between
knowledge of watersheds, institutions of watershed governance,
and the material watersheds of the Klamath. I examine the role
that watershed science plays in organizing watershed relations
and actually shaping the way that water flows through the human
and non-human communities of the Klamath. Following the
institutional mechanisms that regulate the flow of water through
Klamath watersheds leads me to the institutions and politics
surrounding a range of other “actors” that influence and are
influenced by the journey of water down drainages such as roads,
algae, fire, sediment, oaks, giant pacific salamanders and
beavers, among other watershed characters. In addition to
detailing the co-production of watershed knowledge and
watershed institutions, each of my case studies attends to the
ways in which a different scale, such as a fireshed, airshed or
foodshed, comes into contact and/or conflict with the watershed
as a unit of knowledge production and water governance. My
initial focus on the interplay between institutional forms and the
flow of water leads me to a more general concern with issues
related to the politics of scale and epistemic diversity in
environmental governance.
036. La inclusión social en los estudios CTS+I
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Moliere
La preocupación por las relaciones entre ciencia, tecnología, innovación e
inclusión social han adquirido actualmente un papel relevante en el campo
CTS+I. El incremento en los niveles de desigualdad y pobreza alcanzados
en diversas regiones del mundo, particularmente en la latinoamericana, nos
coloca en la urgente necesidad de reflexionar y discutir los alcances de
nuestros campos y los retos a enfrentar en la consideración de dichos
problemas desde la perspectiva contextual del sur y del norte. Las
estrategias actuales de desarrollo, basadas en el crecimiento económico no
han logrado impactar en la mejora de las condiciones de vida de la
población. Aunque algunos países de la región latinoamericana han
aplicado programas y medidas que han tenido impactos positivos, la
realidad es que se requieren nuevos enfoques para abordar la desigualdad
social y trabajar en el papel que la ciencia, tecnología e innovación deben
jugar en esas nuevas estrategias. Desde el campo CTS esta ha sido una
vieja preocupación que en América Latina se gesta en los años sesenta y
setenta del siglo XX y que se ha retomado, con nuevas agendas en el siglo
XXI. En este panel se presentarán trabajos sustentados en el desarrollo
conceptual, analítico y empírico que consideren el análisis de las relaciones
entre CTS+I e inclusión social, bajo diversos enfoques y
conceptualizaciones. Para el adecuado tratamiento del problema –al mismo
tiempo político y económico, cognitivo y social- es tan necesaria como
ineludible la realización de un ejercicio de convergencia de enfoques y
abordajes teórico-conceptuales. Por este motivo, la sesión es organizada
por dos de las principales redes que congregan a investigadores de Estudios
Sociales de la Ciencia y la Tecnología y Economía de la Innovación en
América Latina: ESOCITE (Sociedad Latinoamericana de Estudios
Sociales de la Ciencia y la Tecnología) y LALICs (Latin American
Network for Economics of Learning. Innovation and Competence Building
Systems), conjuntamente con la Society for Social Studies of Science (4S).
Los trabajos incluidos en la sesión aportarán con nuevas orientaciones para
pensar en un desarrollo científico, tecnológico y de innovación y en nuevas
concepciones de políticas públicas para estas actividades en los países en
desarrollo que impacten positivamente en la resolución de los problemas de
exclusión y desigualdad, y en el bienestar de la población. Al mismo
tiempo alentarán la generación de una línea conjunta de trabajos de
investigación entre integrantes de las tres organizaciones.
Chairs:
Rosalba Casas, Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM
Hernán Eduardo Thomas, Instituto de Estudios sobre la
Ciencia y la Tecnología - Universidad Nacional de Quilmes
Participants:
La necesaria articulación entre conocimiento, innovación e
inclusión social Mariela Bianco, Universidad de la
Repulbica, Uruguay
La creciente preocupación académica y política en torno a las
vinculaciones entre ciencia, tecnología, innovación e inclusión
social se expresa en una amplia gama de abordajes conceptuales
y empíricos utilizados en el campo de los estudios CTS. Varios
de ellos comparten la noción de que los niveles de desigualdad
que persisten en la región latioamericana podrían parcialmente
mitigarse poniendo parte de la producción de conocimiento e
innovación directamente al servicio de este fin. No obstante, las
articulaciones entre las necesidades y privaciones de grupos
sociales específicos, la investigación con capacidad de aportar
soluciones creativas y adecuadas al contexto, y la política capaz
de viabilizarlas están lejos aún de producirse de forma sistémica.
Sobre esta base, la intervención abordará una dimensión
normativa, una conceptual y otra empírica de la temática referida
a la investigación e innovación para la inclusión social en
América Latina.
El diálogo necesario entre políticas de C&T, políticas de I+D+I
y políticas sociales para lograr avances en la inclusión social
Ronny Viales-Hurtado, Universidad de Costa Rica
En esta ponencia se explora la propuesta de que para lograr la
superación del déficit democrático en la formulación de políticas
científicas (en general) para la inclusión social, es necesario un
diálogo entre políticas de C&T, políticas de I+D+I y políticas
sociales, sobre la base de los planteamientos del giro
participativo y del giro deliberativo en la formulación de
problemas de políticas públicas.
Politicas de CTI, sistema nacional de innovación y desarrollo
inclusivo Gabriela Dutrénit, Universidad Atónoma
Metropolitana/ Coordinadora de la Re LALICS
El enfoque del Sistema Nacional de Innovación (SNI) ha
contribuido a una mejor comprensión de la dinámica intrínseca
de la innovación. La mayor parte de la literatura analiza las
estructuras institucionales asociadas con el SNI, y concentra la
atención en su adecuación para un aumento en el desempeño
innovativo y la competitividad. Esto conduce a la generación de
políticas de ciencia, tecnología e innovación (CTI) que se centran
en el incremento de la innovación. Sin embargo, esta literatura ha
prestado menos atención a los problemas relacionados con el
desarrollo, en particular a la inclusión social, un problema central
en la realidad latinoamericana. De hecho, solo recientemente se
ha incorporado a la inclusión social como un objetivo explícito
de la agenda de investigación sobre los SNI (Arocena y Sutz,
2012; Cozzens y Sutz, 2012; Johnson y Andersen, 2012; Couto et
al, 2013). Las políticas de CTI no han incorporado el tema de la
inclusión social como parte de la lógica para construir un SNI.
Tanto las dificultades encontradas por los procesos de desarrollo
en la región, como los nuevos enfoques teóricos requieren
revisitar los vínculos entre conocimiento, innovación, SNI,
desarrollo e inclusión social. El objetivo de esta presentation es
discutir el marco analitico de las politicas de CTI de acuerdo a un
enfoque de construcción de un SNI que conduzca a fomentar un
desarrollo inclusivo.
Tecnología de la necesidad: elementos teórico conceptuales
para un modelo sociotécnico sustentable Alexis Mercado,
Universidad Central de Venezuela; Hebe Vessuri, CIGAUNAM
La estrategia de aprovechamiento integral de los recursos
naturales de UNASUR, afronta en la región el problema de
contar con pocas capacidades tecnológicas necesarias para su
industrialización. Superar la condición primaria exportadora del
patrimonio de recursos requerirá de procesos que se basarán,
cada vez más, en tecnologías penetrantes (TP), disciplinas en las
que también son escasas las capacidades de investigación.
Históricamente las economías de la región se han fundamentado
en la explotación de recursos naturales. La industrialización bajo
la sustitución de importaciones incluyó implantar procesos para
elaborar productos básicos, semi-elaborados y finales que
impulsaron algunos encadenamientos. Durante tres décadas la
manufactura incrementó su participación en el PIB. Pero desde
finales de los ochenta, consecuencia de políticas neoliberales,
disminuye notablemente aumentando la participación de los
sectores primarios y servicios. El ascenso de gobiernos de
izquierda neodesarrollistas no revirtió la reprimarización. ¿Cuál
es el papel que el conocimiento desempeñará en la estrategia?
Mayores dificultades para acceder a TP demandan fortalecer
áreas asociadas a “La gran Ciencia” planteando el problema de
con qué orientación. Hay que evitar volver a reproducir
acríticamente modelos de los PD, pero también imponer modelos
utilitarios que subvaloran el conocimiento científico y
tecnológico. Buena parte de la responsabilidad recae en las
comunidades de investigadores pero también en organismos de
política. Un tema a resolver es la diferencia entre el valor y el uso
del conocimiento, necesario para definir una agenda con dos
horizontes temporales: corto plazo, aprovechar capacidades
existentes para contribuir a resolver problemas concretos;
mediano, desarrollo de proyectos multidisciplinarios que
incluyan fortalecer capacidades vinculadas a TP.
Tecnologías para la inclusión social: El factor sociocultural.
Macarena Perusset, UTN - FRBA
Resumen Hace ya tiempo sabemos la importancia de las
tecnologías para la inclusión social en relación a la distribución
de la riqueza, inclusión de sectores menos favorecidos, etc. En
este sentido, desde hace décadas en nuestro país se encuentran
vigentes diversos proyectos destinados a resolver distintas
problemáticas que padecen los sectores más vulnerables de la
población, entre las cuales, la cuestión alimentaria y habitacional
ocupa un lugar central. En estas propuestas suele apuntarse a la
capacitación de los “beneficiarios”, sin embargo, a la luz de la
situación actual, muchos de estos proyectos parecen no haber
alcanzado los logros esperados. En este sentido, este trabajo
busca desentrañar las razones por las que estos proyectos no
consiguen sus objetivos previstos, con el fin de aportar nuevas
propuestas destinadas a obtener los logros esperados. Al
respecto, a través de una aproximación social de la tecnología
buscamos superar las limitaciones de los enfoques economicistas,
tecnicistas y deterministas, para dar cuenta de las particularidades
de los grupos humanos, de sus representaciones, hábitos y
prácticas así como de la necesidad de tener estos en cuenta para
la co-construcción de tecnologías sociales que den lugar a esas
particularidades culturales. De esta manera, problematizaremos,
entre otras cuestiones, la necesidad de capacitación conjunta de
los actores sociales, tanto de los usuarios/beneficiarios como de
los diseñadores de proyectos, teniendo en cuenta la necesidad de
descartar o reformular ciertos supuestos acerca de la economía,
cultura y desarrollo de innovaciones de las comunidades donde
se implementarán las tecnologías sociales en cuestión.
Discussant:
Tiago Santos Pereira, University of Coimbra
037. Ownership and Professionalism. Examples from Swedish
education and higher education, 1945-2010
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Mozart
What is the relationship between professionalism and commodification in
the globalized privatization regime of science policy? The session aims to
discuss problems related to property rights and the formation of markets in
Sweden, in relation to the organization of work and to professionalism as a
historical process. The historical perspective allows for a comparison over
time, starting out with two papers that treat the “golden decades” (19451975); issues related to ownership, patent policy and the division of work
between university and industry during the expansion of the welfare state.
The other two papers in the session treat aspects of the process of
privatization and commodification of knowledge in the “workfare state”;
the privatization of the school system and the question of how normative
statements of science born in the context of the 40s and 50s interact with
the industrialised work organization of the present. The contribution to STS
lies 1. In the problematisation of the commodification of knowledge in a
long historial perspective and 2. In the centrality of the Swedish case to
understand the evolution of research policy and its practical consequences,
as Sweden is known to be an early adopter when it comes to policy change.
Chair:
Ylva Hasselberg, Uppsala university
Participants:
Professor's privilege: Patent policy and academic
professionalism in 1940s Sweden Ingemar Pettersson,
Uppsala university
The “professor’s privilege” is a piece of legislation that gives
university scholars the right to own patents on inventions
generated by their research. It was a widespread legal practice in
the post-war period internationally, but has been under strong
pressure since the 1990s as national science policy more and
more has been fuelled by an ideal of making universities more
“entrepreneurial” and businesslike. Thus, the professor’s
privilege has been removed in many countries and replaced with
legislations inspired by the Bayh-Dole act that was introduced in
the U.S. in 1980 and gave universities the rights to own patents
on inventions made by their employed scientists. Sweden,
however, has kept its legislation despite political campaigns to
remove it, and is often considered a main representative of the
professor’s privilege in the international discourse of patents and
science policy. Somewhat surprisingly, there are no historical
studies of this controversial legislation. Therefore, the paper goes
back to the 1940s when the professor’s privilege was established
in Sweden and presents an in-depth analysis of the actors and
ideas that supported it. It illustrates how polices for patents and
science merged in the 1940s, how the relations between patents
and science were understood, and how the adoption of the
professor’s privilege related to the larger formation of a post-war
science policy framework. As a main finding, the paper suggests
that the professor’s privilege was established through an act of
boundary-work by the academic profession that safeguarded the
academic institution from outside pressures from economy and
politics.
Clotting processes: stabilization and destabilization of roles and
organizations in the development of a treatment of
Haemophilia Daniel Pär Normark, Karolinska institutet
In the mid 50th a new treatment to reduce the symptoms of
haemophilia was developed. Birger & Margareta Blombäck
successfully fractioned a solution from human blood that, when
given to bleeders (first administered by Inger Nilsson) could
normalize their coagulation. The development of AHF (that the
fraction was called), led to a national demand for a treatment that
the researchers tried to meet. In 1966 KABI took over the
production. At first sight, this development, from innovation to
production and treatment resembles a linear, desirable,
progression from science to industry. But as one moves closer to
the details of the processes one finds that the boundaries and
division of labor between medical research, industry and practice
were compromised to the extent that it was almost impossible to
pinpoint where one sphere started and the other ended - even on
the individual level, in which the roles as researchers, industrial
consultants and doctors were juxtaposed. The aim of this paper is
to describe the clotting processes, physiologically and
metaphorically, that took place for the roles, organizations and
bodies that were part of the process of developing AHF. The
stabilization as well as the destabilization of factory procedures;
the boundary work of a research subject (and career); and the
stabilization of bleeding time, were all coproduced and
interdependent.
Marketization and professionalism: the Introduction of Market
Principles in the Swedish Primary and Secondary Education
1991-2014 Niklas Stenlås, Uppsala University
Over the last 25 years, the school sector is perhaps the most
intensely and thoroughly reformed of all social sectors in
Sweden. When the social democratic government started the
‘reform wave’ in the late 1980s their ambition was to reform a
quite well-functioning education system – not because it did not
work well but because new governance doctrines demanded it.
Two years later the social democratic government was replaced
by a non-socialist government which almost immediately
introduced the right to establish privately owned schools together
with a voucher system and the aim that schools should compete
with each other for students and resources. Both reforms were ill
prepared as well as hastened or even bullied through the
legislative system, something which indicates the anxiousness of
the reforms and about the motives behind them. When Sweden a
few years later started to partake in the PISA and TIMSS
international education result surveys, steadily decreasing results
suggests that one of the world’s most successful education
systems had been transformed to a mediocre/inferior one. This
essay aims to uncover the motives behind the marketization of
Sweden’s education sector. To study the relation between
marketization and professionalism in Swedish education
becomes all the more important because education was the first
public sector that was subjected to competition policies in
Sweden in the 1990’s and because these reforms have been
hailed abroad as a huge success.
: Misunderstanding the Merton thesis. The relationship between
normative statements on science and work organization
among junior faculty in two Swedish science departments
Ylva Hasselberg, Uppsala university
The paper revisits a classical problem; the role of normative
statements in science. STS has during more than 30 years ignored
the normative aspects of science; partly in consequence of the
need to create a distance to mertonian perspectives. This paper
takes as its starting point a micro study of junior faculty in two
departments at Swedish universities (both within science) to
discuss what the role of normative statements on science, its
meaning and role in society, and what it demands in terms of
work and engagement, could possibly be in a commodified
setting? The thesis is that normative statements on science are
more important than ever in the globalized privatization regime
of science policy, since they form a powerful motivation to work.
In an industrialised organization of science, exploitation is
however substituted for self-exploitation, and the role of norms
in this process, as well as the consequences for the individual and
the profession, should undoubtedly be explored by STS.
038. (Re)thinking the Bioeconomy II
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Picasso
Chair:
Sara Lafuente, CSIC - Consejos Superior de Investigaciones
Científicas (Spanish National Research Council)
Participants:
Personalized medicine: from bio-politics to “omic” politics?
Dani Filc, Department of Politics and Government, BenGurion University
Personalized medicine, tailoring medical treatment to the
individual characteristics of each patient and classifying
individuals according to their susceptibility to a particular disease
or their response to specific treatments; has been described as “a
major paradigm shift in biology and medicine.” This paper
argues that personalized medicine is not only a new medical
paradigm, but a manifestation of the emergence of a new field of
power, the omic space - the holistic, interaction between genome,
proteome, metabolome, epigenome and exposome - and a new
cluster of power relations, which could be called “omic-politics”.
"Omic-politics", as do disciplinary power and the bio-politics of
the population, represents a form of power over life. The paper
analyzes the different expressions of "omic-politics", focusing on
the way in which "omic-politics" constitutes new individual and
collective subjectivities, influences practices of government and
creates new forms of capital accumulation. The omic sciences
transform our idea of person, thinking individuality in genomic
and biological terms. Omic politics erode traditional collective
identities and allow for the emergence of new collectivities based
on "a common extended pedigree". Personalized medicine
creates new technologies of the self and forms of continuous
surveillance aimed to better managing the risk of possible
diseases. Finally, personalized medicine and the omic sciences
ground the development of new forms of capital accumulation,
such as bio-banks and applied pharmacogenomics. The paper
contributes to the STS literature by providing an original
perspective on the broad social implications of personalized
medicine.
Who is my donor? Implications for large-scale iPS cell
therapies Emma King, University of Edinburgh
Stem cell derived red blood cells (RBCs) have the potential to
reduce or eliminate the future need for blood donors. The
BloodPharma project is a multi-partner research project seeing to
culture RBCs using Induced Pluripotent Stem cell (iPS cell)
technology, which could see tissue from a single adult donor
supplying the entire blood transfusion service, both within the
UK and further afield. This paper draws on interviews and focus
groups which have been carried out with the general public,
patients, and stakeholders, regarding the future introduction of
laboratory grown RBCs. My talk will reflect on these findings,
which show that respondents would like the ability to choose the
donor who supplied the tissue donation. There is also an
attachment seen to ‘home-grown’ blood made in the UK, in
contrast to a distrust of blood developed elsewhere in the world.
Questions arise over whether we should have the right to choose
where our blood donations come from, or whether this is a return
to the racial segregation of blood. This work will contribute to
the STIS literature by asking whether the concepts of a ‘gift
relationship’ (Titmuss), and the ‘special-ness’ of blood, require
updating in light of the increasing commercialisation of tissue
(Waldby). I will explore the underlying factors for a distrust of
certain donors, particularly drawing on concepts of ‘cleanliness’
(Douglas, Ball). The impact on iPS donors themselves will also
be discussed, especially their personal security in light of recent
revelations that anonymity cannot be guaranteed.
Abortion, medical markets, and strategies of resistance: the
Chilean case Lieta Vivaldi, Goldsmiths University
Chile is one of the 7 countries in the world where abortion is
prohibited in all circumstances. This legislation (established in
the last days of Pinochet’s dictatorship) has generated new
economies of life concomitant with severe problems of gender
and social inequalities. Last estimations established a number of
70.000 abortions per year, forcing many women to a highly
unregulated black market, in which wealth and networks (already
in hands of a very few) play a decisive role. My presentation will
be based on my participation on a study of 2013, in which we
collected the testimonies of near to a hundred Chilean people
directly or indirectly involved in abortion cases (women, doctors,
midwives, but friends, partners and psychologists as well). We
found a huge clandestine business in which several doctors and
midwifes took advantage of their situation charging vast amounts
of money for abortions practiced in poor conditions. The case of
the abortive pill Misoprostol (recently prohibited and so pushed
to black markets) is particularly interesting in his role of helping
to prevent harm as well as enhancing women's agency. The fact
that a doctor is no longer needed could be perceived as a relief
and as a reappropriation over the own body (touching key issues
of agency). Finally, I will consider how the intervention of
feminist organizations and women groups is crucial for
generating new strategies of solidarity and resistance that enable
us to reinterpret the new economic of the body.
Egg procurement in practice: a comparison of the UK and Spain
Cathy Herbrand, De Montfort University; Sara Lafuente,
CSIC - Consejos Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
(Spanish National Research Council)
While the circulation of human body material between
reproductive clinics and research has recently attracted increasing
interest, especially from a bioethical and socio-political
perspective (Franklin 2006; Thompson 2014; Waldby & Cooper
2014), there is still a striking lack of empirical data regarding
how this circulation is organized and managed. This talk focuses
on the practical aspects of eggs procurement in the UK and in
Spain. This comparison is of particular interest as both countries
are playing a crucial role in the current ‘reproductive
bioecononomy’ (Thompson, 2005; Pavone, 2012), despite
presenting distinctive legal regulations and practical procedures.
In the UK, where strict but permissive comprehensive laws have
been adopted, eggs for research are mainly obtained through eggsharing programmes and faulty egg discarding. By contrast,
Spain has become one of the main destinations for reproductive
tourism among European countries, due to its flexible regulation
and increasingly neoliberalized assisted reproduction sector,
where egg procurement for reproduction is facilitated by the
authorization of financial compensation for the donors. Eggs for
research, nonetheless, have a more difficult and less transparent
way of arriving to the research centres. In this talk, we will
present the first findings of our investigation of the practical and
material connections between fertility clinics and research
centres, which have been collected through interviews with
scientists from research labs using eggs and with clinicians from
reproductive clinics. This research is part of a broader
comparative study between the UK and Spain on the mutual coconstitutive interaction between assisted reproduction and
regenerative medicine.
Células madres, clonación humana y familia Aníbal Hernan
Corrales Castillo, Doctorado en Ciencias sociales,
Universidad de Chile
Es común sostener en las ciencias sociales que la familia de la
sociedad es parte componente del orden social, y que una de las
múltiples funciones que se le atribuye es permitir el desarrollo
vital de sus miembros, mediante la realización de una economía
doméstica que se produce entre la reproducción biológica de la
especie y la ayuda mutua de quienes comparten un espacio
común. Lo anterior es diacrónicamente observable en el entorno
social contemporáneo, donde las expectativas que genera el
campo científico con sus operaciones biotecnológicas son
funcionales a las expectativas de las familias, en cuanto permitir
la reproducción social de ésta mediante la reproducción de la
especie humana a través de técnicas de fertilización in vitro
(FIV). A su vez, para las familias, las tecnologías relativas a
células madre embrionarias generan expectativas de sentido
bioeconómico que se materializan mediante los beneficios que
eventualmente, sus integrantes pueden obtener y gozar por
aplicación de dicha tecnología, en el caso de padecer a futuro
enfermedades que hoy son calificadas por la medicina como
complejas o incurables. Al constatar históricamente que la
biotecnología de células madre embrionarias se basa en la
aplicación de la técnica de clonación de células humanas, se
puede observar que las actuales resistencias frente a bio procesos
más radicales -como la clonación de seres humanos- están
sustentadas transnacionalmente por el derecho de la sociedad,
mediante la exclusión social de un individuo clonado en base al
genoma de un ser humano de la categoría de persona.
Variegated new political economies: biotechnologies and 3D
printing technologies in advanced capitalism Pierre
Delvenne, Université de Liège (SPIRAL)
Science and technology studies are paying greater attention to the
interactions between new technologies and politico-economic
orders. Dynamics of promises and expectations with regard to
technological developments, and their uptake, play a major role
in shaping political-economic policies, institutional practices and
wider societal mutations. In the literature on biotechnology, and
life sciences more generally, the role of marketization and an
enlarged international regime of intellectual property rights have
particularly been emphasised. The strategic interest in
commercial outcomes of biotechnologies has led to the
emergence of a “global bioeconomy”, in which the latent value
of biological materials and products (sometimes coined as
“biovalue” or “biocapital”) offers the opportunity for economic
growth. Recent critical contributions have shown that there value
does not come from nature itself or from particular biological
materials, but instead from the application of knowledge to
nature, and the subjection of that knowledge to intellectual
property rights (Birch and Tyfield 2013). This allows for the
exploration of other knowledge-based global political economies
beyond life sciences, which may be subjected to similar logics
due to the transformation of modern capitalism. Taking new
manufacturing economy based on 3D printing technologies as a
counterpoint to bioeconomy, this paper will be a first attempt to
critically compare two new political economies as well as to
consider they ways they connect with cornucopian imaginaries of
abundant knowledge and creative resources (Birch et al. 2010)
that create an imperative to invest in, share or protect new
knowledge, technologies and human creativity for increasing
market values and competitiveness.
Discussant:
Vincenzo Pavone, CSIC - Consejo Superior Investigaciones
Cientícas
039. Technologies, Translations and Borders
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Quinquela
This session examines material manifestations of technological crossings,
translations and migrations, linking science and technology studies with
postcolonial and queer theories. Using translation to follow
transformations that entangle language and material, Bruno Latour (1999)
explores how the practice connects text and technology, even as one can
modify and displace the other. We tie this method to that used by Gloria
Anzaldúa (1987) in Borderlands / La Frontera, a multi-lingual study of
borders as social, geographic, political and cultural artifacts that create,
transform and solidify subjectivities, embodiments and material realities.
The borders analyzed in our works highlight tensions between subaltern
practices and political, cultural and economic structures that define them by
analyzing historical particularities that shape each border as a hybrid. We
explore opposing movements: people, illnesses and everyday technologies
that cross borders versus practices of data collection, surveillance and
“intelligence” gathering that delineate separations and define citizenship.
Yet the technological mediations that give form to the migrations made by
North Korean refugees and Mexican workers, inform the state-making
practices used by the United States and other nations and stake out the
significance of technological borders rely on shared techniques. We
emphasize the multiple, material forms of technological mediation used to
construct, maintain and cross borders, addressing them through
methodologies that incorporate cinema, sound and performance. The
borders presented span from the embodied to the digital - yet, each is
underwritten by tensions that materially link what is home and what is
alien, pointing not to the border’s permanence but its contingency.
Chair:
Angie Mejia, Syracuse University
Participants:
Jus Algoritmi: The NSA's Algorithmic Citizenship and
Foreignness John Cheney-Lippold, University of Michigan
The recently-released National Security Agency documents by
Edward Snowden detail a trove of controversial state surveillance
practices. These forms of surveillance became the centerpiece of
an ongoing, international debate over the rights of the state
versus the rights of the citizen. But what exactly is a citizen in a
digital world? This is the precise problem that the NSA
encountered when trying to interpret the extraordinary amount of
data it obtained from ubiquitous surveillance within the legal
foundations of the U.S. Constitution. The NSA's response was to
create a citizenship algorithm, using several different variables
(or "selectors") to determine if a target was a "citizen" or a
"foreigner": A target with a foreignness value of 51% would have
a citizenship value of 49%, enabling the state to legally surveil
his or her communications. These "selectors", which can include
who one communicates with, search terms, language spoken, or
keywords in email or chat messages, became the effectual
arbiters of citizenship. This is what my paper calls "algorithmic
citizenship", of citizenship defined by statistical confidence
measures based on surveilled user data rather than possession of
a passport or birth certificate. Citizenship's converse -foreignness -- is constructed in a similar manner. The
consequences of an algorithmic mode of identity production will
be expounded on, emphasizing the temporal precariousness of
one's identity online -- a target's "citizenship" level always has
the capacity to change based on new data about that target -- and
how this can alter the state-citizen relationship in the near future.
Cheney-Lippold, John (2011). "A New Algorithmic Identity: Soft
Biopolitics and the Modulation of Control", Theory, Culture &
Society, 28(6): 164-181. Foster, Thomas (2006). The Souls of
Cyberfolk: Posthumanism as Vernacular Theory, University of
Minnesota Press: Minneapolis. Terranova, Tiziana (2004).
Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age, Pluto Press:
London.
La llorona y la frontera: Mapping the border crossing of
medicalized depression Angie Mejia, Syracuse University
Anzaldua imagines the border as a “vague and undetermined
place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary”
(1987, p. 25). Could we see these emotional residues, of sadness,
pain, and alienation, what women crossing borders come to know
as clinical depression? This paper focuses on the border crossing
of mental health discourses and its effects on U.S. Mexican
women's subjectivities. I share preliminary data of ethnographic
content analysis of Spanish language materials geared towards a
Latina/o U.S. audience. I also share Mexican Spanish language
materials geared towards a Mexican audience which are present
in the creation of a biomedical discourse on major depressive
disorders (MDDs) that is made available not only to U.S.
Mexicans but various U.S. groups with ancestral ties to Latin
America. These texts often promote the idea that depression is a
neurochemical abnormality in the brain that manifests
emotionally and physically. Thus, their relationship to each other
strengthens the legitimacy of the biomedical understanding of
depression. Furthermore, a close reading of these texts and
understanding of their context can also illuminate how this
hegemonic understanding of depression travels, is translated or
reproduced, and incorporated by sufferers. My presentation is
an attempt at a "productive engagement" (Pickersgill, 2010, p.
386) between the sociology of health and STS. It is an empirical
exercise that maps the travel of knowledges about depression,
which are constituted by various social entities (such as
institutional bodies, discursive facts, organizational practices). It
also analyzes the creation of knowledge at the intersection of
society and various technoscientific fields, into social worlds that
are continually shaped by hierarchies of race, ethnicity, gender,
class positionalities, sexualities, and abilities, and that have been
further (re)defined by U.S. ideas about citizenship and national
belonging. Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands/ La Frontera. San
Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Press, 1987. Pickersgill, M. D. (2010).
Psyche, soma, and science studies: New directions in the
sociology of mental health and illness. Journal of Mental Health,
19(4), 382-392.
Seeing the Voice Unknown: Representation of North Korean
Refugees Jinhee Park, University of Southern California
This paper discusses the border crossing experience from North
Korea to the US through China, Cambodia, and Thailand
mediated in my documentary film Voice Unknown. North
Korean’s exile is a state of metaphorical, sociopolitical and
psychological experience. Voice Unknown is about a North
Korean woman living in the US, who experiences a paradigm
shift from communist culture to American culture. The numbers
of refugees escaping North Korea increase every year due to a
food crisis as well as a growing disenchantment with political
policies of the North Korean government. My presentation will
probe the issues of representation and technological invention in
media. North Korean refugees are unable to make their voices
heard because they must hide their identity to protect their
remaining family in North Korea. Thus the narrative of the film
uses aesthetics to represent a person whose face cannot be
shown. This film is constructed with completely separate visual
and audio tracks in order to protect her identity. There are four
visual elements in the film, her real appearance, re-enactment of
interview by an actress, North Korean archival footage, and
imaginative landscapes. This technological invention to recall the
memories of border crossing of North Koreans who cannot
represent themselves uses Avery Gordon’s notion of “Haunting
and the Sociological Imagination.” Sociopolitical conditions
repressed the voices of North Koreans, yet revealing the
‘disappearance’ of individual history will shadow the past
through media blurring of the visible and the concrete. Gordon,
Avery. Ghostly matters: Haunting and the sociological
imagination. U of Minnesota Press, 2008.
Techno-cosmopolitanism as ideology and pedagogy: Learning
social division in a connected age Christo Sims, University of
California, San Diego
This paper questions the politics of treating elite technocultures
as templates for work and citizenship in today’s era of
globalizing relations. Inspired by the recent successes of selective
technocultures in places like the San Francisco Bay Area, many
popular analysts, policymakers, and reformers (e.g. Florida 2012;
Friedman and Mandelbaum 2011; Wagner 2012) have celebrated
the cultural practices of expert media technologists as an ideal,
and even progressive, model of work and citizenship in an
increasingly interconnected and technologically saturated world.
According to enthusiasts, these ideal workers and citizens, which
I refer to as “techno-cosmopolitans,” not only create economic
and technological innovation, they also respect cultural
differences and proliferate hybridized cultural forms across
historical social divisions. And yet these celebrated
technocultures are by definition exceptional, which raises
questions about if and how their practices and success strategies
can and should be equitably generalized, often by way of
educational interventions. Drawing on an in-depth ethnographic
study of the launch of a well-resourced and highly publicized
New York City public school, I argue that the founders’ attempts
to cultivate future techno-cosmopolitans overlooked, rather than
overcame, the school’s contribution to the remaking of privileged
social divisions, especially divisions rooted in racialized social
class and gender. The school was uniquely well suited for
examining the political and practical limitations of technocosmopolitan ideals and pedagogies since the student body was
enmeshed in global meshworks (Ingold 2011) and yet atypically
diverse in terms of social class.
Discussant:
Angie Mejia, Syracuse University
040. Tecnologias, ambientes formativos e questões de identidade
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Soldi
No Brasil, as ações governamentais referentes à aplicação das Tecnologias
da Informação e Comunicação (TIC) se propõem à melhoria da qualidade
de vida social e à formação para a cidadania. Estas ações visam abranger a
diversidade sócio-econômico-cultural de sujeitos inseridos em diferentes
contextos formativos. Nessas ações, identificam-se diferentes dispositivos
que abrangem a inserção das tecnologias no contexto escolar e a produção
cultural com vistas à inclusão social. Constata-se que tais dispositivos
integram as políticas dos governos em exercício, mas não possuem
sequência em futuras gestões e que, a cada novo Programa, o modelo de
formação proposto tem sido substituído por outro sem que se tenha acesso
às justificativas para tais substituições. Esta sessão se destina a provocar
uma discussão acerca das tecnologias nos processos identitários de
formação de sujeitos e atores sociais com base em diferentes pesquisas, que
se fundamentam em abordagens distintas tais como a sociotécnica e a
interculturalidade. Acredita-se ser uma discussão pertinente, pois
proporcionará um exercício de reflexão teórica, metodológica e
epistemológica sobre a relação entre ciência, tecnologia e sociedade e,
dessa forma, contribuir para nortear e avaliar os processos educativos e as
políticas públicas relacionadas ao uso das tecnologias na sociedade.
Chair:
Rose Mary Almas de Carvalho, Pontifícia Universidade
Católica de Goiás
Participants:
Ecos e repercussões dos processos formativos nas práticas
docentes mediadas pelas tecnologias Moema Gomes Moraes,
Centro de Pesquisa Aplicado à Educação - UFG
A presente proposta toma como objetivo a análise das percepções
dos professores as percepções de professores da rede pública da
educação básica do estado de Goiás sobre: o papel das
tecnologias na educação e a trajetória de suas práticas
pedagógicas, tomando como referência os programas oficiais de
integração das tecnologias à educação. Tem como objetivos
geral: Analisar, com relação aos programas oficiais de integração
das tecnologias à educação, as percepções de professores da rede
pública da educação básica do estado de Goiás (Brasil) sobre: o
papel das tecnologias na educação e a trajetória de suas práticas
pedagógicas. Apresenta como objetivos específicos: Caracterizar
a formação inicial dos professores da rede pública da educação
básica do estado de Goiás no que diz respeito ao uso das
tecnologias; Caracterizar a formação continuada de professores
da rede pública da educação básica do estado de Goiás no que
tange aos programas oficiais de tecnologias na educação;
Identificar as percepções de professores da rede pública da
educação básica do estado de Goiás, quanto ao uso das
tecnologias na educação; Identificar as percepções que
professores da rede pública da educação básica do estado de
Goiás possuem de suas práticas no decorrer de sua trajetória
profissional, especialmente face à formação continuada para uso
das tecnologias. O trabalho é tomado como categoria central de
análise visto que, na abordagem materialista histórico-dialética, a
base das relações sociais são as formas organizativas do trabalho
(relações sociais de produção). Assim, as trajetórias formativas e
as práticas docentes mediadas pelas tecnologias serão objeto de
análise da presente proposta de pesquisa, à luz do materialismo
histórico-dialético. Para tal, pretende-se tomar como base
empírica os professores da rede pública de educação básica do
estado de Goiás, considerados como sujeitos históricos que são
determinados, mas também determinantes das relações que se
estabelecem e das práticas que se configuram por meio do uso
pedagógico das tecnologias. Como instrumento principal de
coleta de dados será adotada a entrevista aprofundada com
professores dos 12 primeiros Núcleos de Tecnologia Educacional
criados no estado de Goiás.
OLPC no estado de Goiás-Brasil: entre propósitos pedagógicos
e práticas docentes Joana Peixoto, IFG; Adda Daniela Lima
Figueiredo Echalar, Universidade Estadual de Goiás
O governo federal lançou o Programa Um Computador por
Aluno (PROUCA), que vem sendo implantando no Brasil desde
2007, com o objetivo de otimizar o processo de ensino e
aprendizagem. Espelhado no projeto da One laptop Per Child
(OLPC), foi apresentado ao governo brasileiro no ano de 2005,
por Nicholas Negroponte e Mary Lou Jepsen. O presente artigo
tem como objetivo a análise das as relações entre os propósitos
pedagógicos do projeto e as práticas educativas dos professores
de uma escola, da rede pública estadual de Goiás. A pesquisa se
pautou em uma abordagem qualitativa por meio do estudo de
caso de uma escola da rede pública do estado de Goiás que
integra este programa. Neste sentido, foi realizada uma análise
documental dos documentos oficiais do governo federal para
conhecimento dos propósitos pedagógicos do PROUCA, bem
como entrevistas com os docentes e grupo gestor da escola da
escola supracitada. No ano de 2010 a escola recebeu 737 laptops
do PROUCA para seus, atualmente, 522 alunos. Fato ocasionado
porque a escola foi direcionada ao sistema de escola integral no
ano de 2012 em seu período diurno – do 1º ao 9º ano.
O cinema (des)construindo simbólicos identitários da mulher
negra Júlio César dos Santos, Instituto Federal de
Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Goiás; Rosa Maria
Berardo, Universidade Federal de Goiás
Este artigo analisa o diálogo que se processa entre os olhares de
mulheres negras mediados pelo cinema, diálogo no qual se
interpelam pontos de vista diversos, do feminino e da negritude,
no território do cinema, no campo da cultura visual em que a
imagem produzida ultrapassa a condição técnica e se torna uma
imagem com vida própria, seja um estereótipo ou uma
mercadoria, um manifesto ou um conceito, enfim, se torna uma
bio-imagem. Nesse diálogo a tecnologia cinematográfica atua na
construção de simbólicos – imagens, narrativas... visualidades
que podem identificar diferenciar subjetividades individuais,
atrizes sociais, sujeitas históricas, agentes políticas e realizadores
artísticos e culturais, como representações. Estas imagens se
compõem de uma categorização forjada tanto pela tecnologia
cinematográfica por sua capacidade de representar identidades de
mulheres negras, que como “artistas” e “sujeitas” se apropria da
tecnologia para produzir autoimagens que agem como uma ação
responsiva ao conflito entre o social e o não-social, que as
interpela questionando-lhes (as mulheres negras): quem e o que
são? O filme funciona como um suporte para esta ação de
representar-se, o filme é, portanto, um objeto-filme-representação
de um arranjo criativo subjetivo ao mesmo tempo que coletivo,
um dizer de si para si mesmas e para os outros. O cinema é uma
das muitas possibilidades de uma mulher negra dizer quem e o
que ela é, tanto nas questões relacionados ao gênero quanto à
racialidade que lhes é inerente. Assim, compreende-se o cinema
como uma tecnologia de gênero, de raça, porquanto social,
cultural, histórica, e mesmo psicanalítica, que possibilita colocar
em questão estereótipos, paradigmas, normas sociais de exclusão
e transformar este diálogo numa situação política, em sentido
“lato e estrito” através da qual as mulheres negras interpelam da
mesma forma a sociedade contemporânea em seus fundamentos,
para que ela responda quem e o que são elas. O cinema, portanto,
corrobora a construção e desconstrução da identidade feminina
negra tanto através dos filmes que representam a mulher
negraquanto como instrumento de trabalho, ou estratégia de paz e
guerra. Nestes campos de conflito e de realização o fazer, o fruir
e o pensar cinema são ações instrumentalizadas orientadas pelo
pertencimento, compartilhamento, mutualidade, engajamento,
enfim, pelo processo de construção identitária.
Formação continuada de professores em diálogos interculturais
virtuais Maria Cristina Lima Paniago, Universidade
Católica Dom Bosco
Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar as relações
estabelecidas entre professores em processo de formação
continuada em contexto virtual. Trata-se de uma pesquisa
qualitativa, subsidiada pela FUNDECT/MS e CNPq, a qual
utiliza a interface facebook como espaço virtual de interação. O
grupo participante da formação foi composto por professores e
pesquisadores de uma Universidade Privada do Estado de MS e
professores indígenas da etnia Terena. Este texto tratará apenas
das trocas realizadas na rede social facebook durante o ano de
2013, fundamentado teoricamente na dialogicidade proposta por
Paulo Freire. Foram evidenciadas as seguintes relações:
professor/tecnologia; professor/professor; professor/formação.
Em relação ao professor/tecnologia, ainda há pouca familiaridade
com algumas ferramentas tecnológicas o que dificulta a
participação nas atividades mediadas pelas tecnologias ou no uso
da mesma na prática docente; Quando o foco é a relação
professor/professor, enxerga-se muitas possibilidades de
colaboração, diálogo, partilha de informações, o que contribui na
producão de conhecimentos e na própria aprendizagem. Por fim,
na relação professor/formação, quando se assume uma posição de
protagonismo no processo de trocas, de abertura a conexões e a
estabelecimento de nós, há maiores possibilidades de uma
formação continuada, mesmo inacabada e “caótica”, ainda assim,
uma formação que soma e entende os diferentes saberes como
subsídios no processo de ensinar e de aprender.
Redes sociais na educação: facebook como espaço de formação
continuada de professores Maysa De Oliveira Brum Bueno,
Universidade Católica Dom Bosco
Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a formação continuada
dos professores em redes sociais digitais, mais especificamente o
Facebook, as concepções desses professores sobre formação
continuada online, as interações estabelecidas nesse ambiente e
as implicações da formação online na prática docente do
professor. Esta pesquisa se fundamenta na teoria do conectivismo
para explicar os nós e as ligações em rede entre os professores
participantes da pesquisa. A abordagem metodológica escolhida
é a etnografia virtual e métodos da pesquisa qualitativa. Como
contexto para o desenvolvimento dessa investigação, foram
considerados dois grupos dentro da rede social Facebook: o
Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa em Tecnologias Educacionais e
Educação a Distância (GETED) e o Cultura Digital e Formação
de Professores. Como sujeitos da pesquisa foram considerados
professores atuantes na educação. Desse modo, para
desencadeamento das interpretações, partiu-se de registros
lançados na timeline dos grupos em questão, bem como
depoimentos solicitados por mim, observação e questionário.
Como principais resultados, destaca-se que a experiência nos
grupos favorece as interações e, consequentemente, a formação
continuada.
041. Technoscientific Sensations
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Verdi
How do nonvisual senses figure as tools and objects of experimental
inquiry? How do researchers attune themselves to sift auditory signal from
noise, grapple haptically with the natural world, and hone apprehensions of
olfaction, tactility, and taste, not to mention kinaesthesia, synaesthesia, and
many other sensorial modalities? Further, what sorts of technologies
undergird mediated sensing, even train scientists in perceiving concepts,
data, or proofs that would otherwise only be conceivable symbolically?
Science studies scholars are increasingly attending to senses beyond sight.
No longer limited to traces, inscriptions, graphemes, and gazes, we now
seek to account for the fully embodied, affective, and sensorially rich ways
scientists, mathematicians, and allied practitioners both sense and “make
sense.” This panel aims to draw science studies into generative
conversation with sensory studies. While to date, most literature has neatly
divided among various senses (e.g., sound studies, food/taste studies), this
panel investigates cross-cutting themes and insights that can be gleaned
from thinking about perception more holistically, moving away from
anthropocentric models of sensation, and tacking between different
historical moments and subdisciplines. This panel draws together
historians, anthropologists, and sociologists of science joined by a shared
concern for technoscientific sensing: Dumit investigates how multiple
practitioners train their sensitivities across fields of fascia research. Myers
presents recent work on botanical sensoria, Pinch examines the valuation of
sound, Roosth discusses the history of infrasonic vibrations, Sponsel
reports on Cold War applications of animal noises for sonic camouflage,
and Steingart describes how topologists study manifolds using haptic and
synaesthetic sensibilities.
Chair:
Sophia Roosth, Harvard University
Participants:
Senses and Sciences of Fascia Joseph Dumit, UC Davis
One hand touching another and each feels the skin, and under the
skin, of each hand. One hand touches another and both change in
skin and under the skin. The many senses—of touching, feeling,
tactility, thermal, mechanical, and kinesthetic impressions,
proprioceptive movement, weight and balance of self and others,
affective pleasures, pain, distention, tickling, itching, tension and
tone, anticipation and inspection—are in flux, social and cultural,
yet trainable, extendable, transformable. Each nameable variable
of the experience seems to matter and feedback into the
experiment: pressure, weight, angle, movement, direction, depth
of feel, intent, relaxation, length of time, sensitivity, attention.
Geurts, Csordas and Bourdieu are starting points to feel how
history is "turned into nature” and experience and becomes a
“durably installed generative principle of regulated
improvisations”, but the material processes of regulation are
under analogized. This presentation explores one emergent
anatomical claim for better understanding these processes: fascia.
Often called connective tissue (the goop or structure between
muscles, organs, skin, and cells), but also found to be active,
intelligent, communicative, and a sensory organ; sometimes
three, sometimes many and sometimes one, liquid, solid and
mucus, fascia stretches between communities of biologists,
massage therapists, anatomists and pathologists, yoga and pilates
teachers, doctors and dancers. Palpating these membranes
through participant observation and interviews, experience and
experiments, this work attends to the training of sensitivity across
fields of fascia research and sinks excitedly into the viscous
materialities of connections.
Sense and Sensation: Experiments in Plant Sentience Natasha
Myers, York University
Plants, long renowned for their sensitivity and irritability, are
now recognized to have the ability to sense -- and make sense of
-- their worlds. Researchers in the fields of chemical ecology,
plant physiology, and the emerging field of plant neurobiology
are experimenting with plants’ remarkable sensory dexterities.
They claim that plant response is not a passive, mechanical
reaction to changing environments; rather, plants respond
actively to sensory phenomena. Though they have no
recognizable nerves, they can “feel” and respond rapidly and
intentionally to the subtlest of touch. Though they have no
tongues, they can “taste” the saliva of the insects that feed on
their leaves, and mount species-specific responses to herbivores.
Though they have no noses they can “smell” minute differences
in atmospheric chemistry and synthesize volatile chemical
bouquets to communicate directly with other plants and insects.
These experiments are charting the contours of a model of a plant
sentience grounded in the excitability of plant tissues: plants are
sensitized to and able to transduce a range of energies,
intensities, and affects. This is a model of sentience that bypasses
reference to cognition or central nervous systems. It is an
approach evocative of Merleau-Ponty’s affirmation that there is
“a carnal adherence of the sentient to the sensed and of the
sensed to the sentient.” This paper examines the affective
ecologies of botanical experiments, paying attention to the
energetics, intensities, and desires that inflect and inform how
researchers render plant sensitivity as the promise of botanical
sentience.
?Moments in the Valuation of Sound: The Early History of
Synthesizers? Trevor Pinch, Cornell University
In this paper I examine the early history of the electronic music
synthesizer to investigate how electronic sound acquired value.
Four moments of dissonance are examined: the very first Moog
sounds made by Robert Moog, the use of the Moog in a
recording studio by the Doors to make their album Strange Days,
the so-called "baruuump bass" sound as used on a Simon and
Garfunkel recording which later became popular in Hip Hop, and
the yawling sound of the Minimoog used in Progressive Rock
soloing. The chapter argues that the value of sound emerges over
time in particular places like recording studios and festivals. The
politics of valuation are examined by contrasting the Moog
synthesizer and its sounds with the lesser known Buchla
synthesizer.
The Musique concrète of Nature: Underwater Listening and the
Acousmatic Predicament Alistair Sponsel, Vanderbilt
University
In the years during and immediately after World War II, the
French theorist and composer Pierre Schaeffer made a
philosophical and artistic virtue of what he called “acousmatic”
sound, i.e., sound whose cause is not known. Exploiting the fact
that technologies for audio recording made it possible to separate
the phenomenon of a sound from its physical cause, he pioneered
the movement of “musique concrète.” At precisely the same
time, marine biologists were confronting the new scientific
puzzle posed by sonar technology that was developed for use in
the detection of submarines. In this context, the acousmatic
phenomenon was a mystery and potentially a threat. In this paper
I borrow Schaeffer’s contemporary concept of acousmatic
experience to examine the phenomenological world of sonar
operators and the marine biologists to whom they turned for
assistance in identifying the cause of the various sounds
perceived via their hydrophones. Civilian biologists working
with the U.S. and Japanese navies identified a range of animals
responsible for specific hydrophone noises. I trace the
consequences of these discoveries through a series of contexts.
The U.S. Navy commissioned biogeographical studies in order to
provide information to submarine commanders on the sonic
camouflage that might be provided by animal noises in the
Pacific. For ecologists, the artifice of the hydrophonic
soundscape became the key to solving previously inscrutable
problems of estimating submarine-animal populations.
Making Mathematics Manifest: Materialized Abstractions and
Topological Practices Alma Steingart, MIT
How do geometers and topologists understand the abstract
objects they encounter in their work? How does the
representational space afforded to mathematicians extend beyond
mathematical symbolism and diagrams? Examining the work of
geometers and low-dimensional topologists in the last three
decades, I argue that mathematical comprehension relies on a
host of material practices that stretch far beyond paper and
pencil, blackboard and chalk. Not restricted to sight,
mathematical sense-making mobilizes a host of bodily
attunements and sensations ranging from tactility to kinaesthesia.
Using computer graphics, virtual environments, and threedimensional physical models, topologists train themselves and
their geometrical perceptions in order to, as one mathematician
put it, “bring the known mathematical landscape to life.” I here
demonstrate that mathematicians cultivate various bodily
practices in order to extend and cultivate their imaginative
apprehensions of the mathematical objects and theories they
study. Extending the rich scholarship on representation in
scientific practice, this paper forwards “mathematical
manifestation” as a theoretical framework with which to make
sense of this mathematical labor. Manifestation denotes the way
mathematicians harness material practices to generate embodied,
tactile, and experiential understandings of otherwise abstract
mathematical concept and objects.
Infrasound Underground: Listening to the Vibratory World
Sophia Roosth, Harvard University
“Infrasound” designates acoustic energy whose frequency is too
low to be audible to human ears (below 20 Hz). Arrays of
microphones and hydrophones have been used since the midtwentieth century to record infrasonic rumblings, which are time
compressed or pitch shifted to bring within the range of human
hearing. Since the Cold War, infrasound has been used to
monitor aboveground nuclear testing and, more recently,
compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.
This talk tunes into infrasound’s acoustemology, examining how
researchers think of infrasounds as distinctive signatures of
unique sonic ecologies both atmospheric (aurora, calving
icebergs, earthquakes, tsunami) and technological (airplanes,
space shuttles, nuclear weapons). Citing the strange behavior
some animals exhibit prior to extreme weather events,
researchers suggest that infrasonic arrays might similarly be used
to warn them about impending natural disasters. I argue that
infrasound is indexical of paranoia, a subacoustic mode of
forecasting and uncertainty that is unheard yet palpable. To that
end, I turn to reports that infrasound triggers human feelings of
unease, fear, and anxiety, as for example in the disputed “wind
turbine syndrome” and research into whether standing infrasonic
waves might account for sensations associated with ghostly
hauntings.
042. Opening Plenary "What is STS for? What are STS scholars
for? Making and Doing in STS"
Plenary Session
4:30 to 6:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat
Chairs:
Pablo Kreimer, CONICET - Centro CTS Buenos Aires
Gary Downey, Virginia Tech
Participants:
Bienvenida y breve reseña de ESOCITE. Significado del
Congreso Conjunto Pablo Kreimer, CONICET - Centro CTS
Buenos Aires
Making and doing in STS Gary Downey, Virginia Tech
Rediseñar el presente: Pensar desde prácticas hacedoras de
futuro Tania Pérez Bustos, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Ciencias sociales, prácticas y CTS: otra(s) forma(s) de situar la
producción de conocimiento Leandro Rodriguez-Medina,
Universidad de las Americas Puebla / University of
Cambridge
ESCT: uma perspectiva latino-americana de esquerda Renato
Dagnino, UNICAMP
STS in practice: developing civic science Sara Wylie,
Northeastern University
CTS en la era de la globalización Hebe Vessuri, CIGA-UNAM
Fostering "reflexive scientists": STS education for science
graduate students at Sokendai Kenji Ito, Graduate University
for Advanced Studies
CTS ¿Cómo responder cuando la complejidad te tiene contra las
cuerdas? Alexis Mercado, Universidad Central de Venezuela
Engaging STS Alan Irwin, Copenhagen Business School
La relevancia de los estudios CTS para las políticas y el
desarrollo social Rosalba Casas, Instituto de Investigaciones
Sociales, UNAM
Material Deliberation in Public Engagement with Science and
Technology Kathryn D de Ridder-Vignone, Postdoctoral
Fellow, Arizona State University / Assistant Professor,
James Madison University
Estudios CTS en América Latina: entre viejos desafíos y nuevas
agendas Mariela Bianco, Universidad de la Repulbica,
Uruguay
Exnovation — innovation from within Jessica Mesman,
Maastricht University
Los estudios CTS en la adversidad Eduardo Robles Belmont,
IIMAS, UNAM
Antropofagia e histórias de conhecimento suficientemente
respeitáveis Ivan da Costa Marques, Universidade Federal
do Rio de Janeiro
Vendiendo el sublime sociotécnico: algunas reflexiones sobre la
emergencia de los estudios CTS en Chile Sebastian Ureta,
Departamento de Sociología, Universidad Alberto Hurtado,
Santiago, Chile
STS on the street and in the court Chia-Ling Wu, National
Taiwan University
CTS: La intersección entre políticas científicas y políticas
sociales Ronny Viales-Hurtado, Universidad de Costa Rica
Situated intervention: STS experiments in healthcare Teun
Zuiderent-Jerak, Linköping University
Estudos CTS para a América Latina ou com a América Latina?
Ou: podem os Estudos CTS servir para situar radicalmente
qualquer conhecimento, inclusive os Estudos CTS? Henrique
Luiz Cukierman, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
"I study how science changes." Encountering, provoking, and
gaming science Joseph Dumit, UC Davis
Problemas ‘glocales’ e inclusión social en América Latina, una
lectura CTS Maria Sonsire Lopez, Centro Estudios de la
Ciencia. Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas
Embracing discomfort Jane Calvert, University of Edinburgh
Diseñar tecnologías/ Construir sociedad. De la no-neutralidad
de los artefactos a la no-neutralidad de los estudios CTS
Paula Juarez, Instituto de Estudios sobre la Ciencia y la
Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes
From Bhopal to late industrialism and Disaster-STS Kim
Fortun, RPI
043. Opening Reception
Special Event
6:30 to 8:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Opera Foyer
044. Tango Lessons
Special Event
7:30 to 8:30 pm
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
THURSDAY, AUGUST, 21
045. Energy Innovation and Civil Society Action Between
Encouragement and Resistance
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
Chair:
Michael Ornetzeder, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Participants:
Governing Atom: Governmentality and Struggles of Nuclear
Politics in Taiwan Szu-hung Fang, Center for China Studies,
National Chengchi University
Anti-nuclear movement in Taiwan has struggled for near 30
years and its primary target is to stop the over-budget Fourth
Nuclear Power Plant (NPP4) which is under construction for 14
years. The political turmoil in early 2000s once made this target
less possible but the Fukushima disaster in 2011 has re-stirred
anti-nuclear movement in Taiwan, which brought over 220,000
people to join the anti-nuclear national rally on March 2013.
Nevertheless, this paper will argue that a hidden crisis is behind
the spectacular revival of the movement, which is the narrowed
focus on safety concern within nuclear disputes. An emergent
voice of ‘opposing (unsafe) NPP4, not nuclear power’ based on
safety concern has encouraged middle class to join the
movement, but it also provides a chance for the pro-nuclear
complex in Taiwan to marginalize other significant nuclear
issues, such as the disposal of nuclear waste and the reflection on
the contexts of nuclear power in Taiwan. Based on engagement
in anti-nuclear movement, this paper will deploy discourse
analysis to explore the governmentality underpinning nuclear
politics in Taiwan. This paper will argue that the managerialistic
developmentalism in post-WWII Taiwan has created state
apparatus to pursue economic development and has monopolized
knowledge related to energy, electricity, and paths of
development. The mentality is shared by the society which is
obsessed with the need of economic/energy growth.
Consequently, this paper will argue that it is crucial to disclose
the governmental rationality based on economic reason and to
invite civil society to reconsider the relation between human
society and energy. Anti-nuclear movement will not achieve its
goals if deepened reflection on energy security and energy
democracy is missed within present debates.
Re-framing energy projects through dynamics of opposition
movements and expert interest groups in South America
Gloria Baigorrotegui, Universidad de Santiago de Chile
Theorists of social and philosophical studies recognise hard
patterns in energy generation technologies, where the distribution
of power between the individuals involved is centralised to few
and risks are largely borne by those with less influence. The
majority of electricity consumers remain as somnambulists in
front of this and other imbalances. In South America, and in the
light of these hard socio-technical patterns, discussions regarding
these technologies would appear to be taking local controversies
into account. Over the last few years one of the leading countries
in the privatisation of its electricity market, Chile has been
experiencing a judicial process in its investment in the electricity
generation, never previously witnessed in its history. The
novelty factor in this case is that these destabilisations in the
energy sector are originating from civic demonstrations. In this
work we propose to show how discourse originating between
these movements and expert interest groups has reconfigured an
alternative interpretative framework of base load technologies in
Chile, which historically has been led by coal-fired power plants
and hydroelectric dams. By following narratives and events
which accompanied two pioneering movements in Chile between
2008 and 2011, we propose to observe dialogue between experts
and lay-people, together with the politicisation of expertise.
Using the hypothesis on these new trends in shaping energy
regimes, we aim to discuss and enrich the STS literature leading
up to the contextualisation of electrical technologies in South
America.
Emerging Business Models Constructing Green Buildings?
Jøran Solli, NTNU
Techno-economic studies of the development of green buildings
has tended to focus on barriers, often concluding high costs
continue to be one of the main obstacles. However, emerging
business models in the buildings industry may influence and
shape the conditions and opportunities for the buildings industry.
This development need to be subject to careful studies that are
sensitive to changing networks of industry, policies and users,
and the role of business models way of reframing and even
performing activities. In this paper, I will address cases that
illustrates the role and character of emerging business models. I
will discuss how studies of economical action in STS can benefit
such a discussion.
Grassroots innovations for sustainable energy: What can we
learn from historical cases? Michael Ornetzeder, Austrian
Academy of Sciences; Harald Rohracher, IFZ - University of
Klagenfurt
Grassroots activities so far have not been sufficiently appreciated
as sources of innovation. Transition processes towards
sustainable socio
‐technical energy, tran
systems, however, are hardly imaginable without a broader
participation of engaged citizens. This paper presents and
compares three cases of successful grassroots innovations for
sustainability. In particular we reanalyse the development of
wind technology in Denmark, the solar collector do ‐it
‐yourself
movement in Austria, and the development of car sharing in
Switzerland. By means of comparison of different cases the
paper aim at a deeper understanding of how grassroots
innovations originate, operate, and gain wider influence in
society. In the analysis we investigate dimensions such as context
of origin, motivations of participants, learning processes and
outcomes, competences and activities of actors involved, and
processes of institution building. Based on the empirical material
the paper discusses implications for the theorisation of grassroots
innovations for greater sustainability.
046. Corpses, Technologies, and Cultures
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
Chair:
Philip R Olson, Virginia Tech
Participants:
Custody of the Corpse: Controlling Alkaline Hydrolysis in the
US Philip R Olson, Virginia Tech
Funeral directors (FDs) have acquired “custody of the corpse”
(Howarth 1996) largely by controlling the technological means
of body preparation and disposition (e.g., embalming and
cremation). Thus, when new disposition technologies enter into
death-care practices, FDs are keen to establish control over these
technologies so that they may maintain social control over the
dead human body. This paper focuses on the very recent
introduction of alkaline hydrolysis (AH) disposition technologies
into US death-care culture. Now legal in eight US states, AH is a
reductive chemical process by which tissues are dissolved in a
solution of water and strong alkali, yielding a sterile, liquid
effluent, as well as brittle bone material that can be crushed and
returned to the decedent’s family. Drawing upon historical
sources, STS literature, interviews with FDs, and industry
literature, this paper examines the ways in which AH
technologies may be used both to disrupt and to reinforce FDs’
claims to custody of the corpse. Particular attention is given to 1)
FD’s efforts to manage their own professional identities by
defining and staking claim to specific arenas of expert authority,
as well as 2) FD’s efforts to control which actors are authorized
to provide AH disposition to funeral consumers. I argue that
certain key features of AH make the technologies especially
problematic for FDs: notably the infrastructural flexibility of AH;
the ease of operating AH systems; and the current use of AH
disposition by actors other than licensed funeral directors.
Urban Visions, Bodily Impurities, and the Cremation
Movement in the American South, 1880 – 1910 Elaine
LaFay, University of Pennsylvania
In 1885, New Orleans physician Felix Formento declared that
cremation “applies not only to dead bodies but to animals, to
garbage, to excreta and refuse of all sorts, to everything which is
offensive...to health.” This issue was particularly salient in the
“semi-tropical” South, where sweltering heat, layered racial
imaginaries, and lingering associations with mass death made
corpse disposal an especially charged issue. Cremation reformers
debated the purifying capacity of fire in corpse disposal, the
impact of putrefaction on soil and water, and the containment of
pollution in an effort to discover the most effective way to
cleanse Southern cities. Reformers wanted to both literally and
figuratively rid the Southern urban landscape of its stale,
traditional past and usher in a fresh, modern era. Envisioning a
world in which science and technology were harnessed to
eradicate urban decay, Southern cremation reformers aligned
themselves with movements that sought to make “offensive”
urban threats harmless. This paper draws from published primary
sources and newspaper accounts to show how perceived threats
to white bourgeois health shaped efforts to neutralize unclean
bodily matter in the Progressive Era. Combining approaches in
environmental history, urban history, and STS, I ask how
scientific and technological developments in cremation became
wrapped into visions of modern Southern cityscapes. In doing so,
I shed light on modern constructions of diseased and healthy
spaces and how science and technology have been deployed to
render the unclean, hygienic.
The Donated Cadaver: Accepting and Rejecting the
Anatomical Gift Susan E Lederer, University of Wisconsin
School of Medicine and Public Health
In the United States, 90% of cadavers used in medical research
and education are from individuals who have explicitly made a
“gift” of their bodily remains. Such gifts became legally possible
with the passage in the 1960s of Uniform Anatomical Gift Acts.
(The remainder come from indigent and unclaimed bodies). But
not all gifts are equally welcome to Body Donor Programs,
because not all bodies are considered suitable for educational and
research needs. Some bodies are rejected for biological reasons
(infectious diseases and jaundice). Others are rejected for socioeconomic reasons (the body discovered more than 36 hours after
death, the person died in another state or country, or in the face
of strong family objections). The paperwork necessary to
register as a body donor explicitly reinforces the potential that
the gift may not be accepted: “We cannot accept mutilated
bodies (e.g automobile accidents), bodies that have unhealed
major surgery prior to death or have been autopsied, or from
which major organs have been removed/donated.” This paper
analyzes efforts of body donor programs to educate potential
body donors and their families about the prospects of
unsuitability, the need for “back-up plans,” and the financial
implications if the “gift of the donor” is rejected. Based on field
work with the Body Donor Program at a large Midwestern state
university, the paper considers how the frequency and rationales
for gift rejection have changed over time, as well as the
recruitment and registry process for body donors in light of the
program’s needs.
Cultural Autopsy: Donated Bodies, Medical Technicians, and
the Value of Humanness Stephanie Cruz, University of
Washington
This research explores the treatment and valuation of human
bodies in contemporary biomedicine through considering the
work of medical technicians who prepare cadavers for
educational use. Continuing medical education (CME), which all
clinicians are required to complete in order to maintain their
license, relies heavily on the use of human tissue for simulation
procedures and surgical trainings. Human tissue is prepared for
use in CME by lab technicians. In this paper I argue that the
labor of lab technicians multiply enacts the body within a
laboratory, transforming human bodies and parts from person
into research specimen. In doing so, I will explore how these
perspectives illuminate the tension between the making of “the”
(abstract, universal) body that is the object of medical
knowledge, and the enactment of (specific, individual) material
bodies within a biomedical context. This research is informed by
ethnographic pilot work in a surgical bioskills lab and the
author’s own knowledge gained during two years of
employment, together with scholarly perspectives and questions
gained during three years of graduate training in sociocultural
anthropology. Examining how these technicians understand and
enact the physical transformation of the body in the course of
their daily work promises to shed new light on the moral and
economic contradictions surrounding contemporary medicine.
Coffins as Commons: Crowdfunded funerals, neoliberalism,
and the gift economy Tamara Kneese, New York University
Crowdfunding raises money for activities ranging from
honeymoons to videogame production. Given the exorbitant cost
of US funerals, crowdfunding websites like FuneralFund and
Graceful Goodbye now raise money for burial expenses.
Although memorial services commemorate one person’s life,
accumulating the necessary funds is a collective effort reliant on
notions of a Derridian gift economy and tied to the Commons as
described by George Caffentizis and Silvia Federici. If an
individual does not have the means to pay for her own funeral
service or burial, then costs are deferred to loved ones. Kin
members make emotional appeals to their social networks and to
an imagined internet audience in order to gather the requisite
capital. Collectivity and collaboration are instrumentalized in
order to demonstrate affective ties through the gifting of money,
as well as through the circulation of links and sharing of personal
narratives. On the one hand, the stories on crowdfunded funeral
websites are heart-wrenching examples of the failures of modern
life. On the other hand, they may provide kin members with a
way of paying for funerals without incurring debt. Crowdfunded
funerals expose the centrality of social networks, including those
reified by social media platforms, embodied affective ties, and
imagined relationships with a wider public audience, to
contemporary American life. Are there alternative burial
solutions to mitigate these affective and monetary costs? This
paper relies on qualitative interviews, web ethnography, and
sociocultural and historical context. It contributes to STS
literature by combining work on networked forms of mediation
with bodily technologies.
Everyone is a Diamond in the Rough Bryn Elizabeth Whiteley,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Have you given thought to what you want to do with your loved
ones when they pass on? How about becoming a diamond! The
purpose of this paper is to examine the technical process of how
you turn a human body into a diamond, and explores connections
between technology and society. This paper gives a unique
aspect to STS literature because of the topic and discussion in
that it offers a new perspective on how technology directly
relates to society. Given land space issues and other contributing
factors to traditional burials, becoming a diamond is a new and
comparatively inexpensive process that many are turning to as an
alternative. The product of your pet or loved one is called
LifeGem. There are four main steps to creating a LifeGem. The
first step being carbon capture, where the scientists extract
carbon from the remains from a standard cremation or even hair.
The second step is purification; with the addition of heat the
carbon converts into graphite. The third step consists of diamond
creation, where the graphite is placed under machinery to
replicate the environment in deep earth, high temperature and
high pressure. The fourth and final step involves diamond
certification, where the final product transforms to the style of
your choosing. How do you decide to become a diamond? Where
does this process occur? How much does it cost? This paper aims
to answer these and other related questions.
047. Beyond Imported Magic: An International Discussion on
STS and Latin America
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Chopin
In discussions of Latin America, a frequent perception is that science and
technology come from elsewhere. This notion is furthered by ideas of
modernization and development that originated outside Latin America and
encouraged the transfer and diffusion of machinery and knowledge
imported from more industrialized nations. Within Latin America science
and technology were popularly likened to forms of “imported magic” that
were universal, highly effective, sometimes mysterious, and always from
somewhere else. Such views elevate the transfer of technologies and ideas
from north to south and do not acknowledge that innovation, invention, and
discovery occur in multiple contexts and travel in many directions. Critical
frameworks from science and technology studies challenge these
assumptions and encourage the formulation of new ideas about how Latin
American peoples, countries, cultures, and environments create, adapt, use,
and circulate science and technology. This panel brings together scholars
from Latin America, Europe and the United States to discuss the study of
STS in Latin America. The panel also constitutes the launch of the new
MIT Press book “Beyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science, Technology
and Society in Latin America,” which includes chapters by the panelists.
In addition to sharing pieces of their research from the book, each panelist
will comment on their experience of participating in the conversation
surrounding the book’s production.
Chair:
Eden Medina, Indiana University
Participants:
From the Circulation of Skulls to the Circulation of Ideas:
Forensic Anthropology Between Europe and the Americas in
the late 19th Century Julia Rodriguez, University of New
Hampshire
The genesis of anthropology as a discipline in the late 19th
century coincided with a renewed and scientific interest in the
peoples of the Americas. Latin America in particular was seen as
a rich site of archaeological material, due not least to a sudden
expansion in excavations of pre-Columbian sites that uncovered
a treasure trove of new samples of human remains. My paper will
take a close look at a key aspect of this founding moment in the
field of Americanist anthropology, when forensic researchers
applied their laboratory techniques to human crania and began
casting new theories of human evolution and civilization. In this
paper, I place the discussion of human physical remains in Latin
America in the larger transnational scientific and cultural context,
as the quest for American skulls followed on the decades-long
scientific craze in the United States and Europe. I also reflect on
the ways in which perspectives on this topic have been advanced
by recent insights in scholarship on the circulation of scientific
and cultural ideas in the Americas; for example, I highlight the
multilayered and multidirectional dimension of exchanges of
scientific objects and methodologies among scientists in the
Atlantic world; as well as pay attention to the complexities of
debates about comparative civilizations in this period.
Who Invented Brazil? Henrique Luiz Cukierman, Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro
The Manguinhos Institute, popularly known as Manguinhos, was
founded in 1900 in Rio de Janeiro and continues to be a leading
Brazilian institution for research, teaching, and the production of
medicine in the public health area. During the first years of its
history, Maguinhos was involved in efforts to build the Brazilian
nation and national identity through creating a “modern”
Brazilian science. The scientific expeditions to Brazil’s vast
hinterland undertaken by the institute between 1911 and 1913 are
particularly important for understanding the role of science in
constructing Brazil as a modern nation. These expeditions allow
us to see the interactions between local and global forms of
knowledge in the locations in which they came into contact and
the tensions this contact produced. The paper, based on the
chapter with the same name to be published in the forthcoming
MIT Press book "Beyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science,
Technology and Society in Latin America", sketches some stories
from these early scientific expeditions which together make three
main points. First, they portray Brazilian science as an example
of scientific practices inscribed in the universe of modern
science. Although these expeditions took place outside the
“civilized centers” of the time, it was modern science that was
being enacted. Second, the construction of sanitation science in
the “frontier” regions of Brazil was part of a larger project to
build the new Westernized, Europeanized nation state of Brazil
under the auspices of modern science, a project that can be called
“the invention of Brazil.” Expeditions to “discover” Brazil were
an integral part of this invention, which included not only the
symbolic aspects of categorizing “unknown” territory through
science, but also economically motivated attempts to expand
Brazilian markets into the interior and to improve worker health
in these areas by combating tropical disease. This was
accompanied by a desire to foster the racial “improvement” of
the Brazilian population through creating conditions that would
promote European immigration to inland Brazil. Third, these
stories of scientific expeditions featured an oscillation between
colonized and colonizers on the part of the scientists involved.
On the one hand, Brazilian scientists had a colonized fascination
for modern science, which was introduced into the country
together with the cosmopolitan life existing in splendid isolation
on the coast. On the other hand, in the anguish of the travelerscientist confronted with the misery and unhealthiness of the
inland regions, these scientists also appear as colonizers who aim
to correct those ills through modern science. These scientists
therefore were caught in questioning where and what Brazil was.
In their attempts to find an answer, the expeditionaries revealed
their struggle against the inadequacy of a cultural environment
that they deemed hostile to modernity.
Tropical Assemblage: The Soviet Large Panel in Cuba Hugo
Palmarola, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC)
y Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM);
Pedro Ignacio Alonso, Pontificia Universidad Católica de
Chile
This paper examines the construction and history of one of the
largest social housing projects in Latin America, which began in
1963 with the arrival of a Soviet-financed factory in Santiago de
Cuba to produce large concrete panels. The introduction of the
Soviet large panel factory was important to the Cuban
Revolution, as it demonstrated how industrial technologies could
standardize ways of living and advance Fidel Castro’s plans for
an egalitarian socialist utopia. Although it further involved the
Soviet Union in the activities taking place on the island, the large
concrete panels produced in Cuba became not merely a Soviet
but a hybrid Soviet-Cuban technology as they were redesigned
by Cuban architects and engineers to make the system feasible
for use on the island. We hold that this adaptation was both
material and symbolic. The Cuban government used large panel
technology both as propaganda for its revolutionary goals and as
a sign of Cuba’s success within the cold war struggle. In this
context, prefabrication technology and military discipline came
together under the tight principles of the Revolution. Workers in
the large panel factory made many modifications to the
production process to keep the factory running during its fiftyyear history, and residents in large panel apartment complexes
similarly had to adapt their way of life to these structures. A
close analysis of the construction of such housing in Cuba allows
us to examine in new and revealing ways how the cold war,
including the tension between the superpowers of the United
States and the Soviet Union, affected the ideal of the socialist
“new man” and daily life in Cuba.
Nanotechnology Policies in Latin American Countries:
“Imported Magic” or Local Adaptation? Matthieu Hubert,
CONICET; Noela Invernizzi, Federal University of Parana;
Dominique Vinck, University of Lausanne
Over the past ten years, the majority of Latin American countries
have adopted some sort of policy to drive research and
development in nanotechnology. Through an in-depth review of
policy documents and academic works that have examined in
what way Latin American countries have become involved in this
area, we show that there is a tension in the making of
nanotechnology policies between the isomorphism resulting from
external influences and the local and regional particularities.
Indeed, on one side, we call attention to the phenomenon of the
transference of emerging thematic priorities and science policy
models from “core” to “peripheral” countries –and its
implications in terms of objectives, instruments, and ways of
organizing the research in that field. On the other, we explore
how local factors –such as scientific traditions and capabilities,
the role of international collaborations, and the relationship with
industry- give distinctive traits to the effective development of
nanotechnology in each Latin American country. Finally, we
question the idea of an unidirectional flow of science and
technology from developed to less developed countries
(“imported magic”), in spite of the common rhetoric and the
apparent isomorphism of policy design.
Of Llamas, Incas, and Informatic Encounters: “Discovery” and
Digital Futures in the Peruvian Andes Anita Chan,
University of Illinois
Why study digital culture and information technology in Peru?
Within global imaginaries, Peru evokes the South American
nation that is home to Machu Picchu, high stretches of the Andes,
and large Quechua- and Aymara populations. This Peru might be
an ideal space from which to peer into past tradition, native
culture, or the plethora of nature’s bounty - but what could it
reveal about the dynamics of high technological flows? Adopting
a cosmopolitical approach to scientific “discoveries” as events
that establish “relational rapports” -- as developed by feminist
and postcolonial science studies scholars -- this talk explores how
sites like Peru become ideal spaces from which to apprehend a
range of global symptoms implicated by contemporary digital
cultures and their future-oriented ambitions. From free software
bills promoted to counter Western IT monopolies, to “digital
innovation” classrooms installed in rural schools as part of the
largest network of MIT’s high-profile One Laptop per Child
(OLPC) initiative, to intellectual property (IP) titles applied to
rural goods to convert artisans into new classes of export-ready
“information workers,” a multitude of new experiments for
global collaboration and national inclusion emerge around the
digital from technology’s so-called periphery. How IT networks
come to increasingly serve, then, as vehicles for imagining not
only connections to the global in various forms—economic,
political, scientific, cultural – but reimagining relations with the
local, rural, and peripheral too is the subject of this talk.
A Review of History of Technology Scholarship on Latin
America in Selected English-Language Journals Eden
Medina, Indiana University
In One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez uses
technology to tell the history of a fictional Latin American town
named Macondo. The novel begins with gypsies bringing “great
inventions” such as ice, magnets, a telescope, and false teeth to
the tiny town. Technological innovations connect the isolated
town and the outside world throughout the story, most notably
through “the innocent yellow train” that brings a foreign-owned
banana company, rational forms of production, armed troops, and
later a massacre. García Márquez uses technology as a trope to
explore solitude and connection, changing social and economic
relationships, ideas of modernity, the legacy of colonialism, the
notion of identity, different ways of knowing (as seen by the
regular coexistence of science and magic), and the history of
inequality and violence in Latin America. García Márquez’s
literary achievement in what is perhaps his best-known work
points to a rich and fruitful way of studying Latin America. Yet
technology is rarely positioned as the central object of study in
historical research on the region. The converse is also true in the
history of technology, which as a field has not given significant
attention to Latin America. For example, of the 272 articles
published in the first twenty-one years of the premier history of
technology journal, Technology and Culture, only five—2
percent of all articles published—pay central attention to a Latin
American country. This paper reviews the literature from 1970 to
2011 published in five top journals, two from the history of
technology and three from the history of Latin America. It
focuses on the benefits of bringing these two literatures together
and on how this kind of cross-fertilization can contribute to
conversations in the larger field of history. It argues that
historians of technology and scholars of Latin America stand to
gain important new perspectives and avenues of inquiry by
drawing from the methods, questions, and analytical framings
that are central to each field. This review points to various ways
in which researchers in these fields can find common ground for
greater collaboration and engagement with one another.
048. Políticas Públicas de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación en el
marco de los estudios sociales de ciencia y tecnología I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Dalí
Chair:
Natasa Loizou, Centro de Estudios de Historia de la Ciencia y
de la Técnica José Babini (UNSAM)
Participants:
Da Destruição Criadora à Criação Relacional: inovação em
petróleo e gás no Brasil Marconi Aurelio Silva,
FACULDADES ASCES / UNIFAVIP
A economia do conhecimento, a sociedade em redes e a
consolidação do processo de globalização, reforçam nas
sociedades que o esforço pelo desenvolvimento integral, humano
e sustentável, pressupõe abertura contínua à mudança, à inovação
(poder de renovar). A tradição econômica interpretativa sobre o
fenômeno da inovação tem defendido que esta atenda a
mecanismos de mercado, o que condiciona as políticas voltadas a
seu estímulo. O que se postula no presente artigo é que a
inovação seja, antes de tudo, um processo de criação relacional,
que demanda identificação e interpretação de outros elementos
de análise, sobretudo ligados a aspectos sociais e políticos.
Busca-se oferecer aqui avanço conceitual, a partir de construção
teórico-metodológica quali-quantitativa, pautada em olhar
sistêmico e dinâmico, que valoriza o contexto. O objeto de
estudo aqui analisado é o sistema de inovação em petróleo e gás
do Brasil. Além de ser reconstruída a trajetória histórica da
institucionalização da pesquisa, desenvolvimento e inovação do
setor, antes e após a quebra do monopólio da PETROBRAS,
buscou-se analisar como seus microfundamentos interferem na
construção de ambientes colaborativos pró-inovação,
notadamente a partir da incidência de ativos relacionais em redes
temáticas. Sugere-se que políticas de inovação, a partir do
paradigma da criação relacional, devem propor e manter a
colaboração entre os agentes do sistema, notadamente, sociedade
civil, instituições de governo, empresas e universidades / centros
de P & D.
Políticas públicas para o desenvolvimento do etanol brasileiro:
tecnologia e assimetria entre os atores Altair Aparecido
Oliveira Filho, University of Campinas - UNICAMP; Flávia
Luciane Consoni, State University of Campinas
O setor sucroenergético brasileiro figura como a principal
alternativa nacional frente às energias tradicionais (fóssil e
nuclear), setor este historicamente impulsionado pela elaboração
de políticas públicas, as quais visam o seu desenvolvimento
econômico e tecnológico, através das definições de padrões
técnicos, e, sobretudo, da manutenção do seu mercado
doméstico. Os incentivos à inovação justificam-se pelo fato que
as forças do mercado limitam a difusão das energias renováveis,
sendo a participação do Governo necessária para corrigir
distorções deste mercado. O presente trabalho buscou construir
um panorama atual das políticas brasileiras desempenhadas pelo
Governo Federal relacionadas ao etanol. A pesquisa teve caráter
exploratório, operacionalizando-se através da análise das
políticas púbicas e dos programas governamentais
implementados no período de 2006 a 2013, suportados por
revisão bibliográfica, que sustenta o recorte temporal. Tais
instrumentos regulatórios são agrupados como políticas diretas e
políticas indiretas, conforme classificação proposta por Lewis &
Wiser (2007), de forma a compreender a dimensão do esforço do
país em desenvolver tal tecnologia. No período, destacam-se 15
ações envolvendo o etanol. Dentre os diversos elementos que
podemos compreender através da análise destes instrumentos
regulatórios, está a forte assimetria de poder entre os atores que
compõem esse Sistema Setorial de Inovação. As empresas
privadas e o Estado, por meio das suas instituições de ensino e
pesquisa, aparecem com maior destaque e importância, sendo os
principais alvos destas políticas. Demais atores tais como
organizações civis, canais de comunicação e meios de
intermediação entre produtor e consumidor final têm sido
totalmente negligenciados por estas políticas.
Elites de Ciência e Tecnologia no Brasil: o caso do ParqTec
Thales Novaes Andrade, UFSCar
No presente texto pretendemos estudar a formação de elites
locais de Ciência e Tecnologia no país. Esse é um tema o qual a
Ciência Política e a Sociologia do Conhecimento têm dado pouca
atenção, e esse trabalho pretende contribuir através de uma
análise específica do ParqTec de São Carlos (SP). Em termos
metodológicos nosso interesse é realizar um estudo de caso junto
a Fundação Parque de Alta Tecnologia de São Carlos (ParqTec).
Essa é uma experiência destacada de desenvolvimento
tecnológico regional que tem lugar junto a importantes
instituições universitárias, como USP (Universidade de São
Paulo) e UFSCar (Universidade Federal de São Carlos), bem
como unidades da Embrapa (Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa
Agropecuária). (TORKOMIAN, 1996) Acredita-se que uma
análise do caso do ParqTec de São Carlos permitirá verificar as
articulações locais e em que medida esses grupos dirigentes
mantém articulações com instituições científicas de ensino, e
pesquisa.
Uma Proposta de Politica Pública para o Consumo Consciente:
Bienal Brasileira de Design - Curitiba Ken Flávio Ono
Fonseca, Universidade Federal do Paraná; Ana Leocadia de
Souza Brum Donikian Gouveia, Centro Brasil Design;
Leticia Castro Gaziri, Centro Brasil Design
As Bienais de Design como vêm ocorrendo no Brasil desde as
décadas de 1960 tendo como foco a promoção do design junto ao
setor produtivo e como uma grande vitrine da produção nacional
de design ao público consumidor; sempre com apoios
governamentais, o que permite entender que se caracterizam
como uma das mais constantes ações de política pública de
design no Brasil. Em suas últimas edições permaneceram focadas
ainda em ser uma vitrine para o consumo, motor inconteste da
economia emergente brasileira, graças a crescente mobilidade
social que trouxe a tona uma grande demanda reprimida por bens
básicos. A Bienal Brasileira de Design 2010 - Curitiba, motivo
dessa pesquisa, mereceu, porém uma abordagem mais cuidadosa.
Diferentemente do que vinha ocorrendo nas últimas décadas, essa
edição visou não apenas a promoção da produção local de design,
mas procurou ser também um evento educacional com as
questões da sustentabilidade, e mais, buscando ser acessível ao
grande público ainda não familiarizado com o design. A
estratégia de se instalar as exposições em locais de grande
visitação pública e de fácil acesso; assim como da participação
na organização dos atores locais, a disponibilização do conteúdo
na web (tour virtual, voto popular, vídeos) foram algumas ações
utilizadas para alcançar o representativo numero total de
visitação da Bienal: 1.354.720 (um milhão trezentos e cinquenta
e quatro mil e setecentos e vinte pessoas). Essa pesquisa buscou
conhecer melhor essas estratégias e assim permitir uma melhor
compreensão sobre a democratização do acesso utilizado no
evento.
Impacto da implantação de um Polo Universitário para
economia local Andre Ferreira, Universidade Federal
Fluminense - UFF; Lisiane Maria Silva, Universidade
Federal Fluminense; Maria Luiza Santos Geraldo,
Universidade Federal Fluminense
A implantação de uma universidade pública em determinada
comunidade causa diversos impactos econômicos no seu entorno.
A força deste impacto vai depender de diversos fatores, com
destaque para o tamanho da instituição de ensino, os cursos que
serão oferecidos, as características econômicas de sua região de
influência, dentre outros. Mensurar estes impactos é importante
não somente para avaliar os efeitos da política pública que
originou a implantação, como também para propiciar subsídios
para novas ações nas diversas esferas do poder público. Neste
contexto, esta pesquisa visa compreender como a implantação do
Polo Universitário de Volta Redonda da Universidade Federal
Fluminense (PUVR-RJ), criado em 2006 e que possui atualmente
3.400 alunos em 13 cursos de Graduação, afetou
economicamente o seu entorno. O PUVR-UFF está localizado no
município de Volta Redonda, que possui 260 mil habitantes, e se
situa entre os dois maiores centros econômicos do país (Rio de
Janeiro e São Paulo), sendo o berço da indústria siderúrgica
brasileira. Para coleta de dados foi realizado um survey, aplicado
a mais de 1.100 alunos dos cursos de graduação em
Administração, Ciências Contábeis, Psicologia, Direito,
Matemática, Física, Química, e Engenharia (Metalúrgica,
Mecânica, Produção, Agronegócios) oferecidos pelo PUVRUFF. Os primeiros resultados da pesquisa indicam que o PUVRUFF contribui para elevação de, pelo menos, 0,4% do PIB anual
da cidade de Volta Redonda, movimentando principalmente os
setores de alimentação, moradia e vestuário. Outro impacto é
estabilidade destes gastos, que independente da situação
econômica do país, tende a se manter constantes mesmo em
períodos de recessão.
La Defensa en las Agendas Estatal y Científica en Argentina
Natasa Loizou, Centro de Estudios de Historia de la Ciencia
y de la Técnica José Babini (UNSAM)
La importancia de la responsabilidad e inversión estatal en
producción científica y tecnológica para la defensa nacional en
los países semi-periféricos, no ha logrado conseguir un lugar
central en el debate internacional. Algunos sectores académicos
en América Latina consideran que es necesario realizar estudios
que permitirán conocer en profundidad algunas cuestiones claves
de la temática, y entender los conflictos y desafíos de las
sociedades latinoamericanas relacionadas a la misma. En ese
sentido, este estudio identificará el lugar que ocupa la defensa
nacional, y que sentido se le da, en las agendas estatal y científica
en Argentina en la última década: Por un lado, se indagará sobre
el lugar que ocupa la producción científica y el desarrollo
tecnológico en las políticas públicas de la defensa nacional, y,
por el otro, se examinará de qué modo se incorporó la cuestión de
la defensa nacional en las políticas públicas del sector científico
– tecnológico nacional. Esta investigación apunta aportar en la
generación de un debate local dentro del ámbito de los Estudios
Sociales de la Ciencia, sobre la concepción de la ciencia, la
tecnología y la producción para la defensa desde el punto de vista
de un Estado nacional de la semi-periferia que desea alcanzar la
autonomía e independencia tecnológica y económica. Se
utilizarán metodologías cualitativas del institucionalismo
histórico, empleando el método de rastreo de procesos, para
identificar los principales puntos de toma de decisiones o de
ramificación en la definición de las agendas y en la construcción
de las políticas públicas en cuestión.
049. Climate Variability, Climate Change and Public Policies in
Community Development
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Miró
Chair:
Oscar David Calvo Solano, Center for Geophysical Research
Participants:
La gestión de políticas públicas anticipadas a eventos extremos
meteorológicos Oscar David Calvo Solano, Center for
Geophysical Research; Rafael Evelio Granados Carvajal,
Center for Geophysical Research
A inicios de noviembre del año 2010, el huracán Thomas afectó
la producción cafetalera del cantón de Coto Brus en Costa Rica.
Aunado a lo anterior, una marcada plaga de Roya comenzó a
dañar las plantaciones. Autoridades gubernamentales en materia
agropecuaria, culparon al cambio climático de esta crisis.
Utilizando datos de estaciones meteorológicas en el cantón, datos
de satélite y aplicando métodos de reducción de escala
(downscaling), se comprobó que en Coto Brus no se ha dado un
cambio climático sino una variabilidad climática, pues son las
variables meteorológicas las que se alejan de sus valores
promedio de los últimos treinta años. Esta información, resulta
muy útil para los productores de café pues con base en ella,
pueden planificar su actividad productiva. Un proceso de
capacitación en torno a un eje de agrometeorología es necesario,
no sólo dirigido a ellos, sino también a la población en general.
Dichas capacitaciones deben tener como objetivo sensibilizar y
concientizar a las personas de modo que propongan ideas y
proyectos que mitiguen los efectos de eventos extremos
meteorológicos y les permitan reponerse de ellos a la mayor
brevedad. Entonces, se propicia la generación de políticas
públicas anticipadas que articulan Ciencia (al llevar
conocimiento veraz a la población), Tecnología (al tener los
productores que desarrollar nuevas prácticas en torno a lo
aprendido) y Sociedad (al poner el conocimiento al alcance de la
población para que este busque la forma de utilizarlo como motor
del desarrollo sustentable de su comunidad).
Violent Natures: From Coercive Conservation to Climate
Change in Africa Cassie M Hays, Gettysburg College
Since the colonial era, African natures—both external landscapes
and internal human dispositions—have been constructed as
violent via the parallel ideologies of wildlife conservation and
climate change. Both address the human impact on,
responsibility for, and stewardship of the environment through
the lens of violent natures. During the colonial era in East Africa,
‘natives’ were relegated to specific areas, their lands usurped for
white settlement and the conservation of dangerous wildlife.
Today, conservationists continue to violently evict residents of
East and Southern Africa from apparently precarious landscapes.
In colonial and contemporary conservation, both ‘native’ and
nature appear unruly and potentially violent. Under the ideology
of climate change, as well, poor, non-white populations usually
bear the brunt of catastrophic natural (or unnatural) disasters at
the same time that they are blamed for contributing to the
underlying environmental causes of such events. African
environments and peoples are therefore constructed as inherently
violent and in need of external intervention via the rhetoric of
both conservation and climate change. Each system of thought
employs science and technology to cast the poverty-stricken,
racialized ‘other’ in the role of the enlightened noble
conservationist; evil instigator of anti-conservationist or climate
change-inducing practices; or victim of the violent environments
engendered by conservation and climate change. These roles
depend, at a basic theoretical level, on the characterization of
‘native,’ nature, or both ‘native’ and nature, as violent. “Violent
Natures” thus explores the racialization of nature by connecting
the parallel stories of conservation and climate change in Africa.
Ciência e mudanças climáticas globais: a divulgação como
ferramenta estratégica para novas práticas sociais Ana Paula
Freire Artaxo, Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e
Nucleares
Na era do planeta high tech, em que as tecnologias de informação
– em particular a mídia – ocupam todas as esferas sociais, é
imprescindível que as instituições de pesquisa em C&T
estabeleçam como prioridade estratégica a divulgação em larga
escala do conhecimento produzido. Principalmente se
considerarmos que esse novo modelo de sociedade provoca,
como efeito colateral, uma reconfiguração no modo de
intervenção do jornalismo para novas práticas sociais. Um
exemplo atual e significativo é o das mudanças climáticas
globais. A mais importante fonte de conhecimento sobre a
ciência do clima, o Painel Intergovernamental sobre Mudanças
Climáticas (IPCC), possui estratégias de divulgação bem
definidas para os seus Assessments Reports. Mesmo assim, da
cobertura midiática do AR4, em 2007, para a do AR5, em 2013,
poucas “novidades” científicas e a mesma tendência da mídia de
lidar com a questão das incertezas como sendo “problemática”.
Problemática porque, de um lado, os próprios cientistas têm
dificuldades de reconhecer as limitações constitutivas do
conhecimento para o público. De outro, porque a cobertura
jornalística não tem a devida compreensão do papel das
incertezas no método científico, fazendo circular a noção de
ciência como “precisa” e “irrefutável”, mas considerando “erros”
dados novos e conflitantes. À luz da Análise do Discurso
francesa, investigamos como as estratégias de divulgação
apontaram diferenças importantes no viés da cobertura do AR5,
se comparada ao tom catastrófico e apocalíptico do AR4. Os
conceitos de língua, linguagem, sujeito e discurso foram
fundamentais para as considerações teóricas propostas. O corpus
se constituiu de exemplares representativos da mídia impressa
brasileira.
050. Pensando as imbricações entre as ciências e as leis na
coprodução de fatos
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat I
Chair:
Daniele Martins dos Santos, UFRJ - HCTE
Participants:
Expertises e fronteiras entre ciência e direito: o caso da
inconstitucionalidade da Lei de biossegurança no Brasil
Israel Jesus Rocha, Universidade Federal da Bahia
O debate público que envolveu o percurso da Lei de
Biossegurança entre sua votação no Congresso em 2005 e seu
posterior julgamento no Supremo Tribunal Federal em 2008,
pouco considerou a dimensão heterogênea que envolve os
aspectos legais e científicos. Superficialmente purificados no
debate, estes aspectos puderam ser acompanhados em suas
imbricações no momento que se julgava a constitucionalidade da
Lei no Supremo. Este artigo parte do esforço de seguir tais
imbricações entre os fatos constituídos pela ciência e pela lei
sobre um mesmo tema, as células-tronco. Para isso, foi usado o
material audiovisual da audiência pública promovida pelo
Supremo Tribunal Federal com o objetivo de colher informações
científicas para fundamentar a decisão dos Ministros sobre as
células-tronco. Distante do que o debate público sugeria como
purificação, notou-se a partir dos dados da audiência uma
heterogeneidade de atores humanos e não-humanos na produção
dos fatos que transitavam entre esferas científicas e jurídicas em
sua estabilização. Sugere-se, então, que um dos modos de
compreensão da estabilização dos fatos científicos consiste no
rastreio de seus percursos fora do laboratório, especialmente em
instâncias legais e midiáticas, em que a dimensão de
sedimentação no mundo também o obriga redefinições em
enunciados legais compreendidos como válidos e como fatos de
direito e com garantias em existir no mundo.
Coleções de material humano para uso em pesquisas: o debate
ampliado sobre a construção da regulamentação de
biobancos no Brasil Rosanita Ferreira Baptista,
Universidade Federal da Bahia
As biotecnologias, ao tomarem o corpo humano como objeto de
escrutínio e experimentação, mobilizam diversos atores e dilemas
que não são apenas científicos e técnicos, mas também políticos,
legais e éticos. A imbricação destas esferas torna problemática as
perspectivas que se fundamentam em dualidades, como natureza
x sociedade, fato x valor, questões de interesse x questões de
fato. É o caso dos biobancos com finalidades de pesquisa, cujas
práticas de manusear e colecionar material biológico humano e
informações associadas para uso em pesquisas, ao tempo em que
gera expectativas para o desenvolvimento da saúde e da
medicina, também trazem incertezas e controvérsias sobre a
natureza e destino das coleções, bem como sobre as
consequências dos experimentos. Assim, sob o referencial da
Teoria Ator-rede, este trabalho descreve as redes sócio-técnicas e
as controvérsias que tomaram forma nos eventos de construção
da regulamentação dos biobancos no Brasil, com ênfase no
debate ampliado que aconteceu na Consulta Pública realizada em
2010, sob condução do Ministério da Saúde (MS) e do Conselho
Nacional de Saúde (CNS). O objetivo é apreender a tessitura
híbrida de atores e argumentos que conformaram normas para as
práticas científicas e tecnológicas dos biobancos. Ao privilegiar
como escolha empírica os eventos de construção da
regulamentação, esta pesquisa traz como contribuição a
discussão sobre o enredamento de diversas arenas e atores na
produção tanto dos artefatos técnico-científicos como normativos
e legais.
Seguindo cientistas num tribunal: uma audiência pública no
STF. Daniele Martins dos Santos, UFRJ - HCTE
Esse trabalho tem como ponto de partida a realização de
audiências públicas pelo Supremo Tribunal Federal. Esta Côrte
busca, através dessas audiências, ouvir a comunidade em geral
sobre o objeto da ação em julgamento, num movimento de
legitimação democrática. Mas a lei requer uma qualidade
específica para aquele que poderá se pronunciar: conhecimento
especializado ou experiência no assunto, o que confere uma certa
autoridade ao cientista em relação ao leigo. No início de cada
audiência o Ministro-relator discorre sobre a relação entre o
conhecimento científico e o jurídico, estabelecendo fronteiras e
ditando regras. Enquanto os cientistas preferem debater seus
assuntos entre seus pares, em um ambiente em que seria mais
fácil manter a autoridade da disciplina e a coesão interna, nas
audiências públicas eles deixam à mostra os compromissos
culturais e normativos contidos na noção de “realidade” por eles
adotada, dando aos leigos a oportunidade de observar a
controvérsia científica/jurídica em andamento. A descrição de
uma audiência pública pode revelar o processo de coprodução
entre ciência e direito. A audiência que escolhemos seguir e
descrever diz respeito a duas ações diretas de
inconstitucionalidade ajuizadas, respectivamente, pelo Escritório
Central de Arrecadação e Distribuição e União Brasileira de
Compositores contra diferentes dispositivos da Lei nº
12.853/2013, que alterou o marco regulatório da gestão coletiva
de direitos autorais no Brasil (Lei nº 9.610/98).
Abrindo “caixas-pretas”, produzindo contrafações: os laudos
periciais de Química Forense do SETEC/SR/DPF/RS Lucas
Riboli Besen, PPGAS/UFRGS
Este paper tem como temática a relação entre a Antropologia do
Direito e os Estudos Sociais da Ciência e da Tecnologia no que
tange a produção de laudos periciais por peritos criminais
federais (PCF). Tendo o Grupo de Perícias de Laboratório do
Setor Técnico-Científico da Superintendência Regional do
Departamento de Polícia Federal do Rio Grande do Sul/Brasil
(SETEC/SR/DPF/RS) como local de observação, busca-se
problematizar as relações entre ciência e direito assim como
compreender, através do acompanhamento dos PCF na sua
atividade cotidiana, como atores e organizações mobilizam,
justapõem e mantêm unidos os elementos para constituir, ao fim,
um laudo pericial. Nesse sentido, parte-se da perspectiva de que
as esferas do direito e da ciência não estão separadas, mas são
coproduzidas; dessa forma, entende-se que os laudos não são
apenas um processo de purificação, mas a complexificação de
uma rede que, ao final, resulta em um ator pontualizado, sendo
que este performatiza um ordenamento da realidade condizente
com uma ontologia política específica. Assim, neste paper,
debruço-me sobre a construção dos laudos periciais de Química
Forense particularmente interessado na articulação da noção de
“contrafação”/”falsificação” de medicamentos como articulador
do ordenamento dos diversos atores que compõe o material em
questão, para, posteriormente, repensar essa articulação a partir
de um artigo científico produzido pelo SETEC, onde há um
deslocamento do sitio de interesse do problema da contrafação,
produzindo um outro olhar sobre a questão. Crê-se que, nesses
(re)ordenamentos do mundo, a contrafação é feita e
performatizada num misto entre ciência e direito.
Ciencia, legalidad y masividad en la definición colectiva del
bullying como problema social en Chile Fernando
Valenzuela, Universidad Andres Bello; Claudio Ramos
Zincke, Universidad Alberto Hurtado
Esta ponencia presenta la configuración del "bullying" como
problema social en Chile entre 2001 y 2012, desde el punto de
vista del papel que cupo en ello a la producción de datos sobre
violencia y clima escolar, y su recepción en la opinión pública y
en la promulgación de la Ley de Violencia Escolar. En la corta
vida de este "hecho social" pueden distinguirse las etapas de a)
emergencia, b) legitimación, c) controversia, d) planificación y e)
implementación, que fueran reconocidas en la clásica teoría de
Herbert Blumer sobre la definición colectiva de problemas
sociales (1972). Sin embargo, la observación de los
entrelazamientos entre operaciones científicas, legales y los
medios masivos, permite dar cuenta de dimensiones que dicha
teoría no reconoce. Este es el caso de las controversias en torno a
la construcción de indicadores de "bullying", que acompañaron el
proceso de legitimación de éste como problema social urgente en
Chile y el posterior proceso de generación de un plan oficial de
acción, que terminó tomando forma en la Ley de Violencia
Escolar (n°20.535) promulgada en 2011 e implementada durante
el año 2012 en establecimientos escolares a lo largo de todo el
país. La ponencia se basa en el análisis de prensa (noticias sobre
bullying en medios nacionales), de cuestionarios (ENVAE y
SIMCE) y de actas de mociones parlamentarias y discusiones en
torno a la Ley de Violencia Escolar. Como resultado se observa
la labor performativa de la ciencia social, en la creación de una
nueva realidad en Chile.
O FNM João Bobo e a Lei da Balança. Eduardo Nazareth
Paiva, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
A Fábrica Nacional de Motores (FNM), indústria automobilística
estatal brasileira, foi, na década de 60, alvo de grande
controvérsia envolvendo os possíveis danos causados pelo peso
dos caminhões por ela produzidos às estradas brasileiras. Essa
controvérsia culminou com a elaboração, votação e promulgação
do Decreto Lei n º 62.127, de 16 de janeiro de 1968, a Lei da
Balança. Esta lei regulamentava as cargas máximas admissíveis
por eixo para caminhões. Ela alavancou um processo de
“modernização” dos sistemas de controle de pesagem de
caminhões. Para isto foram construídos e equipados postos de
pesagem espalhados pelas principais estradas brasileiras. Os
efeitos desta lei acabaram sendo adequados aos caminhões
fabricados pela sua concorrente e prejudiciais a um dos principais
modelos produzidos pela FNM, o D-11000 Variante 4. Este
modelo, conhecido entre os caminhoneiros como Fenemê toco ou
João Bobo, era líder de vendas e com fila de compradores nas
concessionárias. Sua mitificação se dava através da lenda de que
ele podia carregar tudo que lhe colocassem em cima. A partir da
Lei da Balança, suas vendas despencaram e a FNM, já combalida
pelas recentes crises institucionais, recebeu mais um duro golpe
na sua difícil trajetória de viabilidade empresarial. Ela precisou
rever suas estratégias produtivas e foi obrigada a lançar variantes
de chassi com terceiro eixo, mas com uma relação custobenefício diferente. O FNM João Bobo passaria a ser perseguido
pelas fiscalizações das diversas balanças que eram implacáveis
com seus pesos por eixo, espantando a admiração de seus
proprietários. Estava aberta sua caixa-preta.
051. Minority Report: The Fall and Rise of Critical Technology
Studies
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat II
Chairs:
Ben Brucato, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Gretchen L Gano, Arizona State University
Participants:
Can Constructivism Have Politics? The Democratic Limits of
Technological Possibilitarianism Taylor Dotson, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute; Ben Brucato, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute
Although constructivist methodological and epistemological
approaches provide an important lens for analyzing technological
innovation, it is rarely examined how they might constrain
technology scholarship as a political endeavor. Social
constructivism is often depicted as freeing the field from the
debilitating grasp of technological determinism. However, how
does a commitment to viewing the political non-neutrality of
technologies as a sole product of sociopolitical decisions during
the process of innovation, production and diffusion shape the
field’s normative imagination? Through an analysis of academic
and popular texts, we contend that the overestimation of
technological malleability leads to a politically deadening
technological possibilitarianism. Possibilitarianism imagines
technologies as adaptable to an almost infinite set of future
politico-economic relations. These hypothetical possibilities are
projected backwards to shape present perceptions of
technological flexibility. The rejection or significant restriction
of any technology becomes seen as politically unnecessary,
unthinkable or even self-stultifying, because the technology is
theoretically malleable to any set of values. This marks a
significant departure from the approach of critical technology
studies scholars, who we term technological probabilitarians:
They root their analysis in the careful consideration of the
probable outcomes of certain technological developments given
the practical limits of technological flexibility and momentum of
larger sociotechnical contexts. For them, technologies remain
open to rejection. In characterizing these two divergent positions,
we will draw connections to larger scholarly arguments
concerning deliberative and radical democracy and technological
governance as well as extend earlier analyses of the normative
deficits that limit the broader political significance of technology
studies.
Constitutionalist STS – Broadening the field’s research agenda
Erik Aarden, Harvard University; Luca Marelli, University
of Milan/IEO/SEMM; Ian McGonigle, University of
Chicago; Sebastian Michael Pfotenhauer, MIT
Within Science and Technology Studies (STS), there is a
tendency to foreground questions about how knowledge, science,
and technology are shaped by their immediate social, cultural and
organizational surroundings, while considerably less emphasis
has been placed on taking scientific and technological practices
as windows onto wider society and its ordering macro-structures
of politics, law, and economics. In this paper, we propose that it
is time for STS to address the great questions of social macroorder that lie at the centre of the social sciences in a more headon manner. We contend that it is impossible to make sense of
major societal, political, and economic issues today without
taking into account the thoroughly science- and technologymediated character of the world. In order to remain relevant for
today’s pressing socio-political concerns and complement the
interpretative authority of more established social science
disciplines, STS as a field therefore needs to consider how its
resources can be brought to the task of understanding and reenvisioning the broad and divisive categories commonly
employed to interpret fundamental individual and collective
rights – liberty, equity, justice, security, democracy, citizenship,
among others. We call this approach ‘Constitutionalist STS.’ In
this paper, we argue that instead of asking only about the social
construction of science and technology, we must equally ask the
symmetrical question about the technoscientific construction of
social, political, and legal order. We support this argument by
presenting a few brief reflections on current events as thought
experiments for what Constitutionalist STS can achieve.
Swadeshi as epistemology: Subaltern Technological Resistance
in India Leon Angelo Morenas, School of Planning and
Architecture, Delhi
Epistemological Luddism is valued as a “way of recovering the
buried substance upon which our civilization rests.” Drawing on
Winner, Ellul, and Noble, this paper extends the arena of critical
technological studies to investigate other forms of technological
resistance in the global south, with a focus on India. Swadeshi,
literally “of one’s own country,” was borne of a similar
resistance to technology as Luddism, seeking to assert (workers)
economic control and cultural self-respect. The swadeshi
movement in India, like Luddism, was a revolt against the
colonial imposition of technology in the forced importation of
Lancashire cotton. I undertake a revisionist historical inquiry into
the movement’s genesis, describe the kinds of political actions it
promoted, and present a preliminary theorization of its subaltern
technological politics. I argue that while Luddism manifested
resistance as anti-production (through destruction of the
machine), swadeshi cast resistance to technological domination
as counter-production, a larger project of nation-building and of
social change. It involved a plurality of political actions, from
civil disobedience to non-violent direct action with distinct
ethical moorings, politics and “technics” employing particular
scales, spaces, and stakeholderships. Further, it interrogated the
internal hierarchies and divisions of Indian society, seeking, as
Ramagundan points out, to “shape the content of freedom and
determine the values at stake in post-independence rivalries over
resource use. It gave character to politics as well as to protest. It
was a roadmap to swaraj (self-rule).” Insodoing, I argue,
swadeshi can be understood as a critical, alternative
epistemology of technological resistance.
Pricing the Priceless Spacecraft: Financial Relations and the
Social Construction of Technology David Reinecke,
Princeton University; Janet Vertesi, Princeton University
What is the role of money in the production of scientific
knowledge? How does science funding itself become an object
of scientific or expert inquiry? Using case material drawn from
historical and ethnographic investigations of NASA-funded
robotic spaceflight teams, the paper advances a relational
approach to science funding in which cost estimates, budgetary
requests, and resource allocations becomes a way of constituting
differentiated social relationships and therefore the kinds of
knowledge produced. Money in this relational perspective
becomes less a necessary evil or a hard constraint, as a socially
negotiated plane for imagining and mobilizing competing visions
of scientific projects and contributing to the social construction
of technology. In pricing scientific projects, then, we argue there
is never a single, final price, but instead multiple competing
values reflecting contests over the conventions and practices of
counting and accounting science. Drawing on ethnographic and
archival material from two NASA missions to the outer solar
system, we demonstrate that science funding becomes a way of
both “doing the organization,” and ultimately practicing science
as well.
The Meanings of Matter. Problems and Perspectives of the New
Materialism Thomas Lemke, Goethe University, Frankfurt
am Main
Recently, social and political theory has demonstrated a renewed
theoretical interest in matter and materiality. The “new
materialism”, as it is sometimes called encompasses a plurality of
different approaches and disciplinary perspectives, ranging from
science and technology studies via feminist theory and political
philosophy to geography. The new materialist scholarship shares
the conviction that the “linguistic turn” or primarily textual
accounts are insufficient for an adequate understanding of the
complex and dynamic interplay of meaning and matter. The
paper critically engages with the ontological underpinnings and
the political perspectives of the new materialism. It points to
conceptual ambiguities and unresolved tensions in new
materialist scholarship. and allows for a more materialist
account of politics. The conceptual proposal of a ”government of
things” aims at bringing together an analytics of government
developed by Michel Foucault with insights from science and
technology studies, especially actor network theory and feminist
technoscience.
052. Ecologies and Material Politics of the Inorganic:
Effects/Affects
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Mozart
Chair:
Manuel Tironi, Goldmisths, U of London / Pontificia
Unversidad Catolica de Chile
Participants:
Atmospheric excess: pollutants and affective regimes in
Puchuncaví Manuel Tironi, Goldmisths, U of London /
Pontificia Unversidad Catolica de Chile
In this article I examine the excessiveness of atmospheric
pollutants and follow the affective regime they enliven. Based on
the case of Puchuncaví, the most contaminated industrial district
in Chile, I describe how sulphur dioxide, arsenic and other
metalloids, in spite of all the efforts made to account, measure
and anticipate them, interact with the world in recalcitrant,
unpredictable and to some extent aberrant ways. More
specifically, I describe how humans, plants and nonhuman
animals bodily engage with pollutants in Puchuncaví, showing
that toxic air is not made present through the mediation of
measuring devices but via its affective and sensitive effects on
lungs, epidermal conditions, chemical compositions and immune
systems of various forms of life. Finally, I draw on insights from
object-oriented ontology to claim that the story about
atmospheric excess in Puchuncaví is also a tale about how STS
could rethink its methods in the face of the vitality and
incommensurability of chemical entities and the radical program
of coexistence they provoke.
Radioactive Excess and Toxic Citizenships in Africa Gabrielle
Hecht, University of Michigan
This paper considers radioactive excess in Africa, via three
examples of ontological instability that illuminate the
consequences of colliding time scales, spatial politics, and
material inequalities for the production of toxic citizenships. (1)
In 1972, a French company in Gabon unearthed depleted
uranium, which turned out to come from a 1.7 billion year old
"natural nuclear reactor." Because the depleted ore wasn’t usable
in human-made reactors, the company viewed it as waste. But the
site became significant for international geology, enabling
scientists to study the distant past in order to model a distant
future of buried nuclear waste. For Gabonese residents, however,
another question arose: did the region’s chronic infertility result
from age-old radioactive excess... and not witchcraft, as
previously thought? (2) A century of gold mining in South Africa
produced mountains of waste throughout the Witwatersrand.
Starting in 1952, some of these tailings piles were themselves
mined in order to extract newly valuable uranium, long present in
the same ore matrix. Waste piles low in uranium remained
ontologically (though not ecologically) stable. The mining
industry denied that these tailings were nuclear waste, insisting
that contaminants dispersed quickly. This non-nuclearity enabled
the post-Apartheid state to resettle former shack dwellers in
housing built alongside these toxic generators. (3) Resettled
refugees of Apartheid thus share the fate of uranium mining
communities in Gabon and Niger. In these communities,
radioactive debris – especially scrap metal and gravel – was
scavenged and repurposed to build radon-filled houses and
fashion food and water containers.
Phosphorus ecologies in Loweswater Claire Waterton, Centre
for the Study of Environmental Change (CSEC), Department
of Sociology, Lancaster University
This paper concerns the element phosphorus, and the histories
and assemblages that phosphorus is implicated in, in
Loweswater, a small valley in Cumbria. The lake Loweswater
(bearing the same name as the valley and the village within it)
has become enriched with phosphorus over the last 150 years,
and hence, through complex ecologies, it has come to support
high populations of potentially toxic blue-green algae. In this
paper I describe recent and on-going work with blue-green algae,
phosphorus, freshwater and terrestrial ecologists, local residents
and responsible water/landscape ‘agencies’ in this place. This
work has taken place within the context of a ‘new collective’ for
generating understandings/representations/traces of historical
socio-ecological practices so that these may be discussed and
explored and perhaps altered. Discussions of the enrichment of
the soil/water/lake bed are important even though they are not the
only discussions and explorations that the collective undertakes .
In Loweswater, the layers of the lake bed can be read
semiotically, and the blue-green algae present signal phosphorus
movement over the years: in an intricate ecology, algae and
phosphorus can be seen to evidence the putative phenomenon of
the Anthropocene. But phosphorus and blue-green algae also
bring people together in the present: they engender a
cosmopolitics in which chemical and biological enrichment has
to feature as part of the story of human/animal communities and
cultures in that place. The politics of phosphorus in this place are
uncomfortable and expose difficult co-relations over time, but
they are also mundane and ordinary and deeply cultural and
generative. The concept of the Anthropocene makes us wonder
about the layerings already lain down at the bottom of the lake,
and what they have already enabled and afforded. It also makes
us consider future layerings, and the difficulty of avoiding these,
and the future life and relations that these layerings will support.
Can science literacy bring people’s relief when living with very
low level radiation? Midori Aoyagi, National Institute for
Environmental Studies
Japanese people are still worrying living with radiation, although
its level is significantly low compare to the level of immediate
after the Fukushima nuclear power accidents. We carried out
focus group interviews to explore people’s risk perception and
attitudes change against low level radiation. Our participants are
from Tokyo metropolitan area and neighboring area. There are
several “hot spot” areas among there. We chose one group from
the hot spot, and other groups were chosen from Tokyo
metropolitan area. One of the group members who have higher
concern and knowledge of the radiation issues told us “the head
and the heart is not same. Though we understand the science in
the head, we cannot eat foods from possible radiation
contaminated area.” To validate this statistically, we then used
our data by the public opinion survey carried out February 2012.
The result shows us that science literacy level (right response
scores for three radiation quiz) was not significantly correlated
with the purchasing behavior for foods from Fukushima area, but
worrying level for future generation’s health was statistically
significant. In conclusion, higher level of scientific literacy
cannot always discard worry for future. Then what we need for
bringing reliefs in people’s mind? That would be the our next
step.
Of Licorice and Taps: the technological reconciliation of taste
Christy Spackman, New York University
On January 9 2014, West Virginians woke to the news that 5,000
gallons of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM) had seeped
into their water supply. During the ensuing weeks as regulators,
scientists and governmental agencies debated the safety of the
water supply, one important factor emerged: MCHM tasted like
licorice. Yet even after MCHM levels dropped below the 1ppm
safety threshold, consumers continued to complain of the taste of
licorice in their water, forcing a reexamination of the
effectiveness of current modes of detection. Despite the very
active role that taste plays in shaping scientific controversies like
the West Virginia water spill, very little social science research
has examined how molecules that taste shape and disrupt the
political, environmental, and economical landscape. This paper
investigates how molecules that taste disrupt, complicate, and
remake scientific authority, making visible the limits of
technological detection as human mouths and noses continue to
perceive that which machines no longer can. Using archival
materials, interviews with scientists and technologists, and papers
published in professional trade magazines and scholarly journals,
I argue that the taste of molecules and minerals forces a
reconciliation between scientific technology and the human
sensorium. Consideration of the material politics of taste, by
bringing together the technological and the sensorial, opens new
ways for understanding and imagining relationships between
humans, molecules, and technologies of detection.
Discussant:
Max Liboiron, Northeastern University
053. Procesos de inclusión social en la agricultura familiar.
Programas de desarrollo, agroecología, conocimientos
heterogéneos y seguridad alimentaria
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Picasso
Chair:
Roland Brouwer, CIP - International Potato Center
Participants:
Orange-fleshed Sweetpotato: Promoting technical and
behavioural change in volatile contexts Roland Brouwer,
CIP - International Potato Center; Jan W. Low,
International Potato Center
The distribution of costs and benefits of technological innovation
are frequently skewed against the underprivileged in a society.
International agricultural research agencies have been driving the
adoption of Orange-fleshed Sweetpotato (OFSP) in Mozambique
since the late 1990s. It is being promoted as a complementary
approach to vitamin supplements to fight Vitamin A deficiency
in particular among infants, particularly suited for targeting
young children and women in poor rural areas. Mozambique has
served as a pilot site on the continent for evidence building
research and the integrated agriculture-nutrition intervention has
now expanded to 10 other countries in the region. OFSP varieties
have been improved by accelerating conventional breeding
through adopting an approach that has more sites in the earlier
stages of breeding than before. Improved methods for
multiplying planting material have been developed—one
building on tissue culture and virus indexing techniques; the
other using roots as the basis for planting material in drier areas.
Two remaining bottlenecks now obstruct wider adoption: access
to water to enhance vine retention and improve productivity and
limited market demand. The paper explores the distributionary
consequences of these bottlenecks and of the strategies that are
being developed to address them.
Conocimientos heterogéneos, canales comerciales y políticas
públicas para la pequeña agricultura familiar en Argentina
Rocio Ceverio, Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias Universidad
Nacional de Mar del Plata
Esta ponencia forma parte de una investigación mayor que busca
explicar cómo y por qué en Argentina, los sistemas de
comercialización promovidos por el sector público para la
pequeña agricultura familiar, hasta ahora no devienen en
dinámicas sostenibles de acumulación y desarrollo. En el
cinturón hortícola de la ciudad de Mar del Plata, desde el año
2010, un grupo de técnicos de la Subsecretaria de Agricultura
Familiar intenta consolidar canales comerciales alternativos en
base a procesos de organización social y acción colectiva,
transición a sistemas de producción agroecológicos e integración
de los pequeños productores en redes sociales más amplias. Dado
que los conocimientos constituyen fenómenos socio-cognitivos
temporal y espacialmente situados, el objetivo de esta ponencia
es identificar y analizar desde una perspectiva socio-técnica, las
formas particulares que adquieren los procesos de circulación de
conocimientos heterogéneos que configuraron el conjunto de
saberes y prácticas implicados en el desarrollo de las
experiencias comerciales. Del análisis se desprende que las
demandas cognitivas asociadas a la agroecología y la
organización para la comercialización, integran a los
horticultores en redes públicas de conocimiento experto y
consuetudinario de alcance nacional. En el plano productivo, a
pesar del bajo nivel de inclusión en el marco tecnológico
convencional, la transición hacia la agroecología implica
complejos procesos de incorporación, adecuación y resignificación de saberes y prácticas de distintos orígenes
promoviendo procesos de resistencia socio-técnica. En el plano
comercial, los canales se configuran de acuerdo a dinámicas
grupales, institucionales y políticas, con predominio de
conocimientos tácitos de técnicos y organizaciones sociales.
Discussing conceptual frameworks and its agenda for politics in
agri-biotechnology Pablo Ariel Pellegrini, Instituto de
Estudios sobre la Ciencia y la Tecnología, Universidad
Nacional de Quilmes / CONICET
In this paper I present and discuss different frameworks in which
the benefits of an innovation may be conceptualized, particularly
in relation to its implication for politics in agri-biotechnology.
Perspectives from the "social utility of knowledge" are analyzed
as concerning about the possibilities of a technology for solving
users problem, usually local and vulnerable actors. Within this
framework, some perspectives may focus on ideal users, while
other emphasizes the bondages with real users in order to
successfully solve their needs. An inverse approach may be
represented by the "conventional use of knowledge", where
knowledge is conceived in order to attend a very different kind of
actor: capital needs. The intention of this paper is to show the
constrains that these different approaches may exert towards the
development of politics in agricultural biotechnology. With this
purpose, another approach is also proposed to think the
development of politics in agricultural biotechnology: an
approach from the "appropriation of knowledge". In this sense,
we propose that instead of thinking from the benefits of the
technology in terms of its potential to solve problems, the
approach from the possibilities of appropriation of value
generated by innovations may expand the margins to deploy
policies in agricultural biotechnology. All this conceptual
framework discussion is empirically illustrated with cases of
recent agri-biotechnological developments in Latin-America that
relates with one or other framework. This way, constrains and
possibilities of each framework are critically analyzed with
empirical allusions.
Gobernanza de la posible liberación de maíz GM en México
Michelle Chauvet, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
Azcapotzalco; Rosa Luz González, Universidad Autonoma
Metropolitana Azcapotzalco
En México, desde hace más de dos décadas, se generó un fuerte
debate sobre la liberación comercial del maíz GM, a lo largo de
este tiempo se han involucrado diferentes actores y la discusión
se ha polarizado cada vez más. Ello se fundamenta en que el país
es centro de origen y diversidad del maíz, lo que le da un estatus
especial, además de la importancia que tiene para los mexicanos
en su gastronomía y cultura. En el trabajo se presentan las
diferentes visiones utilizando el marco analítico de la
gobernanza, y se estudia el sistema de normas sociales,
interacciones que determinan cómo han sido tomadas las
decisiones públicas en el tema. Consideramos que un diálogo
entre los actores relevantes en la producción y utilización del
maíz en México puede y debe ser importante para la formulación
de políticas en torno al maíz GM y que las visiones de futuro
deben guiar dicho proceso. Por ello, para la formulación de
políticas en la materia, se realizó un proceso de reflexión entre
actores involucrados en torno a la visión deseada y la situación
actual, para proponer políticas realistas. Se presentan los
escenarios obtenidos a partir de la revisión de la literatura, de los
cuestionarios de prospectiva aplicados, y de un taller de reflexión
entre los principales actores involucrados en la producción y
utilización de maíz en cuatro estados de México.
Assessing the performance of transgenic soybeans in Argentina:
Informing or forming technological commitments? Anabel
Marin, Cenit, Buenos Aires; Patrick van Zwanenberg,
CENIT, Argentina
STS scholars have stressed the desirability of ‘broadening out’
and ‘opening up’ technology assessment in order to help catalyse
and inform a more mature politics of technology choice. One
element of such ‘broadening out’ is to assess the comparative
performance of a technology. Assessments of the benefits of
transgenic crops routinely fail to consider the performance of
alternative agricultural options or innovations. Even those
innovations that that have accompanied the development and
diffusion of new transgenic crops, such as on-going
improvements to the seed germplasm in which transgenes are
inserted, or to machinery and management, are either ignored or
assumed to have occurred only as a result of the transgene
innovations. Assessments of the performance of transgenic soya
in Argentina have followed just that approach. They have also
concluded that the technology is primarily responsible for the
growth in production and productivity of the Argentinean soy
sector over the last 15 years. Those conclusions have in turn
justified public R&D and policy commitments to transgenic
agricultural technologies. In this paper we help to ‘broaden out’
those existing assessments of transgenic soy performance.
Amongst other things, we estimate the relative contribution of
innovations based on transgenesis, mutation, and cross-breeding
to the rate of innovation in the soybean seed market, and to
productivity gains in Argentinean soybean production. Our data
indicate, in stark contrast to the conventional wisdom, that
transgene innovations may have accounted for only a small
proportion of the striking increase in productivity of the
Argentinean soy sector.
The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA)
and family farmers: is there something new in this
relationship? Milena Serafim, State University of Campinas UNICAMP
The precepts of the Green Revolution were introduced in Latin
America during the 1960s and 1970s. It is a movement marked
by quick modernization and mechanization in the field, enabled
mainly through the influx of “technological package”, with the
function of transferring agricultural technology to temperate to
tropical zone and between the countries of the tropical zone. This
model of technology transfer, eventually followed by some
efforts to make the package more context-adherent, was promptly
embraced by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation
(EMBRAPA).For the last thirty years, however, some
researchers from EMBRAPAstarted advocating for the need to
go beyond these “closed” and “imported” and to create original
local responses for the demands of family farmers in Brazil.
Seeking to verify how this debate has been incorporated in the
Company’s research agenda, this paper analyzes the strategic
objectives and research programs implemented by EMBRAPA,
since the 1980s, in the light of concepts drawn fromScience and
Technology Studies and from Policy Analysis. In order to
achieve this objective, a number of institutional documents were
examined. Additionally, interviews were conducted with some
researchers from EMBRAPA which are currently engaged in the
debate concerning the pertinence of technological packages. The
main conclusions point out that, even though their critique has
been absorbed in the institutional discourse, it has had little effect
on research and management practices inside EMBRAPA, which
remain strongly supported by the technology package rationale.
Discussant:
Susana Brieva, Universidad Nacional de mar de plata
054. Anticipation, Anxiety and HPV Vaccine Politics. Global
Tensions and Local Enactments
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Quinquela
Vaccines are a contested medical intervention. They invoke tensions
between individual risk and social protection, actual risk and anticipated
futures. Their promise of an anticipated cure against future diseases has
often been applauded by the medical sciences and questioned by antivaccination movements. In the last years, these tensions have been
rendered visible because of the introduction of HPV (Human
Papillomavirus) vaccines in different locations. HPV vaccines have
generated strong debates about the development of an anticipated cure for
(cervical) cancer and the creation of new targets for vaccines: adolescents,
sexuality and parental consent. In parallel, these tensions have attracted the
attention of different STS scholars in different locations that perceive HPV
vaccines as not only a good case for understanding the convergence of such
tensions, but also how these are played out in relation to co-productions of
gender, technology and disease. This panel wants to gather different STSinspired works around HPV vaccines. This subject constitutes a good
opportunity to trace the entanglements of global tensions and the local
enactments of such relations. For example, discussing the role of patient
activism and women’s health movement critiques in relation to
pharmaceuticalization of sexual risk and the ways in which HPV vaccines
interfere with imagined trajectories of particular heteronormative versions
of ‘health-seeking’ femininity, risk and sexual behavior. This panel aims to
contribute to the analysis of the transits of bodies and healthcare
technologies in a “globalized” world, with a particular emphasis on the
continuities and ruptures between Global North and Global South.
Chair:
Oscar Javier Maldonado Castañeda, Lancaster University
Participants:
Guarding girls? HPV vaccine discourses’ impact on bodies and
subjectivities Geneviève Rail, Concordia University; Luisa
Molino, Concordia University; Caroline Fusco, University
of Toronto
In Canada as well as globally, there is currently an upsurge of
research on the human papillomavirus (HPV) as well as on HPV
vaccination (HPVV). HPVV campaigns have stirred heated
debates on the link between HPV and cervical cancer as well as
on HPVV safety, effectiveness, cost, and ethics. Despite serious
concerns, public vaccination campaigns have taken place and
involved young girls in all Canadian provinces. Scant research
exists on such campaigns and little is known about HPVV in
Canada. Located within a feminist poststructuralist framework,
our study investigates the deployment of HPVV discourses in
Canada and interrogates its impact on Canadian girls. The study
includes conversations with 12-16 years old girls from various
provinces as well as some of the adults with whom they interact
(parents, teachers, school nurses). We favour poststructuralist
discourse analysis for the examination of conversation
transcripts. In the space of this panel, we present preliminary
results stemming from our study and document what constructed
“truths” around cancer, vaccine safety, sexual risk, gender and
sexuality shape HPVV discourses in Canada. We look at the
biopedagogical mechanics at play in the operation of HPVV and
the consequent extension of surveillance medicine to girls.
Finally, we discuss how girls make sense, negotiate, resist and/or
construct themselves as subjects within HPVV discourses, and
how their bodies and subjectivities are impacted by such
discourses.
“At the center of the storm”: Young women and the HPV
vaccination Ali Hanbury, Lancaster University
The HPV vaccination programme has prompted both global and
thematically wide-spread debate which has resulted in a situation
where young women are occupying a precarious and vulnerable
position: The HPV controversy was not, therefore, a onedimensional debate, for it threaded many questions – family
values, the role of government, the reliability of scientific
evidence, the oversight of sexuality, global inequity, and trust in
drug companies – into a dense tangle of scientific claims and
political assertions. At the center of the storm were young girls,
with intense anxieties swirling around them about their futures,
their sexuality, their health, and the world of risks confronting
them. (Wailoo, Livingston, Epstein and Aronowitz, 2010: xiii)
The situation described here in the USA context has wider
implications and cautionary lessons for my (feminist
participatory) research undertaken in the UK. This paper will
focus upon some of the key controversies I have encountered
whilst researching the impact and effect of the HPV vaccination
on the lives of young women, including; life-limiting sideeffects. I will outline the ways in which young women are
coached into complicity through the life course highlighting the
‘everydayness’ of consenting to medical and pharmaceutical
interventions and the share the stories of those for whom this
'goes wrong'.
You should feel like you do something good for yourself and
for your health. Caring for healthy futures, good choices and
girl subjectivities in HPV vaccination Lisa Maria Lindén,
Department of Thematic Studies - Technology and Social
Change, Linköping University
In a pink trailer with the phrase “I love me” written on it, girls
can get vaccinated against HPV in Sweden. By downloading an
app, girls can do a quiz to learn about HPV vaccination. In my
ongoing PhD thesis project I use feminist STS studies to discuss
how these technological objects and girl subjects are a part of
HPV vaccination assemblages. By discussing HPV vaccination
as a “matter of care” (Puig de la Bellacasa 2011) I show how
county councils in Sweden, as a part of doing HPV vaccination
assemblages, care for certain girl subjectivities. This entails how
choice, risk, sexuality and future health are being made in
specific ways in relation to HPV vaccination and girls. I discuss
how HPV vaccination as being about a “care for the self” or a
“care for the population” is balanced, managed and articulated –
and what the consequences of these versions of HPV vaccination
are. In doing so the county councils are not only articulating
certain forms of care but also a range of girl subjectivities,
different possible future worlds and certain delimitations for
valid knowledge. I will show how certain ways of caring for
girls, future health and HPV vaccination have consequences for
what is being made visible and invisible, what subjects are being
made and not and in relation to who and what.
Disentangling disease and inequity: Vaccines, cancer and
politics of prevention in Colombia Oscar Javier Maldonado
Castañeda, Lancaster University
This paper analyses the discourses on cervical cancer and
vaccines as the framework used in the production of narratives
about HPV vaccines in Colombia. I use the terms politics of
disease and politics of prevention in order to describe the
arrangements of objects, narratives, stories and institutions that
are involve in contemporary perceptions of cervical cancer and
vaccines. Drawing on STS and medical anthropology
contributions but also empirical material (interviews, policy
documents, medical papers, campaign material) I describe the
tensions that make vaccines a contested technology and cervical
cancer a marginal disease. On the other hand, cervical cancer has
a particular history as a malady associated with poverty and
sexual stigma. I discuss the permanence of these narratives in the
contemporary policies and practices on cervical cancer and
development, taking as reference point the experience of
Colombia. In Colombia this narratives are penetrated by the
problem of development as a concern that frames policy,
technology and State intervention. HPV vaccines establish a
connection between the worlds of cervical cancer and vaccines; I
will address some implications of this connection. It is not my
intention to provide a detailed history of cervical cancer,
vaccines and HPV vaccines; rather I attempt to depict how
disease and prevention constitute contexts for practices of
calculation such as cost-effectiveness analysis within the technopolitical selection of healthcare technologies and their
incorporation in Public Health programmes.
A Transnational Scientific Circuit: Mexican and U.S. Type II
Diabetes Research Collaborations Emily Elizabeth Vasquez,
Columbia University
As the prevalence of type II diabetes has increased rapidly in
Mexico and the United States over the last three decades, the
political commitment to research related to the disease’s etiology,
surveillance, prevention, and treatment has also escalated. As
type II diabetes research programs thrive in each country,
transnational research collaborations between Mexican and U.S.
epidemiologists are also common. Drawing on a series of indepth interviews among Mexican and U.S. genetic
epidemiologists engaged in transnational research collaborations,
I describe tensions that emerge in practice with regard to three
areas and how these are resolved sufficiently for successful
collaboration: (1) distinct logics that underpin approaches to type
II diabetes epidemiology in each country context, (2)
justifications for the use of specific population categories, and (3)
future directions in diabetes research and interventions,
especially the relevance of personalized medicine. While
historians of epidemiology have depicted the field as globally
uniform and marked by a universal logic, I challenge this
assumption and explore the implications of disunity in
epidemiological science across borders and its significance with
regard to type II diabetes research and prevention.
Discussant:
Janice E Graham, Dalhousie University
055. Controversy Mapping Using Digital Tools and Methods in
Different Academic Contexts: South(s)-North(s) Dialogs I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Soldi
Chair:
Débora de Carvalho Pereira, MediaLab Sciences Po Paris
Participants:
Contágios entre redes e ruas: mapeando o #ProtestoRJ no
Twitter Fernanda Glória Bruno, Universidade Federal do
Rio de Janeiro; Henrique Antoun, Universidade Federal do
Rio de Janeiro; Priscilla Calmon de Andrade, Universidade
Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Este trabalho analisa o debate ocorrido no Twitter durante as
manifestações que eclodiram no Brasil em junho de 2013.
Focaliza particularmente os protestos no Rio de Janeiro,
mapeando os retweets contendo a hashtag #ProtestoRJ desde o
dia 15 de junho de 2013 até o dia 13 de fevereiro de 2014. O
mapeamento permite identificar os diferentes atores envolvidos
nos debates sobre o #ProtestoRJ, situando suas posições e
transformações dentro da comunicação em rede – processo que
se dá pela visualização gráfica das interações a partir das
estatísticas de grau de entrada, autoridade e hubs, que nos
fornecem pistas quanto à popularidade, relevância e centralidade
dos atores. Pretende-se, ainda, explorar as dinâmicas de contágio
(Tarde, 1976) entre os diferentes enunciados (retweets) sobre o
#ProtestoRJ, bem como as variações nas redes formadas pelos
atores no período de junho de 2013 a fevereiro de 2014. Soma-se
a este mapeamento uma análise quali-quantitativa do conteúdo
dos tweets, identificando as principais palavras e hashtags
utilizadas no corpus #ProtestoRJ e nos dias de maior intensidade
de participação popular. Para tanto utilizaremos o script NAR
para análise semântica da rede, e também o tweetgraph3.0, que
nos fornece uma visão geral do grafo. Numa fase preliminar
desta análise, notamos uma intensa contaminação entre as ruas e
as redes: nos dias 16 e 17 de junho de 2013, por exemplo, a rede
foi inundada com 73.839 tweets que eram originados sobretudo
de um movimento que ocorria nas ruas, mostrando que elas
atravessavam as redes com suas palavras e debates.
Indexação colaborativa e mapeamento de controvérsias:
possíveis aproximações Marina Pantoja Boechat, Escola de
Comunicação da UFRJ
O ambiente web oferece formas inovadoras de registrar e tornar
visíveis processos de compartilhamento e comentário, por meio
de ferramentas de indexação colaborativa e distribuída, onde
conteúdos circulam e são agregados em redes e conjuntos a partir
da troca cotidiana dos usuários. Pretendemos discutir três
movimentos relacionados à circulação da imagem dentro deste
contexto. Primeiro, entendemos que há uma alteração no sentido
da indexação tradicional: se antes ela visava a conservação e a
recuperação, hoje ela começa a ser parte efetiva da circulação,
pois nenhum conteúdo circula sem deixar traços e, ao mesmo
tempo, a circulação não se dá mais propriamente por um
deslocamento físico, mas por meio do comentário. Segundo, há a
entrada da indexação e do comentário na própria espacialidade da
imagem, na forma de anotações, referências e ligações que
ressaltam sua característica diagramática, recalcando sua função
representacional. A imagem entra em rede também como
diagrama de relações e tensões destes comentários e conexões.
Discutiremos possíveis aproximações e contrastes entre esta
característica diagramática da imagem na web e a cartografia de
controvérsias. Nosso objetivo principal é explorar, a partir deste
ponto de vista, desafios para a criação de métodos de cartografia
que possam penetrar nas práticas cotidianas do público em geral
facilitando utilização como ferramenta cidadã. Utilizaremos
alguns exemplos de sites comerciais, de forma a contextualizar
tais questões como parte de fenômenos difundidos no grande
público.
Cartografia de controvérsia do movimento ambientalista na
internet: diálogos norte e sul Débora de Carvalho Pereira,
MediaLab Sciences Po Paris
A gestão da natureza em escala global se dá a partir da
articulação entre atores plurais, em diálogos norte-sul, que
podem ser visualizados em cartografias de controvérsias. Essa
comunicação apresenta graficamente as interconexões de sujeitos
e seus padrões de consumo informacional, em rede de sites
coletada em torno da Conferência das Nações Unidas para o
Desenvolvimento Sustentável – Rio+20. A Teoria Ator-Rede e os
estudos de cartografias de controvérsias tornaram possível o
mapeamento das redes sociais sobre preservação da natureza e a
categorização dos principais sujeitos informacionais. Como
resultados da pesquisa foram identificadas três tendências
predominantes para formar os regimes de informação percebidos
na rede: a ecologia social, a economia verde e a ecologia
profunda. Nos ambientes virtuais, ONGs, instituições educativas,
centros de pesquisa, governos, movimentos sociais e indivíduos
são sujeitos informacionais que discutem a ecologia em três
vieses: o da conservação dos espaços de beleza e alta
biodiversidade (ecologia profunda); o da necessidade de
integração entre ecologia e cultura (ecologia social); e o da
integração entre economia e ecologia (economia verde). A partir
da descrição das redes e suas relações, foi possível visualizar os
diálogos norte e sul, a partir dos processos de tradução
intersemiótica de memes em diversos pontos, a fim de influenciar
hábitos coletivos e individuais. A experiência estética da
natureza intermediada por atores sociais em ambientes digitais se
desdobra em proposições de ação em que o usuário se engaja de
forma plural, preservando todavia as lógicas estruturais dos
regimes de informação identificados.
Controversy mapping of a Unilever crisis versus digital
networks Dora Kaufman, Universidade de Sao Paulo
In a society where digital technology is widespread the company
is no longer an actor who dialogs linear and unidirectional with
the consumer but it is part of a decentralized information and
complex ecosystem with multiple actors. Digital habitat removes
the separation between actors and it breaks the dichotomy
company - consumer. Despite a profound easing process the
companies preserve the culture of control. This control logic
creates a conflict with the practices of digital networks which
manifests itself most acutely in crisis situations. The purpose of
the research is drawing a controversy mapping of a Unilever
crisis involving one of their products with huge repercussions on
social networks. The idea is to make visible the controversies
through quantitative and qualitative analysis, visualization of
networks of actors and design data. The final methodology, based
on actor-network theory, and software will be define in
cooperation with Unilever team and its Social Media Monitoring
agency. The initial idea is to cut out a sample by selecting digital
social networks of great influence and impact. The principle aim
is observe the complexities and heterogeneities of the traces left
by actors on those networks and demonstrate the overcoming of
the company crisis management framework. A controversy
mapping in the social context of crisis involving a company and
its consumers, since it is not very common, has potential
elements to add something new to CTS literature.
Controvérsias nas redes sociais durante transmissões
audiovisuais ao vivo Carlos D'Andrea, Brazil
O presente trabalho parte de um projeto de pesquisa que visa
investigar como se dão as conexões intermidiáticas entre
transmissões audiovisuais ao vivo (de eventos esportivos ou
debates políticos, por exemplo) e as conversações alavancadas
por elas nas redes sociais online, em especial no Twitter.
Consideramos que a diversidade de hashtags, temáticas etc que
emergem da audiência conectada durante uma transmissão ao
vivo – via televisão ou streaming - alavancam um ambiente
potencialmente rico em controvérsias que nos ajudam a
compreender como o tema central da transmissão é atravessado
por outros assuntos. Durante a transmissão do sorteio dos jogos
da Copa de 2014, por exemplo, o racismo foi tema recorrente nas
redes sociais, enquanto na abertura do Jogos Olímpicos de Soshi
referências à homofobia e ao autoritarismo do governo russo se
misturaram aos comentários sobre a cerimônia. Esse problema de
pesquisa nos obriga a pensar novas perspectivas teóricas e
metodológicas. Os estudos originais da Cartografia das
Controvérsias lida com discussões e negociações prolongadas e
uma relativa estabilização dos atores envolvidos no debate sobre
Ciência e Tecnologia. Na presente pesquisa, por outro lado,
tratamos em busca de controvérsias que emergem e desaparecem
subitamente nas redes sociais online (ainda que temáticas como
racismo e homofobia alimentem controvérsias permanentes), o
que explicita a necessidade de um intenso acompanhamento das
transmissões ao vivo. A presente pesquisa é vinculada ao
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Comunicação da UFMG (Brasil)
e prevê a realização de uma extensa coleta de dados durante a
Copa do Mundo de 2014.
056. Experimental Entanglements: Re-imagining Vital Fields
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Verdi
Chair:
Des Fitzgerald, King's College London
Participants:
Experimental Entanglements: Re-thinking the dynamics of
interaction across the social sciences and neurosciences
Felicity Callard, Durham University; Des Fitzgerald, King's
College London
This paper is an account of the dynamics of interaction across the
social sciences and neurosciences, and an attempt to re-imagine
what those dynamics can and should look like. Against an arid
rhetoric of ‘interdisciplinarity,’ it calls for a more expansive
imaginary of what experiment – as practice and ethos – might
offer as a mode of creative intervention. The paper argues that an
upsurge in interactions between the social sciences and
neurosciences is increasingly hard to avoid, both in institutional
practice committed to ‘interdisciplinary’ engagements, and in
often worried accounts from the field. Insisting that opportunities
for collaboration between social scientists and neuroscientists
need to be taken seriously, the paper situates itself against
existing conceptualizations of these dynamics, which it groups
under three rubrics: ‘critique,’ ‘ebullience’ and ‘interaction.’
Despite their differences, each of these insists on an on-going
distinction between sociocultural and neurobiological
knowledge, or does not yet show us how a more entangled field
might be realised through experimentation. We link this gap to
what we call the ‘régime of the inter-’, which guides interaction
between disciplines on the understanding of their pre-existing
separateness. The core argument of the paper isthat, contra the
‘régime of the inter-,‘ it is no longer practicable or desirable to
maintain a hygienic separation between sociocultural webs and
neurobiological architecture; and that the cognitive
neuroscientific experiment, as a rich space of epistemological
and ontological excess, offers a still-mostly-uncharted space for
researchers, from all disciplines, to understand, explore and
register the outcomes of this realization.
Life as relations: towards equality in complexity Bettina Bock
von Wülfingen, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin; Niki
Vermeulen, University of Manchester
Building on the concept of bio-objects as a new heuristic to
analyze social and material configurations to which life is
attributed, this paper explores relations of life and their
visualization in models. We focus on the development of systems
approaches in the life sciences, which, against the grain of
reductionism, aim for a more complex take on interactions in
nature and between nature and the social. Based on theoretical
and empirical studies of systems in biology, including our own
work on reproductive genetics, epigenetics and organ physiology,
we analyze the ways in which systems approaches and STS
scholars are engaging with the complexity of life. More
specifically, we wonder if the notion of complexity alone suffices
to analyze current shifts in understandings of life and argue that
systems approaches in biology seem to open a view on equality
in relations. While continuing to balance between reductionism
and complexity, we find accounts of life moving from a linear
(genetic) causality to multi-causal relations in multi-level models
that do not assume dominance. This new equality agenda not
only refers back to original ideas of systems in revolutionary
Enlightenment accounts – detailing equal relations between
human beings and all elements of nature – but also holds
promises for future cooperations between scholars studying the
natural and the social.
Making Meaning in the Interview: Reflections on Social
Science Fieldwork Connie Johnston, University of Oregon
This paper explores and reflects on interview processes and
outcomes from fieldwork for a dissertation in geography, and
through the paper I suggest that collaborations between STS
scholars and biological scientists can be seen in subtle and varied
forms. In 2011 – 2012 I conducted fieldwork related to farm
animal welfare scientific research in the US and European Union.
A large part of this fieldwork included semi-structured interviews
with government-supported farm animal scientists in both
locations. From the early stages of introducing myself and my
topic to potential interviewees, to analyzing the often reflective
and lengthy interviews, this research process was one that
touched on issues of trust, scholarly purpose, and stereotypes.
Although these interviews were not collaborations per se, the fact
that farm animal welfare, especially in the United States, is often
a contentious subject required that the scientists have some level
of understanding of and support for my project. A more implicit
aspect of this collaboration was that many of these interviews
were an exploration of personal/professional philosophies and
motivations and their connection to epistemological approaches,
for my interviewees and for me as well. Through this paper I
seek to contribute an interpretation of the concept of coproduction (see e.g., Jasanoff 2005) with respect to STS
researchers, their subjects, outcomes, and meanings.
A place for STS? Exploring collaborations with synthetic
biologists Jane Calvert, University of Edinburgh
One way of thinking about collaboration between STS
researchers and scientists and engineers is in terms of spaces or
rooms. Rooms constrain what it is possible to do, and enable
certain behaviours and interventions. Rooms have walls –
boundaries that determine who is inside and who is outside.
Drawing inspiration from Webster’s (2007) idea of the ‘policy
room’, I will talk through some of my experiences in the
different rooms I have entered into in my collaborations with
synthetic biologists. Some of these rooms are familiar (like the
classroom, the conference room and the laboratory), but others
are less so (like the art gallery and the coffee room). I will then
ask: if we had an opportunity to create a new space for
interdisciplinary collaboration, what would it look like? Would it
be some kind of trading zone (Galison 1996), studio space
(Woolgar et al. 2009), or agora (Nowotny et al. 2001)? How
would boundaries be drawn around it? Also, what would we do
in this space? Could we explore the possibility of producing new
objects and practices of knowledge with scientists and engineers
(Barry et al. 2008)? Could we experiment with ideas of epistemic
partnership (Holmes and Marcus 2008)? How would we ensure
autonomy and critique in this space, as well as playfulness and
creativity?
Synthetic Biology and Biosecurity: Moving beyond the
‘promises and perils’ narrative Catherine Jefferson, King's
College London
A common narrative has emerged in the media and in policy
arenas, in which advances in biosciences are seen to make
biology easier and more accessible, and this is presumed to
increase the ‘dual use’ threat, i.e. the potential for legitimate
peaceful research to be misused for the production of biological
weapons. Developments in synthetic biology, a field that
emerged at the start of the 21st century with the stated aim of
‘making biology easier to engineer’, combined with open online
access to DNA sequences of living organisms (including viruses
and other pathogens) and the reduction in price for DNA
synthesis, have further fuelled these concerns. However, these
dual use concerns are largely based on promissory constructions
of synthetic biology and speculative assumptions about the
field’s ability to produce well-characterised biological parts that
function predictably in living organisms; assumptions that may
not accurately reflect current scientific realities. Furthermore,
there remain a number of tangible and intangible barriers to the
production of biological weapons using synthetic biology.
Drawing on research on the experimental practices of synthetic
biologists, this paper argues that hype around the promises of the
field has significantly contributed to hype around the dual use
perils, and identifies a number of challenges to this dominant
‘promises and perils’ narrative.
Connecting Ambiguity of Experimental Practice in Science
with Problems of Research Integrity Fred Grinnell, ut
southwestern medical center
Problems with research integrity have become of sufficient
concern to warrant a series of World Conferences beginning in
2007. These conferences have articulated principles and
responsibilities to govern research integrity. The 2010 Singapore
Statement on Research Integrity begins with the principle
"Honesty in all aspects of research." Taken as a whole, research
should be honest in all its aspects. But if a research paper
contains only a small portion of the data collected, and the data
presented are arranged in a historically reconstructed fashion,
what should one think? In an intellectual sense, the paper may be
honest and consistent with conventions of practice. In an absolute
sense, the paper is false. Sir Peter Medawar (Nobel Prize 1960)
concluded as much in his 1963 essay "Is the Scientific Paper a
Fraud?" I use autobiographical accounts by Nobel Prize-winning
scientists and others to develop a nuanced description of the
ethical challenges that inevitably arise because of the ambiguities
inherent in every aspect of experimental research practice. I
suggest that understanding these ambiguities should become a
component of research integrity education by introducing
scientific memoirs into the curriculum. For instance, by reading
Watson’s "The Double Helix" (1968) students will learn that
science is anything but linear and that the researchers involved
are anything but disinterested. Also, I raise the possibility that
current practices surrounding science fair in high school and
science laboratory exercises in college may provide an
inadvertent platform undermining research integrity, and I
describe planned studies to analyze this possibility.
057. Climate change knowledge uptake: How, who and why?
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
Chair:
Myanna H Lahsen, Earth System Science Center, Brazilian
National Institute for Space Research
Participants:
Science framing, hybrid framing, and journalists’ accounting
for news articles on climate change: A cross-national study
Stephen Zehr, University of Southern Indiana
This study of newspaper accounts of climate change in New
Zealand, Australia, India, US and UK explores different frames
in the presentation of news about climate change. Both content
analyses of articles and interviews with journalists are used to
discuss whether science-centered articles on climate change are
integrated with other typical frames such as social, political,
environmental, or economic. The presentation will address two
main questions: Do journalists commonly create “hybrid frames”
that seamlessly combine scientific and non-scientific dimensions
of climate change? How do journalists account for the presence
and relevance of hybrid frames in their articles? A sample of
articles will be analyzed from the work of at least two journalists
from each nation, with which personal interviews have been
conducted. Cross-national differences will be discussed. The
paper also will discuss potential implications of hybrid framing
for developing public understanding of climate change that is
more consistent with STS framing.
La Tecnología como Servicio Público: La Bioclimatización
Edilicia en Argentina Rafael Balderrama, Universidad
Nacional de La Rioja
El renovado interés en las energías renovables ha contribuido a
reabrir los debates en torno a su gestión y sus vínculos con la
investigación-innovación en América Latina. En este trabajo se
describe la contribución de los grupos académicos argentinos y,
en particular, las formas participativas de gestión de la
innovación en el uso de recursos naturales renovables
compartidos cuando los sectores involucrados deben ser
persuadidos sobre sus beneficios tangibles. La construcción
edilicia basada en el aprovechamiento pasivo de la energía solar
es una actividad innovadora con múltiples actores en mercados
muy dispersos y fragmentados. Se examinan los alcances y
limitaciones de esta innovación edilicia, incluyendo la actividad
de grupos académicos interconectados a través de ASADES
(Asociación Argentina de Energías Renovables y Ambiente).
Esta actividad innovadora ocurre en un contexto nacional de
crisis energética inminente ante la cual ni el Estado argentino ni
el sector privado han mostrado capacidad de respuestas efectivas.
Se analizan los aportes metodológicos y tecnológicos
desarrollados por tres grupos de investigadores, a saber el
INENCO-Universidad de Salta, el Laboratorio de Ambiente
Humano y Vivienda (LAHV) en el CCT-Conicet-Mendoza y el
IIPAC-Universidad Nacional de La Plata. La evidencia utilizada
consiste en entrevistas semi-estructuradas y grabadas, así como el
análisis de los criterios y trayectoria de los proyectos de estos
grupos en el marco de las tendencias actuales a nivel mundial.
Se concluye que aunque los grupos académicos pueden generar
soluciones efectivas a estos problemas, se requieren lapsos
considerables y políticas públicas apropiadas que permitan
redimensionar estas soluciones a escala nacional con normativas
que garanticen su implementación.
La modelación climática mexicana: Termodinámica, Clima
nacional y Downscaling Antonio Arellano, Universidad
Autonoma del Estado de Mexico; Laura Morales-Navarro,
UAEM
La modelación del clima es una de las ramas más complicadas de
la tecnociencia contemporánea. Su realización ha significado un
reto simultáneo para las geociencias y las ciencias lógicomatemáticas, así como para el desarrollo técnico computacional;
pero aún más para la reorganización del conocimiento para
integrar en un solo haz a la hidrodinámica, climatología,
meteorología, termodinámica, vulcanología, algorítmica, el
cómputo y el adelanto técnico de computadoras. Comprender
epistemológicamente la modelación climática requiere del
análisis de la práctica científica de la modelación y, de modo
inseparable, de la función epistémica de los conceptos, esquemas
cognitivos, modelos y toda clase de los arreglos racionales que
permiten contrastar la elaboración cognitiva con la práctica
empírica de conocimiento. La noción epistémica de idealtipos
desarrollada por Weber puede ser un aparato crítico para
comprender la puesta en escena y función epistémica de la
práctica sociotécnica de modelación, entendida como una acción
social técnicocognitiva. El aparato crítico y la propedéutica de la
modelación, nos permitirán analizar los hitos de la investigación
modelística del clima en México. el primero representado por los
desarrollos de Julián Ádem que culminaron con el Modelo
Termodinámico del Clima (MTC)y su despliegue cognoscitivo;
en segundo lugar, la pérdida de impulso en la modelación
climática y los vacíos de la modelación post-MTC y; finalmente,
la especialización en la explotación de las salidas de los modelos
de circulación general desarrollados en instituciones de
investigación de otras latitudes del mundo para el desarrollo de
escenarios del cambio climático a las condiciones mexicanas.
The Climate Change Controversy in Portuguese Wikipedia
Bernardo Esteves, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
There is a strong consensus among scientists studying climate
change: 97% of them say the global surface temperature is
warming due primarily to greenhouse gases emitted by human
activities. Nevertheless, climate change is the subject of a public
controversy – some contrarian voices dispute several aspects of
the mainstream claims. The aim of this paper is to investigate
how this controversy is performed in Wikipedia, a collaborative
encyclopedia that anyone can edit. I’m particularly interested in
Portuguese Wikipedia, written mainly by Brazilian editors. Do
climate change related articles reflect the scientific consensus? Is
there any space left for the contrarians’ claims? Do those articles
reflect a local perspective on this controversy? These are some
questions this paper intends to answer. I approach this research
problem with the conceptual tools provided by Actor-Network
Theory, which have been shown suitable for addressing both
science controversies and Wikipedia. I carry a quantitative and
qualitative analysis of a sample of climate change related articles
in Portuguese Wikipedia. I investigate several parameters of their
revision history and try to understand how wikipedians negotiate
conflicting points of view. The analysis shows that the articles
reflect the scientific consensus on climate change, portraying the
opposing claims as a political controversy performed outside the
scholarly literature. Thereby, Wikipedia acts as another element
in the sociotechnical network of actants supporting
anthropogenic climate change. The results shed light on how
science controversies and uncertainties are perceived and
performed by a group of non expert Portuguese speaking editors
in a collaborative environment.
Unwanted Information: producing climate knowledge after the
(Australian) Government shuts you down Darrin Durant,
University of Melbourne
In February 2011 the (then) Australian Prime Minister, Julia
Gillard, established the Climate Commission. The mandate of
the commission, with a budget exceeding AUD$5 million over
four years, was to provide expert information and advice but not
comment on policy nor make policy recommendations. A few
years later they got the sack. The incoming Liberal Government
of Tony Abbott abolished the commission in September 2013.
But a few days later the commission re-launched as the Climate
Council, an independent, non-profit entity funded by public
donations. So how has getting the sack affected the way climate
knowledge is communicated, used and received in Australia?
How has getting the sack affected the way climate knowledge is
framed and translated in Australia? In general terms, Australia’s
Climate Council offers an avenue to explore general questions
about the social uptake of scientific knowledge, such as Brian
Wynne’s contention that the ‘body language’ of the organization
makes all the difference. Or the ethical-political question about
how scientists balance the tensions between autonomy and
responsibility. This talk will make available some preliminary
findings; both about the effects of getting the sack, but also about
the role intrinsic and extrinsic interests might play in both the
communication of and the uptake of scientific knowledge.
Communicating Climate Change: Is Brazil the Noble Example?
Myanna H Lahsen, Earth System Science Center, Brazilian
National Institute for Space Research
Skepticism of climate science is often identified as a key obstacle
to effective decision making in the U.S. and a number of other
countries. In such discussions, Brazil has come to be celebrated
as an enlightened counter-example to the United States because
climate science is largely uncontested. In addition, international
opinion surveys performed by the Pew Center and others
consistently show Brazil as an international leader in terms of
expressed levels of popular concern about climate change and
willingness to sacrifice to reduce the threat. Comparison of the
national contexts of the U.S. and Brazil indeed reveal important
differences in the dynamics of climate-related knowledge
politics. This analysis discusses why the science of climate
change is less contested in Brazil. However, it challenges
portrayals of Brazil as a nobler example, arguing that climate
knowledge politics play out in different ways in Brazil but are
similarly distorted and power-rigged as in the United States.
Indeed, the tenets of climate coverage in Brazilian newspapers
reflect how political and economic elites define the terms of the
debate at the highest levels, in ways that are deeply consequential
yet difficult to perceive and thus hard to combat. Thus, nationallevel solutions frame climate change as an energy problem,
excluding from public awareness and debate the single most
important driver of greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil: the
production and consumption of cow meat.
058. Pharmaceutical Geographies
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
Small, ubiquitous, and highly mobile through flows of capital and
commodities, pharmaceuticals have become highly visible objects in 21st
century articulations of global health. However, as a field of critical
pharmaceutical studies has emerged among STS scholars in recent years, it
has tended to recapitulate a simplified geography of South v. North: the
former characterized by problems of pharmaceutical access, the latter by
problems of pharmaceutical excess. We propose to take the occasion of the
4S meetings in Buenos Aires as an opportunity to re-center the mapping of
pharmaceutical production, circulation, and consumption along alternate
geographies. The five papers of this panel treat questions of local
production, of import and export, of essential vs. inessential medicines, and
South-South linkages among manufacturers, regulators, and civil society
groups in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia.
The panelists draw from fields of history, anthropology, and sociology, and
configure this joint subject with rigorous archival, oral-historical, and
ethnographic research.
Chair:
Kristin Peterson, University of California, Irvine
Participants:
South by Southeast: Pharmaceutical Activism in Colombo,
Penang, and Geneva Jeremy Greene, Johns Hopkins
University
By the early 21st century questions of pharmaceutical access
have become central to global public health projects, especially
for those essential medicines understood to be necessary to
treating the priority health needs of world populations. Yet the
essential medicines concept is not a new critique, nor was it a
term created by the WHO Secretariat in Geneva. Rather, I argue
in this paper that the essential medicines concept reached Geneva
in the 1970s by way of Colombo and Penang. This paper will
explore how South and Southeast Asian locales became key
nodes in an emerging network of international consumer
advocacy that introduced the language of essential medicines into
international health vernaculars as part of a broader critique of
transnational corporations in the delivery of healthcare. I will
trace the linked careers Senaka Bibile (1920-1977), Kumariah
Balasubramanian (1926-2011) and Anwar Fazal (1941--) to trace
an influential Asian/Pacific perspective on the globalization of
consumerist critiques of the multinational pharmaceutical
industry. Based on archival research, literature review, and oral
history, this paper will (1) explore collective biography as a
technique for tracing South-to-North and South-South flows of
pharmaceutical activism and pharmaceutical policy (2) map out
nodes and linkages in South and Southeast Asia within the
broader articulation of critiques of transnational pharmaceutical
companies in the 1970s and 1980s, and (3) highlight the strengths
and limitations entailed in framing global health activism as a
form of consumer activism.
Price Matters: the introduction of generic drugs in Colombia
Victor Manuel Garcia, EHESS-Cermes 3
Recently, scholars have studied the implications of policies for
expanding access to pharmaceuticals; mainly after the emergency
of the list of Essentials drugs launched by the World Health
Organization (WHO) in 1977. Nevertheless, the history of the
first initiatives of access to generic drugs and its relationship with
the pharmaceutical industry during the 1960s is less studied.
Based on analysis of congressional documents of Colombia and
the United States, as well as some interviews, this paper
examines how Colombian Government set up a national
pharmaceutical policy, which attempted to reduce the drug prices
and promote the generic industry in the early 1960s. The
circulation of experts between U.S and Colombia supported the
process of appropriation of drug polices in both countries. Many
of the arguments in which the Colombian government based its
analysis and defended its policy were similar to those used in the
Kefauver Hearings (1959-1962) in the U.S. Nevertheless, while
in U.S the bill to regulate the pharmaceutical industry failed, in
Colombia the first steps to imposing the drug price reduction
policy and extending access to pharmaceuticals succeeded.
However, industrials and wholesalers tried to keep their status
encouraging the pharmaceutical lobbying with the politicians,
arguing the lack of quality of generic drugs and refusing to
distribute generics in drugstores. Eventually, when the
government attempted to revise the patent system, industrials
were firmly opposed and undermine the government initiative.
Pharmaceuticals and Public Health in Brazil: Copying Essential
Drugs, Knowledge Acquisition and Innovation Projects in
Public - Private Industrial Networks Maurice Cassier,
CERMES 3--CNRS; Marilena Villela Correa, Universidade
do Estado do Rio de Janeiro; Pedro Villardi, Universidade
do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
This paper aims at debating recent evolutions in the management
of the production and circulation of therapeutic agents—
specifically antiretroviral medications for the treatment of
HIV/AIDS--in the context of public health policies and
pharmaceutical services in Brazil in the last two decades. This
paper depicts the transition from an earlier regime of free
copying and technologic knowledge acquisition on these
essential medicines through imitation in non-formalized
networking between public and private small national
pharmaceutical companies (late 1990s) to a new regime (from
2008 on) that priroitizes formal public-private partnerships and
Government-promoted technology transfers. In terms of public
health policy at the national level, the two regimes both answer
the same public health demands for access to drugs, since the
Brazilian new Federal Constitution (1988) re-defined the right to
health as a fundamental individual right, as well as the provision
of universal healthcare as a State duty. In terms of technological
learning the two regimes overlap; and, perhaps more importantly,
involve many of the same actors. It is also possible to trace back
further in history, to the 1980s or even 1970s, and find some
assemblage of the same public and private pharmaceutical
laboratories inside Governmental public health policies to
produce essential medicines for free distribution in the country.
And yet the move from public sector reverse engineering to
private-public partnership entails many unseen consequences.
The earlier copying regime gave place to knowledge trades
between public and private pharmaceutical laboratories and the
emergence of innovative networks; mostly inside the country but
also with Indian players. In this sense, locally copies associated
Brazil to a global level (Cassier and Correa 2007, 2009, 2013;
Correa e Cassier 2010). Clearly, one major aspect entailed
changes in responses to health needs in pharmaceuticals, which is
related to its new status: from a collective good (before WTO/
Trips agreements and the Brazilian new patent law of 1996) to a
more proprietary one (1997 on). What is at stake from now is to
analyze what the new contractualized partnerships will mean in
terms of North-South and South-South transfer and circulations;
and specially innovation on of health goods for the good of
public health. Studying these changes in drug patentability in
Brazil reveals new emerging local practices of dealing with the
problem of knowledge circulation, transfer of technology and the
production of these health goods.
Flow Chemistry and the Temporalities of South African
Pharmaceutical Production Anne Pollock, Georgia Tech
This paper draws on ethnographic research that I began in 2010
at a small South African startup pharmaceutical company with an
elite international board that started in 2009 with a mission of
novel drug discovery for HIV, TB, and malaria. Here, I will
explore a new direction that the company is moving into: novel
process chemistry, specifically implementing ‘flow chemistry,’ a
hot trend in fine chemical production which promises to radically
lower the quantity of solvents, and thus the environmental
impact, of pharmaceutical production. The company’s plan is to
draw on expertise of the company’s international Scientific
Advisory Board to build ‘green’ pharmaceutical production
infrastructure and capacity in South Africa and with it, financial
sustainability for the company. In this paper, I meditate upon the
hope in flow, especially attentive to temporality and
infrastructure. Flow chemistry itself provides an opportunity to
reconceptualize time in pharmaceutical production, since its
material constraints and affordances require changing the order
of chemical reactions. Situating it in South Africa adds macro
elements of time as well. Among the scientists involved, there is
a sense that South Africa is “too late” to the pharmaceutical
production game to compete with India and China in standard
“batch” pharmaceutical production techniques, but is not “too
late” to lead in flow. South Africa’s lack of robust infrastructure
for the pharmaceutical industry’s current highly toxic
manufacturing practices becomes, in this aspiration, a condition
of possibility for leading in the green manufacturing practices of
the future.
Medicamentos y producción pública en Argentina. Análisis de
una red sociotécnica Guillermo Santos, INSTITUTO DE
ESTUDIOS SOBRE LA CIENCIA Y LA TECNOLOGÍA UNQ; Lucas Becerra, INSTITUTO DE ESTUDIOS SOBRE
LA CIENCIA Y LA TECNOLOGÍA - UNQ
El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar desde una perspectiva
socio-técnica el funcionamiento de la producción pública de
medicamentos como una tecnología compleja de inclusión social
en Argentina. Específicamente, se pretende aportar
conocimientos en tres planos complementarios: (a) En el plano
empírico a través de la presentación y análisis de una unidad
pública productora de medicamentos; (b) En el plano conceptual
interesa identificar y analizar: i) la conformación de redes y
alianzas socio-técnicas; ii) dinámicas y trayectorias sociotécnicas; iii) estrategias, pujas y tensiones de la intervención del
Estado; iv) relaciones problema-solución; y v) construcción de
funcionamiento/no funcionamiento de los laboratorios públicos.
(c) En el plano de las políticas públicas se pretende aportar
elementos para repensar la producción pública de medicamentos
en términos de alianzas y redes sociotécnicas complejas
orientadas a solucionar problemas sociales vinculados al acceso
de la población a medicamentos. Se enmarca en un abordaje que
combina herramientas de análisis de la sociología constructivista
de la tecnología y la economía del cambio tecnológico. La
metodología incluye un conjunto de técnicas de detección
(follow the actors, snowball, reconstrucción de redes sociotécnicas, identificación de dinámicas socio-técnicas) con el
objetivo de dimensionar el alcance de las experiencias
desarrolladas e identificar fenómenos significativos:
conformación de redes y alianzas, dinámicas productorbeneficiario, intervención del estado, construcción de relaciones
problema-solución, etc. Este trabajo forma parte del Instituto de
Estudios Sociales sobre la Ciencia y la Tecnología (IESCT) de la
Universidad Nacional de Quilmes y cuenta con el apoyo de la
Universidad Nacional de Luján, Argentina.
Discussant:
Emilia Sanabria, Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon &
INSERM
059. Anthropology and STS: Dis/Encounters and Potential
South-North Exchanges II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Chopin
Chair:
Sharon Traweek, UCLA
Participants:
Thinking Through Disaster: STS in Late Industrialism Kim
Fortun, RPI
This presentation will address the intensifying significance of
interdisciplinary, collaborative and comparative disaster research
– with global scope – in the current historical period, a period
that I have termed “late industrialism.” Beginning in the mid1980s, marked heuristically by the 1984 Bhopal disaster, late
industrialism is characterized by both acute and chronic disaster,
emergent from tightly coupled ecological, technological,
political, economic, social and cultural systems, many of which
are over-extended, fractured by serial retrofitting, and notably
difficult to visualize, conceptualize and coordinate response to.
Late industrialism is also characterized by over-extended
paradigms and disciplines, and incredible imbrication of
commercial interest in knowledge production, in legal decisions,
in governance at all scales. It is a period riven with hazards of
many kinds (epistemic, eco-technological, political), which
operate synergistically and cumulatively, requiring keen attention
to what can’t be accounted for within entrenched discursive
regimes. Research on and in late industrialism thus poses
particular challenges, calling for something beyond extant
theories of modernity and postmodernity, biopolitics, empire, and
risk society. I’ll described how I have conceptualized and
designed projects to address the challenges of late industrialism,
entwining experimental ethnography with feminist, postcolonial
and poststructural theorizations of language and meaning, looped
into critical pedagogical practice. In process, I’ll strive to
demonstrate the analytic and political significance of “thinking
through disaster.”
Cultural Critique, Catachresis, and Coming to Care Mike
Fortun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
In this presentation I trace a genealogy of my theoretical and
methodological approaches to the study of genomics, from
history of science to STS to anthropology, trying to come to
terms with the differences their differences have made. From a
history of the Human Genome Project in the U.S. to an
ethnography of the volatile territories of commercial genomics in
Iceland and environs, this work has pursued cultural critique of
genomic forms of life - a form of critique that has neither run out
of steam, nor resolved into opposition. I use recent developments
in asthma genomics to discuss how I've recently come to care
about the qualities of "care" in genomics today: the love of data,
the worry over its creation and analysis, the laborious investment
in collective infrastructure, and the cultivation of scientific
subjects appropriately anxious about genomic truths. I also use
contemporary research in geneXenvironment interactions to
elaborate the differences between care as conceived in recent
STS scholarship, and "care" in the sciences understood as
catachresis: to study care is to study an impossible and necessary
naming of science's outside, its double-binding (Bateson) or
aporetic (Derrida) structure that demands endurance and play.
One important line of argument is thus about the promise of
poststructuralism in STS.
Excessive Meshworks Sharon Traweek, UCLA
Three physical science fields rely on research facilities costing
billions of dollars: astronomy, fusion physics, and high energy
physics. Their cost is so large that no single nation, no matter
how rich, can afford such facilities. Nonetheless, two are under
construction (ALMA in Chile and ITER in France); a third (ILC)
is likely to be built in Japan. International organizations
(UNESCO, OECD, EU, G-8) compete to manage these projects
financially; through those organizations nations struggle to
maintain control of these gargantuan prosthetic devices, once so
crucial to cold war science and engineering as sites for crafting
the knowledge makers who then would staff the more prosaic
facilities of late industrialism. Nations want to turn these projects
into taxable technoparks. These newest prosthetic devices
develop through decades-long strategic formations of glocal
coalitions. These rural projects demand and generate a glocal
workforce that converges in new villages around the new
devices: architects, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs,
environmentalists, regional planners, scientists, social scientists,
teachers, etc. The global and local scale of their ventures exceed
and elude the control of nation-states and their inter/national
bureaucracies. They also exceed and elude the reach of the
agonistic conceptual and methodological resources deployed in
STS during the last 50 years. Drawing on the work of deLanda,
Escobar, Fricker, Harcourt, Ingold, and Paulson I argue that
feminist and cultural studies epistemologies are required to
grapple with these new meshworks, crafted of new kinds of
knowers and makers, designed to exceed the grasp of late
industrial political economies.
Discussant:
Claudia Lee Williams Fonseca, Federal University of Rio
Grande do Sul, Brazil
060. Políticas Públicas de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación en el
marco de los estudios sociales de ciencia y tecnología II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Dalí
Chairs:
Mariana Versino, CONICET- UBA- UNLP
Monica Salazar, Colombian Observatory of Science and
Technology
Participants:
Construcción social de las políticas de ciencia y tecnología. El
caso de la transformación de las políticas e instituciones de
ciencia y tecnología en la década de 1990 en Argentina.
Francisco Javier Aristimuño, Universidad Nacional de Rio
Negro; Diego Aguiar, CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS EN
CIENCIA, TECNOLOGÍA, CULTURA Y DESARROLLO CONICET - UNRNP
En la década de 1990 en Argentina se produjo una gran
transformación tanto en la configuración institucional como en
las políticas de CyT alterando el paradigma en esa área de la
política pública. Comprender los rasgos de la construcción social
de ésta “revolución”, que se puede sintetizar en la visión
naturalizada en la época sobre la necesidad de construir un
Sistema Nacional de Innovación para así lograr el desarrollo
económico y social del país, implica adentrarse en un complejo
entramado de relaciones sociales y de legitimación teórica en el
cual confluyen factores intra e inter estatales e intereses intra e
inter nacionales. La hipótesis de esta ponencia es que el conjunto
de reformas llevadas adelante fue la consecuencia de la
articulación de distintos factores explicativos: i) el rol de los
“académicos evolucionistas” que operaron como justificadores
de las acciones de los policy-makers; ii) el peso determinante del
BID a través de los distintos Programas de Modernización
Tecnológica y iii) la emergencia de una nueva generación de
expertos en políticas de CyT. El abordaje teórico utilizado
triangula conceptos de distintos campos: análisis de políticas
públicas, estudios sobre expertos, constructivismo social e
historia del pensamiento económico. La metodología es
centralmente cualitativa, incluye análisis de documentos y
entrevistas. El presente trabajo se enmarca en un proyecto de
investigación más amplio que analiza las políticas públicas de
CyT en Argentina (1983-2010) con el objeto de contribuir a
generar insumos que permitan aportar al proceso de formulación,
ejecución y evaluación de las mismas.
The Portuguese political economy of science and its discourses:
from Revolution to European integration (1974-1997) Tiago
Brandão, IHC, FCSH-UNL
The historical and political understanding of the management of
science needs an empirical approach to scientific institutions and
science policies. Knowledge on the history of the organization of
‘Science’ and its science policies in Portugal, in the period
following the April revolution, particularly from the evolution of
the National Board of Scientific and Technological Research
(JNICT, 1974-1997), a national science policy agency, is the
excuse to evaluate empirically some science policy issues. From
the Portuguese national archives of science and technology
(Portuguese “Foundation for Science and Technology” – FCT), it
is intended to identify the policy trends concerned during a
period between 1974 and 1997. As an empirical study based on a
national case, from the Portuguese science policy history (19741997), our proposal is to give a first reflexive essay, being a
contextual and comparative approach, putting a national case in
wider analytical perspectives, having in mind theoretical insights,
with some relation to more critical results from the field of
innovation and science policy studies, but being reflexive from
an empirical background.
Políticas Públicas y Conocimiento Científico-Tecnológico: El
caso del cambio climático en México Claudia Ortega-Ponce,
Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México
El origen de este trabajo nace de la preocupación por estudiar
sociológicamente la investigación orientada al conocimiento en
cambio climático y su relación con el diseño y aplicación del
políticas públicas, particularmente pretendemos brindar una
respuesta a la siguiente problemática ¿cuál es la relación entre el
conocimiento científico tecnológico erudito y el diseño en
políticas públicas en el caso el cambio climático en México. En
este trabajo se plantea la discusión general sobre la construcción
de la política pública ambiental en México, específicamente en
cambio climático. El objetivo general es incorporar elementos
teórico-metodológicos producidos desde los Estudios Sociales de
la Tecnociencia, que nos permitan analizar cómo se recrean las
relaciones entre los actores sociales e institucionales en la
sociedad contemporánea. Para alcanzar este objetivo
teóricamente nos situaremos en la Sociología Traducción que nos
permitirá contar con los elementos teórico-metodológicos para
estudiar la construcción de la política pública, a partir de la
relación entre acción pública y conocimiento científico
tecnocientífico especializado en estudios ambientales,
particularmente en la climatología. Para el estudio de las políticas
públicas recurriremos a los planteamientos de la Sociología de la
Acción Pública y a los trabajos relacionados con el diseño,
aplicación y evaluación de las políticas públicas.
Zoneamento ambiental: Um constructo sociotécnico legitimador
de políticas públicas Deberson Ferreira Jesus, Universidade
Federal de Santa Catarina; Julia Silvia Guivant,
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Discute-se os zoneamentos ambientais enquanto instrumento
sociotécnico e ferramenta legitimadora da política ambiental e
gestão territorial, suas correlações históricas e políticas entre o
conceito, a implementação e a normatividade para ocupação do
território, produção rural e uso dos recursos naturais.
Problematiza-se a elaboração, decisão e efetivação de políticas
públicas baseadas no zoneamento com consequência proibitiva,
cuja finalidade seria auxiliar a formulação de políticas e
estratégias de desenvolvimento. Empreendeu-se uma revisão
bibliográfica e uma análise documental dos atos normativos
oficiais do Governo Federal do Brasil através do Sistema de
Consulta à Legislação (SIGLEGIS). Foram analisados 246 Atos
Normativos. Procura-se evidenciar através do conceito e marcos
regulatórios sobre zoneamento como os constructos
sociotécnicos, em meio a controvérsias, podem fornecer os
raciocínios que motivam as agências públicas, representantes
políticos, cientistas e grupos de protesto a determinada política
de ordenamento e gestão do território, com consequências diretas
ao ambiente e a produção rural. Conclui-se que o zoneamento
pode gerar mais desigualdade e efetivação do poder de um grupo
sobre outro, de interesses particulares sobre o interesse
efetivamente público, atendendo tanto aos aspectos mais
puramente normativos e técnicos, quanto aos mais diretamente
políticos e economicistas, funcionando como um instrumento de
peritagem científica.
A análise do programa “DIRETO DA ROÇA” como
experiência de tecnologia social Isabela Brandão Junqueira,
Universidade Federal de Itajuba- UNIFEI; Luiz Eugenio
Veneziani Pasin, UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE ITAJUBÁ
A tecnologia social se constitui de produtos, técnicas ou
metodologias que são desenvolvidas na interação com a
comunidade e que possuem a capacidade de serem reaplicadas,
resultando efetivamente em soluções que proporcionam
condições de transformar socialmente um determinado grupo.
Presente no Município de Itajubá-MG há 10 anos, o programa
“Direto da Roça” é constituído por um grupo de mulheres
agricultoras familiares, que se organizaram para produzir e
comercializar produtos rurais. A gênese do processo
organizacional teve como agente indutor a Empresa de
Assistência Técnica e Extensão Rural - EMATER-MG e o apoio
institucional da Prefeitura Municipal de Itajubá. Nesse sentido o
objetivo do artigo é analisar o processo organizacional
socioprodutivo, inter-relacionando o saber popular das
agricultoras familiares com o conhecimento técnico da
EMATER-MG e os seus desdobramentos que resultaram em
avanços e concepção de tecnologia social entre o grupo. A
metodologia fundamenta-se na abordagem qualitativa: técnica de
observação do pesquisador e a entrevista semi-estruturada. Podese dizer que a capacidade de organização e apropriação do
conhecimento técnico é consequência direta das atividades
extensionistas adotadas pela EMATER, que viabilizou toda a
transferência e reaplicação da tecnologia de produção e gestão
entre as agricultoras familiares. Portanto, pode-se afirmar que de
acordo com os resultados preliminares obtidos na pesquisa o
“Direto da Roça” além de demonstrar a capacidade de
organização das mulheres perante seu empreendimento, revela
também o papel e a importância da ação em conjunto entre
sociedade civil organizada, poder público e instituições mistas
para proporcionar condições indutoras de criação da tecnologia
social.
El efecto de la política en las encuestas de percepción pública
de la CyT en Colombia Monica Salazar, Colombian
Observatory of Science and Technology; Marcela Lozano
Borda, Investigadora; Sandra Daza-Caicedo, Universidad
de los Andes/Observatorio Colombiano de Ciencia y
Tecnología
En Colombia se han aplicado tres encuestas nacionales de
percepción pública de la ciencia y la tecnología en momentos
diferentes de la política de investigación e innovación, y sobre
todo de la “situación” del Sistema Nacional de Ciencia y
Tecnología. Los objetivos de las encuestas han variado en el
tiempo. La de 1994 buscó “conocer la imagen que tiene la
población colombiana tanto de la ciencia como de la tecnología”
(Álvarez, 2003). La de 2004, “conocer la percepción y la noción
que tiene la ciudadanía en general, los profesores universitarios,
los docentes de colegios privados y públicos y los empresarios
acerca de la ciencia y la tecnología” (Aguirre, 2005). Finalmente
la de 2012 buscaba “Identificar la opinión y actitudes de los
colombianos sobre la ciencia y la tecnología, y dar insumos para
mejorar los procesos de apropiación social de la CT+I en
Colombia” (OCyT, 2011). Dos hipótesis se tejen alrededor del
por qué estos cambios. De un lado, los marcos teóricos sobre
comunicación, percepción y apropiación de la ciencia han
determinado los objetivos, el contenido y la forma de preguntar
de las encuestas. De otro, el contexto de la política de CTI ha
sido determinante para definir la orientación de las mismas y los
objetivos perseguidos. A través de la revisión de los contextos de
política de estas encuestas y de sus diseños mostraremos los
mecanismos a través de los cuales la política interviene en el
diseño de las mismas y la función que éstas cumplen dentro de la
política
061. Psicología y los estudios en Ciencia, Tecnología y Sociedad
(CTS) II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Miró
Chair:
Lorena García Noguez, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro,
FCPYS
Participants:
La Psicología de la Ciencia y los estudios CTS: lo mejor de dos
mundos Lorena García Noguez, Universidad Autónoma de
Querétaro, FCPYS; Ruben Martinez, Psychology
Un importante número de autores han hecho una revisión a la
recientemente consolidación de los estudios CTS como campo
interdisciplinario (Turner 2003; Jasanoff ; 2010). Estas revisiones
han mostrado que los debates se desarrollan en muchas
direcciones, lo cual confirma la flexibilidad de los estudios CTS
en mantener diferentes puntos de vista sobre la ciencia. Este
trabajo se ocupará en destacar por un lado, que existe un acuerdo
generalizado entre los psicólogos de la ciencia respecto a que la
psicología no requiere metodologías o teorías especiales para
estudiar al científico y su contexto (Feist & Gorman 1998;
Dunbar & Fugelsang 2005), y por otro, que un diálogos más
estrecho entre psicólogos y miembros del movimiento CTS sería
fructífero para ambos. Dichas posiciones se sustentan en: 1) si
bien los científicos comparten con los no-científicos ciertos
intereses, necesidades de integración, reconocimiento, etc.,
también tienen capacidades cognitivas sofisticadas que los
diferencian y vuelven a la ciencia singular y compleja y; 2)
muchos de los trabajos actuales en Psicología de la Ciencia
pertenecen a una tradición de conocimiento lineal y
evolucionistas, que parece ser indiferente a las críticas que tanto
sociólogos como historiadores de la ciencia han hecho. En
resumen, se podrían ampliar las discusiones en Psicología de la
Ciencia y los CTS se beneficiarían de los hallazgos cognitivos
que han adelantado los psicólogos.
Traducciones-traiciones: la performatividad de lo psicológico
en el contexto de las políticas basadas-en-la-evidencia. Jorge
Castillo-Sepúlveda, Universidad de Santiago de Chile
Desde hace aproximadamente diez años se ha suscitado una
progresiva transformación de las relaciones entre la producción
de evidencia científica y la formulación de dispositivos
normativos de orden psicosocial. Si bien este vínculo puede ser
rastreado hasta momentos tempranos de emergencia de leyes y
regulaciones aplicadas a la figuración de la sociedad y sujeto
político, las técnicas y material elaborado por las ciencias
adquiere en este movimiento un lugar central. Ello conlleva
ciertas implicancias de carácter performativo respecto a lo social
y lo psicológico como referente de las circunstancias del sujeto.
El propósito de esta ponencia es dar cuenta de una investigación
en curso situada en Chile, que aborda las relaciones heterogéneas
entre la producción de evidencia para la elaboración de políticas
públicas y la performatividad de lo psicológico. Ello implica
desplazar esta categoría como una propiedad a priori del sujeto, y
describirla como producto de un entramado de prácticas y
entidades epistémicas de carácter normativo y técnico; es decir,
como el resultado de un proceso de traducción socio-técnica.
Damos cuenta del análisis del discurso de expertos en diversos
medios de comunicación masiva entre los años 2012 y 2013
respecto a la controversia de dos dispositivos estadísticos para la
producción de evidencia, elementales para la elaboración de
políticas públicas en Chile: el Censo y la Encuesta CASEN. Los
resultados expresan múltiples modalidades en que se performa lo
psicológico en base a recursos socio-técnicos y, asimismo, de la
posición que ocupa la psicología en sí misma en esta
controversia.
Sociedad/Tecnologías en América latina: entre macro y
micropolítica Ana Claudia Rozo Sandoval, Doctorado
Multiinstitucional Muiltireferencial de Difusión del
Conocimiento, Universidad Federal de Bahia
Pensar la relación de las tecnologías con la sociedad y la cultura
en contextos concretos, como el latino americano, en la
perspectiva de generar procesos que contribuyan a politizar la
inclusión y apropiación de las TIC exige aportes teóricoepistemológicos que faciliten el diálogo entre comunidades de
práctica, tradicionales y las políticas públicas. Es en este
escenario desde el que se presentan los avances de la tesis
doctoral “Entre decolonial y lecturas otras de las tecnologías:
proponiendo diálogos más horizontales”, como un trabajo de
investigación que desde la cartografía (Deleuze y Guattari)
rastrea algunos movimientos registrados en comunidades de
práctica, como potencia de cambio para valorizar el pensamiento
tecnológico desarrollado en y por ellas, así como las formas de
concebir la tecnología y las maneras de relacionarse con los
objetos técnicos. Las contribuciones al campo de los estudios
CTS se consignan como provocaciones al debate que, en relación
con los vínculos entre sociedad y tecnología, adelantan estos
estudios. Se reconoce el carácter localizado histórico y
geopolíticamente del conocimiento en general (Maldonado,
Dusel, Mignolo) y de la tecnología en particular (G.Simondon, R.
Kusch), como una de las expresiones del conocimiento, que nos
convoca a repensar la posibilidad de relaciones otras, para
facilitar diálogos y posibilitar puentes entre macro y
micropolítica (Deleuze y Guatrari).
A cognição corpórea e o contexto politico da América Latina
Thompson Lemos da Silva Neto, Universidade do Estado do
Rio de Janeiro - Brasil/Grupo de Estudos Sociais e
Conceituais de Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade/CNPq
A cognição corpórea é uma corrente das ciências cognitivas que
recusa o modelo da cognição como mera operação de uma
sequência ordenada de símbolos discretos, desenvolvido a partir
da tecnologia da computação eletrônica, e apresenta como
alternativa um processo complexo no qual são elementos centrais
a experiência e o corpo individuais, compreendidos como
constituintes do ambiente social. Defendo que a cognição
corpórea tem desenvolvido sua proposta de modo essencialmente
político, para tal buscando realizar o que foi chamado por
Francisco Varela de “virada ontológica”, o que também comporta
uma crítica aos fundamentos da racionalidade de matriz europeia
e norte-americana. Para contribuir para a compreensão do sentido
deste enfoque ao mesmo tempo ontológico e político, examinarei
a contribuição de Varela à cognição corpórea, segundo sua
narrativa dos fatos que envolveram sua elaboração, para a qual
teve influência central o governo de Salvador Allende no Chile
(1970-1973). À luz das questões trazidas por Varela, pretendo
discutir o impacto da imagem cognitivista da cognição, suas
diversas aplicações de repercussão social, e sua matriz
tecnológica, para os problemas atuais de saúde, educação, ciência
e tecnologia na América Latina, considerando a perspectiva
política da cognição corpórea.
Arquegeneologia e teoria ator-rede: questões às tecnologias psi
de atenção psicossocial na promoção do bem estar Caroline
Christine Garcia Do Nascimento, Universidade Federal de
Mato Grosso; Dolores Galindo, Universidade Federal de
Mato Grosso
Este trabalho interroga as operações de purificação das
tecnologias e expertises psi no campo da Atenção Psicossocial
que, aliadas a projetos de pacificação, orientam os principais
documentos, práticas e algumas produções científicas na área da
Atenção Psicossocial, no Brasil. Entende-se que a arquenealogia
foucaultiana e a Teoria Ator-Rede (TAR) possibilitam
cartografar “dobras psi” conforme sugerido por Nikolas Rose,
delineando fluxos, involuções e precipitações dos componentes
que perfazem o plano reconhecido como atinente ao subjetivo e
ao Bem Estar definidos como próprios à expertise psi nos
documentos de políticas públicas que enredam diversos portavozes e jogos de poder. A conjunção entre arquegenealogia
foucaultiana e TAR se pauta pelo reconhecimento de uma guerra
contínua nas ciências para a qual confluem os trabalhos de
Michel Foucault e Gilles Deleuze, e em grande parte dos
trabalhos de Bruno Latour. Para ampliar a democracia nas
ciências, Bruno Latour tem retomado e reconceituado a
diplomacia, estendendo-a às coisas, proposta que seria
impensável numa perspectiva foucaultiana não pela extensão às
coisas, mas pela necessidade de estender à diplomacia uma
crítica arquegenealógica que a coloca em xeque. Considerando as
convergências e divergências entre Arquegenealogia e TAR,
indagamos: em que medida a diplomacia recentemente proposta
por Bruno Latour pode vir a constituir uma alternativa
politicamente interessante às armadilhas da pacificação
orientadora de práticas psi no campo da assistência social?
Baseando-nos na analítica dos documentos de políticas públicas
voltados à Atenção Psicossocial e produções científicas sobre a
temática, lançamos um interrogante ao emprego político da
diplomacia em TAR.
062. Knowledge Transfer Via Material Objects: Standardizing
Space and Body Space
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Moliere
Chair:
Akil Amiraly, Ecole polytecnique, CRG
Participants:
You’ve got the point: Seeking the meaning of acupuncture in its
techno-political bodyscape Wen-Hua Kuo, National YangMing University
Acupuncture is an essential part of East Asian medicines. A
peculiar way of reading and treating people via meridians inside
their bodies punctuated by regulatory points, it has been used as a
therapy for thousands of years, and it has been scientifically
studied for over one hundred years, without losing popularity
after the wide acceptance of bio-medicine in East Asia. In spite
of its systematic nature and clinical efficacy, there were no
standard names or locations for acupuncture points until the
1980s. Like other components of East Asian medical traditions,
acupuncture points look similar, but they are located and function
differently according to the traditional to which they belong.
Thus, with the modernization of alternative medicine, an attempt
to harmonize these points was launched by the World Health
Organization as a foundation to advance research and learning of
acupuncture worldwide. Even so, not much progress has been
made since its two attempts at standardization, one from 1983 to
1989 on nomenclature and the other from 2003 to 2008 on
location. Departing from a simple interpretation that claims such
negotiations as purely diplomatic in the political context of East
Asia, this paper aims to explore the changing meaning of
acupuncture points as they are disputed and transformed among
the experts assigned to establish standards. Echoing Bruno
Latour’s notion of modernity as creating separated human and
non-human actors, this paper takes a philosophical approach,
arguing that the process of naming and locating acupuncture
points in fact creates something in between. These points, as this
paper will show, are neither pure nominal sites on the human
body nor independent non-human artifacts. The standardization
of acupuncture points has given them new bodily and therapeutic
identities together with a presumption of the body that is
universal. Meanwhile, these points also give acupuncture a new
form during its modernization. The ambiguity among medical
traditions turns itself into different readings on this standard body
created for acupuncture that aims to be scientific.
The water meter, an object embodying the transfer of the
management model of a French water company in India Akil
Amiraly, Ecole polytecnique, CRG
We consider the diffusion of a water management tool as
elaborated in the globalisation strategy of a French water
company in India. We address the appropriation of the payment
model and the tool through the talk of the end users. Case study
The article concerns the diffusion of water metering by a private
French company to public authorities in two Indian cities at
different times. It addresses the issue of the meaning attributed
by the end user to the installation of this tool, the water meter,
and the progressive implementation by the company of a
management model behind it, i.e. the payment of water based on
consumption. Contribution: Connecting the materiality of the
tool to its context of reception Through that case study, we wish
to explain how this tool embodying the strategy of the company
is adapted to local practices, so as to gain legitimacy and to be
adopted in the long run by the end users. We seek to answer how
the management model behind the tool has been amended to fit
to the local norms over the payment of water supplied by the
public water supply system. Reversely, how the perception of the
tool shapes the end users' water consumption practices.
Methodology It is based on interviews with managers and
employees of the water company in India, and on two qualitative
field surveys with around 40 households in each of the pilot
zones in where the water meters were installed.
Through the lens of digital observatories: Visual representations
in astrophysics Piroska Etelka Csuri, Universidad de San
Andres, Argentina
The introduction of electronic capture devices in astrophysics has
exacerbated already existing methodological tensions as to the
interpretation and differential role of observational data in its
different formats: numerical and visual. In the sense of Hacking
(1992), digital technology introduced instability in the
instrumental thread of observation in astronomical science,
context that activates “social mechanisms” that conduce towards
a newly negotiated stability. Such a scenario provides an
interesting opportunity to analyze the social (re)construction and
(re)negotiation of the methodological status and interpretation of
scientific data in the new instrumental context, considering in
particular that the digital revolution, by capturing astronomical
observational data in numerical format instead of deriving it from
optical observation, inverted the earlier precedence relationship
between visual representations of data and numerical
representations derived from those. This paper presents results
from ongoing research in sociology of science problematizing the
tensions and ambiguities between numerical and visual
representations of scientific data in current astrophysical
research. Data recollected through ethnographic methods
(informal interviews, secondary data analysis) suggest that, while
numerical analysis and data processing seem to prime as
methodological “proof” in the characterization of physical
processes, visual representations appear to play a fundamental
role in the formulation of hypotheses (based on researchers’
reliance of their visual mental representations of a “naif
physics”). At the same time, in researchers’ scientific discourse
(written and conversational) visual representations still revert to
their historical status of primary observational data associated
with the (highly problematic) notion of objectivity (Daston and
Galison 2007) and scientific evidence.
"Hear, hear!”: Courtrooms, Audio Technologies and Learning
to Listen Phillip Primeau, Carleton University; Michael S
Mopas, Carleton University
Courtrooms have become noisy places. The textual and visual
representations that have historically characterized the legal
arena are being challenged by the inclusion of audio materials.
Recordings of public spaces, telephone conversations and covert
police wiretaps are just some of the sounds that can be heard
during trial. Closely tied to this trend, audio forensic technologies
have begun to play an increasingly important role as actors
within the courtroom seek to admit audio material as credible
evidence. Experts attempting to make claims concerning the
admissibility of audio material during trials have raised a
fundamental question concerning human capabilities: can the ear
be trained to hear? This paper explores attempts to train the ear to
hear. We explore a set of technologies and techniques that were
invented and refined in the hopes of translating audio material
into a format comprehensible by actors within the legal arena.
Tracing the processes underpinning attempts to train the ear to
hear within the legal arena sheds light on the relationship
between law, science and technology. By mapping the historical
trajectory of attempts to train the ear to hear, we suggest a way of
making sense of how the court dealt with audio material within
George Zimmerman’s criminal trial. Finally, we shed light on
tensions that the legal arena exhibits when attempting to hear.
The faster-than-light neutrinos news: narrative, rhetoric and
representations in Italy, United Kingdom and USA Daniela
de Oliveira Klebis, UNICAMP / The London School of
Economics and Political Science (LSE)
This study explored the news on the subatomic particle neutrino
that appeared to have traveled faster that the speed of light. The
experiments were carried out between the CERN laboratory, in
Geneva, and the Gran Sasso Laboratory, in Italy, and brought to
public attention by the team before its publication on a peer
reviewed journal, in September 2011. The story told on the
newspapers acquired characteristics of a narrative, with a
chronological evolution, conflicts, characters and moral lessons
at the end. This project compared the development of this story
on the two main newspapers of the United Kingdom, Italy and
the USA. Intention, objectivity and subjectivity were observed
throughout three levels: context, process and content. It proposes
that narrative and rhetoric persuasion are intertwined in this
process, and both journalism and science are influenced by the
effects of subjectivity and the need for attention. A mix of
analytic methods allowed a three-dimensional observation.
Rhetoric analysis and narrative analysis were used to
qualitatively evaluate the arguments and meanings attributed to
the story told. Content analysis was then carried out quantifying
trends and frequencies of attention to the issue, the use of
rhetoric persuasive styles to celebrate or to judge, and on the
relationship between the characters Einstein, Neutrinos and
Science and the rhetoric arguments Ethos, Pathos and Logos. It
was finally perceived that social representations emerged from
these relationships; the values shared during the process give
some insights on how such theoretical topics become meaningful
within each social reality.
063. Welfare State 2.0: Will Science and Technology Redeem or
Replace the Human Condition?
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat I
This panel will explore the philosophical and policy implications of a
distinction drawn in the transhumanist literature that Steve Fuller has
developed over the last few years: ‘precautionary’ and ‘proactionary’
principles: i.e. whether to avoid or embrace risk as a component of public
policy. Pressures from demographic change, state expenditure, labour
market stagnation, education, income differences and health and energy
consumption are rendering the classic welfare state ‘safety net’ model
financially and politically obsolete. In this context, policy makers have
looked to ‘responsible innovations’ in science and technology for a
solution, most notably, so-called converging technologies such as nano-,
bio-, and information technology, which with the right incentives may be
harnessed to enhance the biomedical and financial fitness of citizens. At
the same time, there is considerable criticism – if not outright scepticism –
from both the Right and the Left about the advisability of transitioning into
the sort of ‘open innovation economy’ favoured by proactionaries. Fuller
himself has been arguing for a ‘welfare state 2.0’ appropriate to ‘humanity
2.0’, which would encourage – and securitise --high-risk innovation while
at the same time respecting democratic values such as inclusion, rule of
law, equality and fairness in an age of technology-intensive governance.
The panellists represent a broad spectrum of opinion vis-à-vis Fuller’s
proposal, some wanting to develop it and others to expose it as a political
and economic mirage that will simply make us more captive to the
ultimately unpredictable character of science and technology.
Chair:
Steve Fuller, University of Warwick
Participants:
Virtue Ethics as a Solution to the Problems of Humanity 2.0
Francis Remedios, Editorial Board Member Social
Epistemology
In the Proactionary Imperative, Fuller and Lipinska favour the
proactionary principle, which is risk taking in the welfare state
governed by humanity 2.0. Why should humans 2.0 redistribute
welfare to humans 1.0? On Fuller's utilitarianism combined with
transhumanism, Pedersen's criticism is that there is a lack of a
firm axiological basis on normative guidance of moral action.
Humans 2.0 can choose their own preferences, which may not
include redistribution of welfare to humanity 1.0. I suggest an
alternative to Fuller's utilitarianism is virtue ethics, which is not
an abstract moral theory such utilitarianism or deontology, but
emphasizes interrelatedness of agents and commitment to values
beyond rules institutionalized in a state. For virtue ethics,
morality is not a preference or constraint, is internalized in
practice based on seeking the good life in an information society.
The Anti-Modernist Revolt against Biotechnology Robert
Frodeman, University of North Texas
Steve Fuller’s Humanity 2.0 explores the various cultural,
religious, and political dimensions of possible advances in
biotechnology. Except these are no longer mere possibilities: we
are already in the early stages of this transformation, as shown by
the daily drumbeat of stories about PEDs, de-extinction, and
mitochondrial manipulation technologies (examples that
appeared in a two-day period in the New York Times). One
striking aspect of these developments is the lack of a unified
opposition to biotechnology, i.e., the formation of a ‘party’ of
anti-modernists. Anti-modernists of various stripes (e.g.,
evangelical Christians, fundamentalist Muslims, Luddites, large
parts of the environmental community) do not yet see themselves
as part of a common cause. The logic behind Ted Kaczynski’s
terrorism—strike at the producers of the knowledge that gets
turned into bombs—has gotten no purchase, as funding for the
US National Science Foundation and National Institutes of
Health is supported by all parties. This talk explores the question
of the likelihood and possible mechanisms for such a political
realignment.
The politics of clarification: state experiments with labeling
practices Brice Laurent, CSI - Mines ParisTech; Alexandre
Mallard, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation. Ecole des
Mines ParisTech; Aurélie Tricoire, CSTB
This paper considers the case of labeling practices in the
construction sector. It discusses the ways in which current
attempts at clarifying a landscape made of a multiplicity of
public and private initiatives question the role of the state, and its
very nature. It focuses on a « meta-label » called RGE (“Reconnu
Garant de l’Environnement”, meaning approximately Certified as
Environment Friendly), produced by the French government and
various stakeholders and aiming to identify labeling practices
supporting the national objectives for sustainable construction.
We will show that by inventing ways of describing, adapting and
governing labels, the RGE initiative redefines public and private
interventions. Thus, the politics at stake within this process of
clarification enacts an experiment that engages the state: the state
experiments with labeling practices in the same time as the
modalities of state intervention are experimented. Accounting for
this state experiment is of particular interest for the study of
state-making operations. While the state can be envisioned as the
outcome of processes that gradually construct infrastructures
(e.g. by constituting data bases, mapping territories, etc.), the
example of RGE illustrates another way of undertaking a
sociology of the state, which considers the empirical sites where
the state is problematized as a single entity acting on and within
economic markets. We contend that this perspective is
particularly useful for the critical analysis of contemporary
policy-making areas in which the nature of the state is
profoundly redefined.
The Daily Shaping of State Transparency: Emerging Standards
in Open Government Data Samuel Goeta, Telecom
ParisTech
Open government data is now considered as an essential means
to increase the transparency of the state. The opening of public
data is at the center of a transformation of the state by creating a
new form of transparency in which citizens are positioned as
“data publics” (Ruppert, 2013). Yet, how these data actually
circulate and are concretely “opened” remains largely
overlooked. Situated in the various transformations data are
subject to before their release as open data (Denis & Goëta
2014), this communication will insist on the central role played
by standards which are crucial elements of information
infrastructures (Lampland & Star 2009, Edwards et al. 2011).
Today, emerging standards proliferate to facilitate the
combination of open data from different sources. Building on an
ethnographic study of open data projects in several French
administrations and the analysis of internal and external
documents, I will first present the history of three widespread
standards in the diffusion of open data: the CSV (Column
Separated Values) format, the General Transit Feed Specification
(GTFS) and the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI)
standard. Second, I will show what such standards concretely
require from the persons in charge of implementing open
government data programs and how they contribute to the daily
shaping of State transparency. This communication will show
that the shaping of standardized data, what the NGO Open
Knowledge Foundation calls ‘frictionless data’, requires a
consequent amount of work for data managers, the cost of which
is never completely measured in advance.
Discussant:
Steve Fuller, University of Warwick
064. Centers and Peripheries in Science and Technology I
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat II
Chair:
Leandro Rodriguez-Medina, Universidad de las Americas
Puebla / University of Cambridge
Participants:
Comunidades científicas chilenas: Redes globales y análisis de
asimetrías Jorge Gibert, Universidad de Valparaiso
En el marco de la pregunta sobre el desarrollo de la ciencia en
países periféricos y su rol en la sociedad, nuestra investigación
supone que el grado de integración, diversidad y complejidad de
las disciplinas asociadas a la revolución industrial global en curso
expresan el “estado de desarrollo” de un país, en relación al
modelo productivo imperante en el siglo XXI. Así, la ponencia
aspira a mostrar dos cosas. Primero, si los sistemas reales de
colaboración (co-autoría) entre científicos chilenos y entre ellos
con el resto del mundo pueden ser definidos como integrados
(robustos), diversos (heterogéneos) y complejos. Para ello se
discuten las características generales de las redes de autoría
científica en dos comunidades disciplinarias chilenas, la
biotecnología y las ciencias de la computación, buscando
interpretar y dimensionar conectividad, centralidad, betweenness,
estructuras de centro-periferia y otros aspectos mediante análisis
de redes. En segundo lugar, a partir de la data, conectar los
hallazgos con los resultados de entrevistas en profundidad a
científicos con roles destacados dentro de las redes descritas, para
conocer aspectos relevantes de la organización y dinámica de
ellas. Se discuten algunas razones que explicarían asimetrías
nacionales, internacionales y entre disciplinas e instituciones; así
como también las variables “local-contextuales” que permiten el
escalamiento de los indicadores de producción y colaboración
científica en Chile en los últimos 20 años. Finalmente, se discute
la contribución del trabajo hacia una mejor comprensión de las
comunidades científicas periféricas y su papel en la
estratificación de las comunidades científicas en el contexto
global.
Mobile scientists, migrant workers: The politics of global
knowledge networks Tiago Santos Pereira, University of
Coimbra; Chiara Carrozza, Centro de Estudos Sociais,
University of Coimbra (PT)
Scientific mobility increasingly emerges as a symbol of the
supposed “flat world” of science, embodying the circulation of
knowledge that is expected to reduce knowledge asymmetries.
This is increasingly so in the current European agenda and
research policy landscape but also at the wider international
level. Mobility emerged as a central practice in the production
and exchange of knowledge, as a source of individual
satisfaction, non-routine and collaborative work, characteristic of
the freedom and autonomy of scientific life (Shapin, 2008).
However, current discourse of mobility as a ‘neutral technology’
erases the personal costs of mobility, making invisible the
circulation of people vis-a-vis the circulation of knowledge
(mobile, not migrant, scientists), as well as its contribution to the
production of markets of knowledge and knowledge workers,
consolidating centres (and peripheries) of attraction. The paper
draws on the recent mobility studies literature (Sheller and Urry,
2006), analysing scientific mobility on three different levels:
movement, which is “the fact of physical movement getting from
one place to another; the representations of movement that give it
shared meaning; and, finally, the experienced and embodied
practice of movement” (Cresswell, 2010). Such different layers
are essential to reveal the underlying processes of coproduction
(Jasanoff, 2004), and the extent to which different practices and
discourses of mobility can contribute to the imagining of
alternative knowledge networks.
Cognitive Exploitation: Tensions emerging in the production
and social use of scientific, traditional, informational and
labor knowledge Mariano Zukerfeld, CONICET- CCTSUniversidad Maimonides; Pablo Kreimer, CONICET Centro CTS Buenos Aires
Cognitive Exploitation: Tensions emerging in the production and
social use of scientific, traditional, informational and labor
knowledge: We suggest using the term “Cognitive exploitation”
to describe social relationships defined by four characteristics: i)
The relationships involve material and/or symbolic exchanges
between at least two kinds of actors; ii) Some actors appropriate
for profit of nonprofit knowledge originated by other actors; iii)
The exchanges are to a large extent voluntary and statutory (or
unregulated); iv) The exchanges are objectively asymmetric, in
the sense that ‘for profit actors’ obtain a surplus which has a
market value. We have observed, from some primary sources and
specialized literature, the phenomenon of cognitive exploitation
in different social spaces, where diverse types of knowledge,
actors, legal frameworks and, more generally, social contexts are
involved. According to the predominant type of knowledge at
stake, we have placed them provisionally as "scientific",
"traditional", "informational "and "labor". All these cases (and
other similar) have been, until today, analyzed by segmented
fields of research (sociology of science, intellectual property
studies, anthropology of knowledge, sociology and economics of
labor). However, we claim that under the guise of a great
heterogeneity, these cases respond to processes that exhibit
remarkable regularities and can be taken as different expression
of a similar process. Therefore, the originality of this approach
lies in drawing attention to these regularities and the attempt to
explain them through the concept of cognitive exploitation.
The Development of Experimental Physics with Particle
Accelerators at the University of São Paulo (1946 - 1982)
Tharsila Reis de Medeiros, Mackenzie Presbyterian
University; Lea Velho, State University of Campinas, Brazil
The central theme of this paper is the development of
experimental physics with particle accelerators at the University
of São Paulo, specially the scientific accomplishments of the
physicist Oscar Sala. The narrative begins in 1946, the year in
which Sala started his first scientific enterprise - to project and
build a Van de Graaff accelerator with the collaboration of
companies settled in São Paulo. The consolidation of the
Electrostatic Accelerator Laboratory was viable thanks to North
American scientific philanthropy and the cooperation established
with the University of Wisconsin. In the mid-1960s, the disuse of
that accelerator engendered a process of technological renovation
based on the acquisition of a new electrostatic machine, the
Pelletron accelerator, and the digitalization of experimental work.
We demonstrate that the reproduction of the same strategy used
in the construction of the first accelerator was put aside, due to
the national industry’s incapability to supply materials needed for
the construction a more technologically machine, allied to
changes in national policies of science and technology
guaranteeing financial resources for the new lab. Consequently,
more than producing knowledge and computing artifacts activities that were then taking their initial steps in Brazil - Sala’s
team developed original technological solutions to the many
problems presented by Pelletron’s initial use. In fact, the
laboratories directed by Sala became the centre of insertion of
new technologies in the national production sector. These
arguments insert this paper on the Economic History of Science
and Technology, an emerging area of the SSS in Brazil.
¿Sitios de recolección de información naturalista como nuevos
centros? Marcelo Fabián Figueroa, Universidad Nacional
de Tucumán/ Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales,
CONICET
La importancia de las locaciones de la ciencia en la producción
de conocimiento ha sido señalada en los últimos años, en especial
la de los material settings donde la información naturalista es
recolectada. Por ello la ciencia ha sido pensada más allá de los
ámbitos universales -metropolitanos- en los que la historiografía
de la Revolución Científica la había situado. El trabajo propuesto
revisa los aportes hechos por Stephen Shapin, Steven Harris,
David Livingstone, Charles Withers, Henrika Kuklik y Robert
Kohler para caracterizar a las locaciones de la ciencia, por un
lado, y estudia un corpus de instrucciones de viajes científicos
españoles, ingleses y franceses de fines del siglo XVIII para
ilustrar los desafíos enfrentados por la recolección de
información naturalista in situ, por el otro. De allí que tanto la
historiografía como los documentos abordados permitan pensar a
los sitios de recolección de información naturalista como lugares
nodales en los que el “centro” y la “periferia” fueron articulados
por el trabajo recolector de los viajeros quienes aspiraron a
vencer los obstáculos geográficos, políticos y sociales
interpuestos por tales territorios. En consecuencia, el trabajo
propuesto quiere contribuir a la discusión relativa a las relaciones
“centro-periferia” a través de la reevaluación de la cual fueron
objeto las locaciones y las prácticas de la Historia natural.
065. Ecologies and Material Politics of the Inorganic:
Rethinking/Reframing
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Mozart
Chairs:
Max Liboiron, Northeastern University
Manuel Tironi, Goldmisths, U of London / Pontificia
Unversidad Catolica de Chile
Participants:
Articulating Nuclear Waste Futures Organically Vincent
Francis Ialenti, Cornell University
This presentation offers an ethnographic glimpse into the
professional lives of scientists and engineers collaborating to
render intelligible distant future risks that may beset a radioactive
waste repository to be buried deep beneath Olkiluoto, Finland.
Recasting quantitative models scaled to geological timescales as
legal evidence in the ‘Safety Case’ submitted to Finland’s
nuclear regulatory authority as part of an application for a
repository construction permit, these experts wove together an
ecology of models, data, and scenarios into an elaborate portfolio
with the aim of reckoning distant future worlds. In the process,
some insiders developed a vague sense that, over the decades, the
Safety Case, in its immense epistemological and organizational
complexity, acquired something resembling a ‘group
intelligence’ transcending any individual expert’s awareness.
This, for some, led to a feeling of being but simple ‘ants’
dwelling within the collective logics of a broader collaborative
‘colony’. One expert explained that, while the ‘forest’ of Safety
Case models cannot be encompassed in its totality by a single
mind, some collaborators were able to comprehend the portfolio
‘from the treetops’ by grasping the details of how the myriad
reports wove together (understanding the ‘whole’) while other
collaborators were able to comprehend its ‘roots’ by grasping the
details of specific subsets of reports (understanding the ‘parts’).
Analyzing the organic metaphors tapped to articulate experiences
of working on a project aimed at protecting humans from such
precarious inorganic wastes, this presentation reflects on
renderings of the (in)organic during an age increasingly referred
to as the Anthropocene.
Normalizing waste, enacting sustainability Sebastian Ureta,
Departamento de Sociología, Universidad Alberto Hurtado,
Santiago, Chile
Sustainability discourses have become almost compulsory among
corporations nowadays, especially as they operate on an
increasingly global scale. Such discourses are especially relevant
regarding their most evident environmental impact: the waste
generated by industrial processes. This issue is particularly
critical for the mining industry. Even middle-sized projects
generate such an amount of waste that their depositories have
been identified as “probably the largest man-made structures on
earth” (ICOLD 2001). As a consequence multiple devices and
practices have been introduced to govern such wastes in
accordance with sustainability programs of action, allowing
mining corporations to improve their environmental credentials.
Given the technical impossibility of reducing the amount of
waste generated, such mandate usually translates in the
production of "normal" waste, or waste that behaves in
accordance with certain pre-established technical standards. Such
standards go from wastes having a particular chemical
composition to being distributed in some ways on the massive
dams in which they are stored. The production of such normality,
as it could be expected, is not trivial matter. Mining wastes
constantly overflow; defying normalization in multiple ways and
forcing corporations into a never ending search for growingly
sophisticated systems of surveillance and repair that will finally
allow them to reach, once and for all, the status of being "really"
sustainable. In order to explore the challenges that such a pursuit
entails this presentation, based on an ongoing ethnography, will
explore some examples of waste management procedures
developed at one large copper mine located in central Chile.
The Fully Realized Man: Thinking Through A Mexican
Universalist Earth Science Elizabeth Reddy, University of
California, Irvine
“By being good scientists, true to our vocation, perhaps we
may…reach the highest ideal of the ancient humanist founders of
our nation: in omacic ozuichtli, the fully-realized man” (Lomnitz:
1996). In a speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of
Mexico's Premio Nacional de Ciencias, geophysicist Cinna
Lomnitz describes ineluctable tensions between "universalist"
and located science. He contextualizes them in Mexico, arguing
that Nahuatl philosophers were familiar with these tensions long
before they encountered European science. In this talk, I explore
how some Mexican earth science researchers, “true to [their]
vocation,” use the soils, rocks, and forces with which their
discipline is intimately concerned in order to think through the
tensions that Lomnitz describes, performing what amount to
ontographies of scientific knowledge. Drawing on data from my
ongoing ethnographic research with geophysicists and engineers
in Mexico City, this talk will demonstrate how the materials of
Mexican territory are taken up as tools for thinking through the
nature of universalist science, Mexican territory, and the relations
between the two. The kinds of worldings that I will attend to may
readily be framed with concepts like “postcolonial science” and
“science on the periphery," but, as I will argue, require of my
interlocutors more than an analytics of core/periphery or
local/global. Their strategies for thinking science are particularly
important to attend to in light of contemporary efforts to better
understand the materially-situated knowledge practices that today
comprise "universalist" science around the world— and what
ideals they may be entangled with. Bibliography Lomnitz, C.
1996. “Flor y Canto: Presencia de la cultura científica
mexicana.” Nexos (271)
Frontstaging Nonhumans? The multiple huemul of Patagonia
Colombina Schaeffer, University of Sydney; Leonardo
Valenzuela, University of Sydney
The Patagonia Without Dams campaign (PWD) has been one of
the most successful social mobilizations in Chile’s recent history.
PWD opposes the building of a complex of five mega dams in
the Baker and Pascua rivers in Chilean Patagonia. This campaign
has been sustained by what their participants call a “lilliputian”
strategy, which is materialized through a wide spectrum of
practices and innovations that do not respond to a unified
authority. This presentation explores a particular set of practices,
developed by PWD activists, intended to intensify the political
attributes of the huemul (Patagonian deer) as a relevant actor in
the campaign. These practices escalated into multiple enactments
of the huemul in response to the huemul presented by Hidroaysén
(the corporation proposing the dams) in its environmental impact
statement. These multiple enactments offered realities at times
contradictory and beyond the control of any of the actors
involved in the controversy, making explicit the recalcitrance of
the huemul to respond to a single political objective. The
presentation draws on six months of ethnographic fieldwork in
Chile, including semi-structured interviews to activists and an
analysis of printed media and court rulings. The aim of the
presentation is to contribute to the understanding of the
generative potential of controversies as well as the specific
dynamics of materiality in politics, in particular the roles of
nonhuman animals.
Social, technoscientific and politic struggles against PCB
pollution in France: socio-history of an insoluble problem.
Aurélien Féron, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences
Sociales (EHESS) - CERMES3, Paris
PCBs (polychlorobiphenyls) are one of the chemical families that
have profoundly transformed the world we are living in.
Environmental scientists and biologists established from the
1970s that these substances can be found throughout the surface
of the Earth, including within living organisms’ fat where it
accumulates. One of the main features of these major pollutants
of the 20th and 21th centuries, namely their persistence in the
environment, makes them an interesting object for STS: despite
their gradual ban in the 1970s and 1980s, PCBs have remained
the activators of a lot of knowledge production, many collective
actions and development of environmental & sanitary policies.
The links between these contaminants and the rise & deployment
of environmental justice movement in the USA have already
been studied. But there have not been long-term in-depth studies
considering the simultaneous production of knowledge, rise &
transformations of collective actions, construction of government
tools, and development of public policies trying to define ways to
live with this pollution. Additionally, this approach is interesting
in the sense of studying the socio-history of an insoluble
problem. Relying on the analysis of materials (archives,
interviews and observations) collected from the actors who
address(ed) the PCB-pollution problem (fishermen,
decontamination facilities and their neighbors, scientists,
environmentalist non-profits, state authorities…), I propose to
report the history of social, technoscientific and political
struggles that have been waged against this pollution in France
since the 1970s, focusing on the characteristics and
transformations of this battle which still appears to have no exit.
Discussant:
Nerea Calvillo, Goldsmiths, University of London
066. Aproximaciones de la infraestructura a la cultura y políticas
públicas
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Picasso
Chair:
Juan Martin Quiroga, Centro de Estudios en Ciencia,
Tecnología, Cultura y Desarrollo - Universidad Nacional de Rio
Negro - Argentia
Participants:
Control Societies: Cloud Computing and the modulation of
behavior on the Internet Bruno de Mattos Almeida,
University of Campinas (Unicamp); Marta Mourão
Kanashiro, University of Campinas (Unicamp)
This research intends to clarify the political implications of the
usage of new information and communication technologies, here
represented by cloud computing systems, a manner or running
applications, programs and data storage mechanisms based on the
external servers connected via the internet. The empirical
approach is based on tracing a comprehensive map or diagram of
the main service providers and the way users interact with the
tools available for public and private usage of cloud
technologies, to understand the new relationships and interfaces
that are created via the increasingly popular remote data storage
systems. The theoretical approach draws on Gilles Deleuze’s
work over the control society, with the objective of analyzing the
constitution of tactics and techniques that constitute a new
manner of functioning of power and the contemporary relations
between capitalism and technology. This presentation will focus
on the way users utilize the cloud and the way that relationship is
changed by a new manner of storing data, no longer based on the
traditional concept of the “archive”, but reinserting the idea of
“archiving one’s own life”, as presented by Phillipe Artières
(1998) in the cloud context. The research, a work in progress,
intends to understand the effects of the insertion of data by users
in this system, as the cloud seems to be the current apex of a
process of rationalization that leads to the strengthening of
surveillance and a potential interception of future, in a context in
which information holds a central role in the contemporary
society.
Virtual fences in Belgian prisons: constructing social normality
through reshaping urban boundaries Olga Kudina, University
of Maastricht
Modern-day security systems undergo reconceptualization based
on borders’ dematerialization towards more circulating and open
fences (Razac, 2013). Belgian penitentiary system falls into the
trend, modernizing its prisons visually and technologically to
make them fit for suburbanites’ acceptability upon relocation to
peripheral business activity zones (Thoreau et el., 2014). Prison’s
perimeter will now be secured by virtual fences, - technology
combining video cameras, thermal/audio sensors, and radars. The
system recognizes as dangerous any subject that falls out of
normal behavior patterns. Thus, invisible to human eye, virtual
fences act as surveillance agents to whom people delegated their
functions, creating more impenetrable barriers and redefining the
space far beyond prisons. The article will explore ethical
implications for general public from implementing such
technologies, building on the scholarship of Actor-Network
theory (Latour, Woolgar, 1979) and the management of
permeability concept (Razac). The hypothesis is that virtual
fences are political, shaping behavior standards according to
prison’s security goals and hampering freedoms of individuals
who get into prison’s surveillance zone. The hypothesis will be
challenged against opening technical and social black-boxes of
virtual fences, discovering what their technological architecture
reflexes, how the algorithms of normal behavior are defined and
incorporated and how public perceives such innovation. We will
utilize quantitative and qualitative research methods to analyze
empirical evidence from interviews, on-line surveys and personal
involvement as junior researchers in the EU project on virtual
fences development. Following Beijker (2009), to facilitate
public participation in scientific debates, interview audience will
include both experts and lay persons.
The Implications of Race and Class for Community Recovery
in the Rockaways: Post Hurricane Sandy Thomas Corcoran,
CUNY Brooklyn College
The literature on disaster argues that community resilience for
recovery is contingent upon the social ecology of the community
experiencing a catastrophe. My research finds that the
demographics of place—unequivocally bounded by race and
class in the United States—are significant when determining how
communities respond to disaster and what implications exist for
their futures. This study evaluates the disaster responses of
African-American neighborhoods located on the Rockaways
peninsula in New York City after Hurricane Sandy. Drawing
from interviews with residents and volunteer workers, in addition
to ethnographies conducted at community meetings and with
groups repairing damaged homes, I conclude that the tenuous
position of middle-class Black residents after the storm
complicated the recovery process within the neighborhood.
Residents, deprived of services from state, local, and city
governments, teamed with outside volunteers to serve the
community. Floodwaters were pumped out of homes while food
and medicine were distributed to those residents in need. Shortly
after the storm’s aftermath, these Rockaways communities were
confronted with “disaster capitalism.” Real estate developers and
city planners moved quickly to redevelop effected areas, which
threatened displacement. The community split across preexisting
lines of social class and efforts to mobilize residents faltered. The
racially homogenized urban space resulting from discriminatory
housing markets, I argue, is transformed by disaster. These
findings will contribute to the existing literature by addressing
issues of race and class in residentially segregated communities
with the intention to establish disaster mitigation strategies for an
equitable recovery.
Housekeepers and Houseguests: Domestic order in the
networked home Jenny Kennedy, University of Melbourne;
Rowan Wilken, Swinburne University of Technology;
Michael Arnold, University of Melbourne; Martin Gibbs,
University of Melbourne; Bjorn Nansen, University of
Melbourne
This paper considers the performance of 'digital housekeeping'
(Tolmie et al, 2007) in the networked home. The networked
home encompasses a media ecology made up of a multitude of
internet-enabled devices and services. There is a firm tradition of
studying the domestication of technologies into which this
research feeds (e.g. Silverstone & Haddon, 1996). Existing
research also indicates the significance of the work required to
maintain a connected home (e.g. Tolmie et al, 2007), and the
gendered distribution of domestic labour (e.g. Bell et al, 2005).
We show the work of situating technology in the home in relation
to digital housekeeping, emphasising the social construct of
technology in everyday life. This presentation draws on
qualitative data from interviews and technology tours of
participating households in a project exploring the impact of high
speed broadband, namely the Australian Government’s National
Broadband Network (NBN), on the way households interact with
media devices and technologies in the home. We recognise that
digital housekeeping is a useful term for drawing attention to the
labour performed by specific actors within the home to create
and maintain the household media ecology and to integrate it into
the domestic setting. An emphasis on practices of maintaining
and engaging in the networked home not only draws attention to
the role performed by housekeepers and others who reside there,
but also visiting houseguests who try to connect to or make use
of the household network and its technologies. References Bell,
G., Blythe, M. & Sengers, P. (2005). Making by making strange:
Defamiliarization and the design of domestic technologies, ACM
Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), vol. 12
(2), pp. 149–17. Grinter, R. E., Edwards, W. K., Newman, M.,
and Ducheneaut, N. (2005). The work to make the home network
work, Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer
Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW) 1995, Paris: Springer,
pp. 469-488. Silverstone, R., Haddon, L. (1996). ‘Design and the
Domestication of Information and Communication Technologies:
Technical Change and Everyday Life’. In Communication by
Design: The Politics of Information and Communication
Technologies, edited by Silverstone, R., Mansell, R., Oxford:
Oxford University Press, pp. 44–74. Tolmie, P., Crabtree, A.,
Rodden, T., Greenhalgh, C., & Benford, S., 2007. Making the
home network at home: Digital housekeeping. In ECSCW 2007,
pp. 331-350.
Radares y política de Radarización en Argentina (1948-2004)
Juan Martin Quiroga, Centro de Estudios en Ciencia,
Tecnología, Cultura y Desarrollo - Universidad Nacional de
Rio Negro - Argentia; Diego Aguiar, CENTRO DE
ESTUDIOS EN CIENCIA, TECNOLOGÍA, CULTURA Y
DESARROLLO - CONICET - UNRNP
El objetivo del trabajo es analizar, los primeros desarrollos
hechos en el mundo y las políticas públicas que entre 1948 y
2004 siguió el Estado Argentino a fin de incorporar, gestionar,
utilizar y, desarrollar radares en el país. En el desarrollo de esta
tecnología, en el mundo, se dieron contribuciones de diversas
personas pertenecientes a universidades, empresas privadas y
estamentos gubernamentales en varios países simultánea mente
(Brown, 1999; Kenny, 1960). En el trabajo se describen ciertas
particularidades que ha tenido la historia del desarrollo de los
radares mundialmente (Brown, 1999; Kostenko, et al., 2001;
James, 1989; Tomlin, 1988) y se profundiza el caso de la
implementación de la política de radarización seguido por
Argentina entre 1948 y 2004. Desde el punto de vista
metodológico el trabajo se inscribe y encuentra su
fundamentación en los criterios asumidos por King, Keohane y
Verba (1991/2000) donde el concepto de estilo de investigación
opera como clarificador en un diseño. El estilo cualitativo
conviene al objeto de estudio e Incluye entrevistas en
profundidad pero prima el análisis detallado de materiales
históricos y escritos. El presente trabajo forma parte de una Tesis
de Maestría en Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (UNRN) y se
enmarca en un proyecto de investigación que analiza políticas
públicas de CyT en Argentina (1983-2010) con el objeto de
contribuir a generar insumos que permitan aportar al proceso de
formulación, ejecución y evaluación de las mismas. En las
búsquedas bibliográficas realizadas no se han encontrado
estudios sobre radares como artefactos objeto de políticas
públicas.
067. Episteme-logísticas de la biomedicina
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Quinquela
Chair:
Marília Luz David, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
Participants:
Situating Health Problems: the epidemiological transition as a
contextualizing practice Marília Luz David, Universidade
Federal de Santa Catarina; Julia Guivant, Federal
University of Santa Catarina
The epidemiological transition is a well-established theory in
medicine that describes major diseases and causes of death
worldwide. It’s an account about world health changes: how we
go from conditions in which main causes of death were
infectious diseases to another where chronic diseases
predominate. This paper addresses the epidemiological transition
as a contextualizing practice in health. We are concerned with
how the epidemiological transition theory became established as
a fact and how it got transformed as it traveled. We pay special
attention to how the epidemiological transition contextualizes
Brazil’s health conditions as part of a particular enactment of
world health history and in terms of Latin American. We follow
discussions through medical journals and WHO publications so
as to situate this theory that nowadays travels as a universal fact
about health. The first article about epidemiological transition
from the 1970’s, the 1997 World Health Report as well as the
first brazilian articles regarding the issue are some of the
publications we talk about. We found that there were
disagreements about what Brazil’s epidemiological transition is
in the early 1990’s. As part of our considerations, we note that
there is a degree of flexibility when this epidemiological model is
translated by the actors throughout time so we can see competing
contextualizing practices about health. Also, the explanatory and
predictive role this theory plays enacts a particular world health
history and a linear sense of time in terms of diseases and causes
of death.
Eficacia, ética y economía en la medicina protocolizada: el
Grupo Oncológico Pediátrico de Chile 1978-2012. Yuri
Carvajal Bañados, Universidad de Chile; Tuillang Yuing
Alfaro, Universidad de Santiago
La práctica médica protocolizada implica una red socio-técnica
en cierta medida homogénea, local y distribuida, un saber
colectivo respecto de medicamentos, exámenes, tecnologías e
interpretaciones colectivizadas de las medidas estadísticas que
enjuician la eficacia terapéutica. Condiciones que permiten pasar
del juicio del valor de un tratamiento, a una métrica en precios y
a su valoración económica. Ambas dimensiones, se concatenan
en la producción de una valoración ética, en los pacientes
pediátricos, del derecho a no realizar un tratamiento. Este trabajo
revisa la trayectoria del Grupo Oncológico Pediátrico de Chile
(GOPECH) durante las últimas tres décadas, teniendo a la vista la
red socio-técnica involucrada en la producción de valor
terapéutico, clínico y ético, así como en la producción de
protocolos clínicos y sus efectos articuladores de una acción
común, que posibilita esta métrica de las valoraciones. Mediante
la revisión de las publicaciones científicas del GOPECH y otros
investigadores relacionados, entrevistas a sus miembros,
descripción de gráficos, medidas estadísticas y económicas,
informes administrativos y publicaciones oficiales, se describe la
sociología de las asociaciones técnicas, estadísticas, de
representaciones, objetos y personas, que permiten producir la
salud contemporánea como un objeto técnico- clínico, económico
y ético. Este estudio propone un desplazamiento conceptual en
salud pública, comprendiéndola no como el estudio de la
enfermedad en las poblaciones, sino tomando los resultados de
STS, sino como una sociología de las prácticas de salud actuales,
que estudia la técnica y su rol en la producción de una medicina
protocolizada, economizada y moralizada.
One Drop of Indigenous Blood: The Coproduction of Scientific
Knowledge and National identity in Taiwan Yuyueh Tsai,
Academia Sinica
Biomedicine has significant potential to change identity politics
at the local level. Since the 1990s, there has been an increasing
concern with the genetic attributes of Taiwan’s indigenous
people. The indigenous minority whose languages belong to the
Malayo-Polynesian family has been biomedically represented in
terms of their presumed genetic features. Constructed by a
variety of governmental, academic, and mass media sources, a
discourse about the genetic particularity of the indigenes has
been widely employed to support the idea that Taiwanese people
have an unique national origin. The research findings by the team
led by Professor Marie Lin, M.D., widely known as “the mother
of the research of Taiwanese blood,” have played a significant
role in developing the scientific discourse. Their arguments that
the southern Han are genetically distinct from the northern Han
and that Taiwanese are descendants of ancient Yueh people have
been drawn on to support Taiwanese nationalism. In 2010 a
private “Ancestry DNA Test” organization was established.
Many political activists have declared that they are proud of
having even one drop of the Indigenous blood confirmed by the
results of the tests provided by the organization. This
phenomenon has formed a mutually constitutive relationship with
a popular discourse about Taiwanese identity. My article aims to
explore the particular process of co-production between genetic
research and identity politics in Taiwan by analyzing how
identity politics of ethnicity and nationalism in Taiwan has
shaped the scientific discourse about the origins and DNA
attributes of the Taiwanese people, and vice versa.
Standardization and its discontents: Debating the "New
Normal" in mental health. Ravi Shukla, Centre for Studies in
Science Policy (CSSP) at School for Social Science (SSS),
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Recent efforts to identify and diagnose mental disorders involve
categorising patterns in data known to come from people with
disorders and then searching for similar patterns in generic data.
At one level, conceptualizing and defining mental disorders is
overwhelmingly seen as a science based quest. That is, protocols
and procedures of scientific practice come in to play in the
setting up of possibilities for treating and analysing the field of
mental health. At the same time, the emphasis on using
informatics tools to record and analyze data from the brain has
become crucial to the task of understanding and assessing mental
health. In other others words, the scientific quest to understand
and explore the human brain is critically entwined with technical
equipment. Social and cultural aspects become especially
relevant when it comes to mental health. Since diagnosing mental
disorders predicates an understanding of what an “ordered” or
“normal” mental state is - in the absence of quantifiable
parameters science looks to “socially acceptable” norms and
behaviour. In other words, most clinically accepted diagnostic
criteria continue to be behavioural and somewhat subjective in
nature. On the flip side, an enhanced understanding of brain
function also enables the creation and enhancement of new
technologies that have hitherto been in the realm of science. This
makes the case for a 'technoscientific approach' compelling precisely because it sees science and technology as enmeshed
processes, which co-constitute and co-evolve in particular social
contexts.
Designing the agency in milieus for more systemic epigenetics
Jochen Büchel, TU Dresden, Freelancer in Munich
The speech a is to sketch how scientists might yield a lively
understanding of epigenetics.The culture of experimenting is too
much dedicated towards a Bid data collection neglecting
validation. On the basis of a relational ontology - understanding
and reflecting esthetic insight into mapping of communication
like processes - a new quality of describing and designing
practices of genetics are essential. This kind of "Knowledge
Architecture“ stimulates the development of research media
beyond ordinary causal oriented instruments. The aim is to
highlight contexts and potential knowledge culture like theater or
arts which help to bridge logic barriers like too mechanistic
understanding of metabolism. This developmental capacity
derives from its quality of being a socio-cultural practice and
and art - a creative media –because of adapting a neo-vitalist
Actor network theory described in Bruno Latour books and
„Affizierung“ by Michael Ott. For the experimental level this
hybrid of theory and practice- techniques can lead to a new class
of imaging, visualizing and modeling capacities. What is
neccessary for cultivating states of mind which are able to gain
collective intelligence?: somnambule openess for a floating
interaction between inside and outside of researchers organism
allowing the researcher to look more holistic on technical
objects and its functions and thus applying Michael Polanyis
implicite knowledge.
068. Controversy Mapping Using Digital Tools and Methods in
Different Academic Contexts: South(s)-North(s) Dialogs II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Soldi
Chair:
Nicolas Baya-Laffite, Medialab, Sciences Po Paris
Participants:
¿Para qué sirven las Cartografías de las Controversias? horacio
boris alperin, Gathering-unlugardeencuentro.org; Jorge do
Porto, Gathering-unlugardeencuentro.org
Desde que iniciamos, a través de Gatheringunlugardeencuentro.org, la difusión de la enseñanza de las
Cartografías de las Controversias, la audiencia hispana pregunta:
“¿Para qué sirven?”. Salvo en los escritos de Bruno Latour y
Tommaso Venturini, no es frecuente encontrar en español el
desarrollo de sus virtudes respecto a otras descripciones de los
conflictos los cuales se basan en los principios de simetría e
imparcialidad. Las Cartografías de las Controversias se
constituyen en pilar principal para la toma de decisiones
acertadas, apoyándose en la obtención y fidelidad originaria de
los datos, en la utilización del principio de simetría, en el análisis
imparcial del observador, en la objetividad de las
representaciones cartográficas, en la forma de definir los límites
del debate, de representar las posiciones de los diferentes actores
y sus relaciones, en el modo de identificar los acuerdos y los
desacuerdos en el colectivo involucrado, y en su aporte al buen
mundo común entre otras características. Como un movimiento
constante, al igual que aquella hermosa película checoslovaca de
los ’60 : “Un día un gato” , la Cartografía de las Controversias va
identificando con colores el accionar de sus actores. El video que
presentamos, referido al caso de la Educación en Chile, es solo
nuestro punto de vista en un multiverso más amplio, como una
contribución sobre el estado del arte y las perspectivas futuras del
tema en Latinoamérica.
Mapping the adaptation turn using digital methods Nicolas
Baya-Laffite, Medialab, Sciences Po Paris; Tommaso
Venturini, MediaLab, Sciences Po, Paris, France
Since 1992, climate change policy and research have unfolded
over the mitigation/adaptation divide provoking much debate.
Initially pushed by developing countries, it was only over the
2000’s that adaptation emerged as a clear policy and research
objective in raising tension with mitigation. This for at least three
reasons: increased evidence on climate impacts as requiring
adaptation action, growing anxiety about the effectiveness of
negotiations on mitigation, and the recognition that focusing on
adaptation was not a necessarily a menace to mitigation action.
Adaptation is now high in the climate agenda, marking a turning
point in climate debates at all levels. Which are politicoepistemic effects of this turn? This paper presents results from a
three-year STS research programme to map this turn looking at
knowledge-policy interfaces using digital methods. The ultimate
aim to provide such maps to assist concerned actors in dealing
deal with this debates, by deploying their complexity, making it
legible, and rendering the viewpoints, the alliances and the
arguments, of as many actors involved in the climate adaptation
debate as possible. Drawing on on-line and off-line data
collection we have built different corpora of scientific
(webofscience), expertise (IPCC), policy (UNFCCC) practice
(adaptation projects) and the media (wikipeadia, press articles)
discourses on adaptation. The resulting maps all to visualize the
evolution of framings particularly in relation the dichotomy
adaptation/mitigation, funding, and in the organisation of
knowledge production and expertise. The final outcome of the
enquiry, analysis and visualisations will be integrated into an online platform using multimedia. This is what we call a
controversy atlas on adaptation.
Considerações sobre o álbum em quadrinhos “Velhos hotéis
passam cinema mudo” Liber Eugenio Paz, Universidade
Tecnológica Federal do Paraná
O presente artigo procura tecer considerações sobre a história em
quadrinhos "Velhos hotéis passam cinema mudo", de autoria de
Eloar Guazzelli, publicada no Brasil em 2012 pela editora
Cachalote como parte da coleção “1000”. O objetivo é refletir
sobre as materialidades / visualidades presentes na obra que
constituem e são constituídas por determinados modos de
interpretar a tecnologia e os artefatos cotidianos. A argumentação
será desenvolvida a partir da perspectiva dos estudos culturais e
de conceitos como cultura, representação e cultura material,
tendo como base algumas propostas de Raymond Williams,
Stuart Hall, Daniel Miller e Joanne Hollows. Parte-se de uma
análise da obra em quadrinhos, observando elementos plásticos,
contextos e conteúdos que se destacam n o álbum, tecendo
relações e reflexões com os conceitos e autores citados. As
reflexões envolvem três momentos de diálogos temáticos e
expressivos a serem analisados: as edificações representadas
(hotéis, cinemas, avenidas, torres de energia, etc), as mídias
(tecnologias) e linguagens representadas e a materialidade do
álbum de histórias em quadrinhos enquanto artefato em si. A
partir desse artigo, pretende-se iniciar uma abordagem sobre as
questões de tecnologia e sociedade a partir de suas
representações, enquanto espaços de conformações, negociações,
apropriações, críticas e avaliações construídos nas histórias em
quadrinhos. Velhos hotéis passam cinema mudo propõe olhares
não deterministas dos artefatos técnicos, discutindo os processos
de produção, circulação, coleção, preservação e descarte das
imagens como estratégias de ressignificação e de valorização das
memórias, das subjetividades.
Mapping the evolution of research. The case of rice Tommaso
Ciarli, SPRU, University of Sussex; Ismael Rafols, INGENIO
(CSIC-UPV), Universitat Politècnica de València
Evolutionary economics and innovation studies have reflected on
the direction of research for a long time. We focus on one
particular good, rice. We investigate the direction of research,
through time and space, of a crop (i) which feeds a huge number
of people around the world, particularly in low and middle
income countries; (ii) which was at the core of the `green
revolution', particularly in the 60's and 70's, when high yield
varieties of rice where investigated and distributed across the
world to reduce the problem of famines in low income countries;
(iii) and which, being the symbol of the green revolution is also a
controversial technology due to the negative effects of the green
revolution, such as impoverishment of diets, overuse of water,
exhaustion of soils, pollution, etc. In other words, we focus on
research that has been controversial for decades, and trace how
research organisations have dealt with these controversies. What
we want to gain with this exercise is not an explanation of how
research or knowledge evolves, but a map of how research efforts
change through time and space, and how this is related to specific
events, cultures and needs: political economy of rice research.
The study is based on different types of semantic analyses of a
large corpus of publications on rice. We use the CABI repository
of publications because it focuses on agriculture and has a much
wider collection of research from developing countries than IS or
Scopus, translated from different languages.
069. Experimental Entanglements: Life Transformed
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Verdi
Chairs:
Jane Calvert, University of Edinburgh
Felicity Callard, Durham University
Participants:
Revitalising Sociology: Urban Life and Mental Illness between
History and the Present Des Fitzgerald, King's College
London; Nikolas Rose, Department of Social Science Health
and Medicine, King's College London; Ilina Singh,
Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine, King's
College London
This paper proposes a re-thinking of the relationship between the
social and biological sciences. Tracing lines of connection
between the history of sociology and the contemporary landscape
of biology, it argues for a refiguration of this relationship beyond
popular rhetorics of 'biologization' or 'medicalization.' At the
heart of the paper is a claim that, today, there are some potent
new frames for re-imagining the traffic between sociological and
biological research – even for ‘revitalizing’ the sociological
enterprise as such. The paper threads this argument through one
empirical case: the relationship between urban life and mental
illness. It shows how this relationship enlivened both early
psychiatric epidemiology, and some forms of the new discipline
of sociology; it then traces the historical division of these
sciences, as the sociological investment in psychiatric questions
waned, and 'the social' become marginalized within an
increasingly 'biological' psychiatry. The paper shows how this
relationship has lately been revivified, but now by a nuanced
epigenetic and neurobiological attention to the links between
mental health and urban life. What role can sociology play here?
In its final section, the paper shows how this older sociology,
with its lively interest in the psychiatric and neurobiological
vicissitudes of urban social life, can be our guide in helping to
identify intersections between sociological and biological
attention. With a new century now underway, the paper
concludes by suggesting that the relationship between urban life
and mental illness may prove a core testing-ground for a 'revitalized' sociology.
Of Smokers and Addicts. Defining Normality in the Cold War
United States Stephan Risi, Stanford University
Why was smoking not considered to be addictive in the United
States of the 1950s? While some scholars have dismissed the
question as merely terminological, I argue that the separation of
smoking and addiction was essential to a Cold War logic, which
incessantly separated normal from abnormal, merely neurotic
from genuinely psychopathic. Tracing the separation between
smoking and addiction, and between smokers and addicts reveals
an unbridgeable chasm between the two, which extended far
beyond mere questions of pharmacology. Within the biopolitical
logic of the Cold War, addicts, together with communists and
homosexuals, represented a viral infection of the body politic. If
unchecked, it was feared, all of them might spread and subvert
American society, legitimizing even extreme measures against
them. Addicts in particular personified consumption and selfindulgence gone awry, bringing forth psychopathic tendencies in
the afflicted. Smoking, in contrast, was normal and ubiquitous;
an average, minor vice for average Americans. Because of the
prevalence of smoking and its integration into normal, taxed and
profitable capitalism, calling smoking an addiction was
unthinkable. By drawing on newspaper reports, advertisements,
and medical literature, this paper emphasizes the cultural
environment within which early addiction research has to be
situated. By juxtaposing consumptional normality and
abnormality, it recovers a chasm that was essential to the culture
of the early Cold War, yet which has been erased by novel
addiction paradigms.
Fetishism and Reductionist Impositions in Biotechnology and
Molecular Biology Julio Munoz-Rubio, Centro de
Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias en Ciencias y
Humanidades, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Marxian analyses of fetishism, clarifies our comprehension of the
way in which commodities hide the social relations that actually
produce them. This method of analysis can be applied to different
aspects of biology in order to reveal and correct the imprecise
conceptions contained in some hegemonic neo-Darwinian theses.
I postulate that the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology
(CDMB) is a fetishized expression of the processes of replication
and inheritance. According to CDMB, DNA is a molecule able to
perform all its functions by itself. Under this conception, the
totality of the relations involved in the transmission of genetic
information, are hidden. Arguments coming from Karl Marx’s,
Gyorgy Luckáks’ and Ivan I. Rubin’s dialectical methodology
concerning the fetishism of commodities, as well as those
coming from works of biologists such as Richard Lewontin, and
Richard Levins, are able to unmask the fetishist conception
contained in the thesis that it suffices with a molecule such as
DNA, to unleash the entire mechanism of life. My argument has
a practical consequence: STS directed to falsify CDBM are
fundamental in the attempts to overthrown the dictatorship of
multinational biotechnology enterprises and their economic
interests. Scientific communities close to these enterprises
continue to defend CDBM as the paradigm of their policies of
commercialization of Genetic Modified Organisms, despite to the
fact that scientific criticisms made to CDBM are enough to show
it as a paradigm in crisis.
From baby’s first home to anti-wrinkle cream: The placenta in
scientific and cultural contexts Charlotte Kroløkke,
University of Southern Denmark; Karen A Foss, University
of New Mexico
This paper examines and theorizes the human placenta as a
scientific, medical, biological, and cultural product. The placenta
translates socially into the baby’s first home as well as into food,
art, cosmetics, and other types of products to be consumed
because of the benefits to be derived. Through interviews with
women who choose to consume their placentas as well as
analyses of commercials related to placenta cosmetic products,
the authors point to the ways in which the placenta takes on
different meanings. While consumers cite medical properties and
spirituality as reasons for eating, encapsulating, and burying the
placenta, such as connecting spiritually, reducing post-partum
depression, and restoring iron and other nutrient levels after
childbirth, the cosmetic industry cites its unique qualities
skincare benefits, including anti-aging and whitening
possibilities. Drawing upon empirical material from the United
States, Denmark, and Japan, we examine the communication and
cultural processes by which placentas are given particular
meanings and pinpoint the ways that these meanings are
gendered, raced, and nationalized.
Prophet of Doom, Author of Salvation: A Collaborationist
Manifesto Matthew Kearnes, University of New South Wales
In his meditation on the prospects for nuclear catastrophe
Gunther Anders’ (1972) creatively retells the biblical narrative of
the flood. In Anders’s hands Noah is recast as a prophet of doom
who meditates on the cosmic significance of the coming
catastrophe. When asked by the gathering crowd when the flood
will come Noah’s response is always ‘tomorrow’; that “the day
after tomorrow, the flood will be something that has been. And
when the flood will have been, everything that is will never have
existed”. Glossing Anders’ catastrophism Jean-Pierre Dupuy
develops a notion of ‘enlightened doomsdaying’, which locates
the site of ethical and moral responsibility in the reply of a local
carpenter who responds to Noah saying “let me help you build an
ark, so that [the catastrophe] may become false”. For Dupuy the
catastrophe belongs simultaneously in the future and the present
– as something that is “fated to happen” whilst at the same time
being “contingent and accidental, something that might not
happen”. In this paper I draw from Dupuy’s analysis of the
relationship between Noah and the carpenter to develop a notion
of collaboration in the face of catastrophe. My goal is to bring
Science and Technology Studies (STS) into conversation with
recent work in Environmental Humanities. The gravity of the
environmental crisis signals the inadequacy of traditional
approaches in the humanities whilst also underscoring the need
for a greater engagement between the sciences and humanities.
Interdisciplinary exchange is a hallmark of the emergence of the
environmental humanities. While the goals of these collaborative
endeavours are commonly multifaceted, in this paper I develop a
speculative manifesto for collaboration in the face of catastrophe.
Drawing on Anders and Dupuy’s (2013) catastrophism I outline
the need for a prophetic capacity to “place ourselves in the
moment following the catastrophe and then, looking back toward
the present time, to see catastrophe as our fate – only a fate that
we may yet choose to avoid” (p. 33).
Are we 'sociologists of acceptability'? Positions of STS in
debates on synthetic biology Morgan Meyer, Agro ParisTech
Synthetic biology provides an interesting case for analysing the
challenges and difficulties to organise debates about emerging
sciences – and the role of STS therein. French public authorities
have called for a “real” and “transparent” dialogue between
science and society and call for a “serene”, “peaceful and
constructive” public debate. A Forum of Synthetic Biology was
therefore launched to offer a space of “open and pluralistic”
debate in order to favour an “enlightened and constructive”
discussion. Both natural as well as social scientists sat on the
organizing committee. However, the first debate organised in the
scope of this Forum was interrupted by a group of protesters and
the Forum has been suspended since. To understand the protests
and critiques made I draw on the distinction between “divisible”
and “indivisible” conflicts (Barthe, Hirschman). On the one hand,
the Forum of Synthetic Biology considers itself as a space of
dialogue and debate where people can deliberate and negotiate. It
is a space of divisibility – a space to which STS scholars actively
contributed. On the other extreme, the protesters were
“indivisible” in their criticisms. They condemned the practices,
objectives, products, institutions, and debates to do with synthetic
biology. Even the sociologists involved have been criticised as
“sociologists of acceptability”. This begs the question, then,
whether STS scholars who are involved in synthetic biology are
inevitably in favour of “divisible” conflicts? Or is it still possible,
even if they collaborate, to provide a radical critique against a
science?
070. ESOCITE.BR Board, Council and Members Meeting
Business Meeting
1:00 to 2:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Dalí
071. Plasticity, Local Biologies and Lamarckianism Across the
Contemporary Life Sciences I
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
Chair:
Elizabeth F.S. Roberts, Univeristy of Michigan
Participants:
Blood, kinship and human rights: Hansen’s disease in Brazil
Claudia Lee Williams Fonseca, Federal University of Rio
Grande do Sul, Brazil; Glaucia Cristina Maricato Moreto,
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Our research deals with specific use of DNA tests in Brazil –
aimed at financial reparation for the institutionalized and
otherwise scattered offspring of leprosy patients who, from the
1920s up through the 1980s, were subjected to compulsory
internment in the “hospital-colonies”, specialized in the
containment of Hansen’s disease. Through a social movement,
the ex-patients themselves gained the right, in 2007, to financial
compensations. At the moment, the movement is seeking
reparation for the (now adult) children of these people as well.
Many of these children grew up in orphanages, in adopted
families, or do not have official documents to prove their family
belonging. In 2011, a team of Brazilian geneticists has
volunteered their services, applying DNA tests in order to
ascertain the connection of certain individuals to an ex-internee
of the leprosarium. In 2012, we accompanied their activities in
four different ex-colonies in order to understand how the DNA
test was being signified by those being tested, and how the test fit
into already existent notions of family. Inspired in the writings of
scholars such as Sheila Jasanoff and Helena Machado, we
examine the possibility of a “geneticization of family ties” when
people are obliged to back their claim for human rights by
producing legal proof based on blood tests. However, in like
fashion to other ethnographic studies on this theme, we
encountered among tested adults a number of creative strategies
that allow for the co-existence of the idea of “scientificallybased” blood ties alongside other more traditional ways of
signifying kinship.
Epigenetic models of the biosocial particularity of “suicide
completers” Stephanie Lloyd, McGill University
Why, in response to common experiences of loss or hardship, do
some people commit suicide while others do not? In answer to
this question behavioural epigeneticists propose that negative life
experiences during critical moments of development place
certain people at increased risk of suicide. Specifically, they
suggest that experiences such as early childhood abuse are
embodied via DNA methylation of brain tissues, putting specific
subsets of individuals on track for suicidal behaviour later in life.
This paper explores the tension between scientists’ desire to
integrate complex life experiences into correlative models
concerning neuroplasticity, epigenetic change, and the
acquisition of personality traits and risk profiles and their
difficulty producing clear evidence of the biological impact of
specific life experiences on the brains of “suicide completers”.
Based on ongoing ethnography among an interdisciplinary team
of researchers who target the question of suicide from a variety
of angles (neuroimaging, genetics, epigenetics), this paper
examines the ever-changing models that guide their research and
the challenges they encounter. The scientists’ theorizing about
suicide risk informs us not only of the styles of reasoning that
guide what they see in data, but also of their novel, at times neoLamarckian, portrayals of “suicide completers” as “biosocial
becomings”, people not fixed on a track laid out by their genetic
code at birth, but as co-produced by their bodily matter and their
environments. This paper will contribute to discussions of the
impact of biosocial perspectives on contemporary social sciences
and social scientists’ engagements with these theories.
Plastic Bodies: on lay and expert endocrinologies Emilia
Sanabria, Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon & INSERM
This paper draws on an analysis of the relations between bodies
and sex hormones in Bahia (Brazil) to engage with the notion of
plasticity. It does not deal with biological plasticity as such, but
with local idioms concerning bodily plasticity. Plasticity refers to
the capacity to both give and receive form, pointing to the
malleability of matter and to the constraints afforded by form
(Malabou 2011). I give an ethnographic account of how bodies
are (re)made through the pharmaceutical sex hormones enrolled
to modulate and transform them. Lay and expert endocrinologies
are interesting to think the relations between bodies and their
diverse outsides. Hormonal modulations are key mediators
between bodies and their sociomaterial environments, enfolding
environmental or social influences in local or individual
biologies. In Bahia this is often understood via humorallyinflected idioms of blood, which intersect in complex ways with
“new” epigenetic notions. What is striking about the models of
bodily transformation and susceptibility encountered in Bahia is
that they do not posit “the natural” as immutable, but rather as
open to multiple interventions. The paper draws on two critiques
of ANT which center on the fact that the nonhumans ANT has
studied are essentially inert or inorganic. It attends
ethnographically to bodily processes of growth, transformation
and decay through incorporations of mater across ever-emergent
bodily surfaces to think plasticity through the lens of absorption
or incorporation. It highlights the contingent and fragile nature of
“things” (Ingold 2012) that are still often taken-for-bounded in
STS and anthropological theories.
Local biologies in formation; epigenetics, cancer and the
humoural body in southern Brazil sahra Gibbon, University
College London
This paper responds to an urgent need to explore the practices,
narratives and experiences through which a diverse combination
of seemingly ‘older’ and ‘new’ local biologies are being
configured in social and cultural arenas where historical and
contemporary notions of the 'bio' maybe already be malleable,
plastic and contingent. Margaret Lock's notion of 'local biologies'
has recently received renewed interest in the wake of
transnational expansion of the life and medical sciences
(Brotherton and Nguyen 2013) and increasing recognition of the
contingency of the biological in fields such as epigenetics
(Landecker 2011, Lock 2013). Drawing on long term
ethnographic research examining cancer genetics in the south of
Brazil working with patients, practitioners and scientists this
paper examines how an emerging discourse of epigenetics
related to cancer risk must be understood in relation to not only
the shifting priorities of transnational research agendas focused
on part on population difference, but the histories and
contemporary politics of social medicine in Brazil, the ongoing
relevance of Lamarckian understandings of inheritance in the
region as well as the persistence of humoural notions of the body
that locate disease risk and embodied vulnerability as
intersubjectively and intergenerationally constituted. In doing so
the paper highlights how the significance and meaning of
epigenetics is being formulated in a context of confluence and
disjuncture between different local biologies.
From Blueprints to Bricks: The Origins of DNA
Nanotechnology Brian Tyrrell, University of California,
Santa Barbara
James D. Watson referred to DNA as the “secret of life” because
of the biological information stored within its double helix
(Watson 2004). Biologists have worked since the 1950s to
unlock this secret. But, beginning in 1982, an emerging group of
researchers has been looking beyond the secrets encoded within
DNA and focusing instead on its utility as a structural material.
Consequently, a community of researchers from broad
disciplinary backgrounds has converged to study how to use
DNA as the raw material for constructing passive as well as
active nano-scale structures. Drawing researchers from biology,
chemistry, physics, and computer science, advocates for this
“DNA nanotechnology” say these techniques hold the promise of
new types of computing and revolutionary pharmaceutical
delivery mechanisms. This paper traces the process whereby
DNA transitioned from a material that contained genetic codes-“blueprints”--to one which was seen as something with which to
build de novo structures--“bricks.” This paper focuses on three
distinct phases of DNA research. First, DNA was a structural
concern for crystallographers. Second, DNA became the focus
for biologists engaged in genetics and genomics. Scientists have
returned to researching the structural potential of nucleic acids.
Historians have pointed to the failure of the superconducting
supercollider and the funding of the Human Genome Project as a
signal of the replacement of the “Age of Energy” with the “Age
of Biology” (Pauly 2000). DNA nanotechnology reflects the
influence of biology on American science in the last thirty years.
072. Politics, Publics, Participation and Practices: Governance of
Technologies in Global Networks I
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
Chair:
Andreas Kuehn, Syracuse University
Participants:
What Cybersecurity Research Can Learn from STS: Reviewing
a Recent Study on the Markets for Software Vulnerabilities
Andreas Kuehn, Syracuse University
Cybersecurity is one of the key problems within Internet
governance and is reshaping social and political realities. While
various disciplines – computer science, economics, political
science and international relations – have begun to address
cybersecurity, Science and Technology Studies (STS) have been
largely absent from this scholarly dialogue. STS theories and
methods, however, have the potential to provide important
analytical and reflective insights into current cybersecurity issues
and policy debates. First, the paper conceptualizes in a general
manner several areas of cybersecurity research and discusses how
concepts and notions of STS can inform and contribute to each
them. Second, to make an exemplary case, a recent qualitative,
empirical analysis on software vulnerability markets, conducted
by the author, is introduced. Using document analysis and indepth interviews, that research studied and compared markets for
software vulnerabilities and bounty programs to examine
emerging institutions, norms, and practices in cybersecurity
governance from a STS perspective. In particular, the research
employed notions of secrecy, transparency, and disclosure, and
commodification of knowledge about these software
vulnerabilities in an attempt to explain the formation of these
emerging structures. This is in contrast to computer scientists
who try to describe these exchanges of knowledge about software
vulnerabilities often in economic terms. The paper further
addresses the challenges that qualitative social science
researchers may face in conducting cybersecurity research and
ends with call for further discussion about the particular
contribution STS lends itself to cybersecurity and Internet
governance more broadly.
The Grammar of Governance Malte Ziewitz, New York
University
Governance of, on, and through the internet is a surprisingly
elusive object. Far from being a coherent field of study, it
presents itself as scattered across a range of disciplinary
approaches that come with distinct theoretical, methodological,
and normative concerns. How to account for this diversity? Who,
which, or what governs what, which, or whom when it comes to
digital technologies? And how can we turn these questions into a
topic for productive inquiry? In this paper, I shall critically
review existing literatures on governance and the internet and
draw attention to the ways in which they help perform the worlds
in which they have their place. Illustrating this performative
work through the lens of a specific case, I shall argue that
juxtaposing different versions of internet governance allows us to
gain a better understanding of its grammar – the “conventional
expression of its deep auspices” (McHugh et al. 1974: 79).
Rather than striving for a coherent definition, the goal is thus to
attend to the multiplicity of (internet) governance and its
research-practical implications. This will not only open up a
productive line of inquiry into the recursive relationship between
governance research and practice. It will also allow us to reflect
on the question of what it takes to appropriate ideas from Science
& Technology Studies in related areas while maintaining their
provocative power.
Politics of Hybridity: Regulation in Socio-Technical Ensembles
Murali Venkatesh, Syracuse University Syracuse, New York
13244 USA
To start with the socio-technical ensemble as the unit of STS
analysis, as Bijker (2009) suggests, is to be immediately
confronted with the ontological question on the stuff – the
content -- of this ensemble and where the demarcation might be.
This is a powerful insight: determining where the line is as it is
discursively fixed -- so that certain elements of the ensemble are
labeled social and the rest technical to mobilize different
practices and publics going forward -- is a core concern of
constructivist analysis. This negotiated demarc can shift and slide
as the black box of a stabilized configuration is opened up.
Taking the ensemble as analytic unit directs us to examine the
governance structures that develop in relation to the artifact. How
do these structures change, and how might we analyze the
politics involved: this is under-theorized in STS. Using
ethnography, I trace the evolution of governance in a public
technological system. Evolution has occurred incrementally via
institutional layering, where only some elements of the artifact
and governance apparatus are modified. The social and
artifactual are simultaneously the sites of change and also the
medium of change. The relation is contrapuntal. The Board
delegates to the artifact, but the artifact, constrained by its
internal characteristics, and transducing the very market logics
the Board has tried to counteract via new rules has demarcated a
zone of feasibility that limits the Board’s will. While the Board
has tried to erase this line by socializing the artifact, the artifact
has resisted, giving rise to an ontological politics of hybridity
where legislative power is renegotiated through things.
Governance is political, entailing value choices. Hybrid
structures further complicate the politics of self-regulation by
interpolating the refractions of the artifactual.
Who cares? Telecare technologies and self-management of
COPD patients Ivo Maathuis, University of Twente; Nelly
Oudshoorn, University Twente
In many industrialized countries, the development of telecare is
considered to be one of the solutions for decreasing financial and
social pressure on the healthcare system in the future. In this
changing landscape of healthcare self-management by patients is
often articulated as an important aim of telecare technologies.
This paper addresses the question of what forms of selfmanagement are inscribed in a telecare system for COPD patients
and enacted during its use. Based on interviews with patients and
nurses and observations of use practices, the paper shows that
there are important differences between self-management
approaches inscribed in the telecare system and the selfmanagement strategies enacted by its users. The telecare
equipment was designed in such a way that it incorporated forms
of self-management based on compliance. The programs of
actions of this system thus participate in introducing specific
‘technologies of self’ (Foucault 1988) in which self-management
is constituted as a compliant rather than a collaborative act.
However, the use practices reflected self-management
approaches based on collaboration and concordance between
patients and healthcare professionals. Patients, supported by
nurses, domesticated the devices in such a way that they became
adjusted to their daily routines and embodied experience with
managing their illness. The paper aims to contribute to the
growing body of STS literature on the relationships between
technologies, care and the self.
Discussant:
Steven Jackson, Cornell University
073. Thinking with Techno-anthropology I
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Chopin
Chair:
Cathrine Hasse, Aarhus University
Participants:
Comparison: a classic anthropological method in an STS
inspired analysis Anne Katrine Kamstrup, Department of
eduation, University of Aarhus, Denmark
This paper will explore how the classic anthropological idea of
comparison can be used and developed in an STS inspired
project. The empirical material that forms the point of departure
derives from an anthropological fieldwork within two
educational settings: A teacher education and an engineering
education. These educations fall under the category professional
education and involve learning both theoretical and practical
aspects of the professions. My project has been to explore how
students learn these aspects. Inspired by theories within the field
of STS – mainly Barad, Mol and Low – I have explored this by
focusing on different components in the educational settings: The
students, the rooms, the technologies used, the materials present
etc. How theory and practice is enacted through intra-actions
between these components are my main focus of analysis. Since
my project concerns two educations it also involves a
comparison. This paper will introduce a comparison between two
educational settings and the intra-acting components. Through
this analysis I will focus on the anthropological tradition of
comparing as a method of understanding human practice.
Coming from the anthropological tradition myself, I use it in my
work, but I add another level by comparing the intra-actions
between material and technological components in empirical
situations. The paper will discuss how this way of comparing
contributes to the traditional way of comparing as seen in
Sahlin's work or Strathern's implicit comparisons. How does a
focus on material agents as intra-acting as well as human agents
develop and challenge the anthropological tradition of
comparison?
Techno-anthropology and posthumanism Cathrine Hasse,
Aarhus University
Anthropologists have always explored a material world with the
purpose of understanding humans and their engagements with
materials in their everyday environments. Following a
postphenomenological methodology these ethnographic studies
show a huge variation in relation to developing and using
technology. A focus on human engagements with technology-inuse may question what we mean by post-humanism. One strand
of post-humanism (the singularists) argues that the technological
development is changing humans profoundly. This argument is
based on an understanding of what a ‘human’ is, that can be
argued to be both instrumental and algorithmic. It can be
countered by drawing on anthropological monographic
descriptions showing a profound cultural historical variation in
how humans have used tools to optimize learning and
memorizing (e.g. tablets of various kinds). The variety point
towards a more postphenomenological understanding of
posthumanism which, following a more ‘spinozist’ approach,
claim that we have always been posthuman. In this line of
thinking humans engage with technologies-in-use in assemblages
of matter (organic and non-organic). Humans have never held
center stage as tool-users. Vibrant matter, including our own
embodied being, has never been under the control of neither a
singular person nor groups of persons. Yet humans and their
embodied beings play an important part in cultural
transformations of mattering matter. Through a diffracted reading
of the anthropologist Margaret Meads ethnographic description
of tool use in Manus the two strands of posthumanism – the
‘spinozist’ and ‘the singularists’ - are explored and discussed.
This discussion open up for an anthropological re-centering of
STS-studies towards a focus on how human actors have a
different role to play than non-humans in transformations of our
technological futures.
We Have Never Been Human: Pushing ‘Humanness’ Around
the Technological Turn Ugo Felicia Edu, University of
California, San Fancisco (UCSF); Ulluminair Salim,
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
In dialogue with the “Science in Context” theme of the 2014 4S
Esocite Meeting, our paper investigates the interplay between
technoscientific development and the processes of excluding and
including into the category of the “human.” Co-authors Ugo Edu
and Ulluminair Salim are interested in exploring how
technological developments render some people as less-thanhuman or not-quite-human and exploit them for the development
and advancement of technoscience. Our paper engages with
Donna Haraway’s proposition that “we have never been human,”
which we apply to conversations about inequality, race, and
postcolonial science. Hence, our paper interrogates
contemporary nuances of scientific activism as they pertain to the
very category of “human,” especially in light of discourse
arguing for post-human approaches to scientific practice and
discovery. It is our endeavor to think through the role of
technology in reinforcing a long-standing, unspoken script of
humanness and the production of biovalue among people who
have been treated as ‘other’ outside of the technoscientific arena.
Science is a good tool to think with/through power and conflict,
from contested terrain such as genetic/ancestry testing, and
exemplars such as Henrietta Lacks’ immortal cell line, female
genital circumcision, offshored clinical trials, and humanitarian
aid to developing countries. Our broader objective is to
problematize the very category of “human” as it pertains to
marginal people and marginal bodies in the global discourse of
humanitarianism and egalitarian scientific practice, participation
and discovery.
Babies “made in India”. North-south surrogacy and online
kinship Karen Hvidtfeldt Madsen, University of Southern
Denmark
Fertility clinics all over India specialize in surrogacy services and
infertile Westerners in large numbers travel abroad to fulfill their
dream of a family. Compared to the global north, Indian clinics
offer remarkably low payments for highly specialized services –
adding exotic surroundings, an obliging culture and legislation
(although Indian law since 2013 allows only heterosexual
couples and demands more than two years of marriage). Indian
clinics perform advanced reproduction technology; prospective
parents can choose egg donors on the internet and follow the
pregnancy scans and checkups on Skype. Many intended parents
join online communities and meet through organizations as
“Families Through Surrogacy” who run annual international
best-practice conferences in North America, Europe and
Australia, host websites, closed Facebook groups and post
information on Twitter. Empirically the paper is based on studies
of narratives and discourses on weblogs parents held by parents
and intended parents of Indian surrogate children, TV
documentaries addressing the role of technology (e.g. Google
Baby 2009) and observations from fieldwork performed at Indian
Clinics. Informed by critical cultural studies (performance and
affect theory) and critical kinship studies, the paper contributes to
feminist techno science on questions of how relatedness and
making of kinship is mediated and formed in a globalized world.
I argue that surrogates and intended parents ascribe meaning to
and through the technological procedures in different ways
during a transnational surrogacy process and that the degree of
agency reached by the parties involved on web 2.0 is highly
uneven.
074. Pensamento Iberoamericano em Ciência, Tecnologia e
Desenvolvimento I
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Dalí
Chairs:
Gilson Queluz, Federal University of Technology at Curitiba,
Paraná, Brazil
Luiz Ernesto Merkle, Paraná Federal University of
Technology, at Curitiba
Participants:
From Bariloche 1976 to Rio 92: the basic needs approach to
sustainable development Rosana Icassatti Corazza,
Faculdades de Campinas // DPCT-Unicamp; Paulo Sérgio
Fracalanza, Universidade Estadual de Campinas
The so-called Bariloche Model (Herrera et al, 1976) has been
developed by a group of Latin-American scientists in the context
of the Limits to Growth debate (Meadows et al, 1972). At the
time – as now once again – the possibilities of growth (or, more
precisely, human development) within the natural or
environmental limits were fervently discussed both by the
scientific community and multilateral organisms. Given the
catastrophic approach of Meadows et al (1972), the Bariloche
Model has the novelty of the approach to development based on
the satisfaction of basic needs – the Basic Needs Approach
(BNA). This paper proposes to identify how BNA gained
repercussion both in academic research in the area of socioeconomic development, especially in the economic literature and
in multilateral fora on development, culminating with the
adoption of the concept by the Agenda 21 and the Brundtland
Report. The methodology used to develop the research which
results are presented in this paper included systematic review and
chaining bibliographic searching, the reading of academic papers
and reports mainly produced by UN departments, and the
building of a "timeline" to the essential contributions to the
literature regarding the BNA. This paper contributes to the
understanding of how elements of Latin American thought in
STS contributed to the construction of the United Nations
concept of Sustainable Development.
Análisis de relaciones entre legos y expertos en lo rural Juan
Carlos Ruiz-Urquijo, ESTUDIANTE DE POSTGRADO
Los aspectos derivados de la revolución verde y de las recetas
tecno-científicas desde el Norte como las estudiadas por
Arellano, es un tema poco tratado en los ESCT. Los procesos que
se han generado en los últimos años, han puesto en evidencia la
entrada en escena de nuevos actores en la definición de estas
políticas rurales y los conflictos y tensiones que esto genera, en
este sentido el propósito de esta ponencia es explicar el papel de
los actores, tanto humanos, como no humanos, en la definición
de las prácticas tecnocientíficas alrededor de los procesos
agrícolas en las pequeñas unidades productivas del municipio de
Tenjo (Cundinamarca) en la vereda Palma Vieja, como eje
articulador que ayude a entender como las diferentes y diversas
recetas tecnológicas de expertos en el campo agrícola, han sido
percibidas, adoptadas o ignoradas por la comunidad, es decir de
que forma han negociado su permanencia e identidad en este
espacio social a partir de la influencia de los expertos
desarrollistas o por iniciativa de la propia comunidad. Los
anteriores aspectos se estudian el marco de lo que Bryan Wynne
denomina dentro de la sociología del conocimiento como
relaciones legos-expertos, así como observar las controversias
que generan tales discursos en la línea de investigación
desarrollada por Steve Yearley, para lo cual se analizaran los
discursos a través de matrices culturales de los actores en
relación con tecnorecetas como la agroecología, los alimentos
orgánicos, el uso de revolución verde y las prácticas
comunitarias, así como la innovación (recuperación) de nuevos
productos de tradición precolombina en los Andes
Buscando la autonomía tecnológica. Aportes de la
ELAPCYTED. Romina Gabriela Amaya Guerrero,
Universidad Nacional de Quilmes / CONICET
La autonomía tecnológica constituyó uno de los principales
temas en debate en el pensamiento latinoamericano nucleado en
la Escuela Latinoamericana de Pensamiento en Ciencia,
Tecnología y Desarrollo. Los aportes de los distintos autores
nucleados en esta Escuela, pueden distinguirse alrededor de tres
ejes: A) El “estado de situación” de América Latina en la
problemática ciencia-tecnología-desarrollo-dependencia. Los
factores condicionantes para “hacer” ciencia y tecnología en los
países de América Latina, las posibilidades y limitaciones del
desarrollo científico y tecnológico. B) La política científica y sus
determinantes; la universidad y los centros/consejos de
investigación científica. Las interacciones con la estructura
productiva. Y, C) La concepción de la tecnología como
mercancía. El comercio de tecnología: tecnología incorporada y
desincorporada. “Fábricas” de tecnología. Discusiones alrededor
de la transferencia tecnológica. El sistema de patentes. El trabajo
propuesto indaga en un corpus de publicaciones de los autores de
esta Escuela, donde especialmente se aborde el debate acerca de
la autonomía tecnológica y propone la (re)elaboración de este
concepto a partir de la consideración de tres aportes: las
capacidades construidas para adaptar tecnología extranjera, las
inter e intra relaciones sugeridas en el Triángulo IGE
(Infrestructura en ciencia y tecnología, Gobierno y Estructura
productiva) y el comercio de tecnología (Balanza de Pagos
Tecnológica). Esta (re)conceptualización y revalorización de los
aportes del pensamiento latinoamericano de la década del sesenta
y setenta que ha discutido en profundidad la autonomía
tecnológica, contribuye a reflexionar en el estado de situación
entorno a esta problemática en la actualidad de la región.
Curitiba's Public Transport and The (Im)possibilities of
Democratization of Technology Suelen Christine
Caviquiolo, UTFPR - Universidade Tecnológica Federal do
Paraná; Gilson Leandro Queluz, Universidade Tecnológica
Federal do Paraná (UTFPR)
This paper discusses the social construction of Curitiba's public
transport system in the early 2000s. Through critical theory of
technology, was analyzed 95 requests on public transport issued
by the city council, which is one of the places where occurs the mediated - expression of popular demands. In this analysis, was
sought to emphasize the technical codes incorporated into laws,
regulations and system design, in addition to observing the
(im)possibilities to democratize that urban technology. In this
short time frame, it was noticeable that permanencies has been
sustained by the belief in a neutral and rational technology,
which contributes to the decision-making power be kept into the
hands of "masters of technical systems" who represent the
interests of the state and bus companies. Most of the official
responses to the analyzed requests shows that the municipal
agency responsible for public transport service chooses to ignore
the problems of people who interact with that system. Also is
ignored the very knowledge from those who use - or are excluded
from the use - have about the failures and possibilities of the
transport system. In this research, the lenses of critical theory of
technology allowed us to visualize a path that begins in
controversy, goes by the claim, the collective organization, the
use of official channels of democratic representation and the
adjustment of those claims to the technical codes forged in the
hegemonic interests, as well the possibilities for technical
citizenship in the famous transport system of Curitiba.
Estilo de vida y valores de estudiantes universitarias del Perú
Ayme Gabriela Buitron, universidad peruana cayetano
heredia; Luz Mery Carbajal, UNIVERSIDAD PERUANA
CAYETANO HEREDIA
Argumentos principales y su contribución a la literatura CTS. Es
de mucha importancia comprender el perfil social de las mujeres
que tienen una vocación por el estudio de la ciencia y la
tecnología, en tanto dicho perfil puede ser replicado en la
sociedad. Nuestra investigación aporta a las políticas educativas
e introduce en la literatura CTS el aporte de la antropología
cultural y la estadística, de manera complementaria. La
motivación por los estudios profesionales se gesta en la vida
personal de cada joven y por esto es importante comprender su
perspectiva. La profesionalización aún guarda importancia
como instrumento de ascenso social, por esto hemos hecho una
investigación al respecto con las estudiantes de segundo y cuarto
año de las carreras de Medicina, Biología, Veterinaria, Farmacia
de la Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia La metodología
Objetivos Conocer los datos demográficos de la estudiante
universitaria Conocer y comprender los valores de la estudiante
universitaria respecto a su vocación, auto realización y su
percepción social del país Conocer y describir la satisfacción de
la estudiante universitaria con las relaciones entre la universidad
y el conjunto social Técnica El tamaño de la muestra es por cada
año de estudio, con un nivel de confianza de 95%, un error
absoluto de estimación de 0.05. Se aplicó una encuesta a 953
alumnos y se analizó con el programa STATA v10. Se ha hecho
un análisis descriptivo mediante tablas de frecuencias simples y
gráficos comparativamente por sexo. Se utilizó la prueba de chi
cuadrado.
La cultura de los salvajes tecnológicos. Tecnología y cultura
para el pensamiento desarrollista costarricense (1949-1983)
David Chavarría Camacho, Universidad de Costa Rica
La presente propuesta estudia los significados que tuvieron los
conceptos de tecnología y cultura para los presidentes
costarricenses que ocuparon su cargo durante el periodo de auge
y crisis del modelo desarrollista de Estado, entre finales de la
década de los cuarentas y principios de los ochentas. Lo anterior
se realiza a partir de interpretaciones propias del enfoque CTS y
metodologías planteadas por la historia conceptual
(Begriffsgeschichte). Mediante la combinación de ambas
perspectivas, se analizan con detalle los discursos presidenciales
durante ese periodo, mostrándose finalmente cómo la palabra
tecnología es utilizada por estas cúpulas como un mecanismo
discursivo de primer orden, en el afan por justificar la
implementación de tal modelo de Estado, siendo a la vez capaces
de supeditar una gran porción de los significados de la palabra
cultura al progreso material que pretenden impulsar sus planes de
gobierno. Igualmente se observa la transición histórica de una
cultura formadora de ciudadanos, en donde la tecnología se veía
como una herramienta para elevar el nivel cultural de la
población, a una consumidora de bienes materiales, aceptandose
el monopolio histórico de los países desarrollados en lo que
respecta a este rubro. Hacia principios de la década de los
ochentas, durante una fuerte crisis económica, se señalará la
necesidad urgente por reconciliar el desarrollo de la tecnología
con el principio de la soberanía de los Estados. Aquí el
significado del concepto tecnología transitó hacia una lucha entre
las naciones ricas y pobres por la libertad de las últimas: “Quien
domine el espacio y la tecnología de las comunicaciones
dominará el alma de los habitantes del mundo”, señalaría uno de
los mandatarios.
075. Boundaries: Bodies and Landscapes
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Miró
Chair:
Salvador Schavelzon, Universidade Federal de São Paulo
Participants:
Terraforming with permaculture Andrea Ghelfi, University of
Leicester
Permaculture is a global movement of alternative ecological
design that takes multiple shapes: rural or urban, projects of local
food production, natural building, knowledge production and
experiments with forms of social organising. Dealing with an
analysis of practices and patterns grounded on my fieldwork, and
focusing on permaculture as a design system, I will introduce a
way to think terraforming in technoscience from the perspective
of the culture of permaculture. My presentation focuses on the
ecology of knowledge/doing in permaculture, and in particular on
the many ways in which in permaculture a technique for feeling
(entities and their reciprocal connections) is a technique of
construction. What in the culture of permaculture is called
‘observation without judgement’ consists in an active immersion
in a landscape as a condition of possibility to make your
‘chemistry of entities’ and to act with the many humans and
nonhumans actors that are operating there. Viveiros De Castro
introduced us to the ontological ambiguity of entities in the
amerindian perspectivism. What is at stake in my presentation is
an attempt to diffract the ontological ambiguity of entities with
the permaculture ecology of feeling.
Redes multi-naturales: explorando conexiones entre mundos en
torno al agua William Andres Martinez-Duenas, Universidad
del Magdalena (Colombia)
Apoyándome en los ESCyT y la perspectiva multinaturalista, en
esta ponencia presento una experiencia etnográfica que me
permitió describir una red multi-natural en torno a los
abastecimientos de agua, donde pude experimentar cómo se
conectan el H20, un elemento construido por la tecno-ciencia
moderna y el espíritu del agua, un ser propio del mundo indígena
andino (Puracé - Colombia). Esto permite también argumentar
que en un mismo territorio coexisten al menos dos mundos, no
solamente entendidos como culturas – formas de interpretar una
Naturaleza – sino también como naturalezas, en este caso
entendidas como conjuntos de humanos y no-humanos
interrelacionados a través de redes socio-materiales. Esto sugiere
replantear los términos de las negociaciones entre pueblos o
naciones en torno a elementos como el agua, los cuales, hasta
ahora están determinados por la concepción
multicultural/mononatural, donde al final es la tecno-ciencia la
que pone los términos de diálogo o negociación.
Postcolonial Organising. Difference and political organisation
among Eritrean migrants in Italy Martina Martignoni,
University of Leicester
What happens when heterogeneity of forms of life becomes the
new normality in Western postcolonial world? And western
politics are appropriated by their ‘outside’? The complexities of
colonialism and its legacies today and the role of migration and
borders are redefining the European space among other spaces.
Having that in mind, is it possible to think difference differently
from widespread political and institutional practices? Can we go
beyond the concepts of assimilation/inclusion and of
multiculturalism, once they have showed not taking in account
history and its present legacies? I want to think alternatives
through the concepts of perspectivism and multinaturalism
(Eduardo Viveiros de Castro) and through the contribution of
ethnopsychiatry (Tobin Nathan). I use this framework inside a
research on the forms of organization of a community of Eritrean
migrants in Italy. Based on oral history interviews, this research
aims at investigating the historically determined forms of
organising of a postcolonial community of migrants in Milan,
looking in particular at forms of encounter and hybridization.
Trying to understand the encounter of differences of this
particular experience through an alternative framework for what
differences are (informed by perspectivism, multinaturalism and
ethnopsychiatry) I will outline three intensities: crossing borders
as an act of creation; re-articulation instead of integration;
organising instead of organisation.
Science and its Others, Science as Otherwise: exploring the
relation between scientific and indigenous worlds in the Alto
Rio Negro region of Brazil. Antonia Caitlin Walford,
CRESC/OU
The refusal of what might be thought of as western scientific
axioms has been considered a necessary corollary of recent
anthropological attempts to countenance the heterogeneity and
ontological difference encountered during ethnographic
engagements in the field. The aim has been to invert the
conventional, colonial relation between western science and
other knowledge-practices by denying the claim to ontological
and explanatory authority that constitutes western science, in so
doing opening up the possibilities for very different worlds to
exist and, in effect, to explain themselves. However, this attempt
to re-think the relation between western science and its Others
(or vice-versa), is not a static post-colonial analytical or political
imperative. It is also a contemporary and constantly-changing
empirical reality. Drawing on a short period of fieldwork
conducted with indigenous researchers and intellectuals and
western scientists in the Alto Rio Negro region of the Brazilian
Amazon, this paper is a preliminary attempt to explore the way
that this relation takes shape for those who live it, in different
ways and to different effects. It takes into account not only the
historical sedimentation of different moments of ‘contact’ that
texture this particular relational field, and the fluidity and fixity
of its current forms, but also the possibility for it to be other than
either reductive, or inversely oppositional.
Discussant:
Renzo Taddei, Federal University of São Paulo
076. Knowledge Transfer Via Material Objects: Hands and Skills
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Moliere
Chair:
Ramona Braun, University of Cambridge
Participants:
Tecno-pedagogia de discotecagem: notas etnográficas acerca da
formação de DJs de música eletrônica de pista. Rafael da
Silva Malhão, Universidade Estadual de Campinas Unicamp
A presente proposta se fundamenta em uma pesquisa etnográfica
realizada em dois cursos para a formação de DJs de música
eletrônica de pista. O foco de análise foram os processos
pedagógicos centrados na interação com as tecnologias de
discotecagem como forma de produção da percepção auditiva e
das habilidades de discotecagem, principalmente, a capacidade
de sincronização entre registros sonoros de diferentes
velocidades. A partir da observação de campo pude constatar a
relevância do aparato tecnológico para o processo de
aprendizado, o que me conduziu a noção de tecno-pedagogia, que
diz respeito ao conhecimento disponível nos objetos técnicos a
partir do seu modo de uso e as possibilidades de subversão e
expansão destes modos de uso. Tais procedimentos de uso,
subversão e expansão dos modos de uso dos objetos técnicos se
mostrou pautado pela educação da atenção e pela imitação, por
parte dos neófitos, das ações dos praticantes mais experientes, no
presente caso os professores dos cursos. Assim, a transmissão do
conhecimento vai além da comunicação dos princípios para uma
atuação eficaz e se estende a observação atenta ao modo como
outros praticantes desenvolvem modos eficazes de se acoplarem
as tecnologias, bem como seguir as orientações dos usos
possíveis contidas nas próprias tecnologias que dela se pode
fazer.
Materialism and knowledge: Revisiting Tacit Knowledge
Mariano Zukerfeld, CONICET- CCTS- Universidad
Maimonides
The concept of tacit knowledge (TK) has become widespread in
recent years. In this presentation we will pay short and arbitrary
visits to some authors that have engaged in the debates on the
concept. However, the aim of this presentation is not to resolve
the controversies regarding the issue, nor to provide an
exhaustive account of them. Our intention is just to re-interpret
such discussions from a materialistic perspective on knowledge
that we call Cognitive Materialism. Indeed, in previous research
we have proposed analyzing knowledge flows and stocks through
the concept of bearer ¬–the material support on which a
particular piece of knowledge exists. We studied knowledge
translations between four of those bearers: biological, subjective,
intersubjective and objective. Thus, we will try to show that to
focus on the bearer could provide a useful insight to the
discussions about tacitness and codification. Moreover, we will
underline that, in spite of the fact that notions like bearer are not
explicitly implied, they are tacitly present in the discussions
around TK.
Putting Heart and Soul in the Box: Technology, Embodiment
and Electronic Music Michael S Mopas, Carleton
University; Amelia Curran, Carleton University
From synth pop to dubstep, the field of electronic music has
grown tremendously overly the last several decades. Yet, despite
the rising popularity of this musical genre, electronic artists are
still often criticized for not being ‘real musicians’. Much of this
criticism is directed at their use of computers and other electronic
tools (e.g., sequencers, synthesizers, etc.) to produce and perform
this type of music. To some critics, these technologies remove
the need for skill and talent to be a musician. Thus, unlike a
classical violinist who can spend years mastering proper bowing
technique to play a perfect note, the electronic artist only needs
to press a key on a laptop to generate the same sound. Others
argue that the highly processed and perfectible nature of
electronic music makes it an inauthentic form of expression. The
common complaint here is that electronic music is cold and
mechanical and thus devoid of human qualities; it simply does
not have the ‘heart’ and ‘soul’ found in other styles of music. In
response, many electronic artists have developed a number of
techniques to make this music feel ‘more human’. This paper
looks at the ways in which electronic artists reconfigure their
relationship to technology in order to create music that their
audience can experience as warm and emotional. Based on
interviews conducted with electronic artists, we examine how
these artists form embodied connections to their equipment so
that these tools become extensions of themselves. Particular
attention is paid to how electronic artists enact this ‘cyborg’
identity in their live performances as a means to ‘breathe life’
into the music.
First-Time Anthropological Fieldwork and the Politics of
Inscription: Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico, 1880
Adam Fulton Johnson, University of Michigan
In the mid-nineteenth century United States, the Anglo vision of
American Indian “history” and the legitimacy of their occupation
of a given place was often bound to notions of indigenous
“rootedness” in a landscape. The idea of “rootedness,” however,
was not a self-evident category; it was a flexible designation that,
I argue, was linked to the desirability/salability of land to Anglo
settlers. My paper will attempt to document the elements that
informed an anthropological interpretation of an indigenous
group’s historical endurance in a given place. For instance,
ethnologists and archaeologists such as EG Squier (1848) argued
that Ohio River “Moundbuilder” peoples had established a
sophisticated agricultural settlement in the distant past but (they
claimed) had since been replaced by unrelated “wild” Indians,
who no longer practiced farming and moved seasonally among a
number of homes. Why did Squier choose to see discontinuity
when he could with equal justifiability have seen the
“Moundbuilders” and the contemporaneous Indians as related?
What material evidence did he emphasize or leave out? Using
archival research and published correspondence, my approach
will “closely follow” ethnologists as they engaged in fieldwork.
Together with insights from “new materialism” work on
commodification at the intersection of STS, the history of
capitalism, and financial anthropology (and hoping to contribute
to that scholarly juncture), I will attempt to identify the material
and “landscaped” elements that defined boundaries between
long-term and short-term inhabitation, between “ancients” and
“newcomers”, and see how landscape description changed when
“Indian Land” was put up “For Sale.”
Hand movements and re-designed instruments in 1960s
medicine: the development of laparoscopic surgery Ramona
Braun, University of Cambridge
Innovation in early laparoscopic surgery prior to 1980 meant repurposing both instruments and procedures. Material objects
grew towards a new diagnostic or therapeutic aim. This paper is
an investigation of the kinds of material transfer practised in the
clinics of three pioneering European doctors, Raoul Palmer in
Paris, Patrick C. Steptoe in Britain and Hans Frangenheim in
Germany. This paper applies theoretical concepts of manual
knowledge, re-use and instrument design to history of medicine.
The talk will present selected case studies to show how
instruments could be re-designed and re-used with a focus on
material and the contributions of the surgical hand. Gynecology
was a main field of application for early laparoscopic surgery
(minimally invasive surgery). Infertility diagnosis, infertility
treatment, infertility surgery, contraception and sterilization as
overlapping fields provided fluid applications for laparoscopic
instruments. The paper analyzes examples of re-design and reuse of medical devices and instruments. Re-design here means
re-working and transforming the material substance of an object:
changing its shape or size, adding or removing parts, or using
only part of one assembly. Re-use is characterized by the repurposing of entities through a change in the script of use: either
the habitual use is changed or the point of application, for
example the organ it is applied to. Both forms differ in the
amount of mechanical, engineering or manufacturing work
required. Re-design needs craft whereas re-use can be limited to
intellectual processes. Both forms are crucial for the development
of laparoscopic surgery in gynaecology from the 1940s through
the 1970s.
As lacunas na gestão do conhecimento Michelle Karine
Figueiredo, 3186237491; Raoni Rajão, Federal University
of Minas Gerais; Vitor Guilherme Carneiro Figueiredo,
UNIFEI
Atualmente é possível encontrar inúmeros estudos pautados
apenas em pressupostos tradicionais que ressaltam que as
habilidades e os conhecimentos adquiridos podem ser traduzidos
em forma de regras e manuais de aplicação, sendo introduzidos
no mundo do trabalho de acordo com uma série de princípios
racionais em aprendizagem. Contrariando esse cenário
tradicional, surge o interesse pela Gestão do Conhecimento
pautada em enfatizar a realidade das práticas de trabalho. O
objetivo desse estudo é compreender quais habilidades e
competências os operadores da sala de controle de uma grande
companhia energética desenvolvem para manipular, em tempo
real, variadas “ferramentas” tecnológicas que controlam usinas
hidrelétricas e subestações. Para estudar as especificidades das
práticas de trabalho dos operadores da sala de controle e realizar
uma análise aprofundada da realidade performada naquele local,
entendendo os significados das ações e até das não ações, foi
preciso quebrar paradigmas e romper com a visão tradicional de
pesquisa. Para isso, a metodologia utilizada é a etnografia
tradicional narrativa. Essa metodologia se mostra sensível à
realidade do trabalho dos operadores da sala de controle e
permite transmitir os detalhes da riqueza do contexto empírico
apresentados nessa pesquisa. A posição ontológica desse estudo
permitiu fazer um quadro detalhado das práticas reais de trabalho
exercidas na sala de controle e assim perceber que muito além
dos procedimentos operacionais, questões sociais, culturais e
políticas estão envolvidas no desenvolvimento da expertise
desses trabalhadores e que a mobilização do conhecimento diante
de um contexto tão dinâmico ultrapassa o prescrito em regras
padronizadas.
077. Arts, Science and Technology
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat I
Chairs:
Sandra P. Gonzalez-Santos, Universidad Nacional Autonoma
de Mexico, Universidad Iberoamericana
Rafael Antunes Almeida, Universidad de Brasilia
Participants:
An experiment involving STS, art, the digital realm and 15
people Sandra P. Gonzalez-Santos, Universidad Nacional
Autonoma de Mexico, Universidad Iberoamericana
In this presentation we talk about the research process and some
of the findings of an ongoing experimental project involving
fifteen people acting as researchers, art and STS acting as
methodological and theoretical leaders, and the digital realm
acting as an excuse and a topic of inquiry. This experimental
project was an exploration of how to conjugate (Haraway, 2012)
research and production strategies used in visual and performing
arts with STS methodologies, with the purpose of generating
analytical and artistic outcomes. The project’s area of inquiry
was the expanding digital realm. We were interested in exploring
the way people move between the analogue and the digital
realms of life, how they narrate themselves in and through these
realms, and their perceptions regarding how these realms allow
them (or not) to establish intimate relationships. This
experimental project lead to interesting methodological
reflections on how negotiations are carried out in highly
interdisciplinary groups in order to establish a common language
and agree on data generating and analysing tools. It also revealed
the methodological and theoretical possibilities generated when
having the opportunity to present findings in a mixture of ways,
and not only in a publishable paper or oral presentation. Finally,
it proved to be an alternative way to introduce people to the field
of STS.
Dear Scientists... Ioanna Semendeferi, University of Houston
“Dear Scientists…” is a short film (25 minutes) about science,
morality, and humanity. It draws attention to the seriousness of
science ethics and its global implications. With an artistic touch,
the film connects past with present, stirring emotions. Building a
better future requires historical wisdom and humanistic feelings.
Science is beautiful-only if it has a soul. Images dominate our
memories. Feelings shape our thinking. Music brings us
balance. Keeping these in mind, I created the film’s allegoric
scenes aiming to leave an indelible impression of the scientists’
ethical and social responsibility.
Can the Arts Help to Save the World? Balance-Unbalance and
the 'art! x climate' projects Ricardo Dal Farra, Concordia
University - Canadá / UNTREF - Argentina
We are living in a world reaching a critical point where the
equilibrium between a healthy environment, the energy society
needs and the interconnected economies could pass more quickly
than expected from the current complex balance to a complete
new reality where unbalance would be the rule and human beings
would need to be as creative as never before to survive. Have the
arts a role in all this? Have artists a responsibility in this context?
The global climate is changing, and vulnerable communities
around the world are suffering the consequences. Traditional
disaster management approaches are not enough to deal with
rising risks, and new forms of collaboration are needed to inspire
people and organizations to link knowledge with action. The
Balance-Unbalance project was created with the goal of using art
as a catalyst --to explore intersections between nature, science,
technology and society-- with the intent of engendering a deeper
awareness and creating lasting intellectual working partnerships
in solving our global environmental crisis. Balance-Unbalance
has been helping to bring artists together with scientists,
economists, philosophers, politicians, sociologists, engineers and
more, to learn from each other, discuss proposals and turn ideas
into actions (Buenos Aires 2010; Montreal 2011; Noosa -a
UNESCO designated biosphere in Australia- 2013). One of many
outcomes of these meetings has been the art!
⋈ clim ate
wordlwide project developed by the Red Cross / Red Crescent
Climate Centre and the Electronic Arts Research Centre
(CEIArtE) of the National University of Tres de Febrero,
Argentina. http://www.balance-unbalance2013.org
http://ceiarteuntref.edu.ar/art_climate
http://hexagram.concordia.ca/researcher/ricardo-dal-farra
Making and Diving: Performing and Re-forming Boundaries
Between Art and Trash Guy Schaffer, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute; Ellen Foster, Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute
There exists a rich tradition of making art out of trash. Raiding
the dustbin is not only a means of procuring cheap artistic
materials, it allows artists to re-interpret the material world they
inhabit by re-organizing the wastes that it produces. Trash-as-art
encourages a questioning of the concepts of taste and value that
go hand-in-hand with contemporary throwaway society. These
projects, then, bear the promise of drawing attention to the ways
that trash/art and trash/resource boundaries structure the
movement of materials, people and power, which Zsuzsa Gille
refers to as waste regimes (2007). In this presentation, we discuss
two very different ethnographic and artistic projects that use trash
as art in order to explore issues of waste production and
classification. Electronic Waste (E-Waste) is often reclaimed as a
material resource for new technological creation. Practices of
hacking and remixing make current corporate and consumerist
trends of planned obsolescence visible, clearly redefining the
boundary of trash and resource. Food Waste (F-Waste), is
reclaimed by dumpster divers for eating; in doing so they deploy
a set of politicized culinary habits that perform the largesse of the
dumpster and the prodigality of the food system. However, these
practices—like many food-related art forms—are often devalued
artistically. Our work forges theoretical connections between
these two divergent performances of trash, making use of Stacy
Alaimo’s work on transcorporeality (2010) to ask how remaking
wastes serves to perform and remake the boundaries between
bodies, environments, and the materials that structure our lives.
Inscrições do futuro: ficção científica e teoria ator-rede Walter
Eler Couto, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso; Dolores
Galindo, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso
A partir do filme brasileiro Os Cosmonautas, dirigido por Victor
Lima em 1962, abordaremos a ficção científica como uma
inscritora de futuros alternativos, i.e., futuros idealizados no
passado, que pensam um mundo onde algum aspecto da ciência e
da tecnologia evoluiu de forma distópica, utópica e, ainda,
heterotópica. Partindo de uma análise sociotécnica, utilizamos a
noção de “amostras do futuro do presente no passado” (AFPP),
que se baseia em conceitos da TAR (Latour, 1994, 1997, 2004,
2008), como a simetria generalizada, a caixa-preta, referências
circulantes e proposições. Propomos uma série de questões sobre
o realismo e as ontologias dos fatos que aparecem na tela do
cinema, bem como na ciência de forma geral. Nosso filme
apresenta uma visão utópica da ciência brasileira em um contexto
de guerras tecnológicas e disputa pelo espaço. Graças às
trucagens, a realidade se imprime unindo as tecnologias já
conhecidas pelo grande público acerca dos programas espaciais,
mas também o jeito brasileiro, a cultura nacional. O filme produz
um futuro alternativo no qual se dá um programa espacial para
lançamento de um astronauta brasileiro ao espaço em diálogo
com a recém-criada Estação Espacial de Alcântara que fazia
parte das fracassadas políticas espaciais nacionais. Na película,
para produzir o futuro alternativo, observam-se três tipos de
AFPPs: (1) colagens de trechos de tecnologias internacionais
para montagens de equipamentos e cenários da estação espacial
brasileira proposta; (2) máquinas produzidas para o plano
ficcional como o cosmonautrômetro, não constando nas práticas
científicas nacionais ou internacionais; (3) equipamentos que
existem fora do plano ficcional e são filmados para
demonstrarem outra funcionalidade, como ocorre com o painel
de controle de lançamento de foguete que é uma filmagem de um
painel de controle de energia elétrica.
078. Centers and Peripheries in Science and Technology II
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat II
Chair:
Hebe Vessuri, CIGA-UNAM
Participants:
Como a ciência torna-se periférica: um estudo sobre a verdade
irrelevante Fabricio Monteiro Neves, UNB
A pesquisa trata do tema da construção dos contextos de verdade.
Foca-se teoricamente nas vertentes dos estudos sociais da ciência
e tecnologia (ou Science and Technology Studies, STS, em
inglês) que levam em conta as diferenças de legitimação e
circulação do conhecimento científico entre contextos periféricos
e centrais no sistema mundial de ciência e tecnologia,
especificamente no sistema biotecnológico, um complexo
articulado formado por instituições acadêmicas, empresas
públicas e empresas de pesquisa biotecnológicas especializadas
na produção de conhecimento e tecnologia voltados para a
manipulação da vida. Utilizou-se entrevista semi-estruturada com
líderes de grupos de pesquisa em biotecnologia no Brasil,
pesquisa documental como métodos de coleta de dados
bibliográficos e técnicas qualitativas de análise, especificamente,
a análise de conteúdo temática. O sistema biotecnológico é
observado a partir do conceito de regime de produção de
conhecimento periférico ¬¬– um regime de perturbações
recíprocas entre sistemas, limitado pelas configurações
institucionais dos Estados nacionais, mas em contato com os
centros de produção tecnocientíficos – e por meio do conceito de
“administração da relevância”, de Knorr-Cetina (1981). Tal
regime de produção científica, no Brasil, é caracterizado por
ações de “administração da irrelevância”, como tradutor de
demandas locais, neste sentido, produtor de pesquisas de
interesse meramente periférico, sem capacidade de circulação
ampla na rede global do sistema, e, portanto, com resultados
negligenciados no centro.
The unfavored region: The absence of Latin America in ICT4D
research Caroline Stratton, University of Texas at Austin;
Diane Bailey, University of Texas at Austin
Interest in the use of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) to create better lives for impoverished
people has grown substantially in the last decade, spurred by
events such as the World Summit on the Information Society
(2003). Scholars studying ICTs for development (ICT4D) have
developed a corpus of research that has little to say about Latin
America; it instead presents numerous studies of development
projects in African and Asian contexts. Our survey of 854
research articles published in the top three ICT4D specialist
journals (Heeks, 2010) over a 28-year period shows that just 12%
of authors presented research conducted in Latin America. Far
more attention has been devoted to research in African countries
(37% of research articles) and Asian countries (45% of research
articles). We identify two factors that contribute to the
underrepresentation of Latin America in the ICT4D literature: the
relative lack of exogenous nongovernmental organization (NGO)
involvement in Latin America as compared to other regions and
the presence of significant barriers to entry in to economic
markets for information technology and telecommunications
corporations. We argue that conducting research in Latin
America is a valuable activity for ICT4D. Performing research in
this context will allow for refinement of the emerging models
that dominate the ICT4D discourse, leading to a more nuanced
understanding of the interactions of human values and
information technology in the context of socioeconomic
development.
Offshoring offshore wind: A Norwegian offshore (ad)venture in
China Marius Korsnes, Department of Interdisciplinary
Studies of Culture, Norwegian University of Science and
Technology
China’s large ambition in terms of renewable energy
development targets makes the country attractive for foreign
companies to enter. In the offshore wind industry Chinese
companies are eager to get a head start, and they want to learn
from more experienced companies, most of which are from
Northern Europe. This paper is based on a 11-month fieldwork in
Shanghai, and an eight-week participant observation with a
Norwegian company and its process of entering the Chinese
offshore wind market. The case study highlights how challenges
for a company entering China are perceived, and how these
challenges can be resolved. Cultural differences are a major part
of this story; one challenge for the company is to understand
what Chinese clients want and need – and how the Norwegian
company can convince the Chinese clients that they actually want
the service they provide. Difficulties arise as practices of meeting
and greeting are different, government officials seem
inapproachable, and Chinese clients only want to ‘take advantage
of them’. By using an approach inspired by actor network theory,
this paper aims to get a better insight into the processes a
company goes through when entering China, and how actions are
adapted and translated in new settings. As STS research in a
Chinese setting is scarce, this paper shows the benefits of
understanding international encounters in China from a
constructivist and grounded perspective.
The Internationalization of First Principle Model field: A
brazilian case Marcio Felipe Salles Medeiros, Uiversidade
de Brasília
The following research approaches the criticism of the
production system of knowledge in Brazil, focusing on a
laboratory of Theoretical Physics which works with First
Principle Model (FPM), order to analyze the institutional
dilemma and the relationship between the laboratory and the
central spaces of knowledge production linked to this research
area. The production of science, how is the current in Social
Studies of Science and Technology, demand an articulated
network of elements which sustain and make circulate the
knowledge production produced inside the area. In the FPM case,
the space of production and circulation is very peculiar, since the
production involves upgrades in the computers’ servers when
acquiring the resource, the lab does not spend much more money;
on the other hand, the circulation occurs within the specific circle
in physics, because the production not necessarily will become a
product since the experimental relevance does not always
happen. And yet we have the relationship with central spaces of
central places of knowledge production, understood basically by
The US and Europe which influence the content and the
decisions of productions inside the laboratory. The methodology
of this research consists of an interview which researchers and
analysis of published material for one label of FPM which is
related to a Brazilian University. With the following research, we
aim to contribute for the debate about the production process of
knowledge, bringing reflexive elements about the role of Brazil
in the production of FPM knowledge.
Space activities on the periphery: an aproach from Argentina´s
foreign policy Daniel Blinder, Centro de Estudios de
Historia de la Ciencia y de la Técnica José Babini
The present work it is an advance of my doctoral research, which
analyzes the relationship between the Condor II missile and the
foreign policy during President Menem administration, in which
the politic was the destruction of this dual use purposed project,
and the transformation of it in a civil space policy, trough the
creation of the National Space Agency (CONAE). The causes of
the finalization of the Condor and the creation of the CONAE
were a conjunction of factors involving versions and
explanations about it, given by the main characters. This article
constitutes a brief of those explanations, giving some light to
such events, and new interpretations. The sources hereby quoted
have been protected by pseudonym owing the solicitation of the
sources, and because some of them are government employees.
079. Quantifying Affect and Emotion, Past and Present
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Mozart
Chair:
Luke Stark, New York University
Participants:
Making Emotion Fit Theory: Four Humors Equals Four
Emotions in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine Nicole
Archambeau, University of California, Santa Barbara
The humoral theory of medicine, popular in the West from the
12th century into the 17th century, laid out a schematic of
characteristics with which to understand individual bodies. What
we now call emotions (and what they would have called
"accidents of the soul") formed part of that schema. This schema
often limited discussion of emotion in medical texts to four
emotions: fear, sorrow, joy, and anger. Each had discernable
impact on the body. Each, in excess or absence, harmed the body,
especially the brain. That harm was rectified through the process
of treatment through opposites. There were other frameworks
with which to understand emotion, however, including Galen's
therapeutic text, The Passions and Errors of the Soul. This text
was far less schematic and focused on the experience and selfcontrol of emotion. But this framework was not adopted by
medieval and early modern physicians. The text was only
partially translated at the end of the fourteenth century and was
not regularly copied. Looking at the ways medieval and early
modern scholars chose to see emotion as part of humoral theory
in their theoretical and practical texts can give insight into how a
full, complex range of emotional expression and experience can
become narrowed, codified, testable, and treatable in medical
practice.
technology of computer science and statistical epidemiology. In
addition, this paper also evaluates the International Pilot Study of
Schizophrenia (IPSS), the WHO’s first multi-site survey of a
particular mental disease profile so as to support its classification
work and other projects in social psychiatry. By mid 1970s, both
studies received applauses and criticism regarding their
expediency and limitation. While the WHO continues to revise
ICD in controversy, few studies look back at the historical
meaning of this first internationally acknowledged classification
of psychiatric diseases. Apart from merely commenting on the
WHO as a scientific technocrat, this paper illustrates the ways in
which knowledge making was mobilized in an international
organization and also in a broader context. In addition, it
analyzes how the process of knowledge making was predisposed
by human and non-human actors, national and transnational
agencies.
The PANAS Scale and Self-Therapeutic Tracking Luke Stark,
New York University
The Positive And Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) scale is
one of the most common psychological testing instruments for
the quantitative evaluation of human emotion. In this poster,
material for which is drawn from ongoing dissertation research, I
explore the history of the PANAS scale's development and its
uptake by members of the Quantified Self (QS) movement. The
appropriation of the PANAS scale by QS practitioners is an
example of longer histories of the transfer of specialized
psychological instruments from the hands of professionals to the
wider public, and a broader trend in rise of the "self-therapeutic"
as a paradigm for the self-assessment and management of
emotion in the digital age.
The Quantified Qualified self: The Number Affect Farzana
Dudhwala, University of Oxford
There is a growing trend of people tracking and measuring
certain aspects of themselves for the purposes of self-knowledge
and self-improvement. With such an increasing number of people
engaging in ‘self-quantification’, important questions need to be
asked about the impact that these ‘self-quantifying technologies’
have on the people that use them. How does the number
presented by the technology’s algorithm affect the user’s
perception of their self? What impact does this have on their
perception of self-improvement? Whilst using numbers to track
metrics like heart-rate and glucose level is easier to follow, the
use of quantitative measures to track mood and emotions is more
difficult to digest. In this paper I study the effect of quantification
on the perception of self and self-improvement. Using the case of
the ‘Quantified Self’, this study draws upon and contributes to
STS literature on numbers and quantification (c.f. Ashmore et al.
1989; Latour 1986, 2003; Verran 2012). By doing a multi-sited
ethnography, I look at the practices of those people who use
‘self-quantifying technologies’ to track themselves. In becoming
a member of the ‘Quantified Self’ movement in London, I am
able to offer some insights into how the self is navigated through
the use of numbers and graphs presented by certain technologies
and techniques – especially in those instances where the metrics
being quantified are those not traditionally seen as quantifiable,
i.e. mood and emotions.
A Social History of International Disease Classification on
Mental Disorders, 1948-1975 Harry Yi-Jui Wu, Nanyang
Technological University
Tracking the Self, Installing Expertise: Cognitive-Behavioral
Therapy and the Auto-regulating Subject Beth Semel,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
This paper examines the early works of the Mental Health in the
World Health Organization, the making of Chapter Five of
International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition (ICD-9) and
the relationship between history and current debates on
psychiatric classification. Stemmed from the concept of ‘world
citizenship’, the disease classification work in the WHO was
motivated by the scientism, numerical rationale and experts’
attempt to amalgamate mental health with social medicine
immediately after World War II. In the context of Cold War,
however, the international scientific collaboration was further
influenced by the altering international relations, the mutable
structure of international organizations, and the maturing
Focusing on the proliferation of cognitive-behavioral therapy
(CBT) in the US since the 1960s and a recently developed
computerized CBT intervention (SPARX) in New Zealand, I
argue that CBT crafts a subject fit for managed and resource-low
health care systems: an auto-regulating subject that envisions the
self as a feedback loop autonomously controlled through selftracking and self-analysis. I examine CBT training manuals,
digital and non-digital tracking tools, and efficacy studies,
illustrating how therapeutic work is anchored in practices of
mining data about the self. These practices entrain the patient to
see the self through the cognitive model, in which the self is
comprised of functional parts—thoughts, emotions, behaviors—
the valences of which are determined by self-evaluative metacognition. As the presence of self-tracking tools that diagram the
interrelation of these parts increases while face-to-face therapy
sessions are decreased, the patient internalizes the cognitive
model, learning that its coordination determines psychological
wellbeing and is managed by their own cognition. CBT aims to
transform the patient into a quasi-expert of psychological selfregulation so that, when therapy ends, they will rarely need to
engage in therapist-mediated therapy again; mental health care
institutional personnel, time, space and money can thus be
redistributed to those deemed incapable or not yet responsible to
care for their selves. However, though interventions like
SPARX—which do not require the presence of a therapist—seem
to forecast an increasingly globalized mental health care system
dominated by CBT, I conclude by challenging the portability of
CBT beyond the Global North.
080. Educación superior y formación de ingenieros
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Picasso
Chair:
José Germano Neto, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do
Norte
Participants:
ASC&T, cotidiano e consumo tecnológico: leituras e
aproximações Juliana Cristina Santicioli dos Santos,
Universidade Federal de São Carlos - PPGCTS; Cidoval
Morais de Sousa, UEPB
Este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma investigação sobre a
imagem de C&T percebida por grupos de consumidores na
cidade de São Carlos/SP, Brasil. Buscou-se, por meio da técnica
de Grupos Focais, identificar e discutir tal imagem apropriada de
C&T no contexto do consumo cotidiano de artefatos
tecnológicos, bem como distinguir o conjunto de atitudes que a
ela são determinadas e/ou determinantes e mapear o conjunto de
canais pelos quais este conjunto de percepções e atitudes se dão
por este viés. A pesquisa foi realizada com cinco estratos sociais
diferentes, a saber: estudantes universitários, professores da rede
particular de ensino, empregados na indústria, em empresa
prestadora de serviços e donas de casa. Os dados foram
examinados à luz da análise qualitativa do conteúdo e os
resultados apontam, entre outras questões, que o consumo ao
mesmo tempo em que reforça a visão herdada de C&T, adiciona
a ela eloquentes críticas, convergentes aos pressupostos CTS, em
especial aos orientados à democratização da C&T através da
Apropriação Social da Ciência e da Tecnologia, ASC&T.
Nosotros:los otros, complejizando la educación científica en la
periferia Diana María Farías, Universidad Nacional de
Colombia
Un buen número de investigadores en la enseñanza de las
ciencias se opone categóricamente a la inclusión de discusiones
“sociológicas” sobre la ciencia en las clases de ciencias. Uno de
sus argumentos principales es que estos temas pueden llevar a
imágenes negativas de la ciencia. No obstante, es importante que
los maestros de ciencias nos comprometamos con entender la
educación científica desde perspectivas más complejas que
reconozcan el amplio número de tecnologías y dispositivos
socio-técnicos presentes en el ambiente educativo formal, por
ejemplo en términos de la evaluación, de los materiales de aula,
de los contenidos curriculares e incluso de los paradigmas
educativos. Con este fin es muy importante lo que pueden aportar
los estudios sociales de la ciencia. En el caso particular de esta
charla muestro como al rastrear las redes detrás de tecnologías
como las pruebas Pisa, los libros de texto escolar o el currículo
basado en competencias es posible comprender cómo las
relaciones centro-periferia delimitan los caminos de la educación
científica en nuestros países. El título de la charla apunta al
autoreconocimiento de nosotros, los latinoamericanos, como
“otros” en los esquemas de una educación científica globalizada
que bajo las premisas de una ciencia escolar objetiva, inalterable
y tradicional nos plantea la obligación de generar medios de
resistencia que sólo pueden provenir de un mejor entendimiento
de las relaciones de nuestras sociedades con nuestras ciencias.
Pluralidade Epistêmica, Técnicas Locais e Emancipação Social
José Germano Neto, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande
do Norte
Desde o século XIX a ciência moderna vem se firmando num
caminho de autoritarismo e reivindicação do posto de 'única
forma de saber verdadeiro'. Os saberes e as práticas alternativas
produzidos por grupos que não fazem parte do Norte global são
muitas vezes invisibilizados - liquidando ou marginalizando
assim os grupos sociais que se erigiram em modus
pensandi/vivendi divergentes - ou apropriados por grandes
empresas, tendo seu conhecimento e técnica patenteados por
instituições que nem sequer lhes ajudam na luta pelos direitos
fundamentais. Diante disso, busca-se pensar, a partir dos estudos
do sociólogo Boaventura de Sousa Santos, como elaborar redes
de intervenções para solucionar problemáticas locais,
reconhecendo as diversas formas de tecer saberes e técnicas.
Juntamente, se faz necessário a construção de uma educação
científica e tecnológica emancipadora, que ensine a vivência da
pluralidade epistêmica como pré-requisito de uma sociedade
democrática, buscando mostrar as realidades particulares
invisibilizadas pelos modelos vigentes que é possível a partir das
ações locais, construir uma globalização contra-hegemônica.
Cuidado com o celular: uma abordagem CTS em aulas de
Biologia André Luiz Rodrigues dos Santos Cunha,
Universidade Federal do Pará; José Alexandre Da Silva
Valente, UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO PARÁ
Em 2012, foi realizado, com alunos do terceiro ano do ensino
médio da Escola de Aplicação da Universidade Federal do Pará,
um conjunto de atividades de ensino de Biologia em uma
proposta de atividade curricular facultativa chamada de
Atividades Educativas Diversas no contraturno das aulas
regulares. O percurso da pesquisa e as impressões dos alunos no
desenvolvimento de uma dessas atividades, fundamentada na
articulação entre Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade (CTS) foram
objetos de análise. Esse trabalho aproveita dados não utilizados
de uma pesquisa de dissertação de mestrado orientada pela
pesquisa-ação desenvolvida na mesma universidade. A partir da
apresentação e discussão do texto “Nós, que resistimos aos
Celulares, surgiu à ideia da produção de um vídeo, em sala de
aula, usando o programa computacional “Proshow-Gold”. Os
alunos se empenharam na escolha por imagens, fundo musical,
pela busca de diversos assuntos polêmicos, além de conversas
com professores de outras disciplinas e turmas. Destacou-se o
caráter diferenciado primado pela abordagem CTS
(HOFSTEIN,1988) revelando a importância do protagonismo dos
alunos na construção compartilhada de conhecimentos; o
exercício de fundamentar diversos entendimentos à luz da ciência
(interdisciplinaridade) e de saber negociar diante de pontos de
vistas diversos. Ao promover a discussão/reflexão sobre questões
sociais envolvendo a tecnologia de telefonia móvel, foi
interessante, às articulações que fazem em vistas da tomada de
decisão apresentadas sob forma de sugestões, e às mudanças de
postura ao alegarem que, após trabalho, sua relação com o
aparelho celular tornou-se mais consciente.
El documental como herramienta de comunicación del primer
Juicio Ciudadano Uruguayo Ana Vasquez, Facultad de
Ciencias, UdelaR; Marila Lázaro Olaizola, Unidad de
Ciencia y Desarrollo, Facultad de Ciencias, Udelar; Diego
Vidart, Colectivo DoKumental
El documental Ciudadano 16 forma parte de la estrategia de
comunicación del primer juicio ciudadano, o conferencia de
consenso, que se llevó a cabo en Uruguay en el año 2010 sobre el
tema Energía Nuclear. El objetivo del Ciudadano 16 es narrar en
tiempo real la dinámica del Juicio Ciudadano (JC), utilizando el
concepto de un ciudadano más que participa en el proceso y hace
sus propias investigaciones y valoraciones con respecto a la
metodología y la temática propuestas. El uso del género
documental permite hacer un seguimiento paso a paso de las
diferentes instancias del Juicio, y conocer a los actores que
participaron. Si bien la temática energía nuclear permea en todas
las instancias del documental, el foco estuvo en exponer las
características de la metodología empleada, dada la falta de
antecedentes que existía en Uruguay en ese entonces y la
necesidad de exponer a las herramientas deliberativas como
mecanismo válido para abordar controversias científicotecnológicas de forma integral. La comunicación de los juicios
ciudadanos sigue siendo un desafío para poder ampliar el público
que participa, manteniendo la riqueza de información y
argumentos en torno a las temáticas tratadas. El Ciudadano 16 es
un ejemplo del uso de la herramienta audiovisual para acompañar
y potenciar las repercusiones de los mecanismos deliberativos, en
particular aquellos cuya participación está limitada en cuanto a la
cantidad de personas que forman parte del proceso, como es el
caso de las conferencias de consenso.
Participação Docente na Seleção de Temas de Estudo: CTS
como Dinamizador de Listagens de Conteúdos Caetano
Castro Roso, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina;
Décio Auler, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria
Repercussões educacionais do Movimento Ciência-TecnologiaSociedade (CTS) têm crescido e se disseminado no contexto
brasileiro, principalmente na área de educação em ciências. A
gênese destas repercussões educacionais ocorreu no Hemisfério
Norte, sendo o campo curricular foco privilegiado e espaço
geográfico em que conceitos como participação pública em
Ciência-Tecnologia e currículos CTS foram elaborados,
carregando marcas deste. No presente trabalho, analisamos
possíveis aproximações entre participação pública e construção
de currículos de orientação CTS. Para tal, formulamos o
problema de pesquisa: como têm sido definidos e estruturados
currículos balizados por referenciais ligados a repercussões
educacionais de CTS? Em termos de detalhamento do problema
de pesquisa, assumimos três objetivos: (i) identificar quais
sujeitos tem participado na definição de currículos de orientação
CTS; (ii) analisar encaminhamentos dados, relativamente ao
campo curricular, em práticas educativas CTS; (iii) sinalizar
horizontes para a educação em ciências na perspectiva de
configurações curriculares pautadas pela constituição de uma
cultura de participação. Analisamos artigos publicados em seis
periódicos brasileiros relacionados à educação em ciências,
vinculados às repercussões educacionais de CTS, buscando
compreender como, neste referencial, vêm sendo construídos
currículos. Utilizamos a Análise Textual Discursiva enquanto
recurso metodológico para as análises. O referencial teórico que
utilizamos foram repercussões educacionais de CTS,
contribuições de Paulo Freire e proposições do Pensamento
Latino-Americano em Ciência-Tecnologia-Sociedade
(PLACTS). No âmbito desta pesquisa, ganha destaque a
categoria professores selecionam temas para cumprir listagens de
conteúdos, foco de análise no presente trabalho. Em nossos
resultados identificamos concepções de CTS como dinamizador e
motivador para ensinar ciências, caráter meramente
metodológico.
081. Complejidad y redes tecno-científicas en salud
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Quinquela
Chair:
Yuri Carvajal Bañados, Universidad de Chile
Participants:
Percepção Pública da Saúde Simone Pallone de Figueiredo, The
State University of Campinas (Unicamp; Carlos Vogt, The
State University of Campinas (Unicamp); Ana Paula
Morales, DPCT/Labjor/Unicamp; Milagros Varguez,
Tecnológico de Monterrey; Rodrigo Bastos Cunha,
Labjor/Unicamp; Patricia Aline Santos, Labjor/Unicamp;
Cristiane Gonçalves Pinho, Fundação Antonio Prudente;
Marcio Derbli, Instituto de Saúde
Indicadores de percepção pública da C&T representam um
aparato para a tomada de decisões públicas, tanto no sentido de
incentivar a comunicação da ciência, quanto de desenvolver
sistemas para a participação de diferentes atores em questões que
envolvem temas da área. Em questões sobre saúde, alguns atores
se destacam nessa participação pública como os movimentos
sociais, associações de pacientes, religiosos e empresários do
setor. Para obter informações sobre a percepção do público sobre
C&T na área da saúde foi aplicado um survey, em 2012, no
estado de São Paulo, visando fornecer subsídios para a
elaboração de políticas públicas na área da comunicação voltadas
para o Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), que atende aos princípios
da saúde como um direito do cidadão e um dever do Estado,
garantidos pela Constituição brasileira de 1988. Ao todo foram
1511 entrevistas, realizadas em 109 cidades, através de
questionário com perguntas fechadas e semifechadas, aplicado
em uma amostra representativa estratificada por sexo, idade e
classe socioeconômica. O vídeo “Percepção Pública da Saúde”
traz resultados desta pesquisa, mesclados com entrevistas
realizadas com pesquisadores e especialistas, que interpretam
alguns resultados e indicam possibilidades de uso de dados, no
sentido de uma ampliação da interação entre o SUS,
pesquisadores e a sociedade. A pesquisa foi realizada pelo
Laboratório de Estudos Avançados em Jornalismo (Unicamp) em
parceria com o Instituto de Saúde, da Secretaria de Estado da
Saúde de São Paulo e o Instituto Nacional de C&T / Instituto de
Investigação em Imunologia – iii-INCT, e executada pelo
Instituto Datafolha.
Software de gestão da saúde da família: um caso de
desembarque da ciência? José Marcos Silveira Gonçalves,
UFRJ; Fernando Gonçalves Severo, 4S Membership
Propomos apresentar um vídeo (com menos de 15 minutos de
duração, variando de acordo com a edição) que discorra sobre: i)
o desenrolar de um deslocamento que levou os cientistas de uma
colônia (um sul, uma periferia) ao embate contra um referencial
metropolitano ibérico (um norte, velho, arcaico e ultrapassado) e
a favor de outros referenciais (franceses, ingleses e alemães – um
norte temperado, centro irradiador de Ciência e Civilização)
durante o processo de construção de um laboratório para
produção de vacinas no Brasil do início do século XX
(Cukierman, 2007) e; ii) como, para este mesmo laboratório,
manter um programa de saúde pública em pleno século XXI não
é apenas uma questão de centro sobre periferia ou de periferia
que se torna centro, e sim uma questão de como elementos
heterogêneos imbricados conseguem estabilizar uma rede situada
(localizada) durante algum tempo, mas não conseguem
estabilizar uma rede similar situada a dois quilômetros de
distância. Através de uma descrição sociotécnica de um artefato
tecnológico (um software de Gestão da Saúde da Família, ou na
língua do norte, um software de eHealth especializado em Home
Care), expomos outros confrontos e conciliações nas relações de
poder entre norte e sul. Nesses tempos de proliferação dos
híbridos (Latour, 1994), a partir deste vídeo pretendemos
estimular diálogos que colocam os estudos CTS (Ciência,
Tecnologia e Sociedade) como uma metodologia e prática de
pesquisa mais aderente à compreensão da natureza e da cultura
como um tecido inconsútil.
Tecnologías informáticas en salud; el caso de la reforma en
Chile Jimena Carrasco, Universidad Austral de Chile;
Sebastián Medina, Universidad de Chile; Jorge Pacheco,
Universidad de Concepción
En las últimas décadas las tecnologías informáticas han sido
incorporadas a la práctica médica para los procesos de registros y
seguimientos de pacientes. Esto se ha traducido en sistemas
informáticos compatibles con redes de salud que deben integrar a
diversos actores. Estas tecnologías suele naturalizarse como una
necesidad para avanzar hacia mayores niveles de eficiencia en
salud, sin embargo, desde la perspectiva de los Estudios Sociales
de la Ciencia y Tecnología (CTS) cabe cuestionarse acerca de las
contingencias que han llevado a la creación y adopción de tales
tecnologías, así como de sus efectos. Por otro lado, en las últimas
décadas el sistema de salud chileno ha sufrido una serie de
trasformaciones, dentro de las cuales un aspecto clave ha sido el
establecimiento de un régimen de Garantías Explicitas en Salud
(GES) el que ha sido acompañado de la instalación de una nueva
tecnología: El Sistema de Información para la Gestión de
Garantías en Salud (SIGGES) El presente trabajo da cuenta del
proceso de implementación y uso del SIGGES. Como principales
resultados se evidencia que esta tecnología no es neutral, sino
que se alinea con la política, poniendo énfasis en la gestión por
sobre los procesos de salud-enfermedad. Así mismo genera e
invisibiliza nuevas formas de desigualdad en especial en
contextos rurales. Se concluye que el SIGGES tiene cierta
agencia política, como parte de una red heterogénea de actores, y
por lo tanto, no se puede asumir a priori como un avance; se debe
atender a qué nuevas realidades genera.
La colapsoterapia antituberculosa; llevando el confinamiento
dentro de los cuerpos Anibal Vivaceta, Escuela de Medicina,
Universidad de Valparaíso
En las décadas de 1930-1940, la tuberculosis era una de las
principales causas de muerte en Chile. Aunque Fleming había
tenido ya sus primeros éxitos con la penicilina, comenzando la
era de los antibióticos, éstos aún no se encontraban disponibles
para uso clínico. La terapia individual se basaba en el
fortalecimiento de los enfermos mediante la mejora de la
alimentación e higiene. El abordaje colectivo, por otra parte,
privilegiaba el aislamiento en sanatorios, impidiendo el contagio
de las personas cercanas, permitiendo, de paso, controlar las
condiciones de vida. La situación del país impedía instalar una
política masiva de manejo sanatorial, dada la baja disponibilidad
de camas, de recursos para ampliar este número y mantenerlas
operando. Se opta por establecer centros de investigación para
adaptar las terapias a las condiciones efectivamente disponibles.
Por la alta trasmisibilidad de la tuberculosis, frenar el contagio
era una de las metas prioritarias. El equipo a cargo de investigar
nuevas formas de manejo opta, entre otros experimentos, por
utilizar la colapsoterapia -técnica que permitía anular
temporalmente el funcionamiento de un pulmón, facilitando la
curación individual- como una forma de confinamiento del
bacilo de Koch. Con ello, los pacientes podían volver a sus
actividades normales –lo que permitía entre otras cosas mantener
operativa la fuerza de trabajo- reduciendo notoriamente el riesgo
de trasmisión Los enfermos dejan de contagiar no porque su
cuerpo completo se halle confinado, sino porque la barrera entre
el bacilo y las personas sanas se traslada al interior de los cuerpos
enfermos.
Corpo Feminino como Lugar de Produção de Verdades sobre a
Menopausa Rebeca Buzzo Feltrin, State University of
Campinas (UNICAMP); Lea Velho, State University of
Campinas, Brazil
O artigo acompanha o processo de construção do conhecimento
científico sobre a menopausa através dos corpos das mulheres
atendidas em um hospital-escola brasileiro. Considerando a
variabilidade cultural em torno da percepção da menopausa,
compreendemos que esse conceito não é universal. Ao contrário,
todo conhecimento produzido é localizado e traz as marcas de
seu lugar de produção. O desaparecimento do lugar e
circunstâncias de sua produção garantem a aparente
universalidade dos fatos produzidos. Tal “desaparecimento” se
dá através da padronização dos lugares, espaços, protocolos e
corpos, fazendo com que a verdade produzida em um ambiente
particular possa ser verdade em qualquer lugar, em qualquer
corpo. Nesse sentido, acompanha-se a produção do conhecimento
sobre a menopausa um ambiente de biomedicalização particular,
o Ambulatório de Menopausa do CAISM/UNICAMP, primeiro
hospital da mulher da América Latina e considerado referência
no continente pela OMS. As mulheres atendidas no local são
alistadas e socializadas com o discurso produzido no hospitalescola, permitindo que tal conhecimento se efetive através de
seus corpos. Assim, o corpo biológico passa a ser mais um lugar
utilizado na construção do conhecimento, um lugar padrão que
não pode ser questionado, tampouco localizado. A análise se
baseia no material coletado no Ambulatório entre setembro de
2009 a outubro de 2010, abrangendo entrevistas com mulheres
“pacientes” e seus médicos, além de observações durante
consultas ginecológicas e reuniões do grupo de psicologia. O
presente trabalho se assenta, principalmente, no campo dos
Estudos Sociais da Ciência e Tecnologia, estudos feministas e
localistas alinhados a esse campo.
082. Mediating Political Participation I
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Soldi
Chair:
Maria Vidart-Delgado, MIT
Participants:
Neoliberal Reform, Expertise, and Social Relations in Fire
Safety Regulation: The Rise of Performance Based Design
Fire Engineering Graham Spinardi, University of Edinburgh
Over the last few decades many areas of public life have been
transformed by a neoliberal agenda geared (in the jargon of the
Reagan and Thatcher eras) towards ‘pushing back the boundaries
of the state’, and reducing costs to industry. Building regulations,
including fire safety requirements, have not been unaffected by
this agenda, but the factors involved go beyond a simple battle
between public good and private gain. In the UK fire safety
regulations have shifted away from a prescriptive approach in
which certain classes of buildings were required to have specific
features (eg structures with fire resistance of, say, two hours)
with the option now to design bespoke fire engineered solutions
(often called performance based design or PBD). Whereas
prescriptive regulation is criticized because it imposes outdated
requirements and inhibits innovative architecture, PBD raises
concerns about whether regulators have sufficient expertise to
judge the adequacy of fire safety solutions that are claimed to be
derived from first principles understanding of fire phenomena.
Drawing on a wide range of interviews, this paper discusses the
concerns raised by the move towards PBD, particularly as
regards whether regulatory expertise can keep pace with
advances in fire safety science. Moreover, because serious fires
are rare events in the types of buildings approved by PBD, there
is little feedback to confirm whether fire safety adequacy is being
judged appropriately.
Engaging in a de-centred world Maja Horst, University of
Copenhagen; Alan Irwin, Copenhagen Business School
One much-discussed phenomenon over recent years has been a
move for governments to establish exercises in ‘public
engagement’ regarding potentially-controversial areas of science
and technology. However, the very notion of ‘engagement’
seems to imply (or has been taken to imply) a traditional social
and political structure with identifiable and relatively fixed
actors, located in (usually) national settings, who can ‘engage’
with one another in a specific encounter and for a fixed period of
time, and then resume their separate, business-as-usual activities:
government, the public, industry, science advisors. Equally,
science from this perspective is viewed as an external force
which periodically impacts upon society (as in the usual ‘science
and society’ formulation). Meanwhile, the ‘issues’ for discussion
appear to be discrete and bounded. What happens to our
understanding of ‘engagement’ once one views social and
political action in terms of hybridity, fragmentation and subpolitics – including a challenge to the very idea that ‘policy’ is
formed in national government departments which can direct (or
set a framework for) subsequent events? What then is being
engaged and by whom? Once one adopts more fluid and decentred models of contemporary social, scientific and political
relations, significant consequences seem to follow for our
interpretation of science, democracy and emergent publics. In
order to develop and discuss these issues, this presentation will
build upon one case from a small country addressing a large
concern: a citizen summit on climate change held in Kalundborg,
Denmark.
A Civic Alternative: D.I.Y. Hydrogen Sulfide Monitoring
Elisabeth Wilder, Northeastern University; Sara Wylie,
Northeastern University
Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) is a highly toxic gas that poses a serious
hazard to municipal and industrial workers, particularly in the oil
and gas industries. The standard tool for measuring H2S is the
Jerome meter. Even when workers are provided with these digital
monitors, their complicated inner workings ensure that workers
have no way of knowing if they are functioning correctly—and
problems with accuracy and reliability have been reported. While
ostensibly a tool for protecting worker health, digital monitors
actually help create a “regime of imperceptibility” around H2S
exposure and obscure workers’ experience (Murphy 2006). The
threat of exposure is amplified for community members who may
be constantly exposed to H2S but have no affordable, systematic
way to monitor or document their exposure. In response to
regulatory neglect and the failure of industry standards of
measurement, researchers and community members collaborated
to develop and test a D.I.Y., low-cost approach to detecting H2S.
Using photographic paper that tarnishes when exposed to H2S,
we gathered data and created maps of H2S pollution. In addition
to representing a more democratic and accessible mode of
knowledge production, this method makes the community’s
exposure visible (and legible to regulators, policymakers, and the
general public) in a way that digital monitors do not. In exploring
this collaborative, community-led research process, this paper
conceptualizes “civic” approaches to the study of environmental
health hazards and reflects upon the ability of communities to
successfully execute meaningful environmental science research
for advocacy in the face of increased toxic exposure.
From assistance centers to official reports: technical mediations
of humanitarian aid and compensation in Colombia Fredy A.
Mora-Gámez, University of Leicester, Universidad Nacional
de Colombia
Different socio-material arrangements involved in the
configuration of war victims are approached through an
ethnographical field work carried out in assistance centres in
Bogotá. Thus, the interactions between people applying for
inclusion in the official record (Registro Único de Víctimas or
RUV), experts in charge of assessing and treating applicants, and
application devices are described. Likewise, the translations from
narratives to different codes or technical requirements, the
criteria used by experts for inclusion-rejection, and their relation
to current regulations provided by the state are outlined. Thereby,
the system of assistance for victims in Colombia is depicted as a
sociotechnical complex in terms of co-productions, mobilizations
and material arrangements of different actants. Moreover, some
dimensions of the technical devices assembled in the RUV are
discussed, as knowledge and political objects that legitimate
regulations and perform regulating effects over different
practices. Finally, further considerations on the materializations
of the state in the assistance system and the performative role of
social technologies in such dynamic are proposed.
Discussant:
Maria Vidart-Delgado, MIT
083. Design/Think with Care, STS & Local Issues I
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Verdi
Chairs:
Andrea Botero, Aalto University
Maria Fernanda Olarte Sierra, Universidad de los Andes,
Bogotá
Participants:
Beyond participation, caring as design strategy Andrea Botero,
Aalto University
In her challenge to the notion of “matters of concern” central to
many recent debates in STS, Puig de la Bella Casa (2010) argues
for developing an understanding of “matters of care” as a way of
drawing on the rich strand of feminist theory thinking that uses
“care” as a way to think about ethics and ethos in different ways.
Building on those insights, in this presentation I wan to revisit
the design strategies and principles used in two design projects,
which I have been involved, to interrogate the ways in which
caring desing practices might be presented or not. Originally
these projects were built around Participatory Design (PD), a
loosely set collection of approaches which has placed emphasis
on probing and experimenting broadly with the ways
relationships of use, design, and production are normally
conceived. However, it seems to me, participation rhetoric seem
to stress to much on the “concerns” at the expense of the
watchfulness, attention, vulnerability and distribution of practices
within larger collectives that might be easier to identify through a
“care” lense and that ultimately are key to the sustainability of
the projects.
Bordar la tecnología y tecnologizar el bordado: encuentro entre
conocimientos, saberes y experiencias Manuel FrancoAvellaneda, OCyT; Laura Cortés, Pontificia Universidad
Javeriana
Las premisas orientadoras de un proyecto en curso, que pretende
desarrollar TIC para fortalecer el trabajo de bordadoras
artesanales en Cartago-Colombia, proponen entender el tejido
como una práctica de cuidado pues: exige atención con los
materiales y el bordado en sí mismo, también significa
sostenimiento de las familias, y además, una forma de conocer y
apropiar el entorno. Igualmente el proyecto busca explícitamente
un desarrollo participativo en el que la tecnología tiene un
propósito de inclusión social, cultural y económica. En ese
sentido, se pretende poner en diálogo conocimientos y saberes de
diferentes características con el interés de contribuir a la
transformación de una realidad. Esa situación implica un reto
para el equipo en dos direcciones, por un lado, los ingenieros y
profesionales del proyecto deben enfrentarse a entender el
bordado como un saber capaz de –bordar la tecnología–, y de
otro lado, las artesanas deben dimensionar el bordado como una
tecnología que es susceptible de
adaptarse/transformarse/reinterpretarse –tecnologizar el bordado
con cuidado– manteniendo su naturaleza. En esa perspectiva, la
ponencia propone discutir algunas implicaciones teóricometodológicas relacionadas con la integración que se pretende
hacer en el marco del proyecto entre conocimientos, saberes y
experiencias. Algunas de las preguntas que orientan ese aspecto
son: ¿qué implicaciones tiene hablar de bordar la tecnología y de
tecnologizar el bordado con cuidado? ¿qué significa una
tecnología para inclusión social en clave de cuidado?
Sobre Design e Tecnologias Sociais: Construção simbólica e
cultural na Casa do Artesão Mariense/MG. Douglas dos
Santos Lemos Lima, Universidade Federal de Itajubá;
Adilson Silva Mello, Universidade Federal de Itajubá;
Rosinei Batista Ribeiro, Faculdades Integradas Teresa
D'Ávila (FATEA) / Universidade do Estado do Rio de
Janeiro (UERJ); Bianca Siqueira Martins Domingos,
Universidade Federal de Itajubá - UNIFEI
Este projeto é um dos resultados da trajetória interdisciplinar que
se propõe a tecer intercâmbios epistemológicos entre a Teoria
Ator Rede (TAR), as Tecnologias Sociais (TS) e o Design, no
que tange a questão da construção e gestão de marcas (branding).
Sob a égide da TAR, enquanto instrumento capaz de reagrupar
elementos humanos e híbridos e conectá-los novamente dentro de
uma rede heterogênea de associações, seremos conduzidos a um
mergulho nos contextos sociais, econômicos e de
desenvolvimento das atividades da Associação de Artesãos do
município de Maria da Fé/MG, a fim de desenvolver e aplicar
Tecnologias Sociais dentro da visão de gestão de marcas,
sobretudo na construção simbólica e cultural de uma marca que
posicione, de maneira competitiva, o movimento social,
intensificando o interesse pelo turismo e cultura regionais. Este
artigo visa discutir esta jornada, envolvendo princípios de
Design, Branding e Tecnologias Sociais, por meio da imersão na
rotina e nos processos de produção dos artesãos de Maria da Fé,
bem como no entendimento da rede de elementos que os
constitui, definindo caminhos de posicionamento simbólico e
imagético e, propondo ferramentas que habilite-os a controlar a
cultura da marca criada, permitindo-os ampliar sua capacidade de
criarem novas ferramentas e estratégias para gestão de marcas.
Contando con cuidado y tejiendo bienes comunes Maria
Fernanda Olarte-Sierra, Department of Design. Universidad
de los Andes
La Canasta es un esfuerzo por cuidar de bienes comunes de
distinta índole. En primer lugar, el patrimonio gastronómico de
una porción del territorio colombiano. En relación con este
primer bien común La Canasta es un ejercicio solidario y
colaborativo que conecta productores locales agroecológicos de
baja escala con consumidores de Bogotá. Con respecto a los
productores, apoya procesos de asociatividad para los
campesinos y campesinas involucrados y así estimula el
intercambio de conocimientos y la recuperación de semillas,
técnicas y cultivos de la región. Con respecto a los consumidores,
La Canasta favorece procesos de reflexividad y compromiso
sobre consumo consciente. Ese proceso construye vínculos
vitales para unos y para otros. Esos vínculos vitales, se
materializan, entre otros, en unas comunicaciones escritas que el
equipo base de la canasta sostiene con los consumidores de
forma semanal. En esta ponencia me interesa argumentar que
esos espacios comunicativos son bienes comunes también y en
ellos se performa de maneras particulares la dimensión política
del cuidado. Ahora bien, la pregunta que me guía es cómo se
diseñan esos espacios comunicativos y de qué manera ese tejido,
gestionado por el equipo de a canasta, involucra principios
asociados con el cuidado.
Aprendiendo a leer la naturaleza: relación entre conocimientos
científicos y conocimientos ancestrales y locales Catherine
Ramos García, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Centro de
Estudios Culturales y Ecológicos Prescott College
Trabajaremos los conceptos de centro y periferia, a partir de las
jerarquías establecidas en relación a diferentes tipos de
conocimientos (científicos y ancestrales y locales) acerca de la
naturaleza. El estudio científico de la naturaleza se consolidó
produciendo conocimientos puros y universales en oposición a
los conocimientos locales y ancestrales que se tildaron de
supersticiosos y locales. Santiago Castro-Gómez (2004) ha
llamado este fenómeno como la Hybris del punto 0: “Este punto
absoluto de partida, en donde el observador hace tabula rasa de
todos los conocimientos aprendidos previamente”,
conocimientos situados, localizados geopolíticamente. De esta
manera se negó durante siglos la capacidad productora de
conocimientos de las comunidades locales y nativas del mundo.
Por ejemplo se invisibilizaron los aportes de los conocimientos
nativos en las Expediciones Botánicas. Sólo el paso por el
sistema de clasificación de Linneo y por “los centros de cálculo”
(jardines botánicos) del “centro”, es decir de Europa, legitimaba
los conocimientos producidos en las expediciones (Nieto, 2000).
Hoy en día, la etnobiología, como disciplina híbrida (Toledo,
2002), busca la validación de los conocimientos tradicionales y
ancestrales producidos por las comunidades locales sobre la
naturaleza. Le apuesta a invertir las jerarquías, reivindicando los
conocimientos locales como estrategias que permiten una mayor
capacidad de decisión de las comunidades en su devenir y en el
manejo de sus territorios y en la conservación de ecosistemas,
especies y culturas. ¿Cómo se articulan conocimientos científicos
y ancestrales y cómo se relacionan investigadores y comunidades
en investigaciones de etnobiología? serán preguntas que
buscaremos responder.
084. Plasticity, Local Biologies and Lamarckianism Across the
Contemporary Life Sciences II
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
Chair:
Sahra Gibbon, University College London
Participants:
Reproductive Knowledge and Genetic Risk: a construction of a
genetic disease in the Sertões of Brazil Neide Mayumi
Osada, Unicamp (Brazil); Maria Conceição da Costa,
Unicamp (Brazil)
This paper aims to analyze the construction of a genetic disease
that appeared in a small village located in the Brazilian sertão (a
hinterland in the Northeast). The disease is known today as
Spoan Syndrome, although two centuries ago and until recently,
the community called it as Maximiliano´s Syphilis. It is a rare
genetic disease. Patients inherit it from both parents, which
indicates that an inbred marriage is necessary to transfer the
disease gene. Five years ago, a group of scientists from the
University of São Paulo found that the “syphilis” was actually a
genetic disease. From the moment we learned the disease was
genetic, nonexistent in medical literature, to the “discovery” of
the genes locus, started a new process within the village.
Scientists started to mobilize this community to explain how this
disease had spread amongst the villagers. They also started an
epidemiological study and offered genetic counseling. The report
announced that in the village, one out of nine carries the sick
gene; 74 patients were identified, and in a few years the number
of patients will rise to 250 patients out of 4,500 inhabitants. The
construction of this disease is complex. It is therefore necessary
to look to the past and then to the future to have a thorough
understanding of it. The history of the disease explains why the
majority of them reject the scientific explanation. The
community sociability, the biopolitical relations, the genetic risk
and managemen are key words to analyze the construction of the
Syndrome.
Meanings and practices in the search for biogenetic origins of
adoptees in Brazil and Quebec Débora Allebrandt, Federal
University of Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil
Genetics is an idiom that underlies an important part of the
discourses and decisions taken by adoptees in the pursuit of their
biological origins. This paper is based on field research
conducted for my doctoral thesis comparing the search for
origins by adoptees with that of people conceived through
medically assisted techniques and donor gametes in Brazil and
Quebec(Allebrandt 2013). In this paper, I focus specifically on
the case of adoptees and their strategies for locating their
biological parents and thus discovering their genetic
backgrounds. Genetics related to family and health, especially in
the adoptive context, can evoke polarized positions. In the midst
of debate, it becomes evident that modern science, as a producer
of "truth",plays an influential role in the desire to know one’s
origins and dissectone’s genealogical roots. The genetic
argument is strong and increasingly plays a role in social identity
(Bamford and Leach 2009). At the same time, family
arrangements that appear to ignore biological and genetic factors
exert influence in another direction. The debates around health
and kinship, often couched in an implicit opposition between
radical biologism and the super valorization of socio-affective
relations, will be addressed and reconfigured in this paper.
Inspired in the narratives of my interlocutors, I consider how the
legal and cultural contexts of Brazil and Quebec are linked to
national styles that inform not only practices, but also the
meaning of the adoptee’s search for his or her biogenetic origins
(Fleck 2008, Jasanoff 2005). In this sense, family configurations,
life histories,and health experiences as well as physical and
behavioral similarities appear as forces that produce a dynamic
perception of genes, their importance and meaning(Gibbon 2002,
Gibbon and Novas 2008, Edwards and Salazar 2009).
We Are Who We Eat: Local biologies of plants, animals, and
humans John Hartigan, University of Texas, Austin
Epigenetics is emerging as a means to counter genetic
reductionism, especially regarding race. But it’s easy to forget we
have an older model for understanding hereditable forms of
biological plasticity—domestication. Surprisingly, current
debates about reunifying “nature/culture” pay little attention to
historical and contemporary practices of domestication, where
these charged oppositions are inextricably tangled and localized.
Practices of breeding and cultivation provided Darwin with the
means to prove “natural selection,” exactly because they showed
the elasticity of species. Since Darwin principally used race to
talk about these plastic forms—races of pigeons, dogs, cabbages,
etc.—it is strange we might imagine the elasticity of biological
forms would undermine racial thinking. This usage is
commonplace in Latin America today, where “razas de maíz,”
for example, are subjects of anxious public discourses about
national patrimony and biodiversity in various countries. Maize,
which historically plays a profound role in identifying
indigeneity, is also racialized in relation to local biological
forms: razas construed as products of distinct places and ancient
groups’ efforts to emblemize (what we would call today)
ethnicity. Drawing upon my ongoing ethnographic research on
maize cultivation in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, this paper
examines razas de maíz—their breeding and consumption—as
reminders that epigenetics involves nonhuman biologies, as well
as human ones, and that “the body”—as it is often abstractly
rendered in anthropological discourse—embodies highly elastic,
racialized biologies of domesticated plants and animals. This
paper will also compare racialization of nonhumans in the U.S.
and Mexico.
Environment, Epigenetics and Ethnography in Mexico City
Elizabeth F.S. Roberts, Univeristy of Michigan
The Early Life Exposure in Mexico to ENvironmental Toxicants
(ELEMENT) program is an ongoing molecular environmental
epidemiology birth cohort study in Mexico City that began in
1995. My ethnographic observations of the American scientists
who direct this study examines their long-term research on of the
epigenetic effects of environmental chemical exposures across
the reproductive life course. Their emergent approach has some
similarities with the longstanding Latin American emphasis on
the reciprocal malleability of bodies and environments. My
ethnographic research in the working class neighborhoods from
where the scientist’s test subjects are drawn, focuses on
resident’s wider consideration of environment and the
intergenerational transmission of traits. Thus my focus is not
only on bodily processes, disease and pollution, but also includes
property, faith and education. By putting these various domains
(bodily, economic, religious) and registers (scientific, everyday,
Mexican, American) into conversation, I ask how contemporary
configurations of “transmission” in Mexico City contribute to the
debates of scientific experts in social welfare, environmental
policy and global health. Crucial to my ethnographic method is
an approach that tracks how these debates are shaped through the
ontologically specific bodies and lives of these Mexican test
subjects.
Artifice or Application? Unfolding a History of DNA
Nanotechnology Patrick McCray, University of California,
Santa Barbara; Brian Tyrell, University of California, Santa
Barbara
In March 2006, a researcher at the California Institute of
Technology published a highly visible paper in the journal
Nature. In “Folding DNA to create nanoscale shapes and
patterns,” Paul W. K. Rothemund’s explained how he had used
DNA to build things including, as featured on the cover of
Nature, 100-nanometer smiley faces. Now cited some 1900
times, Rothemund’s paper was a major demonstration for what is
now referred to as “DNA origami.” Patented by Caltech as well
as exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City,
Rothemund’s nanoscale origami creations sit at a curious nexus
of chemistry, computer science, engineering, and molecular
biology. Starting in the 1990s, a diverse interdisciplinary
community began to think of DNA not just as an informationcontaining molecule but as a building material. After first making
relatively simple two-dimensional geometric shapes, DNA
nanotechnologies now fabricate three dimensional objects
capable of performing elementary mechanical functions and
computations. In the future, researchers imagine building
nanoelectronic circuits or more complex self-assembling
nanomachinery with DNA. This paper explores the technical and
intellectual strands that resulted in Rothemund’s successful
demonstration of DNA origami. Starting with theoretical and labbased studies done in the early 1980s, we show how DNA
origami arose from a confluence of research and instrumentation
adapted and borrowed from molecular biology, chemistry,
crystallography, and computer science. In the process, a new
conceptualization of DNA arose as the famous molecule
transitioned from genetic blueprint to building material.
085. Politics, Publics, Participation and Practices: Governance of
Technologies in Global Networks II
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
Chair:
Patricia Adriana Vargas-Leon, Syracuse University
Participants:
The Internet kill switch: a tool to ensure the survival of
governments and nation-states Patricia Adriana VargasLeon, Syracuse University
This paper combines legal and socio-technical approaches to
examine what is colloquially known as “the Internet kill switch”.
This governmental control resource is defined as the attempt to
stop all Internet activity within the borders of a city or nationstate (Johnson, 2011). The Internet kill switch became a practice
considered or implemented by democratic and authoritarian
regimes on behalf of the national security of their nation-states.
Using document analysis containing political speech, this paper
will analyze from a qualitative point of view how the Internet kill
switch shaped national laws’ interpretations and private sector’s
institutions (La Rue, 2011). Further analysis will show how the
Internet kill switch was presented as a tool to guarantee the
survival of nation-states by being part of a cybersecurity strategy
(Opderbeck, 2011), and as a tool to guarantee the survival of
governments by protecting incumbent regimes against national
uprisings (Thompson, 2012). Finally the paper, the paper
examines the implications of this controversial tool from three
different points of view: 1) because of the high concentration of
power in the executive branch, 2) unclear national security
statutes, and 3) involvement of the private sector (La Rue, 2013).
In terms of policy analysis, the Internet kill switch is in direct
confrontation with the multi-stakeholder model of Internet
governance (CDT, 2009), built according the open architecture
design of the Internet. Theoretically and methodologically, the
analysis will reflect on usefulness and applicability of legal and
socio-technical instruments grounded in STS for policy analysis
in the domain of Internet governance.
Las empresas trasnacionales en la gobernanza del ciberespacio
María de Lourdes Marquina Sánchez, Universidad
Autónoma de la Ciudad de México/Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México
El ciberespacio es una innovación tecnológica, producto de la
cooperación internacional entre diversos actores de la sociedad
mundial: empresas, organismos internacionales, gobiernos y
sociedad civil. Es un espacio social electrónico que rebasa las
fronteras territoriales controladas por los Estados-nación, por lo
que las empresas trasnacionales han desempeñado un papel muy
activo en su construcción y definición, mediante el impulso al
diálogo político en el marco de asociaciones privadas de alcance
internacional. El propósito de esta comunicación es mostrar la
forma en que las empresas trasnacionales han defendido el
principio de la autoregulación del ciberespacio, influyendo en los
temas de la agenda sobre la gobernanza de Internet. Es una
investigación de carácter cualitativo en la que se utilizó la técnica
de investigación documental para recabar la información. Se
visitaron los sitios web y los documentos de las asociaciones
empresariales internacionales que tienen por objetivo fomentar el
diálogo político entre la comunidad empresarial trasnacional y
los gobiernos de los países líderes en el desarrollo de las
tecnologías de información y comunicación. Se analizaron los
temas de agenda en los que dichas asociaciones han tenido una
fuerte influencia en los procesos de toma de decisiones así como
el tipo de vínculos que han establecido con los organismos
internacionales involucrados en la gobernanza de Internet. Es
importante realizar estudios sobre los retos de la regulación de
los grandes sistemas tecnológicos en el contexto del capitalismo
global, enfatizando la incidencia que tienen las empresas
trasnacionales en los procesos de toma de decisiones
relacionados con el ciberespacio.
An approach to national Internet governance mechanisms
Carolina Aguerre, Universidad de San Andrés
This work is an approach to the governance of critical Internet
resources by focusing on national stakeholders’ strategies and
politics of adoption of the first Internet protocols, including the
DNS and ccTLDs. The conceptual framework is derived from
the literature on governance and public policy and constructs
three dimensions to account for the different characteristics in the
governance of these resources at a national level: the operational,
the institutional and the systemic. The first considers the
technical aspects of these resources and the adoption of the
Internet in its national context; the second examines the
institutional characteristics underlying the governance of these
resources, where participation of national stakeholders in
regional and global processes is an indicator of the level of
recognition that these issues have achieved within national
stakeholder communities; the last and most abstract dimension which encompasses the previous ones - is systemic governance
(Stoker, 1999). It analyzes the different forms of coordination
and their outcomes and how, if at all, they have engaged in
changing the rules of the game of global Internet governance.
The research is a comparative case study of Argentina and Brazil,
informed by other national experiences. It provides an analytical
framework, based on empirical evidence, to bridge the current
gap between the national and global level, as well as between
different theoretical backgrounds by bringing into the debate the
literature on governance and public policy – for a more grounded
perspective to explore national mechanisms than the widely
accepted regime theory.
The Borders of the Informational State: The Geopolitics of
Macro-Level Socio-Technical Systems Sandra Braman,
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
As a macro-level socio-technical system, the state comprises
social systems, technological systems, and informational systems
that are highly interdependent and constantly interacting. The
United States, a lead exemplar of the informational state into
which bureaucratic welfare states began transforming during the
late 20th century, has a history of treating the state as a sociotechnical system from a legal and regulatory perspective.
Traditional types of geopolitical borders as geographically
defined are increasingly informationally-intense, often serving as
test beds for new means of collecting data about citizens and
denizens of national territory. In telecommunications, national
"territory" has long been defined technologically, with Mexico
and Canada understood as domestic for regulatory purposes
(because they use the same type of network technologically as
the continental US), while Hawaii and Alaska were treated as
international (because the network used to reach them required a
different material technology). Going back to the early 19th
century there have been technological borders for geopolitical
states, but with digitization those borders can themselves be
exported and diverse jurisdictions are defined for the state
depending on the technology involved. Several decades ago the
bright geographic line of the border was replaced with spatial
borders defined by discourse, by the citizenship status of a given
individual, and by replacement of the concept of a border with
various notions of zones (free trade, border equivalency, and on).
Those involved in cybersecurity and cyberwar are now defining
aggression in technological rather than territorial terms.
Investigating the interplay of use of these diverse borders
provides insights into informational geopolitics that do not arise
through reportage on and analysis of the state in traditional,
space-dependent terms. This paper's analysis of the borders of
the informational state using the US case provides insight into
global developments because of the historical influence of the
state, and because so many US practices are diffusing globally.
The fact that the US Department of Homeland Security was
given permission by Congress to operate "above the law" when it
is defending the border offers a third reason to study the US case:
it provides insight into the role of borders in domains where there
is no rule of law as well.
Discussant:
Olga Cavalli, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina
086. Thinking with Techno-anthropology II
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Chopin
Chair:
Cathrine Hasse, Aarhus University
Participants:
Technological Kinships: Vibrant technologies and nurse-patient
engagements Ann Katrine Bønnelykke Soffer, Aarhus
University, School of Education
This paper brings technology into a productive meeting with an
educational setting. Central to this paper is the development
within Danish nursing education towards replacing clinical
training and experiences with technologically mediated
laboratory training where patient bodies are replaced by hightech plastic models. Equally central to this paper are the
understandings stemming from within the Danish nursing
profession itself, maintaining an assertion of both the value and
need for a deep engagement with their patients. This meeting
between a technology and an educational setting is documented
through an extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a
Danish nursing school, by following a group of recently enrolled
students in their school activities: classroom lectures, simulationbased training in the laboratory and clinical placements within a
hospital setting. Drawing on ideas from Jane Bennett’s notion of
vibrant matter, it becomes possible to ask what the effects are, if
we think about taking technologies seriously as actants capable
of entering into relations and practices? What effects are
produced which moves beyond educational and professional
intents,, when we stay open to the productive effects of
technological kinships? Once this openness is established “[…]
can inspire a greater sense of the extent to which all bodies are
kin in the sense of inextricably enmeshed in a dense network of
relations” (Bennett 2010: 13). Since actants, in this case
simulation technologies and nursing students among other things
(or bodies), never act alone, they relate, they are related. Bennett:
J. (2010) Vibrant matter: a political ecology of things. Durhan,
NC: Duke University Press
Calculating future life: living with the life-sustaining
technologies in Japan Goro Yamazaki, Osaka University
Life-sustaining technologies enable patients to live a longer life,
but at the same time, they place a lot of economic burden on
families because of the longer hospitalization. Even though
longer life for a patient would fulfill a family’s desires, it is
sometimes too much for families to pay the cost for a lifeprolonging treatment. Based on anthropological fieldwork participant observation and interviews - in a Japanese hospital, I
focus on the practices and experiences of families who deal with
life-sustaining technologies and end-of-life care. In contrast to
the western countries, families tend to participate deeply in the
medical choice of a patient in Japan. And they face serious
decisions, whether paying over five years expense for
hospitalization or simply stopping life support. I deal with such
cases in the Japanese hospital and consider how one can calculate
future life and justify choices. Whether family members like or
not, they have to estimate the cost and benefit of the patient’s life
when deciding on end-of-life care. This creates a rather new
attitude toward life and provides ethical difficulties for families.
This study explores the importance of technologically mediated
ethical problems and discusses the relationships between an
emerging form of ethics, life-sustaining technologies, and the
economic realities that characterize the governance of life in endof- life care in Japan.
Rethinking Agency Through Distraction Jesper Aagaard,
Aarhus University
Today’s educational system increasingly integrates educational
technology such as laptops and tablets in the classroom with the
assumption that using these technologies will increase student
motivation and learning. However, research shows that students
often use educational technology for distractive purposes such as
off-task activities and multitasking, which leads to significant
decrements in student performance. Previous studies focus on
educational outcomes of distraction in terms of quantitative
measures such as grades, while few examine the processes
involved in this off-task activity. Why does it even happen?
Drawing on an STS approach, this paper challenges the popular
view of the laptop as an inanimate object that functions merely as
an outlet for preexisting internal distraction (likened to staring
out the window). By rehabilitating the anthropological notion of
“animism”, STS challenges the psychological notion of “agency”
belonging to human subjects endowed with reflective mental
capacities. The paper offers a postphenomenologically informed
qualitative study of students’ use of technology in class. Building
on participant observation and interviews with teachers and
students in a Danish business college about off-task technology
use and experiences, findings suggest that off-task activity is not
always voluntary or consciously chosen by students. Because of
deeply sedimented bodily habits, students often experience a
prereflective attraction toward certain frequently used websites
(e.g., Facebook). Laptops are experienced as endowed with an
attractive allure, which actively “pulls you in”. Some students
even go as far as closing the lids of their laptops to avoid this
attraction. Further practical and theoretical implications will be
outlined.
Power, Meaning and Mapping: Semiotics of Participatory
Geographical Information Systems Paul Manson, Portland
State University
Participatory geographical information systems (pGIS) have been
heralded as a way to include new voices in an expert or authority
dominated world. These technologies are productive ground for
science and technology studies research. Previous analyses of
mapping range from critiques of state power to concerns over
expert control. From James Scott’s classic framing of maps as
efforts to make people and nature legible for the state control, to
expert domination of mapping in contemporary research on
urban and environmental planning show this range. A middle
ground is the exploration of mapping as boundary objects that
span groups. However, these efforts have provided relatively
stable accounts of how maps have come to settle a system, or
achieve closure in other words. They do not explore the balance
of agency and structure that pGIS claims to engage. This paper
examines this claim. It explores mapping through a semiotic
approach, by arguing maps participate in a relationship between
actors – and how maps structure the actors. This approach relies
on the semiotic system of analysis developed by Peirce to
understand how meaning around maps developed in a contested
setting. This allows for a better understanding of the
representational tools available for participants to use in the
policy contests for marine resources. This is examined through
results from participatory observation of a government pGIS
process in coastal region of the Northwestern United States. This
story follows the development of maps as a structuring and
mediating force and the development of a mapping based
politics.
Expertise in context: roles and statuses of experts in
organization Olga Lelebina, Institut Superieur de Gestion
In the age of knowledge society the importance of expertise
could hardly be overestimated. The exercise of expert knowledge
determines not only the prosperity but the survival of
contemporary organizations (Blackler, 1995). Experts become
thus critical figures in organizational landscape and their
expertise represents particular value. However, despite the
frequent reference to the notion of expertise by STS scholars
(Evans & Collins, 2008; Kurz-Milcke & Gigerenzer, 2004;
Shapin, 2008) the field has very little to say about what makes an
expertise in organization. This paper contributes to the studies of
scientific and technological expertise by questioning the nature
of expertise and the status of expert within knowledge-intensive
organizations. Building on two major approaches in expertise
studies (the first one oriented to the evaluation of “expert
knowledge” (Ericsson & Lehmann, 1996; Feltovich, Prietula, &
Ericsson, 2006) and the second – to the consideration of expertise
in its relational perspective (Edwards, 2010; Huber, 1999; Mieg,
2006)) this paper explores their implications for the process and
practices of expertise valuation. Based on the longitudinal
participant observation (DeWalt & DeWalt, 2011) within
international oil company, our research demonstrates the limits of
valuing “absolute knowledge” of experts and claims for
considering relational forms of expertise. By taking into account
different organizational factors that influence the work and the
status of experts in organization, this study shows the importance
of the valuation of the role played by an expert in a particular
context. It introduces different dimensions of this role as well as
its evolution over time.
087. Pensamento Iberoamericano em Ciência, Tecnologia e
Desenvolvimento II
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Dalí
Chairs:
Renato Peixoto Dagnino, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP/Brazil
Márcio Moutinho Abdalla, Universidade Federal Fluminense
Maria Fernanda Rollo, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Participants:
Tecnologias e Utopias no Pensamento Anarquista Brasileiro
(1900-1935) Gilson Leandro Queluz, Universidade
Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR)
Neste artigo pretendemos, de maneira preliminar, compartilhar
algumas tendências percebidas no pensamento anarquista
brasileiro sobre tecnologia, presentes em periódicos anarquistas e
em obras políticas libertárias no período entre 1905 e 1935. Não
pretendemos enquadrar a discussão anarquista em um conceito
constituído a posteriori de tecnologia, mas gostaríamos de
ressaltar a forte relação por eles estabelecida entre técnicas, o
mundo do trabalho e os processos de resistência. Neste sentido,
constatamos que o termo tecnologia, pouco é utilizado nos textos
analisados. Muito mais comum, é a utilização e entrelaçamento
de termos, como máquinas, técnicas, meios de produção,
disciplinas e progresso, entre outros. O estudo dos textos
anarquistas constitui-se em um aprendizado dos processos de
resistência social e intelectual estabelecidos pelos libertários,
contribuindo para uma reflexão sobre uma potencial teoria crítica
anarquista da tecnologia. Em sua forte concepção antiautoritária
e antidogmática, eles, acabaram por colocar muitas vezes de
ponta cabeça, as concepções hegemônicas de civilização, meios
de produção e até as teorias da invenção de caráter individualista.
Concepções que, apesar dos esforços de anarquistas e
movimentos sociais de outrora e de hoje, continuam infelizmente
ativas e surpreendentemente hegemônicas. Portanto, este
percurso de análise, procurará compreender qual era para os
anarquistas nas primeiras décadas do século XX, a lógica da
organização das técnicas na sociedade capitalista brasileira, a
tecnologia em sua relação íntima com o cotidiano do mundo do
trabalho e as suas propostas para a reorganização do trabalho e da
técnica, de forma antiautoritária, antihierárquica e igualitária em
uma futura sociedade ácrata.
O Desenvolvimentismo de Pinto e Guerreiro Ramos e o
Neodesenvolvimentismo Ricardo Afonso Ferreira de
Vasconcelos, UTFPR; Mario Lopes Amorim, Universidade
Tecnológica Federal do Paraná
Este artigo tem como objetivo suscitar uma breve discussão a
respeito das ideias econômicas presentes na produção teórica de
Álvaro Vieira Pinto e Guerreiro Ramos, especialmente aquelas
relacionadas ao binômio desenvolvimento econômico-nacional e
tecnológico, no contexto histórico do Brasil das décadas de 1950
e 1960, ambiente econômico e político-ideológico no qual se
expandiu a produção intelectual do ISEB (Instituto Superior de
Estudos Brasileiros) que foi a mais importante referência teóricoideológica do nacional-desenvolvimentismo. Por conseguinte,
pretende-se discutir a contribuição teórica de Vieira Pinto e
Guerreiro Ramos para o debate em torno do desenvolvimento
econômico-industrial e tecnológico de nosso país, como parte de
um projeto de superação do subdesenvolvimento nacional e
ruptura do Brasil em relação às diretrizes de dominação colonialimperialista impostas pelos países centrais do capitalismo
mundial. Também, busca-se uma breve reflexão à cerca da
retomada de alguns pressupostos teóricos do pensamento desses
dois autores isebianos e suas interfaces com a discussão latinoamericana envolvendo o trinômio ciência/tecnologia/sociedade e
com o novo desenvolvimentismo, iniciado a partir do governo do
presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Para tanto, são utilizados
pressupostos e paradigmas do método dialético, na intenção de
identificar e analisar os elementos de contradição presentes tanto
no pensamento desenvolvimentista de Pinto e Guerreiro Ramos,
quanto no neodesenvolvimentismo do governo de Lula, sendo,
portanto, uma pesquisa de caráter exploratório, essencialmente a
partir de levantamento bibliográfico e focada na relação
desenvolvimento/subdesenvolvimento no Brasil, a partir da
segunda metade do século XX.
Pensando los vínculos entre ciencia, tecnología y desarrollo en
Latinoamérica: las ideas de Osvaldo Sunkel Eliana
Arancibia Gutierrez, UNAM-UNICAMP; Daniela Pinheiro,
State University of Campinas - UNICAMP
Este trabajo tiene por objetivo presentar un estudio crítico de las
ideas de Osvaldo Sunkel (Chile, 1929) considerado una de las
voces representativas del PLACTS. El itinerario intelectual del
chileno abarca más de medio siglo de reflexiones sobre el
desarrollo en América Latina y mediante la revisión de sus
principales escritos se pretende construir un relato de su
trayectoria e influencia en diversos ámbitos: estructuralismo
económico, historia socioeconómica, integración
latinoamericana, medio ambiente y desarrollo sustentable. El
trabajo se basa también en una entrevista realizada al autor en
octubre de 2013 y en la cual se abordó su visión respecto a las
relaciones entre ciencia, tecnología y desarrollo. La suposición
de que América Latina precisa contar con una base científica y
tecnológica propia, adecuada a las necesidades de su proceso de
desarrollo es una idea que se manifiesta de manera transversal en
los trabajos de este autor. Desde la década de 1970 Sunkel coloca
al cambio tecnológico como una cuestión trascendental para
revertir la situación de subordinación de los países
latinoamericanos frente al “capitalismo
transnacional”(Sunkel,1971). En coincidencia con otros
pensadores ligados al PLACTS, Sunkel argumenta que los
esfuerzos de desarrollo debían vincularse a una planificación de
la investigación científica y tecnológica para los sectores
industriales estratégicos, estimulando una demanda endógena por
conocimiento. El papel de la Universidad y de la comunidad
científica latinoamericana también es resaltado como
trascendental para apoyar esos esfuerzos, que demandan la
generación de conocimiento autóctono y vinculado a las
necesidades de desarrollo de todos los sectores sociales.
Repensando Desenvolvimento Local e o Problema das Cidades
Orientadas ao Mercado Márcio Moutinho Abdalla,
Universidade Federal Fluminense; Alexandre Faria, FGVEBAPE
A corporatização das cidades em escala global, em oposição a
tendência ou possibilidade de politicização social, tem sido uma
característica central dos processos de expansão territorial de
grandes corporações. A sociedade, sob o engodo da geração de
renda e empregos, tem ofuscada a assimetria de benefícios
propiciada por esse modelo de expansão imperialista, que
invariavelmente privilegia grandes corporações, sobretudo
oriundas do eixo euro-norte-americano. Os problemas sociais
decorrentes dessa ordem econômica orientada ao mercado, tal
qual proposto por Karl Polanyi, também são ofuscados pela
promessa de desenvolvimento local. Essa conjunção de fatores
produz um fenômeno que chamamos de Cidades Orientadas ao
Mercado. Em outras palavras, grandes estruturas sociais
concebidas para (e com base em) mercados específicos.
Defendemos, nesse ensaio teórico, que o reconhecimento do
mercado como principal eixo direcionador da sociedade é um
equívoco, implicando na configuração de inúmeros problemas
sociais como o adensamento populacional desordenado. A
literatura de Gestão Estratégica sugere que problemas como esses
devam ser resolvidos por Estratégias Sociais, sobretudo nos
países periféricos. Procuramos avançar nesse debate, suportandoo na tese de duplo movimento de Polanyi reivindicando,
entretanto, o suprimento de lacunas inerentes a mesma como, por
exemplo, uma clara definição dos papéis e responsabilidades dos
atores sociedade e governo. Também avançamos na supressão
dessas lacunas ao abraçarmos a opção decolonial, como forma de
desafiar a modernidade euro-norte-americana imposta e
fomentada pelo neoliberalismo e por atores como o Banco
Mundial, com o intuito de democratizar, civilizar e desenvolver
localmente países atrasados, pela imposição de uma sociedade
civil pretensamente globalizada.
La ciencia en cuestión en la Argentina. Ejes de un debate de
principios de los años 70 Adriana Feld, CONICET - UNQ U. Maimónides
Este trabajo analiza la vertiente más “radical” de las reflexiones
sobre el problema de la relación entre ciencia, tecnología y
desarrollo, emergentes en la Argentina entre fines de la década de
1960 y mediados de la siguiente. Para el análisis de esta
“vertiente” se toman en consideración dos documentos
emblemáticos de la época: el libro de Oscar Varsavsky, Ciencia,
Política y Cientificismo (1968) y el debate sobre la relación entre
ciencia e ideología, que promovió y publicó la revista Ciencia
Nueva y que tuvo entre sus protagonistas a Varsavsky, Gregorio
Klimovsky y Rolando García. Ambos documentos expresan,
desde luego, un clima de ideas más amplio (en cuanto a los ejes y
a los actores involucrados), en el que están presentes una
multiplicidad de dimensiones. Aquí proponemos analizar el
contexto local e internacional en el que se gestan los
posicionamientos de diversos autores y tres dimensiones
específicas de los debates de la época: (a) Dimensiones sociales:
normas de funcionamiento de la comunidad científica y
relaciones centro- periferia, (b) Dimensiones epistemológicas: la
relación entre ideología y método científico y (c) Dimensiones
políticas: el rol del científico en la sociedad.
088. Crossings: Tacking Between Spaces of Resistance
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Miró
Chair:
Antonia Caitlin Walford, CRESC/OU
Participants:
Equatorial Savage as Radical Chic: Geographies of Desire in
the Age of Global Technocultures Kavita Philip, University
of California, Irvine
During the digital boom of the 1990s and before the downturn of
the early twenty-first-century, a set of internet representations
appeared to recycle tropes of the sexualized, primitive other.
These narratives seemed anachronistic, renewing what Peter
Sigal has termed the ‘ethnopornographic.’ Yet it appeared to a
technological fantasy, returning, with a twist, to tropes of
woman-as-savage, savage-as-nature, nature-as-chaos, science-astruth, and truth-as-justification for the globalizing mission. At the
same time, debates within feminist geography and postcolonial
theory were also offering a new fantasy of the resisting-yetcontradictory consumer. This was also the decade in which
Frederic Jameson, in his celebrated analysis of postmodernism as
“the cultural logic of late capitalism,” outlined formal techniques
that postmodernism deployed. 1991 was also the year in which
India accepted the IMF’s terms for the “liberalization” of its
economy. The decade of the 1990s would bring Indian data-entry
workers to the global stage through the Y2K crisis. The next
millennium would bring radical changes in the position of India
and China in the world economy, celebrated as the Asian “tiger”
and “dragon.” As decolonization in the mid-twentieth century
had stalled colonial ethnographic tropology, so the economic
reversals of the early twenty-first century seemed suddenly to
render the ethno-pornography of the 1990s obsolete. This paper
sketches a political /psychic economy of informational
capitalism, seeking to understand the shifting ontologies implicit
in the gendered, sexualized, and racialized landscapes of the “age
of information” and the rise of “emerging” economies.
Why Bogotá? The Local, the Global and the Interesting,
Reflexively Malcolm Ashmore, Loughborough University;
Olga Restrepo Forero, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
At one of the weekly seminars of our STS group in Bogotá,
Colombia, a native of New York City, USA, currently studying
for her PhD in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, presented her work.
She was studying IVF practice in Bogotá; that is, she was
studying IVF practice, and she happened to be studying it in
Bogotá (for ‘uninteresting’ reasons). Doing so meant treating
this particular place as not particular; and, crucially, not treating
it as the exotic source of a comparison with standard IVF practice
done elsewhere (in New York City, Amsterdam, …) And
immediately the question arose and persisted: Why Bogotá?
Why study IVF here? What is interesting about Bogotá in this
context? (And eventually a different question: is Bogotá
uninteresting enough to sustain such a ‘place/space-disinterested’
approach?) Which are questions which, we claim, would not be
likely to be asked if a similar presentation was taking place in-orabout a different here, one situated in the global ‘centre’. Our
presentation will explore some of the complexities involved in
this scenario: questions of place/space in the provenance of
knowledge; the tension between a new ‘localist’ emphasis in STS
and the traditional idea of science’s universalism; of centreperiphery relations, and their relational and fractal character; of
the local and the global; of what is interesting, or not, and why,
and where, and to whom. And all this, reflexively, with the
topical focus of STS work itself.
Trapped between Science and Religion: Theory of Evolution in
Turkish Academia Kaya Akyuz, University of Vienna /
Bogazici University; Banu Saatci, Istanbul Sehir University
The aim of this study has been to study the views of the
academicians in Turkey on the theory of evolution, creationism
and teaching, by analyzing the effect of religious affiliation,
religiosity, age, gender along with their academic background.
251 out of 2530 academic personnel in all of the departments of
biological and educational sciences at Turkish universities
responded to our online survey. The results show that there has
been a sampling bias due to the fear of being blacklisted by the
conservative government as the survey includes questions on
religion and religiousness. We conclude that academicians’
views on such a sensitive issue in the Turkish context cannot be
analyzed quantitatively through an online survey, given the lack
of trust in the authorities, especially considering the surveillance
on the internet. As the survey has been unintentionally turned
into an arena for staunch creationists and Darwinists, we have
decided to do a qualitative analysis of the comments provided by
the participants. Our analysis demonstrates that regardless of
their views, many of the academicians consider the theory of
evolution to be a matter of belief rather than acceptance.
Furthermore, it is also found that due to the strong peer pressure
and the increasing political Islamist presence of the Turkish
government in academic setting, both the evolutionist
academicians and students choose to remain silent about the
existence of evolution in public. Low acceptance rate of the
theory among public is paralleled by attitudes of academicians in
Turkey: being trapped between religion and science.
Visión(es) alter-nativa(s): Curación, relación y diferencia en el
Sur de Chile. Cristobal Bonelli, University of Amsterdam
Este trabajo explora prácticas de sanación Pehuenche que
enactúan un sistema visual no comprensible en términos neurobiológicos. La etnografía analizada permite abrir dos reflexiones
relevantes para las relaciones entre antropología y STS. Primero,
a través de la ilustración etnográfica, este material ofrece un
modo de pensar radicalmente alter-nativo a la hegemonía neurobiológica, y en este sentido, hace plausible trazar los imaginarios
de la visión shamanica Pehuenche a través de oposiciones
binarias. En segundo lugar, evidencia que esta visión alter-nativa
Pehuenche, se configura también a través de alter-nativas
internas múltiples. En este sentido, este trabajo examina como
puede pensarse la alteridad radical con matices internos que
cuestionan, de alguna manera, el mismo pensar la alteridad en
modo radical.
Feeling Policy: Emotional Entanglements, Evidence and
Contested Policy Fields Michael Orsini, University of
Ottawa
Emotions are central to the study of contested policy, yet we
have a limited understanding of their influence. Civil society
actors are chided for being too emotional or unable to think
rationally about policy issues, while bureaucrats and policy
makers are cast as cold, unfeeling beings who are unable to
express basic emotions such as empathy. This paper is guided by
two research questions relevant to the field of STS. First, how do
emotions interact with the rise of evidence-based policy, in
which policy makers are exhorted to base decisions on the best
available evidence? Second, how do different orderings of
emotions – or ‘feeling rules’ – affect the ways in which emotions
are discursively managed in complex policy environments?
Drawing on the cases of obesity and HIV harm reduction policy,
I examine how these emotional entanglements illuminate the
character of these policy controversies, as well as the key
concepts that underpin them, such as rationality, expertise and
power. Moreover, in contrast to a focus on the instrumental use
of emotions, I am interested in the ways in which certain
emotions are deployed in contexts where the policy interventions
involve stigmatized populations about whom particular emotions
might be attached. The “success” of some actors to contest
characterizations of them in policy depends on their ability to
challenge the “feeling rules” that govern the policy landscape.
Once we expand our analysis to consider the myriad effects of
emotions in policy discourse, we will need to revisit essentialist
categories of feeling or unfeeling actors.
Discussants:
Salvador Schavelzon, Universidade Federal de São Paulo
Felipe Sussekind, PUC-RIo
089. Knowledge Transfer Via Material Objects: Writing it Out
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Moliere
Chair:
Edna F. Einsiedel, University of Calgary
Participants:
Mathematizing Music Composition: The Twentieth-Century
Development of the Schillinger System Clare Kim, MIT
Joseph Schillinger, a Russian-born composer and music theorist
who immigrated to America in the 1930s, is best remembered for
his influence on jazz composers George Gershwin and Glenn
Miller. This paper investigates Schillinger’s less-remembered
work in developing a new style of music composition based on
mathematical processes: the Schillinger System of Musical
Composition (SSOMC). By translating standard music notation
into mathematical expressions, Schillinger hoped that his system
would provide a compositional foundation from which an
unlimited number of songs could be produced. Although the
SSOMC was never widely embraced by the greater music
community, it did produce a devout group of musicians who
sought to apply their mathematical leanings to music production.
This paper tracks the mathematical principles underlying the
SSOMC and traces how the system was taught, exploring the
consequences of applying mathematical expressions to an art
already bearing historically grounded music principles. I argue
that the small group of students who followed the SSOMC was
conditioned by an unconventional yet rigorous training style and
epistemological shift. Consequently, this shift tuned them into
mathematics’ potential to open up new and unexplored genres of
modern music that engaged with technology. This case study
demonstrates that the convergence of music and mathematics is
one point from which science studies scholars can begin to
understand the role of mathematical inquiry in music and art
production.
Message in a bottle: Knowledge-transfer through market
Sandra Daza-Caicedo, Universidad de los
Andes/Observatorio Colombiano de Ciencia y Tecnología
This paper presents a comparative analysis of bottled water labels
at Salamanca-España and Bogotá- Colombia. The main purpose
of this work is to show how a market device (Callon et al, 2008)
such as bottled water is a complex material and discursive
network through which knowledge transfer and culture
transformation take place. My contribution seeks to illustrate
how in our daily lives we are continually in a process of
negotiation with science and technology and how it is interwoven
with other set of social discourses (e. g. technology vs. nature,
healthy lifestyle, medicalization of society, environmental
issues). In this negotiation, consumption plays an important role
as a space for knowledge transfer but also for the exercise of
citizen participation. This work will focus on the analysis of
water bottles labels to show the knowledge inscribed on them,
how it changes in both cities and what does this knowledge
suppose for consumers. Finally I will show some general
conclusions and open up issues for further consideration.
Pinole: a hybrid food Alexandra Littaye, University of Oxford
Blue maize has attracted the interest of international food
organisations and Mexican activism alike. Pinole is traditional
foodstuff made of blue maize cornmeal. It is considered as a
typical Mexican pre-Hispanic treat. Its recent circulation in
Mexico and the United States owes to the creation of translocal
food organisations both in Mexico and Philadelphia. Although
upheld as a symbol of local Mexican cuisine, pinole emerges
through and is sustained by a complex set of translocal actors and
organisations that reshape notions of authenticity, identity and
self-sufficiency. Through discourse analysis of in-depth
interviews, my paper investigates Amigos de Ozolco, a Mexican
local food network selling blue maize food products. In a first
instance, it outlines the role of remittances in supporting rural
communities in Mexico. In a second half, pinole is discussed as a
constructed hybrid product whose production and circulation
depend on the invention of Mexican culinary tradition as well as
the ideals articulated by migrant communities that strive to
preserve a certain traditional livelihood in their home town.
Finally, it concludes that the articulation of gastronomic nostalgia
by these food networks leads to the commodification of the
‘authentic,’ in an effort to preserve the rural livelihoods of
Mexican maize famers. This paper seeks to make a contribution
to the growing literature of food studies and geographies of food
by exploring the implications of food networks that promote
traditional foodstuffs in addressing the current plight of Mexican
farming communities.
Biofuels in political cartoons: ironies, side effects and
discolourings Edna F. Einsiedel, University of Calgary
Biofuels have been advocated as part of the suite of renewable
fuels that will respond to global energy needs, address climate
change, and strengthen rural economies. The trajectory of
biofuels development has been less than glamorous and one of
blind ambition. We trace the emergent discordant notes in the
trajectory of biofuels development through the lens of the
political cartoon, a communications medium that visually
collapses the proverbial thousand words into a single frame. Our
analysis of over 60 cartoons available through a google image
search showed a primary focus on the food versus fuel theme, a
theme that encapsulated social injustice and the irony of using
food as fuel. A secondary theme played on biofuels as the
exacerbation of rather than solution to global warming. We use
an adaptation of appraisal theory to examine the evaluative
registers cartoonists employ for framing biofuels. We further
comment on the idea of the political cartoon as a way “to grasp
perfect deformity”, to reveal the shifting social understandings
and judgments of this technology.
090. Systems of Oversight
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Mozart
Participants:
The Integrated Weather Team: A Potential Collaborative Site of
STS Intervention Jennifer J Henderson, Virginia Tech
The meteorology community defines weather disasters as realist
events demarcated by temporal and spatial dimensions of the
atmosphere that exclude pre-existing and chronic conditions
within forecasters’ respective communities. On the heels of
several billion-dollar weather disasters, however, National
Weather Service (NWS) forecasters have begun to re-examine
their role in these disasters. In a handful of the 122 forecast
offices across the United States meteorologists have initiated a
type of local movement to learn more about and build networks
within their respective County Warning Areas. It’s an endeavor
that has the potential to decentralize NWS authority over and
responsibility for the weather warning process. Called the
Integrated Warning Team (IWT), the concept arose in the 1990s
to describe the trio of expert groups most visible within the
weather warning process: NWS forecasters, broadcast media, and
state/local emergency managers. Recently, the IWT has
attempted to include and identify other actors important to
creating resilience and knowledge of the sociocultural
underpinnings of disasters, such as first responders, local
community agencies, and even social scientists. Drawing on
ethnographic observations and participatory research, this
presentation identifies challenges that continue to plague the
warning discourse within the IWT movement, from
monopolizing workshop strategies to deficit model assumptions
about and issues of trust with “the public.” It also highlights the
IWT as a potential site of intervention by STS scholars who
might partner with these experts to re-shape awareness and
preparedness practices to reflect more critical discourses based in
public understanding of science and risk communication
literatures.
Securing the living: governance, materiality and understandings
of life during biological emergencies Jose Antonio Cañada,
University of Helsinki
Biosecurity has been a central item in western world policymakin
since the 9/11 anthrax attacks. Currently, biosecurity pays
attention to the emergence of biological disasters coming mainly
from bioterrorists attacks, natural outbreaks and laboratory
disasters. In the intersection of such events, rationalities coming
from public health, national security and laboratory safety get
intertwined in the governance of biological emergencies. This
field requires knowledge from areas such as epidemiology,
microbiology, biomedicine, media studies or social sciences to
get entangled with one another. This, together with the high level
of uncertainty and perceived threat particular to the idea of
biopreparedness, makes regulation extremely difficult. By
looking at biosecurity policies from an STS perspective, we can
analyze the way scientific and technological knowledge develops
in the context of a relatively little studied phenomenon which is
characterized with very specific features: uncertainty, extreme
interdisciplinarity and the continuous development and
application of cutting edge technology. Using Foucauldian
discourse analysis, I have examined and followed the
construction and implementation of policy documents from the
European Commission and the World Health Organization.
Result of such method of analysis, I have mapped different
biosecurity practices: policymaking, surveillance, preparedness
exercises or genetic engineering on viruses are some examples.
As main results of my analysis, 1) I have developed the concept
of standby policies, which I claim are specific to the
biopreparedness field, and 2) I have started to think of genetic
engineered viruses as bio-objects, biological entities that change
materially and semiotically after going through a sociotechnical
controversy.
Assessing the Economic Benefits of Early Warning Systems
for Companies Simone Wurster, Technische Universität
Berlin, Institut für Technologie und Management, FG
Innovationsökonomie - VWS 2, Müller-Breslau-Straße 15
(Schleuseninsel), D-10623 Berlin; Michael Klafft,
Fraunhofer-Institut für Offene Kommunikationssysteme
FOKUS, Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 31, 10589 Berlin, Germany
Modern societies are increasingly threatened by a wide range of
natural and man-made hazards. One way to enable populations to
cope with all these risks is the use of advanced early warning
systems (EWS). Recent technological advances now allow for
the implementation of systems, which can warn a large number
of users within a very short time frame via SMS, smartphone
apps, internet, etc. These communication channels significantly
extend classical warning methods via TV, radio and sirens
towards more targeted localized or personalized alerts. In recent
years, these systems have proven their value by saving many
lives. They also help to protect property. However, implementing
such advanced systems requires quite significant investments,
which creates a need for cost-benefit analyses. This paper
contributes to the disaster STS literature by presenting a disasterindependent formula that shows in particular the benefits of EWS
for companies. The formula consists of five groups of factors
including disaster-specific, company-specific and personal
variables as well as prediction-related and general variables. Use
of the formula is explained in the context of a severe flooding
event in the German city of Hamburg in 2011. An overall
damage of $37M to $63M including damage of $21M in
companies was estimated. Based on statistical data, recent
findings in disaster research and specific presumptions, the
potential loss avoidance by a modern EWS is shown. We
consider this work as an important contribution for research and
future investments into warning technologies.
How to sell uncertain technologie ? (Re)Exploring detachments
in ANT Frederic Goulet, CIRAD, UMR Innovation / INTA
Laboratorio Internacional Agriterris; Ronan Le Velly,
Montpellier SupAgro
In this communication, we analyse sales practices of a French
agricultural supply firm, whose products and technologies have
uncertain characteristics and controversial effects. Indeed, these
products – fertilizers, food supplements for animals - are based
on active ingredients kept secrets by the firm and its
representatives. Their supposed positive effects on mineral and
biological balances are questioned by traditional S&T institutions
and agricultural inputs industries. But in spite of this mysterious
composition, company’s sales have been growing very fast
during the last ten years. Our research tries to understand the
keys of this success. It is based on semi-structured interviews
carried out with managers, sales representatives, and customers
of the company, and ethnographic observations of sales
representatives during their commercial tours. In order to analyse
these sales activities, we mobilise ANT, and especially its
conceptualization of processes of attachment / detachment in the
dynamics of competition. We show that the uncertainty of the
technologies lead the sales representatives to develop an
argument in which detachment activities of customers vis-à-vis
the competition are particularly important. Faced with the
difficulty of objectifying qualities of “material” products, we also
show that attachments are built around a comprehensive solution
including an “immaterial” advisory service to farmers. This
market for uncertain products more generally prompts us to pay
more importance to the detachment processes in the analysis of
innovative or market work, and think them symmetrically to
attachment processes within the ANT framework.
Sociotechnical Resilience as an STS Concept Sulfikar Amir,
Nanyang Technological University (NTU)
Drawing on existing STS theories, this paper presents the
concept of “sociotechnical resilience”, which emanates from the
argument that resilience is a state of system agility that results
from mutual interactions between social agents and technical
components. With the insights from the STS scholarship, this
paper seeks to offer an analytical tool to capture the source of
resilience at different levels within sociotechnical realms. It
views sociotechnical resilience as amultidimensional and multiscale concept that can facilitate the understanding of various
complex interactions among a diverse pool of human and nonhuman entities. It is a dynamic process and may change over
time. As an STS concept, sociotechnical resilience analyzes
multi-layer activities through which complex sociotechnical
systems develop inner capacity to anticipate a variety of critical
situations. Transcending the notion of risk society in looking at
the consequences of rapid technological production, the concept
of sociotechnical resilience is meant to map out the coproduction and robust integration between three layers of
networks, which is useful to investigate how crisis propagates
within, and between, sociotechnical systems. At the bottom lies
the network of physical infrastructures such as roads, electricity
networks, telecommunication backbones, water supply pipelines,
etc. At the next level, these material systems are interconnected
with institutional organizations managed by both public and
private sectors. Finally, the integrated configuration between
physical infrastructures and institutional organizations is
meaningless without the presence of individuals and groups in
society who are the principal designers and users of the system.
By situating sociotechnical resilience on the interrelations of
these three networks of interdependent entities, this chapter
highlights potential methods and identifies key areas for future
research in the STS study of resilience.
Discussant:
Vivian Y. Choi, Cornell University
091. Innovación
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Picasso
Chair:
Natalia Gras, Universidad Autónoma MetropolitanaXochimilco
Participants:
Políticas para incentivar la innovación en el sector productivo.
Mario Capdevielle, UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA
METROPOLITANA
El documento tiene por objeto analizar las políticas públicas
implementadas en México durante la última década, con el fin de
incentivar la inversión en Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación
(CTI) en el sector productivo, evaluar sus resultados y las causas
determinantes del mismo, así como proponer instrumentos de
política complementarios o alternativos a los existentes. En la
primera sección presenta el debate en torno a los fundamentos
teóricos que sustentan la conveniencia de estímulos a la inversión
privada en CTI. Luego se analiza la situación del sector
productivo nacional en relación al gasto privado en CTI, su
evolución reciente así como sus limitaciones y posibilidades. En
la tercera sección se evalúan las políticas públicas
implementadas en las últimas décadas. Con este fin se analiza la
aditividad (efectos de los subsidios públicos sobre la inversión
privada) en el Programa de Estímulos a la Investigación,
Desarrollo Tecnológico e Innovación (PEI) y el Programa de
Estímulos Fiscales a la Investigación y Desarrollo Tecnológico
(PEFIDT). Por último se concluye con la presentación de una
propuesta de política que reconociendo las limitaciones
productivas, tecnológicas e institucionales de la economía
permita iniciar un proceso de desarrollo que contribuya al
objetivo de mayor eficiencia dinámica y equidad. El trabajo se
sustenta en el análisis por sectores productivos de los subsidios
otorgados y sus efectos en el gasto privado en CTI y en el
desempeño sectorial.
Políticas Públicas e Indicadores de Inovação no Brasil Diego
Rafael de Moraes Silva, State University of Campinas
(UNICAMP); Andre Tosi Furtado, State University of
Campinas (UNICAMP)
Uma das principais funções dos indicadores de inovação é
subsidiar a formulação de políticas públicas. Todavia, o
estabelecimento de uma ligação entre a produção estatística e a
política pública não é algo trivial. No âmbito da política de
inovação se verifica que o uso de indicadores específicos para
esta área é problemático. O Community Innovation Survey
(CIS), pesquisa desenhada a partir das diretrizes metodológicas
do Manual de Oslo com o intuito de produzir indicadores de
inovação para países europeus, é um caso emblemático. Com
dados disponíveis de séries consecutivas, se esperaria que a
política pública de tais países estivesse ativamente utilizando os
indicadores do CIS. Porém, o resultado de uma série de
entrevistas com analistas políticos revelou que a política de
inovação em tais países ainda repousava sobre os tradicionais
indicadores de C&T provenientes do Manual Frascati
(ARUNDEL, 2007). O presente trabalho busca averiguar em que
medida os indicadores de inovação produzidos no Brasil têm
contribuído para o desenho de políticas públicas.
Metodologicamente, abordamos os indicadores de inovação
advindos da Pesquisa Industrial Inovação Tecnológica 2000
(Pintec 2000), publicada em 2002, e analisamos, através de
entrevistas com atores-chave e análise de conteúdo, a Política
Industrial, Tecnológica e de Comércio Exterior (PITCE), a
primeira política industrial do País focada na inovação, lançada
em 2003. Constatamos que, apesar da proximidade temporal e
temática, os indicadores de inovação da Pintec 2000 não tiveram
papel de destaque na formulação da PITCE, sugerindo uma
subutilização de tais indicadores no desenho de políticas públicas
também no Brasil.
Innovaciones inclusivas y sus relaciones causales implícitas
Natalia Gras, Universidad Autónoma MetropolitanaXochimilco; Gabriela Dutrénit, Universidad Atónoma
Metropolitana/ Coordinadora de la Re LALICS; Matías
Vera-Cruz, Universidad de California, Los Ángeles (UCLA)
Es ampliamente aceptado que la distribución del ingreso de
América Latina es una de las más inequitativas del mundo. El
desafío está en pensar formas e instrumentos a través de los
cuales la generación de conocimiento científico y tecnológico, y
la innovación, puedan contribuir a reducir la exclusión social,
como también las condiciones necesarias para alcanzar dicho
resultado. Recientemente, este tema ha cobrado relevancia
internacional. En la literatura es posible identificar diferentes
enfoques que, a partir de diferentes prácticas y marcos
normativos, intentan dar una respuesta a este problema, entre
ellos: pro-poor, grassroots innovations, tecnologías para la
inclusión social, las investigaciones e innovaciones orientadas a
la inclusión social. Un tema que aparece de forma recurrente y
que ha sido poco estudiado, se asocia a las dificultades derivadas
de la escasa o débil vinculación entre la academia y el sector
productivo. Esto muchas veces representa una barrera importante
para lograr el escalamiento y difusión de las soluciones
innovadoras e inclusivas encontradas en el ámbito de la
investigación. Este problema, se ve agravado por la inexistencia
de un marco de política pública que integre de una manera más
amplia a la CTI con otros dominios de la política (con la social y
productiva). Según la evidencia, esto determina que los hallazgos
encontrados por los investigadores queden encapsulados en el
ámbito de las universidades y por lo mismo, no se traduzcan en
bienes y servicios innovadores e inclusivos. Aquí se inserta este
estudio y se espera alcanzar nuevos elementos de juicio -basados
en la evidencia- que contribuyan al debate y la reflexión sobre
innovaciones inclusivas y sus políticas en el campo de los
estudios sociales de la ciencia y la tecnología. El objetivo de este
trabajo es desarrollar un modelo causal, que formalice las
interacciones o relaciones-efectos causales existentes entre los
diversos agentes involucrados para dar lugar a una innovación
inclusiva. Para ello, y a partir del análisis cualitativo de ocho
proyectos de investigación e innovación orientados a la inclusión
social , se identifican un conjunto de agentes (gobierno,
empresas, investigadores, y agentes que componen la demanda
final de innovaciones inclusivas) y se estiliza su comportamiento.
Los resultados sugieren que las interacciones sistémicas entre
cada uno de estos agentes resultan centrales para dar lugar a una
innovación inclusiva.
INNOVACIÓN ABIERTA PRODUCTIVA: Living Lab
Susana Beatriz Darin, RED Leilac, IDEAR, Universidad
Abierta Interamericana
En el mundo globalizado, caracterizado por la complejidad, lo
multidimensional y lo multi-causal, los equipos de investigación
(recursos humanos, materiales, tareas, procesos y productos)
están transformándose en un sector propio, que se potencia con el
mayor acceso a las nuevas tecnologías de la información y
comunicación, la superación de las barreras lingüísticas y la
colaboración internacional. Ello permite la concreción de
proyectos de investigación integrados y multilaterales con
proliferación de técnicas y metodologías estandarizadas y
asentadas sobre redes internacionales de conocimiento, que a su
vez dan margen para analizar y compilar información de
diferentes países y acceder a los avances sobre la investigación y
la innovación en desarrollo en los distintos centros del
producción de conocimiento del mercado global. Para superar los
modelos actuales e incorporar a los usuarios finales en el proceso
de Innovación se reinventó el modelo de Living Lab del Profesor
W. Mitchel del Media Lab de la School of la Architecture and
City Planning del MIT. Un nuevo concepto para la investigación,
el desarrollo y la innovación, basado en involucrar a los usuarios
en todas las fases del proceso. Latinoamérica es rica en
contrastes, las diferencias en infraestructura física, capacidad
productiva, competitividad y la inequidad social en la
distribución del ingreso y los recursos, son barreras para el
acceso de la región a los beneficios de la ciencia y la tecnología.
Para revertir dicha situación, el modelo de LLabs es una
estrategia eco-sistémica alternativa capaz de aportar soluciones
concretas a los problemas sociales y productivos de la región,
promoviendo redes colaborativas interactivas y constituyendo
un sistema de innovación regional abierto logrando la
especialización productiva, la complementación, integración y
cooperación efectiva.
Ciência, tecnologia e inovação segundo o Instituto de Pesquisas
Econômicas Aplicadas (IPEA) Camila Carneiro Dias
Rigolin, Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCAR),
Brazil; Maria Cristina Innocentini Hayashi, Federal
University of São Carlos (UFSCAR), Brazil
Investigar a relação entre expertise e planejamento é explorar a
dimensão da autoridade epistemológica na definição de políticas
públicas e os desdobramentos da tecnização sobre estas. Mas são
escassos os estudos sobre expertise e política quando a primeira
advêm das Ciências Humanas ou Sociais e não das Ciências
“Duras”. Justifica-se a proposição de estudos que tenham por
objetivo a investigação dos think tanks, instituições que operam
na fronteira entre o mundo acadêmico e a esfera governamental,
praticando uma complexa mistura entre pesquisa e advocacy.
Este artigo analisa textos produzidos por um think tank brasileiro
em atividade há 47 anos, o Instituto de Pesquisas Econômicas
Aplicadas (IPEA), vinculado à Presidência da República,
respondendo às seguintes questões: quais o elementos que
caracterizam o conhecimento institucionalizado do IPEA no
campo da política de ciência, tecnologia e inovação? O que a
análise desta produção revela sobre a trajetória do pensamento
econômico e social do instituto? Como instituição que esteve
organicamente vinculada ao poder desde seu nascimento, o IPEA
revela em sua produção bibliográfica (publicada em caráter
contínuo e sistemático) grande parte da história das concepções
de desenvolvimento que nortearam a formulação de políticas no
Brasil. A metodologia combinou pesquisa de campo e a análise
bibliométrica de textos da área de Ciência, Tecnologia e
Inovação, publicados entre 1994 e 2010. Seu exame revelou: a
continuidade e descontinuidade de temas; referenciais teóricos e
abordagens diciplinares hegemônicas; tipos de estudo mais
frequentes e perfil dos autores quanto ao gênero e origem
institucional.
092. Instrumentos y herramientas
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Quinquela
Chair:
Rosalia Marcela Lizondo, INTA Tucumàn
Participants:
Las Indicaciones Geográficas como herramientas de Agregado
de Valor Mariana Bruno, Estudiante de Maestría; Graciela
Ghezán, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; María
Laura Cendón, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología
Agropecuaria (INTA); Maria Laura Viteri, INTA
Entre los ejes de desarrollo territorial de los últimos años en la
Argentina, se destacan las estrategias de agregado de valor (AV)
en productos agropecuarios. En este sentido, desde el Programa
Nacional de Agregado de Valor del Ministerio de Agricultura
Ganadería y Pesca (MAGyP) se vienen implementando
diferentes normas a favor del desarrollo, como son la
Denominación de Origen (DO) e Indicación Geográfica (IG).
Estas iniciativas muestran calidad diferencial vinculada al origen
geográfico de producción. En la actualidad existen varios
productos alimenticios que están bajo trámite de aceptación ante
autoridades competentes. Entre ellos, el Salame de Tandil es un
producto típico del territorio, con Denominación de Origen. El
proceso para solicitar dicha certificación ha generado una red de
actores heterogéneos, algunos de los cuales participan en un
Consejo de Promoción que les permitió obtener el sello de
denominación de origen en el 2011. A partir del enfoque de
Redes Socio-Técnicas, este trabajo pretende conocer los procesos
de construcción social de las indicaciones geográficas, tomando como estudio de caso- al salame de Tandil. A través de búsqueda
de fuentes secundarias y entrevistas en profundidad a
informantes calificados y actores sociales involucrados con el
producto, se identificó el rol de los distintos actores, las
principales controversias y convergencias, así como la dinámica
de la red. Entre los resultados, se observa que costo diferencial
del producto, la baja participación de los miembros del consejo,
el reducido reconocimiento de los consumidores, así como el rol
clave de la empresa líder generan incertidumbre.
La historia de la tecnología como instrumento del desarrollo
regional Juan Arturo Camargo, Professor Uniminuto
La historia de la tecnología, construida con las comunidades,
constituye una herramienta formidable para estimular el cambio
sociotécnico. La memoria enfoca y orienta la acción, facilitando
la cooperación entre los diversos grupos de humanos y artefactos
involucrados en la construcción de realidades. Esta ponencia
discute los rasgos característicos de una metodología de trabajo
comunitario que busca fortalecer las capacidades de
emprendimiento –comercial, productivo, industrial y social- de
las comunidades de base en Cundinamarca, Colombia. La
construcción de esta metodología forma parte de las actividades
de investigación y proyección social de la Corporación
Universitaria Uniminuto, una entidad de educación superior que
atiende a los grupos más vulnerables de la población y se enfoca
en el desarrollo regional de su zona de influencia, la cual abarca
una amplia variedad de subregiones rurales y urbanas en todos
los pisos térmicos. En una experiencia académica piloto, afín a la
perspectiva praxelógica y el compromiso con el cambio social
del sistema universitario Uniminuto, la sede Cundinamarca
organizó sus actividades en las áreas de la investigación y
proyección social desde una unidad operativa común. Dicho
proyecto también implica la articulación de las metodologías de
intervención social del Parque Científico de Innovación Social –
otra iniciativa de Uniminuto para conectar la gestión del
conocimiento adquirido por la Universidad con sus objetivos en
el campo del desarrollo regional- con otras metodologías basadas
en las comunidades de aprendizaje (Lleras, 2002) y con la
perspectiva histórica de la propuesta investigación–acción de
Fals Borda 1979, 1986).
La controvertible política científico-tecnológica del maíz
transgénico en México Yolanda Castañeda, Universidad
Autónoma Metropolitana-Azcapotzalco; Yolanda Massieu,
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco
La ponencia abordará la política que en ciencia y tecnología se ha
instrumentado en los últimos 18 años en México, para impulsar
la liberación comercial del maíz genéticamente modificado por
instituciones de investigación pública y empresas
transnacionales, quienes lograron que se autorizaran pruebas
piloto a cielo abierto. Ante la crisis alimentaria que persiste en el
país, el gobierno mexicano no rechaza esta alternativa
tecnológica que promete incrementar volúmenes de producción
del grano y contribuir a la preservación del medio ambiente por
las características de la semilla en cuanto a tolerancia a herbicida
y resistencia a insectos. Pese a los beneficios que la nueva
tecnología asegura, se han conformado grupos sociales
integrados por académicos, campesinos e indígenas y ONGs
ambientalistas, quienes cuestionan esta iniciativa ante la posible
pérdida de variedades nativas con la introducción del transgénico
y los problemas de propiedad intelectual, entre otros.
Actualmente, el movimiento en contra de los transgénicos logró
que se suspendieran las pruebas piloto mediante el empleo de
artefactos jurídicos. En este contexto, analizaremos a través de la
tecnociencia la trayectoria de la biotecnología aplicada al maíz en
México. Este tipo de abordaje permite un seguimiento de la
acción de los actores en la construcción del conocimiento y
artefactos; también mostrar, cómo los actores elaboran
programas de acción para influir y determinar agendas en los
actos tecnocientíficos, ya que en el caso del maíz transgénico no
se ha llegado a la estabilización del artefacto ni a una
negociación entre los actores involucrados.
Caña de azúcar, quema y ambiente: concertación y participación
en Los Ralos, Tucumán Rosalia Marcela Lizondo, INTA
Tucumàn
La caña de azúcar es el cultivo de mayor importancia económica
y social de Tucumán. A finales de 1967 se inicia la gradual
mecanización de la cosecha, donde la práctica de quemar los
cañaverales, se fue intensificando. En el 2004 fue prohibida por
la contaminación que genera. En la actualidad el uso de la
cosechadora integral en verde, donde no es necesario el fuego,
aún no ha logrado disminuir la quema. En la última década se
han generado conflictos y controversias en la sociedad,
principalmente entre quienes queman y aquellos que sufren los
efectos de la contaminación ambiental. El objetivo de esta
presentación es analizar, desde la perspectiva socio técnica, las
acciones de política pública tendientes a reducir la contaminación
ambiental en la población de Los Ralos. De las entrevistas
realizadas surge que existe una gran preocupación de la sociedad
civil que demanda medidas específicas tendientes a resolver este
problema. Desde el sistema público y privado se han generados
espacios y mesas de dialogo donde participan actores
provenientes de los ámbitos sanitarios, educativos y productivos
de la región. En este incipiente proceso se ha avanzado en las
vinculaciones a través de convenios, protocolos de quemas
controladas, capacitaciones al medio productivo y educativo etc.,
no obstante la mayoría de los actores involucrados consideran
que estas medidas aún son parciales e insuficientes. Los
diferentes actores sociales significan a la quema de distintos
modos y a partir de múltiples interpretaciones se han desarrollado
diferentes dinámicas en las relaciones problema – solución
(mecanización, concientización, regulación).
093. Mediating Political Participation II
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Soldi
Chair:
Jerry Doppelt, UCSD
Participants:
Measuring 'Stress' in the Air Traffic Controllers' Strike in the
Reagan Presidency Jerry Doppelt, UCSD
I examine the role of scientific methodology and political
interests in shaping expert knowledge of stress in Congressional
Hearings concerning the massive firing of Air Traffic Controllers
[‘ATC’] by President Reagan and their strike over working
conditions and pay. The demands of the ATC were based on their
claim that they were victimized by intolerable conditions of work
that generated oppressive patterns of stress, threats to their
health, and risks to the safety of air travel. The Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) took the position that the ATC complaints
reflected individuals’ subjective responses to the challenges of
work and not any pattern of stressful conditions of work.
Congressional investigators solicited the testimony of behavioral
scientists who embraced a paradigm of stress that identified it
with physiological, bio-chemical, and psychological
measurements and discredited the claims of the ATC. Their
methodological paradigm of stress worked out to support the
interests of the government and the FAA. The ‘facts’ were taken
to vindicate Reagan’s action. Advocates for the ATC decided
that their best strategy was to legitimate their complaints in the
scientific, medicalized, objective discourse of stress – opening
the way to the key role of the behavioral experts and the tragic
defeat of the interests of the ATC. With the benefit of hindsight, I
present two alternative strategies for a controversy of this sort:
(1) a defense of the situated, folk knowledge of the actors (ATC),
and better yet (2) the defense of an alternative paradigm of stress
and other experts to establish scientific, objective causal
connections between conditions of work, shared patterns of
human experience, and negative impacts on health and safety.
Os transgênicos no Brasil: política pública e participação.
Maria Luísa Nozawa Ribeiro, UFSCar
Este artigo é o resumo da primeira parte da minha tese de
doutorado, desenvolvida pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em
Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade, pela Universidade Federal de
São Carlos, sob orientação da Professora Doutora Maria Teresa
Miceli Kerbauy. Nele estão apresentadas as primeiras
informações obtidas no levantamento bibliográfico sobre a
questão dos transgênicos no Brasil. Esse artigo tem por objetivo
apontar parte da literatura sobre participação pública e
transgênicos no Brasil, para apresentar de forma condensada o
diálogo entre eles, sustentando o argumento de que a discussão
dos transgênicos proporcionou um questionamento sobre as
formas de democracia e produção de políticas. Através da
categoria “participação pública”, desenvolvida no campo de
Estudos de Ciência e Tecnologia, Sheila Jasanoff (2008; 2006;
2004), Alan Irwin (2006; 2003; 1995) e Brian Wynne (2012;
2011; 2008) são referências ao analisarem a temática dos
transgênicos e da biotecnologia no contexto europeu, das
políticas públicas e da governança. As discussões sobre
“Modernidade Reflexiva” e “Sociedade de Risco” de Anthony
Giddens e Ulrich Beck (1992; 1994; 1999) permearão toda minha
análise. Em relação aos transgênicos no contexto brasileiro, a
autora Julia S. Guivant (2011; 2010; 2009) traz muitas
contribuições com sua perspectiva sociológica e política do tema.
Essas informações obtidas buscam embasar uma análise a longo
prazo sobre a inserção da sociedade civil nas políticas públicas,
com enfoque nos transgênicos, possibilitando um estudo mais
aprofundado sobre os espaços de participação, os atores
envolvidos, os processos de negociação, a questão das
hierarquias e até mesmo os seus resultados produzidos.
Presença e Informação: o dasein heideggeriano em tempos de
internet, hiperconexão e redes sociais. Priscilla Cavalcante
Normando, Universidade de Brasília - Observatório do
Movimento pela Tecnologia Social na América Latina
(OBMTS/UnB)
O trabalho é a tentativa de abordar o fenômeno da hiperconexão
pela via da internet, em especial nas redes sociais, pela
perspectiva do dasein heideggeriano. A investigação se guiou
pela pergunta sobre as possibilidades, o poder ser, nos
denominados ambientes virtuais e como isso impacta a existência
humana.
Open source culture re-imagines science in the public interest:
Open Source Hardware at CERN Alison Powell, London
School of Economics and Political Science
Opening hardware provides several ways of re-imagining closed
or ‘constituted’ knowledge. Open hardware practitioners
sometimes physically open and tinker with black boxed
electronic objects (Hertz and Parikka, 2011) – but they also
devise novel legal and normative frameworks to compel the
maintenance of hardware designs as open source resources
(Powell, 2012). These legal frameworks attempt to release the
control of “constituted authorities” (Mansell, 2013) like
universities, corporate entities and manufacturers, while
valorizing the participation of “adaptive authorities” such as selforganized hackers and makers. In theory, open source licenses
shift how markets are established and organized, valorizing the
peer producers (Benkler, 2011). In reality, the development of
open hardware licenses reveals a bilateral influence between
imaginations of the ‘public good’ held by public institutions and
more adaptive imaginations developed within open source
culture. This paper examines the participation of researchers
from CERN, the high-energy physics lab, in the development of
open hardware licenses. CERN’s institutional identity as a
location of ‘open scientific culture’ (Collins, 1998) influences the
way the researchers conceive of open hardware: as both
improving the quality of the electronics their department
purchases while also augmenting CERN’s responsibility to
conduct science in the public interest. Drawing on interviews
with CERN researchers as well as open hardware producers, this
paper argues that open source production processes provide new
ways of conceiving of CERN’s responsibility for science in the
public interest. Dismantling the false opposition between
institutional and peer-produced knowledge, it investigates how
licenses as boundary objects can mediate and transform
knowledge sharing.
“Aerospace-quality Technology by Volunteers”: Exploring
Amateur Technocracy in DIY Drones Christina DunbarHester, Rutgers University
In 2009, Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson launched a new
venture, a website entitled “DIY Drones”, which now boasts over
30,000 registered users. The mission of DIY Drones is “open
sourcing the military industrial complex”. A distributed network
of hobbyists endeavor to build software and hardware
components for unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. This
undertaking is accompanied by a rhetorical efforts to decouple
drones from their military applications; to a significant degree,
hobbyists claim to pursue a vision of drones as “demilitarize[d]
and democratize[d]”. At the same time, some hackerspaces and
related hobbyist technical communities courted state funding
from defense agencies. In 2012 Tim O’Reilly’s Maker Faire
accepted a grant from a DARPA (defense department) program
devoted to “revolutioniz[ing] the way defense systems and
vehicles are designed”; controversy rippled through hacker
communities as a result. Based on ethnographic and documentary
research on United States-based open source and hackerspace
communities, this paper explores the politics of amateurs
building technologies with equivalent capacities to military
matériel. While unmanned aerial vehicles may or may not have
“inherent” politics (Winner 1988), amateurs involved in DIY
drones have articulated “undercutting military procurement
economics” as one goal. Arguably, civilians are engaged in
conducting military research & development as well as public
relations, all while sidestepping the potential politics of their
activities. Amateurs’ focus on the ostensible superiority of peer
production practices, along with the joy of tinkering, is in
keeping with the association of “networked” collaboration with
anti-bureaucratic/countercultural styles. This paper argues that
even while current amateur technologists recapitulate a form of
practice that amounts to collaboration with the militaryuniversity-industrial complex, the complex legacy of peer
production or networked collaboration provides rhetorical
resources for amateur technocrats to either leave unexamined
potential consequences of their hobbies, or to bolster militarism
under the guise of apolitical affective pleasure in technology.
Conferencias de consenso en Uruguay: energía nuclear, minería
(y desarrollo) Alejandra Umpiérrez, Facultad de
Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación, UdelaR; Marila
Lázaro Olaizola, Unidad de Ciencia y Desarrollo, Facultad
de Ciencias, Udelar; Ana Vasquez, Facultad de Ciencias,
UdelaR; Andrés Rius, Instituto de Ciencias Económicas,
UdelaR
Las Conferencias de Consenso son mecanismos de participación
pública que apuntan a una deliberación ciudadana informada
sobre controversias científico-tecnológicas. Quince ciudadanos
que no son expertos en la temática a tratar, ni están implicados
directamente con alguna de sus aristas, atraviesan un proceso de
información, toma de contacto con especialistas y personas
relevantes en relación al tema, manejan argumentos, deliberan, e
interrogan a expertos para llegar a un informe final con sus
conclusiones sobre el tema. En el año 2010 se llevó acabo la
primera experiencia en Uruguay, vinculada a la posibilidad de
que el país utilizara energía nucleoeléctrica y durante el año 2011
el tema tratado fue la minería de gran porte. A pesar de ser dos
temas diferentes, ambos paneles ciudadanos coincidieron en sus
conclusiones en el interés en que la temática respectiva fuera
analizada desde el marco más general de las trayectorias de
desarrollo deseables para el país. Es por ello que un grupo
interdiscipplinario de docentes universitarios trabaja en la
implementación de un proyecto que pueda dar respuesta a
algunas de estas demandas. Se intentará generar un ámbito de
discusión, deliberación, aprendizaje e investigación sobre los
desafíos del desarrollo, identificando dimensiones del bienestar
valoradas por la población uruguaya. En la presentación se
brindarán detalles de cómo se trató el tema desarrollo en ambas
conferencias de consenso y cómo, a partir de las conclusiones de
ambos procesos, se proyecta este proceso que recién comienza y
sus desafíos vinculados a la combinación de mecanismos,
metodologías y públicos.
094. Design/Think with care, STS & Local Issues II
Paper Session
4:30 to 6:30 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Verdi
Chair:
Tania Pérez Bustos, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Participants:
Feminist dialogues on care to envision imaginaries around
gametes Sara Lafuente, CSIC - Consejos Superior de
Investigaciones Científicas (Spanish National Research
Council)
The concept of care has been enacted from very different angles
within feminist literature. Within social studies of science, care
was used to explore alternatives to the logic of choice (Mol,
2008) and to enlighten the entanglements of affect, ethics and
scientific practice (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2010, 2011) but it has
been rarely linked with other literature around care developed
within feminist economics. Some authors from the latter have
proposed to link the concept of care with that of sustainability of
life in order to emphasized ideas of vulnerability and
interdependency (Picchio, 2003; Orozco, 2006; Carrasco, 2009).
Although these two areas conceptualize care in similar terms,
significant differences do exist. This talk aims at presenting a
dialogue between those approaches to care as part of a theoretical
framework in which feminist and social studies of science as well
as queer theory play a key role for the construction of a lens from
which to understand how and with what consequences
imaginaries around eggs are (re)produced within Spanish
scientific contexts. In so doing, the work of Emily Martin (1996)
on how eggs and sperm are presented through male/female roles
and according to a discourse of romance has been revisited.
Drawing on incipient ethnographic research, interviews with
researchers and analysis of scientific texts, and introducing the
abovementioned theoretical framework, provisional findings
suggest that imaginaries around eggs and sperm within research
on reproduction are deeply affected by neoliberal ideals of selfsufficiency and heteronormative notions of femininity,
masculinity and the nuclear family.
¿Qué implica diseñar participativamente tecnologías desde el
cuidado? Tania Pérez Bustos, Pontificia Universidad
Javeriana
Tomo como caso una investigación que pretende desarrollar TIC
para el reconocimiento del bordado artesanal en Colombia. Una
de las premisas fundamentales de este proyecto es entender el
bordado como una práctica de cuidado en tres sentidos: como un
quehacer que involucra prácticas que requieren de mucha
atención en la manipulación de los materiales que son bordados y
las formas en que se borda; como una práctica que supone el
sostenimiento de lo vital: en términos económicos de quienes
bordan y sus familias y en términos de autoreconocimiento y
construcción de comunidad; y como un asunto, en ocasiones
invisible, que involucra formas particulares de conocer: a sí
mismo, al contexto del bordado y al bordado en sí. Con miras a
visibilizar estos sentidos del cuidado asociados al acto de bordar
el proyecto propone el diseño y desarrollo participativo de TIC.
Con esta ponencia busco discutir las implicaciones teóricoprácticas de esta intención de diseño de tecnologías. Esto con un
doble objetivo. En primer lugar fortalecer el proceso de
diseño/desarrollo, de modo que éste sea orientado por el cuidado
y no solo plataforma de visibilización del mismo. Algunas de las
preguntas que guían este objetivo son: ¿qué puede aportar el
cuidado en el diseño participativo de TIC? ¿Es posible hablar de
TIC cuidadosas? ¿En qué sentido? En segundo lugar, la ponencia
busca apuntalar algunas claves analíticas que permitan
comprender la articulación entre conocimiento, cuidado y tejido,
la pregunta guía aquí es: ¿qué significa bordar o tejer el
conocimiento desde el cuidado?
De la puntada al circuito: etnografía del proceso de construcción
de un lenguaje de programación que se borda Sara Daniela
Márquez, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
"Bordando el conocimiento propio: sistematización de
experiencias y diseño participativo del tejido como práctica de
cuidado en Cartago, Valle", Colombia, es una iniciativa de un
conjunto de investigadoras/es sociales, ingenieros/a y
diseñadoras, situados en Bogotá y en el que me desempeño como
asistente de investigación. Un producto del proyecto es un
desarrollo tecnológico realizado con un grupo de bordadoras/es a
través de estrategias de diseño participativo, que estará en manos
de la ingeniera del equipo. Realizar un desarrollo tecnológico en
el marco de un proyecto que tiene como eje articulador la
práctica del bordado en un contexto específico y en manos de
actores particulares, implica inicialmente dos retos: en primer
lugar, desarrollar capacidades que nos permitan poner en diálogo
percepciones diversas sobre lo que es en sí el bordado y lo que es
la tecnología; y en segundo lugar, la formulación de un lenguaje
de programación para el desarrollo tecnológico, que contiene
traducciones específicas sobre lo que es el bordado y los diversos
elementos que lo componen. Para esta ponencia propongo un
ejercicio etnográfico (de talleres con el grupo de bordadoras/as,
reuniones del equipo de ingeniería, y el trabajo de la ingeniera
lider del desarrollo), que de cuenta de las formas en que se
construye ese lenguaje de programación y la manera en que
ingenieros/a traducen, transforman y materializan en ese lenguaje
específico su comprensión sobre el bordado. Este ejercicio
constituye a su vez una mirada reflexiva sobre la producción de
tecnologías en relación con las apuestas transformadoras el
equipo de investigación.
The happiness of local and global inequalities Michael Nebeling
Petersen, Southern University of Denmark
Looking closely at four different fertility centers’ web sites and
social media sites, this paper examines how promises of
happiness play an important function and mediates the unequal
relations inherent in transnational reproductive economies. The
four sites are chosen within the global reproductive economy:
Two sites from Denmark represents the Global North and the
ongoing discussion of the consequences of the privatization of
health care within the Scandinavian countries, thus the sites from
Denmark will include one private and one public fertility center.
The two other sites represents other key parts of the economy:
One fertility center in Eastern Europe represents the growing
industry of egg donation, and one fertility center in Thailand
represents the surrogacy industry. The analysis will focus on the
cultural and concrete production of non-normative families
within the global economy. Highlighting how especially
homosexual couples are understood and produced within the
economy, the paper will analyze two different axes of inequality:
The one centralizes how inequalities between non-normative and
normative families are understood and negotiated, while the other
axe will centralize how inequalities between donating and
receiving agents in the economy are produced and maintained.
Following Ahmed’s and Berlant’s work on happiness and
optimism this paper will understand (the promise of) happiness
as normative social scripts in which bodies and identities are
moved in specific ways. The paper will argue that the promise of
happiness makes the different axes of inequalities livable and
understandable while simultaneously makes these inequalities
more hidden and thus maintained.
095. Banquet and Tango Show
Special Event
7:00 to 11:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat
FRIDAY, AUGUST, 22
096. Modelos de Institucionalização e Mecanismos de Difusão em
Política Científica e Tecnológica
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
Chairs:
Carolina Bagattolli, UFPR - Universidade Federal do Paraná
Tiago Brandão, IHC, FCSH-UNL
Participants:
O padrão recente da PCT&I brasileira e as máximas do
inovacionismo Tildo José Furlan Junior, Universidade
Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP; Rafael Dias, Campinas
State University
O objetivo deste artigo é mostrar como o discurso inovacionista
emergiu na PCT&I brasileira a partir de meados dos anos 1990 e
moldou, desde então, o padrão de atuação desta política. Para
isso, este trabalho se divide em dois momentos: primeiro procura
mostrar a ascensão do discurso pró-inovação na PCT&I brasileira
por meio da construção das máximas do inovacionismo,
afirmações que expressam as crenças desse discurso (empresa
privada é o locus privilegiado na inovação; inovação é fonte de
competitividade; inovar é missão da Universidade pública); em
segundo lugar, recupera ações da PCT&I brasileira a partir da
segunda metade dos anos 1990 (principais diretrizes dos quatro
grandes planos industriais, dos dois grandes planos de C&T, dos
dois principais instrumentos de política de C&T e das duas
principais leis referentes ao setor) que evidenciam como esse
discurso propagado por tais máximas se materializou de forma
contundente nesta política. O artigo traz evidências de que a
PCT&I brasileira tem sido orientada pelas ideias contidas nas
máximas do inovacionismo e pretende contribuir para a
construção de uma visão crítica que mostre o papel hegemônico
destas ideias e o seu caráter pouco democrático, já que não levam
em consideração as demandas de diferentes atores sociais que
poderiam colaborar para a elaboração desta política e dela
também se beneficiar. Finalmente, são propostas futuras linhas
de pesquisa que podem responder questões mais profundas que
vão além do objetivo deste artigo e que ao serem elucidadas
poderão proporcionar novos instrumentos para futuras análises da
PCT&I brasileira.
Políticas de CTI en América Latina: transferencia intrarregional
de conocimientos y capacidades nacionales Belén Baptista,
Universidad de la República, Uruguay; Amílcar Davyt
García, Unidad de Ciencia y Desarrollo, Facultad de
Ciencias, Udelar
A partir de literatura teórica de diferentes campos del
conocimiento en torno a las políticas públicas, de relevamientos
empíricos sobre la realidad latinoamericana en materia de
Políticas nacionales de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (CTI) y
su evolución reciente en los diversos países, y de entrevistas a un
conjunto de especialistas de la región en esta área, se discuten los
procesos de transferencia de conocimiento e isomorfismo
institucional entre países y regiones en el campo de las políticas
públicas en CTI. En base a la evidencia empírica generada y
sistematizada, se fundamenta la existencia de un creciente flujo
intrarregional de información y conocimientos sobre políticas de
CTI, que comenzó tímidamente en América Latina partir de la
década del 70 y fue derivando en procesos nacionales de
imitación, adaptación e innovación en esta área, sobre la base de
la propia experiencia regional. Este proceso, que denominamos
de “aprendizaje regional interactivo”, contribuye a explicar la
actual situación de heterogeneidad convergente en materia de
capacidades de elaboración de políticas públicas de CTI en
América Latina.
Considerações sobre política de C&T em saúde no Brasil
contemporaneo Marcia de Oliveira Teixeira, Fundação
Oswaldo Cruz / BRASIL; Ana Tereza Pinto Filipecki,
Fiocruz; Vinicius Pellizzaro Klein, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz
/ BRASIL
A disseminação de um modelo de produção de conhecimento
científico comprometido com a inovação e a competitividade
vem tencionando o ambiente de pesquisa brasileiro e
redirecionando as políticas públicas. No caso da biomedicina
esse modelo é sintetizado pela ideação do “Complexo
Econômico-Industrial da Saúde” (CEIS) por pesquisadores
influenciados pela Economia da Inovação e com atuação na
gestão do Ministério da Saúde (MS). O CEIS analisa as
consequências da assimetria entre as políticas nacionais de C&T
e de saúde, destacando a dependência da importação de
tecnologias e seus impactos no sistema de saúde. Ele propõem
articular as políticas de saúde, industrial e de C&T, a formulação
de uma agenda estratégica entre instituições de pesquisa e a
indústria nacional, por intermédio das parcerias público-privadas
e o fortalecimento da indústria nacional. Consideramos que o
estatuto do CEIS como síntese teórica entre as teses globalizadas
da “economia da inovação” e loco-regionais da “saúde pública”,
bem como uma política pública para C&T em saúde, ainda é
pouco explorado. O objetivo desse trabalho é analisar o CEIS
sob os seguintes aspectos 1) característica híbrida de síntese
teórica e política pública; 2) o perfil dos seus formuladores,
simultaneamente gestores e pesquisadores; 3) as relações do
CEIS enquanto política pública local e as políticas internacionais
difundidas por organismos internacionais. Para tanto nos
apoiaremos na revisão da produção acadêmica associada ao CEIS
e a Economia da Inovação, com destaque para sua crítica pelos
STS; na análise das políticas e ações estratégicas implementadas
pelo MS nos últimos 10 anos.
Política de software e serviços de TI no Brasil: uma análise de
política Daniela Pinheiro, State University of Campinas UNICAMP; Milena Serafim, State University of Campinas UNICAMP
O presente trabalho analisa o processo de elaboração do
Programa TI Maior 2012-2015, recente política brasileira para
software e serviços de TI, partindo da hipótese de que esta
política possui semelhanças e especificidades presentes na
política científica e tecnológica (PCT) brasileira, como seu
caráter ofertista, a comunidade de pesquisa como grupo
dominante e legitimador da política e a visão da C&T como base
do desenvolvimento. A metodologia utilizada contemplou duas
formas de coleta de dados: revisão de literatura e análise
documental. O trabalho caracteriza-se também como uma
pesquisa qualitativa e exploratória. Para a análise dos
documentos governamentais, desde o programa de governo para
as eleições de 2010 até a implementação do Programa TI Maior,
utilizamos categoria de análise adotada por Ball & Bowe (1992),
que distingue o processo de política em três fases: política
proposta, política de fato e política em uso, e permite análise de
contexto, influência, atores sociais, debates e discursos,
interesses, ideologias e ações ao longo do processo de política. A
partir do referencial de Análise de Política, observamos pouca
alteração nos discursos, textos e ações ao longo da construção do
Programa TI Maior. Evidenciamos, também, que os atores
sociais envolvidos e os interesses e ideologias contemplados
pertencem a um mesmo grupo, dominante na formulação e
implementação dessa política: a comunidade de pesquisa. Mesmo
que outros atores sociais tenham se envolvido no debate, seus
interesses não parecem ter sido contemplados. Neste sentido, o
trabalho busca contribuir com o debate e os estudos sobre
política científica e tecnológica.
Análisis de las políticas públicas en biotecnología en Argentina
(1982-2012) Diego Aguiar, CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS EN
CIENCIA, TECNOLOGÍA, CULTURA Y DESARROLLO CONICET - UNRNP
En la Argentina se diseñaron y ejecutaron políticas públicas en el
campo de la biotecnología desde principios de la década de 1980,
y las mismas han tenido continuidad hasta nuestros días. Dichas
políticas han atravesado desde gobiernos militares hasta
gobiernos democráticos de distintos signos políticos. Algunas de
las preguntas que intenta responder este trabajo son: ¿El esfuerzo
del Estado nacional para promover la Biotecnología fue grande,
mediano o pequeño? ¿Con qué criterios se puede medir ese
esfuerzo? ¿Cómo se articularon los intereses, representaciones y
las racionalidades de los distintos actores (científicos,
empresarios, gestores, bancos) en las políticas públicas de
biotecnología? ¿Qué estrategias se plantearon para romper la
lógica de laissez faire de la tradición de la ciencia Argentina?
Teniendo en cuenta las capacidades que tenía el Argentina en la
década de 1980 en el campo de las ciencias biomédicas y
biológicas ¿Por qué el país perdió la oportunidad de ser líder
mundial en Biotecnología? El abordaje teórico utilizado
triangula conceptos de distintos campos: análisis de políticas
públicas, estudios sobre expertos y constructivismo social de la
ciencia y la tecnología (SCOT). La metodología es centralmente
cualitativa, incluye análisis de documentos (leyes, planes,
normas, reglamentaciones producidos por distintas instituciones
del Estado) y entrevistas en profundidad a informantes claves
como científicos, gestores de políticas públicas y empresarios.
Reflexões No Desenvolvimento De Produto Relacionado Às
Tecnologias Sociais Na Produção De Imagens Sacras Camila
Loricchio Veiga, Universidade Federal de Itajubá; Rosinei
Batista Ribeiro, Faculdades Integradas Teresa D'Ávila
(FATEA) / Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
(UERJ); Adilson Silva Mello, Universidade Federal de
Itajubá; Isabela Batista Graça Grego, Faculdades
Integradas Teresa D'Ávila - FATEA; Bianca Siqueira
Martins Domingos, Universidade Federal de Itajubá UNIFEI; Gilbert Silva, Universidade Federal de Itajubá UNIFEI
Esta proposta se iniciou em um projeto de iniciação científica e
tinha por objetivos dar uma destinação ao resíduo da produção
cervejeira, terras de diatomáceas ou kiesselguhr, juntamente com
o uso do gesso, para tanto relacionando o projeto à indústria de
imagens sacras na cidade de Aparecida/SP. A produção é
totalmente artesanal e o gesso é um material de grande
importância para o desenvolvimento social e econômico de
cidades que dependem do turismo religioso, por ser usado no
desenvolvimento de artefatos e imagens sacras. As terras de
diatomáceas constituem um resíduo industrial descartado no final
do processo de fabricação de cerveja, onde é usada como auxiliar
na etapa de filtração da bebida. O estudo anterior teve como
objetivo avaliar o uso de diferentes cargas deste resíduo como
aditivo no gesso, assim como classificar a distribuição
morfológica dos cristais, o projeto ainda está em andamento e os
resultados parciais também são incluídos no trabalho. A proposta
atual prevê uma análise sociotécnica e uma reflexão das
consequências dessas mudanças no contexto social em questão,
onde serão entrevistadas qualitativamente duas empresas com
processos produtivos diferenciadas e uma utilização das
tecnologias sociais para rever as possíveis soluções para
problemas que houverem persistido.
097. Aportes de la teoría crítica de la tecnología para la
evaluación tecnológica I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
Participants:
Reification, Dereification and STS Andrew Feenberg, Simon
Fraser University
Lukács developed the theory of reification in his 1923 book
History and Class Consciousness. By “reification” he intended
not simply treating a concept or relationship as a thing but, more
specifically, treating institutions constituted by human activity as
quasi-natural objects governed by laws similar to the natural laws
discovered by the sciences. Lukács argued that such reified
institutions could be dereified when the subjects whose activity
constituted them became aware of their own role. Then the
apparent naturalness of the institutions and the laws governing
them would dissolve and transformation in accordance with
collective conscious intent would become possible. This
argument was developed in the context of a theory of socialist
revolution which had more plausibility in Lukács’s central
Europe in 1923 than today anywhere we choose to look.
However, the concepts of reification and dereification are still
useful. They underlie the Frankfurt School Critical Theory of
advanced industrial societies and, surprisingly, they clarify
aspects of current Science and Technology Studies. In fact STS
can be seen as an empirical realization the program of Critical
Theory. STS has shown that the reified form of technology can
be dissolved into the processes of human relations that constitute
technical objects and systems. Furthermore, this approach
clarifies much of the what is occurring in contemporary political
struggles over technology in movements such as the
environmental movement and the movement for social
technology.
La teoría crítica de la tecnología: Alcances y limitaciones
Hector Gustavo Giuliano, Universidad Católica Argentina;
Fernando Tula Molina, UNQ, Conicet, Agencia
Las máquinas, encaminadas hacia la automatización y la
virtualización, modifican aspectos medulares de la relación entre
cantidad y calidad, por un lado, y entre equidad y poder por el
otro. Es en la etapa de diseño tecnológico en la que se fijan las
posibilidades abiertas por el avance del conocimiento, en la
mayoría de los casos siguiendo una estructura jerárquica que
afianza la dominación. Sin embargo, según la teoría crítica de la
tecnología, el diseño tecnológico está necesariamente imbricado
con valores e intereses tanto técnicos como sociales. Estos
intervienen de manera amplia y no ingenua involucrando las
etapas de diseño, producción, uso y descarte de artefactos y
sistemas técnicos. La ética y la política ocupan en consecuencia
un lugar central; ya que por su intermedio sería posible no sólo
identificar tales intereses, sino también construir prácticas
tecnológicas colectivas por la vía de la democratización. En
consecuencia, toda posibilidad concreta de emancipación debe
contar con una mirada crítica sobre nuestras herramientas, su
cultura, sus prácticas y sus consecuencias. Es por tales motivos
que se torna fundamental acercar la reflexión sobre la tecnología
a los ámbitos de formación de ingenieros y tecnólogos. El
objetivo de este trabajo es presentar, a modo de introducción a la
temática del panel, los alcances y limitaciones de dicha teoría
para transitar hacia la democratización deseada.
Código Técnico e controvérsias na implantação da UHE do
Baixo Iguaçu Catiane Matiello, Universidade Tecnológica
Federal do Paraná - UTFPR; Gilson Leandro Queluz,
Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR)
O artigo tem como objetivo analisar a implantação da usina
hidrelétrica do Baixo Iguaçu, no sudoeste do estado do Paraná,
observando o conflito entre a população atingida e os
empreendedores sob o marco teórico dos estudos em Ciência,
Tecnologia e Sociedade (CTS) e especificamente, a partir das
reflexões de A. Feenberg. A metodologia consiste na análise de
documentos como Relatório de Impacto Ambiental, atas de
reuniões, matérias jornalísticas e pronunciamentos de
parlamentares registrados em edições do Diário Oficial da
Assembleia Legislativa do Paraná e de seu cotejamento com
depoimentos e notas em caderno de campo, elaborados a partir da
participação em reuniões realizadas entre o Consórcio Geração
Céu Azul e a comissão de atingidos da barragem do Baixo
Iguaçu. Considerando as principais controvérsias entre os grupos
em disputa, procurou-se compreender, através de aspectos
presentes na história da definição da barragem, de que forma
elementos fundamentais do projeto validam um determinado
código técnico, conforme o conceito descrito por Feenberg.
Observou-se os argumentos empregados analisando como eles se
alinham a determinadas frentes de interesses, verificando as
concepções de tecnologia presentes e que tipo de valores são
mobilizados. Considerando o processo de implantação de uma
barragem como uma arena política, na qual é possível seguir os
códigos técnicos em sua ação, através dos referenciais analíticos
do campo de estudos CTS, buscou-se compor um quadro que
apresente o padrão de legitimação e de representações de
tecnologia nas narrativas sobre a implantação da usina.
Disputa y Control tecnológico: Más allá de la producción y el
mercado Helder Binimelis, Universidad Católica de Temuco
Las discusiones de Andrew Feenberg sobre el poder tecnocrático,
y la aparición de procesos de control tecnológico, es decir, los
procesos de búsqueda de autonomía operacional de los sectores
privilegiados en las sociedades capitalistas, puede ser analizada
más allá de las esferas de la producción tecnológica, y de los
mercados de tecnología. Siguiendo a Boaventura de Sousa Santos
se plantea que el poder ejercido por medios técnicos y la
búsqueda de autonomía operacional (así como los conflictos
subyacentes) pueden ser comprendidos en los diversos espacios
estructurales de acción (mundial, producción, mercado,
ciudadanía, comunidad, familia), y por tanto, el ejercicio de
poder tecnológico en busca de autonomía operacional no tiene
exclusivamente una finalidad de clase, sino que también
permitiría otras formas de privilegio, y otras formas de
desigualdad y exclusión no consideradas originalmente por la
teoría crítica. Se propondrá una descripción de estos espacios de
disputa, identificando procesos de control técnológico a escala
mundial (civilizatorios); en el ámbito político (preservación del
statu quo político); en el ámbito identitario (preservación de
privilegios de las identidades dominantes); y en el ámbito
familiar e íntimo (preservación de ordenes patriarcales); además
de la descripción de los conflictos en los ya mencionados
espacios de la producción y el mercado. La discusión anterior,
permitiría una evaluación más específica de los componentes
valóricos y normativos presentes tanto en la creación como en el
uso de tecnologías.
Nuevas modalidades organizativas para enfrentar la
convergencia tecnológica Mónica Casalet, Facultad
Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) sede
México
En las últimas dos décadas se han experimentado cambios
importantes en el modo de producción de los conocimientos, en
la estructura organizativa de las empresas y en la articulación de
las cadenas de valor vinculadas con sectores estratégicos
receptores de los cambios tecnológicos y productivos
(automotriz, aeroespacial, biotecnología). Estas transformaciones
modificaron sustancialmente las relaciones entre los diferentes
agentes económicos y sociales (empresas, sectores, regiones,
gobierno, sociedad civil, investigadores y formación de
posgrado). En la actual encrucijada las profundas
transformaciones a nivel internacional tanto en la asimilación de
nuevas tecnologías y procesos de fabricación digital, como las
mutaciones en la historia relacional de la sociedad plantean
nuevas incertidumbres, especialmente en ciertas formas de
organización que se vuelven inutilizables para enfrentar la
velocidad de los cambios. La construcción de la complejidad
organizacional de la sociedad difieren del pasado, la
uniformización y la imposición no coinciden con una realidad de
cambios acelerados a nivel tecnológico, productivo y de
comportamientos sociales. Las nuevas configuraciones
productivas y de investigación plantean otras reglas de juego para
las sociedades complejas basadas en la diferenciación y en el
peso que adquiere la distribución entre soberanías compartidas y
recíprocamente limitadas a nivel local, regional, nacional, estatal
e internacional.
Alcances normativos de una lectura feenbergeana de los
conflictos ambientales Ayelén Cavalli, Universidad Nacional
de Mar del Plata
Andrew Feenberg define a los movimientos sociales como
movimientos de resistencia, que se oponen a las estructuras de
poder, por medio de las cuales se ejerce el control técnico y se
restringe la participación en el diseño. Desde esta perspectiva, la
democratización de la tecnología implica, como eje central, la
recuperación de la agencia de los grupos excluidos, dando lugar a
la emergencia de demandas éticas y a su realización en nuevas
configuraciones técnicas sustentables, en resistencia al sistema
tecnológico unidimensional. El presente trabajo tiene como
objetivo principal abordar los aspectos normativos de la Teoría
Critica de la Tecnología de Feenberg con el fin de explorar sus
alcances y limitaciones en torno a una comprensión integral de
los conflictos ambientales, colocando un énfasis particular en el
rol de los movimientos sociales. La investigación es de carácter
hermenéutico: se realizará un análisis crítico de los textos guiado
por la búsqueda de núcleos significativos relacionados con el
objetivo mencionado. Esta ponencia constituye una contribución
para la literatura CTS, dado que si bien ha habido un creciente
interés en los últimos años en la obra de Feenberg en América
Latina, aun resultan escasos los trabajos sobre la temática. Por
otra parte, los conflictos ambientales contemporáneos han
mostrado las limitaciones de los enfoques tradicionales de
gestión ambiental, con fuerte sesgo economicista y tecnocrático,
poniendo en evidencia la necesidad de nuevos abordajes que
permitan una concepción mas integral de los conflictos, donde
tanto los ámbitos de planificación como de evaluación sean
democratizados.
Discussant:
Hector Gustavo Giuliano, Universidad Católica Argentina
098. Environmental controversies in world risk society.
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Chopin
Since the publication of Risikogesellschaft (Risk Society) in 1986, Ulrich
Beck´s theorizations have represented a source of new concepts and
perspectives with the potential to enrich and challenge the social studies of
science and technology (STS) – although the challenge was not always
accepted. The initial notions of “risk society” and “reflexive
modernization” shed light on aspects already described by STS analysts of
technical and environmental controversies in the late 1960s and early
1970s, among other issues. “World risk society”, in turn, marked a
broadening of the landscape considered, able to connect distant actors and
events in cross-border relations. More recently, Beck has developed the
notion of “methodological cosmopolitanism” to highlight that analyses
circumscribing themselves to the nation-state cannot deal with most current
social phenomena, including the techno-sciences. He thus urges social
scientists to reconsider their traditional “methodological nationalism”,
based on the assumption that the national-territorial remains the primary
‘container’ for the analysis of economic, political and cultural processes, as
built into basic concepts of modern sociology and political science as well
as into routines of data collection and analysis. The attendant notion of
“cosmopolitization”, that is, “the coercive inclusion of the excluded ´distant
other´´” – as distinct from the philosophical ideal of “cosmopolitanism” –
could prove both inspiring and challenging to a “globalizing” STS. This
panel invites contributions exploring the intersections of STS analyses of
technical and environmental controversies with Ulrich Beck’s world risk
society and methodological cosmopolitanism, in the hope of strengthening
a mutually beneficial ‘trading zone’ between these analytical domains.
Participants:
Resistance to nuclear technology from a cosmopolitan
perspective: on the plans to construct a small nuclear reactor
on the border between Argentina and Paraguay Agustin Piaz,
CONICET-UNSAM
In 2010, the government of Formosa province, a quite
underdeveloped area in North East Argentina on the border to
Paraguay, signed an agreement with the National Commission of
Atomic Energy (CNEA) to advance the construction of a Carem
nuclear reactor. This is a small modular reactor designed by
CNEA and the Argentine company INVAP aimed at providing
energy to remote locations, whose first prototype is under
construction in Lima, Buenos Aires province. News about these
plans, along with rumors about the construction of a uranium
processing facility, aroused questioning and opposition that led to
protests both in Argentina and Paraguay—mostly in its capital,
Asunción. This paper is aimed at analyzing these expressions of
resistance to nuclear technology in terms of a siting dispute that
has also components of an environmental justice controversy. We
intend to focus particularly on how contributions from the theory
of reflexive modernization (Beck, 1996; 2002) as well as
methodological cosmopolitanism (Beck and Grande, 2010) help
us understand the emergence and dynamics of a heterogeneous
coalition of actors—environmental movements, grassroots
activists, national and supranational institutions—that question
the nation-state as the privileged territory to study this kind of
conflicts.
You can´t socially construct bicycles without rubber: SCOT
needs a ´cosmopolitan turn´ Ana Maria Vara, Universidad
Nacional de San Martin
The “social construction of technology” (SCOT) is a well-known
theory of technological change based on an empirical approach
that represents an attempt to move away from technological
determinism and not to make a priori distinctions between social,
technical, scientific and political aspects of technological
developments. Authors use the metaphor of the “seamless web”
to highlight the intimate connection of these spheres in shaping
technology (Bijker, Hughes and Pinch, 1989; Bijker, 1997).
Since its creation, SCOT has revealed itself as a productive
approach, and has become a quite successful theory in STS. One
of its core illustrative cases is the development of the safety
bicycle in Europe at the end of the nineteen century. Although
not circumscribed to just one nation-state, the story of the bicycle
SCOT tells suffers from what can be characterized as a serious
geographical and political myopia: it says nothing about the
origin of rubber, a key natural resource for this technology,
which at the time of these events was obtained mostly from slave
labor in Africa and Latin America, under colonial and
neocolonial extractive regimes. We intend to revisit this story
putting into dialogue SCOT with Ulrich Beck´s latest
theorizations on “world risk society” and “methodological
cosmopolitanism” (Beck, 2008; Beck and Grande, 2010), which
will help us illuminate social actors neglected by SCOT, and
characterize the dynamics of technological development as more
complex and possibly more geographically dispersed,
environmentally detrimental, and politically and ethically
compromised than foreseen by SCOT.
The struggle to regulate pesticides in rural Argentina: dealing
with global risk governance in a peripheral context Florencia
Arancibia, State University of New York at Stony Brook
In a global knowledge economy, as political decision makers
seek scientific advice to analyze the risks and benefits of new
technological developments (Moore et al., 2011), the democratic
capacity of citizens to intervene in the regulation of new
technologies is increasingly reduced. In this context, new forms
of grassroots participation in the arena of regulatory science
(Jasanoff, 1990) and novel relationships between scientists and
social movements (SM) are emerging. In this paper I analyze the
efforts made by SMs to promote pesticide regulation and to
advocate for environmentally sustainable agriculture in
Argentina, the largest third world producer of GM soy. The
adoption of GM soy has radically triggered the consumption of
pesticides. While pesticides may indeed help raise productivity
levels, great human health and environmental costs associated
with their abuse have been denounced by rural communities,
physicians and scientists. However, based on World Health
Organization´s risk assessments, no Argentine laws have been
put in place to control their use. From a “methodological
cosmopolitanism” (Beck, 2008) I will pay special attention to
transnational inequalities in international risk governance and
derived obstacles found by SMs advocating for regulatory
change in a peripheral context.
Minería,desarrollo y sostenibilidad: el extractivismo desde los
estudios CTS Ernesto Andrade-Sastoque, Universidad de
Los Andes
Hay quienes consideran que el desarrollo entendido como
progreso y mero crecimiento económico está muerto, dado que
hay una crisis planetaria en la que está en riesgo la vida, y que el
extractivismo como fenómeno intrínseco al desarrollo, es
consecuencia de la difusión del neoliberalismo en América
Latina. En contraste, el argumento central del siguiente trabajo es
que el “desarrolllo” como discurso, como práctica y como
artefacto no muere, sino que se reinventa presentándose bajo
nuevos ropajes en donde extractivismo y sostenibilidad son los
dos principales elementos constitutivos del mismo. A partir de la
revisión del plan de desarrollo de Colombia 2010-2014 y del
plan de desarrollo del Tolima 2012-2015; literatura sobre minería
de oro, y un análisis de piezas comunicativas de una empresa
multinacional dedicada a la exploración y explotación de este
metal en Colombia, se rastrearon las nociones de ciencia,
tecnología, sostenibilidad y responsabilidad; encontrando entre
otros asuntos, que el desarrollo sostenible en discurso y práctica,
está sumamente imbricado con el extractivismo, dando origen a
la llamada “minería responsable” como una forma de cumplir la
promesa de compatibilidad entre crecimiento económico y
cuidado del medio ambiente declarada en el informe Bruntland
(1987). Complementariamente, se busca problematizar este
controversial tema, señalando la importancia de observar el
fenómeno extractivo en América Latina, desde la perspectiva de
la construcción social de la tecnología (COST), superando las
visiones deterministas, especialmente, aquellas que están
centradas en la dimensión geopolítica y económica del mismo en
Colombia.
Public participation, environmental conflicts and technological
determinism: the case of Guatemala’s hydropower projects
Renato Giovanni Ponciano Sandoval, Universidad de San
Carlos de Guatemala
Guatemala is a country with high potential for producing
renewable energy, particularly hydropower. However, it is
woefully under-exploited and Guatemala depends on imports of
fossil fuels to produce about 40% of the energy it consumes,
adding considerable load to its carbon footprint. Moreover,
hydropower is strongly criticized by environmentalists and
community organizations, making it difficult to start new
projects. This article raises some basic questions to address this
conflict from an STS perspective. It focuses on the public
perception of mechanisms of citizen participation around
hydropower as part of the national debate on environment and
energy policy. It is used as a methodology framework, the work
of Bijker (1997) on public participation, and the work on
technological determinism on Roe, Smith and Marx (1994), to
analyze discourse in opinions, advertising and public exchanges
on the matter, both in printed media and the Internet. Regarding
local referendums on hydropower, the arguments presented to
support or disqualify them give valuable insights, like the fact
that both sides of the debate hold technological deterministic
views. Some depict an "illiterate and gullible peasant" voter who
participates incited by agitators; others, one that’s "heroic,
threatened and concerned about the future", and is ignored by
political and economic powers. However, in both narratives, the
average citizen has only two options, accept or reject hydropower
projects, and with them its technology and consequences. Only
few consider the possibility that citizens could influence their
development, and thus adapt it to their needs and concerns.
Radioactive Waste Repository and Social Crisis: Science to
Help Technopolitics. Blanck Julie, Centre de Sociologie des
Organisations (Sciences-Po Paris/ CNRS)
This paper aims to analyze the political aspects of a technical
project and the mutual influences between technology and
society, within the framework of the deep repository of
radioactive waste in France. This project, developed from an
engineering point of view to tackle economic and industrial
challenges, was called into question through its confrontation
with the society on the ground, and that resulted in a social and
political crisis, which weakened the system of radioactive waste.
Then, the politicization of the problem led the radioactive waste
management being taken over by new neutral stakeholders,
members of Parliament, entrusted by the government to find a
way out of the social crisis. The political power searched a way
to overcome the social blockage regarding the project, while
maintaining the same technical solution, socially rejected. The
political power chose not to modify the technical solution: after
analyzing their failure, they reconsidered the approach and
decided to put an emphasis on the socio-political aspects of the
issue; therefore, politicians suggested to make social and political
changes without modifying the technological lock-in. They
introduced new political procedures, with a law artificially
creating a 15-year research period and a research system to prove
the safety of the solution. This system of knowledge production
came to rescue the technical project socially blocked: it helped
the political power to address the crisis and relaunch the project
of repository. This case study highlights the interrelations
between science, society and nuclear technology, and their
evolution around a highly controversial project.
Discussant:
Julia Silvia Guivant, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina
099. Science, Theory and Conceptual Innovation
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Dalí
Chair:
Robert Evans, Cardiff University
Participants:
Cognitive justice as a theorical-metodological base for scientific
policy Ángel Ruiz, UNAM; Andoni Eizagirre, Universidad de
Mondragón
This paper has two main presuppositions: (1) reflexivity as the
genuine feature of the modernity caracterized by contemporary
sociology and (2) theorical and metodological advances of
pluralist approaches in the comprension of the production,
justification and legimitation of knowledge; impact directly in
the work of philosophy of science and STS. One of the most
important consequences is the necessity to include social and
enviromental oriented models in the democracy assembly. We
suggest its relevance from two fields: (1) the political philosphy
of science and (2) the co-production between natural and social
order idiom. To put into context this affirmation, we propose a
theorical-metodological model to operationalize the categories of
'cognitive justice' and 'knowledge ecology' in scientific policy, in
a evaluative and prospective level.
New Media Revolutions and the Lifeworld: Postcolonial
Theory and the Consumer Internet Christopher Leslie, New
York University Polytechnic School of Engineering
The connection between the revolutionary movements and new
media is often referred to, but not without contention, such as in
connection with in the Arab Spring. One way in which the
experience of new media on the periphery of the consumer
Internet can be seen to interact with unrest and change is in the
strengthening of the public sphere. In discussing the Internet in
China, for instance, Guobin Yang has suggested that it is not
necessarily the access to information that demonstrates the
liberatory potential of the Internet, but it is the sense of
community. Annabelle Sreberny and Gholam Khiabany have
likewise characterized the Internet in Iran. The theorist Ngugi wa
Thiong'o has provided us with a mechanism to theorize this
precursor to political action. Thiong'o points to the Marxist
concept of language "of real life," where the links in labor and as
a community of human beings that are established "in the act of a
people." It is here that the idea of lifeworld that Jurgen Habermas
saw as so central to the public sphere is formed. While ironic that
the tools of monetized Internet were part of establishing this
lifeworld, it is not entirely unexpected. Before the uprisings,
individuals were able to type in a variety of languages about
issues that were part of their daily lives and recognize the sense
of authority that comes from people acting together. This sense
of self perception gained by a collective culture was an important
step in preparing for protests.
Understanding 'understanding' in Science Communication
Martin Weinel, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff
University; Nicolette M Priaulx, Cardiff Law School, Cardiff
University
Instead of focussing on the long standing and increasingly sterile
discussion of models of or approaches to science communication
such as Public Understanding of Science (PUS) and Public
Engagement with Science and Technology (PEST), we use
Collins and Evans' (2007) typology of expertise to think about
the basic requirements to improve the communication of science
in whatever form delivered. We argue that one such requirement
is to provide publics with a broad 'understanding of the nature of
sciences'. Equipping publics with such 'critical scientific literacy'
(Priest 2013) ought to help them to make better sense of, and take
a critical and informed stance in relation to matters of the
processes of science, scientific knowledge and scientific policy.
Such a strategy provides a realistic approach by which to
mitigate some of the perpetual problems suffered through the
transmission of any communication (e.g. mutation,
misunderstanding) whether articulated by scientists, science
inaccurately reported or summarised in popular journals,
newspapers, and media reports and so on. Due to its generality,
the provision of critical scientific literacy should also enable
publics to engage in an informed way with a variety of techno-
scieintific issues.
Why Science Matters: The Third Wave and Scientific Values
Robert Evans, Cardiff University; Harry Collins, Cardiff
University
In their 2002 paper introducing the ‘Third Wave of Science
Studies’, Collins and Evans distinguished between the technical
and political phases of technological decision-making in the
public domain. They also introduced the closely related
distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic politics as one of the
ways in which the technical and political phases could be
differentiated from each other. In this paper we return to these
ideas and develop them in the context of the claims and counterclaims about the relationship between the Third Wave approach
and arguments about the fact-value distinction. By examining
how values play a crucial role in both technical and political
phases we argue that the Third Wave does not equate with
technocracy. In addition, by showing how the values at play in
the technical phase differ from those in the political phase – a
value-value distinction – we argue that the distinction between
the two remains important. In other words, there is more to
technological decision-making in the public domain than politics.
In setting out this argument the paper necessarily touches on
theories of democracy and the ways in which the roles and
capacities of citizens and experts are understood. Bringing these
different strands of argument together leads to a new politics of
technology – Elective Modernism – in which scientific
institutions are valued not for epistemic reasons but for values
they uphold and reproduce. [NB: to be presented by Robert
Evans]
Distributed lab technicians. Operating an orbiting greenhouse.
Jens Petter Kirkhus Johansen, NTNU Social Research;
Petter Grytten Almklov, NTNU Social Research Ltd; Torgeir
Kolstø Haavik, NTNU Social Research; Elena Parmiggiani,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
The International Space Station (ISS) serves as a microgravity
laboratory where researchers can test their ideas and research
designs. While conceived by researchers, the experiments are
conducted by an international network of “lab technicians”. The
Norwegian User Support and Operations Centre (N-USOC) is
responsible for conducting biological experiments within a
micro-gravity greenhouse at the ISS. They are greenhouse
operators and a coordinating nexus for the microgravity
experiments. Our study is based on a prolonged ethnographical
study supplemented with video-analysis of the N-USOC
operators. Technicians manage the empirical interface for
researchers work with representations (Barley, 1996). As for
Barley’s lab technicians, N-USOC’s main concern is
transformation of material entities into scientific representations
(i.e. images, telemetric data, biological material) and caretaking
of the system (make sure the system stays set experiment and
safety boundaries). We elaborate how the complexity and
couplings between the ISS sub-systems means that the operators
must draw upon specific knowledge, formal authority and
execution-support found at different sites in a distributed network
of experts. The work of the distributed technicians in many ways
resembles the shop practices found in labs everywhere, but the
scale of the projects necessitates many forms of formal and
informal coordinative work. We address how the operators
employ shared representational tools and scaling devices (Ribes
2014) to enable collective distributed negotiations, the balancing
between procedures and improvisation and how they make their
work accountable across settings. Much recent work has pointed
to the increasingly distributed world of research. It is so also for
the technicians.
Toward Buzzword Studies: Sexual Health and the Power of
Buzz Steven Epstein, Northwestern University; Laura
Mamo, San Francisco State University
Despite the omnipresence of buzzwords that characterize
scientific and technological trends and developments, STS
scholars have devoted little attention to theorizing and analyzing
the buzzword phenomenon or identifying the specific features
and functions of buzzwords. We consider the similarities and
differences between buzzwords and familiar STS concepts such
as boundary objects, bandwagons, obligatory passage points, and
keywords, and we present a framework for analyzing buzzwords
by locating them within a hybrid social space that traverses
expert and lay arenas. Taking up the example of “sexual health”-a term that has enjoyed wide circulation in recent decades--we
use our empirical research into its invention and proliferation to
identify what makes a term or phrase “buzzworthy” and to trace
the pathway to “buzzwordification.” In considering the multiple
potential functions of buzzwords, we argue that the vagueness
and ambiguity of such terms promote their uptake, and we note
the fundamental tension between the constraining and confining
power of buzzwords and their simultaneous flexibility and
polysemy. We conclude with an agenda for further work in
advancing buzzword studies.
100. Materializing, Practicing and Contesting Data I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Miró
Chairs:
Nerea Calvillo, Goldsmiths, University of London
Jennifer Gabrys, Goldsmiths, University of London
Helen Pritchard, Goldsmiths, University of London
Nick Shapiro, University of Oxford
Participants:
Stuck Inside of Mobile? Local Climate Initiatives Practicing
Eco-feedback Georg Aichholzer, Austrian Academy of
Sciences, Institute of Technology Assessment
The search for effective response to climate change is dominated
by competing discourses, notably a divide between
individualistic and systemic intervention approaches. The former
focus on informed choice, individual responsibility and
behaviour change, the latter define social practices and wider
socio-technical change as crucial levers. While targeting
individuals tends to overlook powerful forces beyond individual
control as well as social dilemmas, there is consensus that
transition to a low-carbon future is not achievable without
significant changes to human actions and life styles. More
recently, community action and engagement of energy
consumers as citizens have been proposed as elements bridging
different requirements. This contribution investigates the effects
of community level climate initiatives which combine (e
)participation of citizen panels, long-term individual and
collective CO2 monitoring, and collaboration with local
governments on achieving local climate targets. The rationale
behind this design is to provide for a collective process with
specific features to turn individual commitments and local
circumstances into effective climate protection: e.g. carbon
footprint monitoring for enhancing the understanding of
behaviour impacts; various support to individual empowerment,
social learning, collective capacity building, and change to lowcarbon practices. The “e2democracy” research project (Austrian
Science Fund (FWF): I 169-G16), studied seven cases with
similar set-up in Austria, Germany and Spain. Conclusions are:
Eco-feedback embedded in a community initiative allowed the
majority of participants’ improving their climate awareness and
individual CO2 balances, however, not necessarily progressing to
target achievement at aggregate local level. Widening and
deepening participation and achieving impact on social practices
and policies remain major challenges, underlining the limits to
rational choice type advice “information saves energy”.
Anticipating the Future: Temporal Regimes of Meteorological
Decision Making Phaedra Daipha, Rutgers University
This paper builds on a 22-month ethnography of forecasting
operations at the National Weather Service to examine the
temporal dimensions of meteorological decision making. As a
preliminary step toward temporally embedding weather
forecasting practice, I identify two principles that underlie its
logic: risk and scale. The former rests on a demarcation between
routine and non-routine operations, while the latter is driven by
the fact that the more global the reach of a weather phenomenon
the earlier its detection. The joint influence of risk and scale on
weather forecasting practice yields four temporal regimes—and,
I argue, four distinct styles—of decision making: emergency,
extended alert, near-term, and longer-term. To flesh out and
elaborate this rudimentary framework, I analyze its empirical
manifestation in summer weather forecasting, winter weather
forecasting, short-term forecasting, and long-term forecasting
respectively. In so doing, I complicate dual-process models of
cognitive processing by establishing that, in practice, deliberation
and heuristics are combined across disparate temporal regimes to
produce organizationally sanctioned, skilled predictions.
Change in degree of trust about misconceptions on radioactivity
Kazumi Sano, National Institute for Environmental Studies
We analyzed the articles in Japanese weekly magazines
related to the accident of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant
of Tokyo electric company, and discussed their influence on
society after 2 years from the accident. We also conducted web
questionnaire about "risk uneasiness and the information needs"
and reported a part of the results. In that questionnaire, we
selected ten popular scientific misconceptions of the health
effects of radioactivity and studied their levels of recognition,
trustability, and information sources. Although they are not so
widely known (30 % or less), we found that majority of those
who know them believe them (65 % at highest). Interests in
natural sciences at ordinary times and level of the scientific
literacy are largely related to this. It is conspicuous in particular
in the themes that are often associated with radioactivity such as
deformity of the animals and plants. We also found that more
people change their mind from distrust on these misconceptions
to trust than from trust to distrust after a half year to one year
from the accident. The most popular information sources are
television and internet. In addition, we considered that family or
friends might have strong influence on this changing of thoughts.
In order to investigate the reason behind this change to trusting
the scientific misconceptions in spite of the fact that scientifically
correct information has been provided through many information
channels, we conducted further web questionnaire about
"trustability of scientific information".
From Network to Egg: The Extended Arrangements of Air
Pollution Data Jennifer Gabrys, Goldsmiths, University of
London; Nerea Calvillo, Goldsmiths, University of London;
Helen Pritchard, Goldsmiths, University of London; Tom
Keene, Goldsmiths, University of London; Nick Shapiro,
University of Oxford
Practices of monitoring and sensing environments have migrated
to a number of everyday participatory projects, where users of
smart phones and networked devices are able to engage with
similar modes of environmental observation and data collection.
Such “citizen sensing” projects intend to democratize the
collection and use of environmental sensor data in order to
facilitate expanded citizen engagement in environmental issues.
But how effective are these practices of citizen sensing in not just
providing “crowd-sourced” data sets, but also in giving rise to
new modes of environmental awareness and practice? Through a
discussion of two technologies that enable air pollution sensing,
this presentation will address the topic of environmental data,
including how it is generated, validated, mobilized and used as
an attractor for different types of environmental practices and
politics. The presentation will compare the London Air Quality
Network, the official air monitoring network for assessing air
quality across London, in relation to the Air Quality Egg, a DIY
technology that in various ways is meant to complement or
challenge official air quality readings. What do these different
technologies put into motion in terms of evidencing air pollution,
solidifying a trajectory from data to action, or otherwise
organizing communities (of humans and nonhumans) in the
project of sensing air and generating environmental data? How
do the practices of making data complicate what counts as
evidence? And in what ways might digital sensors for citizenbased engagement rework what counts as the “facts” of
pollution? We will discuss the ways in which sensors, which are
on the one hand advanced as technologies for democratizing
science and technology, on the other hand can be quite unstable
technologies that (depending upon use and application) may
generate very different understandings of and engagements with
environmental pollution, which are tied into extended
arrangements of practices, politics, communities, materialities,
capabilities and skills.
The digital coral reef Elena Parmiggiani, Norwegian University
of Science and Technology; Eric Monteiro, Department of
Informatics, University of Oslo
The seabed off Norway – stretching from the North Sea up to the
Arctic area – is home to the world’s largest population of the
cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa. Lophelia provides a habitat for
rich marine ecosystems. Meanwhile, oil and gas offshore
operations are stretching nearby the coral reefs. Lophelia
therefore poses a significant risk for operators, raising tensions
with the environmental associations and the fishery industry.
However, no comprehensive environmental regulations are
available today and new challenges emerge as operations expand
to the unpredictable Arctic region, triggering debates in the
Norwegian socio-political discourse. Oil and gas offshore
operations have recently evolved significantly. Fuelled by the
trend towards unmanned, sensor-based, remotely operated subsea
facilities, they are gradually displacing the rough-neck, handcraft
tradition with an increasingly information-intensive,
collaborative mode of working. Empirically, we illustrate a
longitudinal study of an oil and gas company to develop an
information infrastructure for real-time subsea environmental
monitoring. Methodologically, we take an infrastructural
inversion where we describe the company’s practical steps to
make the environment measurable and part of a practice as a
platform is being built around it. A key question is in what
format, to whom, and in which circumstances the corals are
given a “voice”. We present early attempts to give visibility
(voice) to the corals through institutionally recognized
representations of risk (matrices, algorithms, map layers).
Ethical, political, and practical aspects of environmental concerns
(including the corals) presently have few established avenues to
travel through hence tend to get translated into concerns of risk.
101. Engaging society in research and innovation I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Moliere
Chair:
Henk Mulder, University of Groningen
Participants:
Towards societal embedding of synthetic biology - engaging the
public Afke Wieke Betten, Athena Institute, VU University
Amsterdam; Jacqueline Broerse, Free University
Amsterdam; Frank Kupper, VU University Amsterdam;
Tjard de Cock Buning, Prof. dr.
Synthetic biology is a fast developing scientific field with
potentially huge, positive or negative, impact on the world. Many
scholars argue that in order to realize societal embedding of
synthetic biology an interactive multi stakeholder dialogue
including the public at large is needed (e.g Schmidt, 2009; Philp,
2013). However, synthetic biology is currently little discussed
among the public at large (Kaiser, 2012; Stemerding & van Est,
2012) and a multi stakeholder dialogue must therefore be actively
facilitated. For this, the Interactive Learning and Action (ILA)
approach can be deployed. Examples of ILA approaches include
patient participation in agenda setting of burns research (Broerse
et al., 2010) and the involvement of small-scale farmers in
farmer-oriented biotechnology innovation processes in
developing countries (Bunders, 1990). The ILA approach aims to
open up the development process of new science and technology
by involving relevant stakeholders in early phases of
development (see e.g Betten et al. 2013) Currently we are
conducting an ILA process on synthetic biology, in which we –
among other projects - conducted eight focus groups with Dutch
citizens to (1) identify their perceptions of synthetic biology and
(2) test early-stage public engagement. Results and methodology
of these focus groups will be shared, as well as a more detailed
outline of the ILA approach and how the lessons learned can help
to further design communication and public engagement tools
and shape a healthy science - society dialogue. Also, to put these
results in an international perspective we are currently linking up
these results to similar initiatives such as the Synthetic Biology
Dialogue in the United Kingdom (Bhattachary et al., 2010) and
the Synthetic Biology Project in the US (e.g. Pauwels 2009).
References Betten, A.W, Roelofsen, A. & Broerse, J.E.W. (2013)
Interactive Learning and Action: Realizing the promise of
synthetic biology for global health. Systems and Synthetic
Biology, 7(3), 127-38 Bhattachary, D., Calitz, J. P., & Hunter, A.
(2010). Synthetic biology dialogue. Report. http://www. bbsrc.
ac. uk/web/FILES/Reviews/1006-synthetic-biology-dialogue.
pdf. Broerse, J. E., Zweekhorst, M., van Rensen, A. J., & de
Haan, M. J. (2010). Involving burn survivors in agenda setting on
burn research: an added value?. Burns, 36(2), 217-231. Bunders,
J. F. (1990). Biotechnology for small-scale farmers in developing
countries: analysis and assessment procedures. VU University
Press. Kaiser, M. (2012). Commentary: looking for conflict and
finding none?. Public Understanding of Science, 21(2), 188-194.
Pauwels, E. (2009). Review of quantitative and qualitative
studies on US public perceptions of synthetic biology. Systems
and synthetic biology, 3(1), 37-46. Philp, J. C., Ritchie, R. J., &
Allan, J. E. (2013). Synthetic biology, the bioeconomy, and a
societal quandary. Trends in biotechnology. Schmidt, M.,
Ganguli-Mitra, A., Torgersen, H., Kelle, A., Deplazes, A., &
Biller-Andorno, N. (2009). A priority paper for the societal and
ethical aspects of synthetic biology. Systems and synthetic
biology, 3(1), 3-7. Stemerding, D. & van Est, R. (2012). Geen
debat zonder publiek: het opkomende debat over synthetische
biologie ontleed. Den Haag, Rathenau Instituut.
Mind the gap: democratic participation, scientific enquiry and
public engagement- Insights from the Surprise project
Vincenzo Pavone, CSIC - Consejo Superior Investigaciones
Cientícas; Elvira Santiago, Consejo Superior
Investigaciones Científicas; Sara Degli Esposti, The Open
University Business School
Surveillance-oriented security technologies, such as smart
CCTVs or Deep Packet Inspection, are meant to prevent criminal
activity through a constant monitoring of key people behaviour.
Whilst allegedly successful in preventing crimes, these devices
inevitable generate new type of risks, related to privacy
infringement, discrimination, abuses, or errors. Moreover, as a
result of their narrow approach toward security, which does not
take into account the concerns and priorities of the people they
are supposed to protect, the implementation of these technologies
has triggered public outrage and resistance. To address these and
fill the resulting cognitive and democratic gap, new types of
public consultation procedures to engage civil society
organization and unorganized publics have been developed. The
FP7 SURPRISE project, for instance, combines traditional
participatory technology assessment exercises with an innovative
mixed-method research design. The aim is to gather socially
robust knowledge about public acceptability of these
technologies, while providing the setting for new forms of
democratic participation in decision-making processes about
security technologies and policies. In the light of the on-going
debate on articulations and outcomes of participatory methods,
this article review the various steps and sections of the Surprise
revised citizens summits, organised by the consortium between
January and March 2014, from the design of information
materials to the tools used to collect data. This paper, thus,
outlines and discusses not only the major advantages and
disadvantages but also its implications vis-à-vis the main issues
at stake in recent debates about scope and prospects of
participatory technology assessment exercises.
How to design multi-stakeholder learning processes around
animal welfare research Marianne Benard, VU University
One of the core characteristics of responsible research and
innovation is the involvement of stakeholders and the integration
of perspectives. A multi-stakeholder learning process is a
frequently proposed strategy for this purpose, but practical
implications remain largely unreported in literature. We
experimented for four years with various types of learning
interventions as part of a Responsible Research Innovation
program on animal welfare improvement in pig production. We
present four lessons learned on how to organize the process of
mutual learning within an interdisciplinary research team and
between stakeholder groups. These lessons take into account the
different perspectives, usual practices and underlying framings of
stakeholder groups. First, a confrontation with different
perspectives can stimulate learning, as long as three key design
principles are taken into account: ‘shock’, ‘direct experience’ and
‘in control’. Second, stakeholders had because of differences in
their professional approaches en environments, different
observations on which they base their perspective. This often
contributed to misunderstandings and deadlock. Learning
processes may profit from frequent mutual visits to each other’s
professional environment and dialogue sessions at a material
level. In this way, observing differences become explicit and can
be related to and reflected upon. Fourth, learning processes are
not likely to be sufficient when there are time constraints or when
there is no guaranty for a new safe status quo for stakeholders in
the process. This underscores the need of an integrated approach
in order to create a supportive environment in which there is
room for mutual learning.
Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Science, Technology and
Innovation Policies in Latin American Ernesto Fernandez
Polcuch, UNESCO; alessandro bello, UNESCO
Indigenous knowledge, sustainable development, and science and
technology policies are very closely linked. It is increasingly
recognized that sustainable development solutions need an
integral and holistic approach. To face the challenges of
sustainable development, including vulnerabilities to climate
change and disaster risk prevention, Latin America and the
Caribbean countries have recognized the importance of
indigenous knowledge. Incorporating indigenous knowledge
systems (IKS) into evidence-based policy making requires proper
mainstreaming of IKS into science, technology and innovation
(STI) policies. There have been different approaches to linking
IKS and STI policies, depending on factors such as the country´s
overall framework in relation to indigenous people -such as the
“plurinational” conception of the state-, as well as specific
targeted policies in each area. This becomes particularly
important in STI policy. Mainstreaming IKS into STI policies
presents many challenges, depending on endogenous needs of
each country and its relations with Indigenous Peoples´ issues.
This paper presents the findings of a survey and two regional
workshops held in Latin America, in 2013. Furthermore, the
paper presents an initial analysis and categorization aimed to
identify the different approaches that Latin American countries
are using regarding the incorporation of IKS in STI policies.
What Smart Grids tell about innovation narratives in the EU:
hopes, visions and regulation Lucia Vesnic-Alujevic,
European Commission; Melina Breitegger, European
Commission; Ângela Guimarães Pereira, European
Commission - Joint Research Centre
The new and emerging technologies redefine the way we live. In
order to get accepted by wider society and then implemented,
they are represented through techno-scientific imaginaries of the
future that are often transmitted through both traditional mass
media as well as online media. In this paper we focus on how
smart grids are envisaged in European policies and through social
actors’ discourses, as well as what their significance for the
citizens is claimed to be. Drawn upon the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasenhoff & Kim, 2009), we are interested
in exploring the imaginaries of social actors regarding the
implementation of smart grids in the European Union, from
policy makers and industry perspectives. In order to do so, we
use knowledge assessment, a qualitative approach that evaluates
the knowledge input in the decision-making processes and its
fitting for purpose and function. Through the analysis of EU
policy documents related to smart grids and interviews conducted
with relevant social actors, we looked at public narrations
coming from the policy sphere, main promoters of smart grids.
We explored the quality of information that is implied in the
discourses, factual or imagined argumentation and justifications,
promises, motivations, appeals to the public and other narrative
elements. We also examined what worldviews are being enacted
through the narratives, why these technologies have been
proposed and which types of uncertainties they are meant to
resolve. We conclude that those imaginaries coincide with
current innovation narratives in the EU.
102. Nanoparticles and macro policy: Reflections on the
development of nanotechnology in the Americas I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat I
Participants:
Compliance Programs, Direito à informação do consumidor e
riscos nanotecnológicos Wilson Engelmann, UNISINOS;
Raquel von Hohendorff, Unisinos
As nanotecnologias são um novo e revolucionário conjunto de
tecnologias, operando numa escala sempre existente na natureza,
mas somente viabilizadas ao ser humano a partir do final do
Século XX, dado o desenvolvimento de equipamentos em
condições de vislumbrar na ordem de um bilionésimo do metro.
Todos acabam sendo consumidores de “nano produtos”. No
entanto, uma pequena parcela destes “todos” sabe alguma coisa
sobre as nanotecnologias e aí se desenha um importante espaço
para o alinhamento dos contornos do chamado “direito à
informação”. A execução deste direito passa por uma postura
renovada pelo empresário produtor. Assim, os compliance
programs poderão ser uma estratégia de gestão empresarial
focada no atendimento do conjunto normativo vigente,
especialmente os princípios e as regras constitucionais,
consumeristas e aquelas oriundas dos Tratados relativos aos
Direitos Humanos. É objetivo deste artigo investigar as
possibilidades de se desenvolver “programas de cumprimento”, a
partir das diretrizes oriundas da área da Administração, por meio
do diálogo entre as Fontes do Direito, focado na efetividade do
direito à informação do consumidor de nano produtos. Espera-se
trazer para o Direito a atitude preventiva e com preocupação
ética, características dos compliance programs, tendo em vista a
ausência de regulação específica para as nanotecnologias. A
partir das contribuições de Luhmann é viável o fomento e a
construção de programas de cumprimento, especialmente
programas de decisão, que consigam resgatar o retorno dos
sentimentos nas decisões que envolvem os riscos dos produtos
produzidos a partir da escala nano, respeitando-se o direito à
informação do consumidor.
Nanotecnología en Venezuela: desarrollo científico-tecnológico
en el nuevo marco político Maria Sonsire Lopez, Centro
Estudios de la Ciencia. Instituto Venezolano de
Investigaciones Científicas
La política de CyT en Venezuela enfrenta el desafío de orientar
la I+D+i hacia la industrialización nacional en el marco de la
construcción del Socialismo del siglo XXI, con un heredado
aparato productivo de escaso desarrollo tecnológico y poca
orientación innovativa. A partir de 2006 el gobierno venezolano
incorpora explícitamente la noción de Socialismo como
estrategia nacional, planteando el desarrollo de capacidades
científico-tecnológicas estrechamente vinculadas a las
necesidades de la población y el aparato productivo nacional,
basado en los principios de inclusión y justicia social, que
garanticen el uso y aprovechamiento racional, óptimo y
sostenible de los recursos naturales, respetando los procesos y
ciclos de la naturaleza. En este contexto la nanociencia y
nanotecnología podría representar una alternativa para lograr
tales objetivos pero también plantea grandes desafíos para el
sistema nacional de innovación venezolano y en general para la
construcción del Socialismo. A través de consulta bibliográfica
de documentos oficiales de política científica; realización de
entrevistas y encuestas a actores clave; e investigación
cienciométrica sobre la producción en nanotecnología en
Venezuela, este trabajo intenta hacer un aporte a los estudios
sociales de la ciencia y la tecnología, presentando un análisis
sobre las oportunidades y tensiones que suponen el desarrollo de
la nanotecnología bajo el paradigma Socialista, destacando
aspectos como el modelo de CTI, transferencia tecnológica,
implicaciones sociales, éticas y de geopolítica internacional,
apuntando a generar debate sobre las posibilidades de desarrollar
una tecnología entre las de mayor desarrollo a nivel global, desde
un modelo social, político y económico diferenciado.
Movimiento de asimetrías en las redes. Nuevas formas de
entender las relaciones científicas entre el Sur y Norte Global
Marcela Suarez, FCCyT
Tradicionalmente, y de manera general, en los estudios sociales
de la ciencia y la tecnología se han destacado las bondades de las
redes como mecanismos de coordinación para promover procesos
de producción de conocimiento e innovación, así como
organizaciones sociales igualitarias, recíprocas y no jerárquicas.
Este artículo cuestiona esas ideas al explorar el argumento de que
las redes producen y reproducen asimetrías como producto de
jerarquías, y de su inserción en las lógicas globales y locales en
las que están inscritas. Para lograr el anterior cometido, la
aproximación metodológica consiste en un caso de estudio de
redes de producción de conocimiento en nanotecnología en un
Centro Investigación en Materiales Avanzados (CIMAV),
localizado cerca de la frontera de México y EE.UU. En
particular, la tesis de este artículo discute que la reapropiación de
la nanotecnología como línea de investigación prioritaria en el
CIMAV influyó para que se desplegaran redes transnacionales de
producción de conocimiento con institutos y universidades
estadounidenses que son asimétricas en cuanto a sus recursos y
flujos, y que incorporan nodos dinámicos de poder. La novedad
del artículo es que brinda elementos para discutir el movimiento
de asimetrías de poder en las redes entre el Norte y Sur global
como relaciones complejas, contradictorias y con importancia
creciente. El artículo se aleja de concepciones unidireccionales
del poder en las redes donde el Norte global es visualizado como
el más poderoso.
Procesos de I+D en nanotecnologías: análisis socio-técnico de
instrumentos de políticas públicas en el sistema
Agroalimentario Argentino. Tomás Javier Carrozza,
Universidad de Mar del Plata
Desde mediados de la década del 2000 las nanociencias y
nanotecnologías (N&N) ocupan un lugar central en las
discusiones sobre desarrollo a nivel global. En nuestro país
actualmente el estado invierte, a través de diferentes
instrumentos, millones de pesos en I+D para este sector. Desde
sus comienzos, en el año 2003, un conjunto de actores tanto
público como privado fueron construyendo una agenda en la cual
las problemáticas relacionadas al sistema agroalimentario y
agroindustrial (SAA) recibieron gran parte de estos recursos,
permitiendo la formación de grupos de I+D como así también de
redes de investigación tanto nacionales como internacionales
dedicadas a trabajar ciertas problemáticas del sector. En este
marco, donde las N&N pueden generar grandes cambios a nivel
de los sistemas productivos y en el cual nuestro país posee
ventajas comparativas y competitivas, resulta oportuno analizar
los procesos de I+D+i y la construcción social de las agendas de
CyT. Para esto, y en el marco de los Estudios Sociales de la
Ciencia y la Tecnología, este trabajo se propone mapear y
caracterizar las redes, instrumentos y experiencias de I+D en
N&N en el sistema agroalimentario y agroindustrial argentino
desde el enfoque socio-técnico. Entre los resultados obtenidos se
encuentran que por un lado, como en otros desarrollos científicotécnicos, se plantean conflictos acerca de la utilidad social del
conocimiento generado, mientras que por otra parte los usuarios
son escasamente considerados al momento de formular los
proyectos, plateándose dudas sobre la capacidad de estas
experiencias en la generación de dinámicas de inclusión social.
Workers’ demands for precaution and transparency in
nanotechnology development Richard Appelbaum,
University of California, Santa Barbara; Guillermo
Foladori, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas; Edgar
Zayago Lau, Autonomous University of Zacatecas
In September 2013, the Latin American Nanotechnology and
Society Network (ReLANS), in collaboration with the Center for
Nanotechnology in Society, University of California-Santa
Bárbara (UCSB-CNS) organized an International Workshop on
Nanotechnology and Labor. As an outcome of this meeting, a
public declaration was issued, consisting of two main demands: a
precautionary approach to nanotechnology and transparent
information on nanomaterials that workers manipulate. This
presentation explores the grounds for such demands. The
application of the precautionary principle to manufactured
nanomaterials is justified by the fact that nanoparticles may
trespass biological barriers (e.g. brain barrier, mother-fetus
barrier); that living organisms do not have historical experience
of adaptation and immunity to these new nanoparticles; and,
because there are hundreds of scientific articles that already
identified harmful effects. Available research and trade unions´
declarations indicate that most workers are not informed about
the nanomaterials they handle in productive processes, because
of industrial secrecy, or other reasons. Lack of transparent
information not only hurts a basic democratic principle, but also
prevent workers from taking actions to avert potential risks.
Nanotechnology and Worker Health and Safety Kristen
Kulinowski, Science and Technology Policy Institute, USA
The emergence of nanotechnology over the past decade has
resulted in the creation or alteration of an indeterminate number
of jobs. While the nanotechnology workforce has proven difficult
to quantify, getting a handle on who the workers are and under
what condition they are working is essential for ensuring that
workers are not unduly exposed to potentially harmful materials.
Research of direct relevance to occupational safety, in contrast
with that investigating basic toxicology, is in short supply and of
little relevance to human health. This talk will review the current
status of occupationally focused nano material research and focus
on pathways and obstacles between this research and regulatory
or industrial decision making. Results of a focus group held with
factory workers in the nano material workplace will be presented
and recent examples of voluntary and regulatory activity will be
highlighted to discuss the ways in which governmental and
nongovernmental actors can address potential occupational risks
of nanoscale materials.
Discussant:
Jason Gallo, Science and Technology Policy Institute
103. Structure
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat II
This panel uses the concept of structural competence, a term proposed by
Jonathan Metzl to replace “cultural competency” in medical training, as a
point of departure for discussing social inequality, physical environments,
and institutional arrangements of power and knowledge. Structural
competence derives from the concepts of “structural violence” and
“institutional racism,” terms put into wide circulation in the late 1960s by
sociologist Johan Galtung and the Black Power activist and theorist Stokely
Carmichael, respectively. These terms call attention to the ongoing but
typically obscured or undetectable practices and social relations that
perpetuate social inequalities on a population scale. Extending the concept
of structure to biomedical knowledge within and beyond medical schools,
this panel draws upon STS scholarship, particularly anthropological,
historical, and contemporary studies of biomedical knowledge, to elaborate
upon the notion of structure as a vector of social inequality. In doing so, it
expands the scope of what counts as structure, understanding it to include
geographies, historical architectures, social locations, classificatory
systems, affects, and institutions interacting to produce inequalities of
access, affect, and experience. Bringing these social and cultural locations
into conversation with theories from STS, architectural design, higher
education, the military, and medical school education, we push Metzl’s
structural competency concept into these arenas, we explore the ways that
it can inform diverse STS methodologies, epistemologies, and
historiographies.
Participants:
Health, Space, and the Profession of the Dean of Women in
American Colleges (1890-1915) Carla Yanni, Rutgers
University, New Brunswick, NJ
Critics of higher education for women in the 19th century often
pointed out that the weight of intellectual study wreaked havoc
with women’s bodily cycles, making them unfit for marriage and
motherhood. Proponents of women’s higher education pushed
back, using space to communicate their aspirations. One of the
first acts of the Women’s League of the University of Michigan
was to build a ladies’ gymnasium. Michigan’s first dean of
women, Eliza Mosher, was a physician whose office was in the
ladies’ gym. Deans of women also policed space in towns: Ann
Arbor had mixed rooming houses (for boys and girls), which
were morally suspect, run down, and susceptible to fire. Dean
Myra Jordan inspected these structures and produced a list of
approved boarding houses. At many colleges (including Oberlin
and U-M) women’s dormitories were established before men’s
dormitories. Jordan was involved in dormitory construction, and
although she consulted with the architects on a splendid new
residence hall in 1915, she did not have an office in it when it
was done, nor did she have an office in the main administration
building, as was proposed by the President. Instead, she asked to
have her office in the ladies gymnasium, reinforcing the link
between women’s health and education. This paper will argue
that deans of women used architecture and space to legitimate
their nascent profession. Health, morality and education were
intertwined.
Structural Competency for Structural Disciplines: Universal
Design education and epistemologies of evidence-based
design Aimi Hamraie, Vanderbilt University
In the mid-1990s, twenty-one architecture schools across the
United States participated in the Universal Design Education
Project (UDEP), the purpose of which was to teach design
students about how to account for the needs of diverse bodies and
populations, particularly people with disabilities. Rather than
focusing on training future architects to abide by the narrow
technical provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act,
however, the UDEP focused on the broader set of concerns
encompassed by the philosophy of Universal Design: flexibility,
multimodality, simplicity, and intuitive function--elements that
purportedly made design accessible to a broader range of people.
In other words, these schools focused on developing strategies
for teaching architects to understand disability as a social
inequality produced by built environments rather than one that is
limited to medical contexts of function and diagnosis. In this
paper, I analyze the case studies from this short, but influential,
project as an example of “structural competency” for structural
disciplines, namely architecture, and consider the ways that the
UDEP intervened in the structure of architectural education by
emphasizing the concept of “evidence-based design,” a
hybridization of medical and social understandings of disability. I
demonstrate that far from eschewing scientific epistemologies,
the UDEP relied on a nuanced sensitivity to the embodied
experiences of disability while using a designery concept of
“evidence” to persuade students about the existence of structural
inequalities.
“Some Women May Be Reluctant to Discuss Their Pain”:
Vulvar Incompetence at the NIH Christine Labuski, Virginia
Tech
In 2011, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) held a two-day
“scientific meeting” about female genital pain, the goal of which
was to “gather input … to guide the field of vulvodynia research”
(NIH 2012, 6). Along with expert clinician-researchers,
participants included representatives from the NIH, the
pharmaceutical industry, patient advocacy groups, and provider
organizations. Joining them for the first time were a group of
orofacial pain experts, participants that signaled the NIH’s formal
interest in re-classifying vulvodynia from a gynecological and
“sexual” diagnosis to a generalized pain condition. This paper
characterizes that reclassification as not only a misstep, but as
part of a broader and near total eclipse of the role that nonphysiological factors play in the development and reality of
chronic genital pain. Though relief from vulvodynia may come,
in part, from nerve blocks, Botox, and other pain management
techniques, my research suggests that patients “get better” when
their treatment includes an attunement toward their genitalia—
linguistic, bodily, and affective—that is missing from most social
and interpersonal registers. I argue that by absenting these
difficult and personal encounters with their genital bodies from
the “research plan” for vulvar pain, the NIH exacerbates the
vulvar “reluctance” that they acknowledge exists (if only briefly),
and to which the title of this paper refers. Though treatment and
research agendas that exclude non-physiological dimensions of
vulvar pain may make good research sense, they do little to alter
the impacts that chronic genital pain has on the lived realities of
afflicted women.
Threat Governmentality and “Moral Injury”: the structure of
decision and the pathology of feeling in US military
behavioral health Kenneth MacLeish, Center for Medicine,
Health and Society
This paper is concerned with theories and therapeutic practices
that interpret posttraumatic combat stress as a “moral injury”
produced by the shock of carrying out lethal violence in
uncertain battlefield conditions (e.g., Litz et al. 2009, Shay
2011). Drawing on ethnographic work at the US Army’s Fort
Hood in central Texas, I examine how the notion of moral injury
does or does not fit with soldiers’ everyday experiences of warmaking in Iraq. While moral injury discourse appeals to medical
logics and civilian sensibilities that regard violence as abhorrent
and antisocial, it does not necessarily comport with many
soldiers’ immediate, professional experiences of violence as
rational, deliberate, and even desirable. I contend that the
conditions of exception and “threat governmentality” (Chappell
2006) that organize the standard practice of counterinsurgency
warfare challenge the notion that soldiers can be figured
autonomous, conventionally “responsible” actors. Rather,
soldiers are defined by their implication in an entire system of
violence-producing rules, protocols and procedures that render
them the agents, instruments and objects of legitimate violence.
From such a perspective, the medicalized discourse or “moral
injury” seems to misunderstand basic aspects of soldiers’
relationship to violence. This paper examines the contrasting
modes of agentive personhood produced by tactical practices on
the one hand and therapeutic intervention on the other, and it
asks how each participates in the structural production of
morality and mental illness in contemporary warfare.
Breaking the Cycle? Circuits of development, testing, and
exchange in new tuberculosis therapies Susan Craddock,
University of Minnesota
In the last ten years or so, Product Development Partnerships
(PDPs) consisting of nonprofit organizations, pharmaceutical
companies, philanthropies, and universities have formed to
develop new vaccines and drugs for tuberculosis. Several new
drug compounds and vaccine candidates are already moving
down the R&D pipeline, causing excitement among researchers,
activists, and public health practitioners hoping finally to
mitigate the disease in high burden regions. Yet there are also
critiques of PDPs, namely that they focus too narrowly on
technological interventions to the detriment of nontechnological,
or divert limited national health budgets from other, equally
trenchant public health measures. Using interviews, international
conference proceedings, and a clinical trial site visit, I argue that
the collaborative and multi-sectoral relations within which new
tuberculosis therapeutics are produced, as well as the mandates
driving these collaborations, make redundant the dichotomy
between technical and nontechnical interventions into public
health. Drawing on the work of Bruno Latour, Timothy Mitchell,
and Ann Marie Mol, I show that new TB vaccines and drugs are
a part of, and in turn are producing, new pharmaceutical, social,
public health, regulatory, intellectual property, and ethical
relations that disrupt dichotomies of public and private, technical
and nontechnical, and patient versus profit. As such, they signal
the kind of democracy in science described recently by Nikolas
Rose (2012) as tethering scientific and technical innovations to
global public goods.
Discussants:
JuLeigh Petty, Vanderbilt University
jonathan metzl, Vanderbilt University
104. Civic Infrastructure & Democratic Epistemologies
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Mozart
Chair:
Max Liboiron, Northeastern University
Participants:
Data Collection as Activism: Grassroots Canvasing after
Hurricane Sandy Max Liboiron, Northeastern University
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, both grassroots responses
such as Occupy Sandy and governing institutions such as the
City of New York conducted door to door canvassing surveys in
an effort to match immediate needs and aid. This presentation
investigates how Occupy Sandy used this data collection to
extend its view of a better pre-storm world through how
canvassers asked questions, what questions were asked, and how
they tied data to action. For example, data collectors exercised
"clipboard politics" where the survey was a shared object
between relief worker and resident for both parties to read
together, side by side. They asked about community participatory
budgeting for FEMA money, job security, community
organizing, and access to health care. These questions and the
ensuing conversations were a fulfillment of their mandate to use
the storm as an opportunity for social and economic justice for
problems that existed before Sandy. As a foil, The City of New
York canvased residents by contracting the National Guard who
wore full army fatigues and, initially, semi-automatic weapons.
They asked about the failure to evacuate, property damage, and
where people sought information during the storm. The survey
was designed to build better storm warning systems and evaluate
damage in financial terms to return New York City to pre-storm
conditions. Note: This research is part of an ongoing project to
design best practices of grassroots data collection with and for
disaster-affected communities.
Mapping Wildfires, Managing Time: representing the multiple
temporalities of disaster Katrina Petersen, University of
California, San Diego
Increasingly, as part of the responses, disasters are mapped using
new technologies that can continually be updated over time as
they try to keep up with the situations. But disasters do not have
a single time over which to change. For example, there is the
immediacy of victim needs, the future expectations that inform
present practices, and the look to historical experiences for
insight into the affected space. Some of the mapped information
changes every 15 minutes while other data changes over weeks
or even months. This paper explores the development of a
participatory-style disaster mapping system by the San Diego
Red Cross to ask: how do these different temporalities interact in
the act or mapping of a disaster? How do these multiple
temporalities interplay with our understandings of the space
under duress? Grounded in participant-observation of design
work and disaster mapping, this paper examines the role of
mundane practices, like compiling data or producing layers on
the map, in delimiting a disaster. It argues that while drawing
data from a range of social groups allows many voices to speak
and be heard, it also puts into the same picture different
understandings, temporalities, goals, and potentials that can
behave in ways that are unexpected and difficult to manage. In
the end, mapping disasters is more about managing temporal
expectations than constructing spatial understandings.
A New Weather Research Lab: Connecting Weather
Practitioners to the Academic Community Jennifer J
Henderson, Virginia Tech; Laura Myers, University of
Alabama; Allen Parrish, University of Alabama
On May 22, 2011 Joplin an EF5 tornado killed 162 people,
shocking the meteorological community who believed that their
technological improvements in the warning process would
prevent this kind of loss. In an internal assessment of their own
performance conducted by the National Weather Service, the
team noted that “future Service Assessments should include
developing sub-teams well-versed in social science and NWS
warning operations that can be quickly deployed to the field
following any given severe weather disaster.” Several groups
have developed these collaborative approaches to mitigating
disasters, including the NSF-funded WAS*IS and SSWIM
groups. This presentation will offer an overview of a new
weather research lab being created at the University of Alabama
to address immediate needs of different expert weather
communities. Called the Weather Analytics Technology
Computational Hosting Laboratory, or WATCH, its goal is to
provide to the weather community with current social science
research about weather-related processes, impacts, and
preparedness. The lab will focus on a range of weather disasters,
from tornadoes and hurricanes to droughts, fires, and floods. It
will do so through ethnographic, survey, and other kinds of
qualitative and quantitative research on public perceptions of
weather risk and preparedness. Drawing on a variety of
interdisciplinary expertise, it will create social science research
teams to assist practitioners, including NWS service assessments,
broadcast media outlets, and private weather companies. The
goal of this presentation is to solicit insight and suggestions from
the STS community on this model and to offer ways to
participate with the Lab.
Women of the Storm - Rough Cut Wesley Shrum, Louisiana
State University
The transformation of causal understanding in the Hurricane
Katrina disaster is now well established: from a big storm, to
failed levees, to a poorly maintained navigation channel (Shrum
2014). Environmental factors, including the loss of wetlands,
were addressed by a group of women activists whose political
savvy was unique among dozens of organizations that formed in
response to the largest disaster on the North American continent.
"Women of the Storm" examines the transformation of this group
from a local to a regional force, as well as the factors that led to
their success. (30 minutes in length)
Local climate governance – possibilities and barriers for
municipal promotion of sustainable living Marie
Chimwemwe Degnbol, University of Copenhagen
limate change mitigation through local governance is a new,
rapidly growing policy field in Denmark as in many other
countries and can potentially play a key role in CO2 reductions at
civil society level. The climate work is an add-on to the
traditional organization of local governance with no history of
experiences and traditions to refer to and no binding political
goals, giving current municipal climate workers an
entrepreneurial role of building up the policy area. This study is
an in depth investigation of the simultaneous construction of
local climate governance as policy field and new professional
roles within this field. The study is based on a participatory field
study in the climate section of a Danish municipality carried out
in 2011-2012 and interviews with climate workers in 10 Danish
municipalities conducted in 2013. The analytical strategy is
inspired by Actor Network Theory, seeing the climate work as
the climate workers’ efforts of connecting actants in networks of
CO2 reduction. This enables an understanding of the climate
work as a construction process shaped by a variety of
heterogeneous factors, requiring the climate workers to mediate
successfully. The paper hereby contributes to the STS literature
by describing the development of a new local governance
profession which functions as mediator between citizen’s CO2
emitting practices and the organizing of the municipality.
Art and the city: Exploring gaps and short-comings in
technoscientific visualizations Anja Johansen, NTNU
From the pioneering photography of Nadar to the
psychogeography of the Situationsts, artist have sought to
comprehend the city and their own place in it, offering both
critique and alternatives. This paper presents two art projects that
creatively engages with science and technology, and develop
novel socio-technological infrastructures as well as modes of
inquiry into urban life. I will argue that the art projects can
function as critical reminders of gaps and short-comings in
scientific data collecting, as well as inspire future public
engagement in and about the city. In Christian Nold’s project
Emotional cartography the artist invites people in different cities
to explore the neighbourhood using a specially designed Bio
Mapping device to convey moments of bodily arousal. As
opposed to cultural situations where technologies are given the
authority to reveal the truth about persons, Nold encourages
participants to interpret and negotiate the meanings of their maps
after the walk. Pigeonblog, on the other hand, was a collaborative
project between homing pigeons, artists, engineers and pigeon
fanciers coordinated by Beatriz da Costa. It was put forth as a
grass root scientific gathering initiative designed to collect and
distribute information about air quality to the general public.
Pigeons were equipped with custom-built miniature air pollution
sensing devices and GPS, which enabled to send the collected
localized information to an online server. Presenting and
discussing the projects I draw on theories about scientific
visualizations as renderings of life, and the political implications
of how those visualizations are made and interpreted.
Discussant:
Kim Fortun, RPI
105. South-North-South dialogues on Science and Technology I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Picasso
Chair:
Raoni Guerra Rajão, UFMG
Participants:
Scientists, Publics and Transgenics: Information, Trust,
Communication and Engagement on Research dealing with
Vector-borne Diseases Christophe Boete, IRD - UMR 190;
Uli Beisel, University Halle-Wittenberg; Luisa Reis Castro,
Spiral, Université de Liège / Maastricht University; Nicolas
Césard, N/A; R.G. Reeves, MPG
Infectious diseases transmitted by mosquitoes represent a burden
for a variety of countries and especially for the Global South.
However research aiming at better understanding them is mainly
conducted by institutions from the Global North. Apart from
bringing knowledge in biology, this research is obviously
associated with the development of methods aiming at reducing
the burden of vector-borne diseases and this includes the
creation, the use and the release of transgenic mosquitoes. For
many in the scientific world, this technological approach offers a
promising method against diseases such as malaria or dengue.
However the recent field releases of transgenic mosquitoes in
The Cayman Islands, in Malaysia and in Brazil have been the
source of intense debate in the specialized press as well as in the
non-specialized mass media. This lack of transparency, not to say
the secrecy, in the way the first trial was conducted is without
much doubt the major reason for the controversy that emerged.
Brushing aside years of discussion in the scientific world and a
shared recognition of the importance to consider ethical, legal
and social issues this first trial could be read as a fait-accompli:
the cage of transgenic mosquitoes has now been opened. In the
complex interactions between science and society around GM
technology we cannot avoid questions around the perception of
the public by scientists and the related question: How to consult,
involve and engage a variety of publics in an effective manner on
science and technology? With the will to better estimate the
impact of geographic differences (endemic vs non endemic
countries), of research topics (work on transgenic approach or
not) and of perception of research (applied/ fundamental) we
have conducted in 2012/ 2013 a worldwide web-based survey on
more than 1800 scientists working on vector-borne diseases. This
work reveals several interesting points including the reluctance in
involving the public upstream, some lack of confidence in private
business as well some level of distrust towards biotechnological
progress and the speed at which changes occur because of
science and technology. Surprisingly it also highlights a real lack
of communication even inside the scientific community. Apart
from exploring the major results of the whole survey the
presentation will also highlight the ones dealing with scientists
based in Latin America.
Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Studies: China,
Europe, and North American in Dialogue Carl Mitcham,
Colorado School of Mines; Nan Wang, University of Chinese
Academy of Sciences
Comparing and contrasting the emergence and development of
Science, Technology, and Society (STS) studies in three
historico-societal contexts. Nodal points in North America: STS
studies emerge in the form of academic programs in the late
1960s and early 1970s at, e.g., Stanford University, Pennsylvania
State University, Cornell, et al. Society for Social Studies of
Science (4S) formed in 1975 and assumes sponsorship of
Science, Technology, and Human Values in 1976, which had
originated as a newsletter in 1972. Bulletin of Science,
Technology, and Society created in 1981, with formation of the
National Association for STS (NASTS, now International
Association for STS or IASTS) following shortly thereafter in
1985. Nodal points in Europe: Establishment in 1981 of the
European Association for the Social Studies of Science and
Technology (EASST), which sponsors Science and Technology
Studies, with its origins in the Finnish journal Science Studies
(founded 1988). Nodal points in China: First STS conference at
Xi’an in 1990, and a national STS workshop sponsored by the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in 1992, with STS
center established at Tsinghua University in 2000; related centers
in CASS, at Northeastern University (Shenyang), and elsewhere.
Building off such a chronological-institutional skeleton, we will
(1) compare and contrast the research interests and scholarly
productions in these three STS studies contexts; (2) highlight
mutual interactions, influences, and policy engagements; (3)
examine strengths and weakness; and (4) suggest future
developments.
Unlocking Silent Histories: Lake Atitlan, Guatemala Ricardo B.
Duque, Alabama State Univeristy; Donna DeGennaro,
Unlocking Silent Histories Organization
Adapted from the non-linear tenets of Critical Pedagogy (Freire,
1970), this action-pedagogical-research project was designed to
engage young Maya video-practitioners with new research and
critical analytical skills. Through training, field research and
collective reflection, these techniques were adapted to document
local cultural and natural environments. The lead researcher
observed that through the use of video these Maya youths often
gave voice to the silent histories of their communitieswhile
capturing (1) their language and cultural knowledge, (2) how
analytical tools assist in dissecting social, cultural, and political
realities, and (3) how youths can shape their own social
environment through the use of new digital technologies. This
presentation converges a variety of perspectives and experiences
that include theoretical application of Critical Pedagogy within
Indigenous communities to illustrate the ways in which the
project aims to foster participatory research for social change.
Also explored is the interplay of structure, agency and ethnic
identity (Brahba 1994, Robertson 1995, Giddens, 1996) within
the context of dynamic adoption/shaping (McKenzie &
Wychman 1985, Shrum 2005) of emerging knowledge and
communication technologies that is simultaneously occurring
globally and locally across geographical and cultural borders.
Exploring the Scientific Aesthetics of Food Labeling in the
Americas Stephanie Houston Grey, Louisiana State
University
Over the past three decades, advocates for healthy, sustainable
food sources have turned to labeling formats to inform and
encourage consumers to make better food choices. During the
Green Revolution in the United States where large mechanized
farming became the dominant agricultural trend, the culture of
processed foods bred a new scientific understanding of food
called “nutritionism.” Within the field of STS studies there is a
growing understanding that science functions as a paradigm that
shapes political and economic realities in unexpected ways.
Nutritionism would shape consumers’ understanding of food by
breaking it down into its constituent parts, creating a visual
labeling regime that depicted food as a product of chemistry.
Recent trends in food labeling, however, seek to expand these
scientific paradigms by creating new food labeling formats that
emphasize issues such as sustainability, health warnings and
ethical decision making. In the spirit of the convention theme
dealing with North and South, this paper will demonstrate how
the United States has lagged behind many of its South American
neighbors such as Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Chile who are
shifting toward more expansive labeling formats to encourage
consumers to make better choices. This paper will develop upon
the STS literature by first exploring how the technocratic labeling
trends of prior decades promoted the invisibility of issues such as
farmer exploitation and environmental impact. It will then
explore the intersection between science and aesthetics,
particularly how new labeling trends are emerging to highlight
the personal and environmental impacts of food choices.
Building a connection to projects such as Critical Nutrition
Symposium at UC Santa Cruz, The “Knowing Food” Research
Cluster at the Center for Global, International and Regional
Studies at UC Berkeley, activist scholars such as Michael Pollan
and Marion Nestle, and an emerging research community of
scholars (Abbots, Avankian, Basu, Borras, Solcum, etc.), this
research endeavors to bring key theoretical insights of STS to
better understand the social construction, expert influence and
public consumption of food through food labeling.
106. Responsible Research and Innovation: Legitimizing
Emerging Technologies I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Quinquela
Chair:
Michelle Chauvet, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
Azcapotzalco
Participants:
La construcción de “soft law”: Hacia una “investigación e
innovación responsables (RRI)" en nanotecnología Adriana
Chiancone, Universidad de la República; Enrique Martínez
Larrechea, Universidad de la Empresa - Uruguay
El trabajo analiza la reciente creación de un estándard voluntario
de certificación (Voluntary Certification Standard) de la gestión
de nanomateriales en productos destinados al consumo, en un
distrito tecnológico italiano. Un complejo entramado de políticas
y proyectos en los niveles europeo, italiano y regional está
presente en el caso estudiado e impacta fuertemente las diversas
prácticas de evaluación y gestión del riesgo desarrollados. En
ese contexto, se discute el proceso de construcción del
instrumento de "soft law", y las particulares concepciones y
propósitos asociados al mismo. En circunstancias en las que el
discurso de las políticas de innovación y desarrollo amplía los
modelos de participación a actores diversos y a nuevas formas de
coexistencia de instrumentos de regulación ("hard law" y "soft
law"), es relevante analizar las modalidades de participación y
posicionamiento de los diversos "stakeholders" frente a los
desafíos específicos de la innovación en nanotecnología; además
la discusión acerca de la responsabilidad y el significado
atribuido por los participantes de la cadena de innovación y
desarrollo de ese campo multidisciplinario; también el rol de
cada componente del proceso productivo, para la salvaguardia de
la salud y el medio ambiente. En ese análisis se considera la
articulación de los tres niveles antes mencionados. El abordaje
empleado para este estudio es de corte cualitativo, y los datos
han sido obtenidos mediante el análisis de documentos y
entrevistas.
Nanotechnology in Argentina. A responsible innovation
process? Javier Ignacio Garcia Fronti, University of Buenos
Aires; Andoni Ibarra, University of the Basque Country
Since 2011, the European Union has incorporated the concept of
“Responsible Research and innovation” (RRI) into the regulatory
narrative applied to new technologies. Nanotechnology is one of
them and there are many articles and reports analysing the impact
of RRI on practice communities from policy design to its
commercialization in different OECD countries. However, there
is a lack of attention to the application of RRI in developed
countries. This presentation analyses the nanotechnology practice
in Argentina (and its associated governmental policy) from a RRI
perspective. In 2004, the Argentinean national government
started the nano-dynamics by signing up an agreement with a
company called Lucent. This decision was very controversial and
rejected by different stakeholders. This forced the government to
redefine its strategy. In 2005, the national government created the
“Fundación Argentina de Nanotecnología”, including scientists
belonging to different organisations in its governing body. This
foundation has promoted the development of human and
technical resources, aiming to improve industrial
competitiveness. In 2012, the minister in charge of innovation
policies translated the nano-dynamic into a foundational text
where he argued that public funding has to have productive and
social aims. However, in this new narrative, only experts, private
companies and relevant governmental agencies are involved in
the decision making process. In this way, crucial stakeholders are
marginalised. This paper examines how RRI could contribute to
the inclusion of a wider range of social actors from the
innovation policy inception onwards, establishing a more
responsible nano innovation in Argentina.
Regulación de las nanotecnologías en México ¿anticipación,
alineación o enajenación? Mónica Anzaldo, Centro de
Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto
Politécnico Nacional (CINVESTAV); Michelle Chauvet,
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Azcapotzalco
La regulación de las nanotecnologías es un tema sustancial
debido a las preocupaciones sobre los potenciales riesgos de los
nanomateriales, son temas prioritarios en este aspecto la
exposición en ambientes de trabajo, al consumidor y al
medioambiente. Los esquemas de regulación transnacional y de
regulación voluntaria (códigos de conducta, estándares,
lineamientos) parecen estar dominando el escenario. A partir de
la observación participante en el Comité Técnico de
Normalización en Nanotecnologías de México (CTNN-Mx) de
marzo de 2012 a febrero de 2014 este trabajo revela cómo ha
actuado el Estado mexicano, los actores del sector científico e
industrial ante la necesidad de evaluar y gestionar los riesgos de
los nanomateriales. Utilizando el enfoque de gobernanza
anticipatoria, entendida como la construcción de capacidades
sociales de anticipación, participación, integración y reflexión, se
analiza quiénes son los actores interesados en la implementación
de normas, cuáles son sus recursos e intereses, quiénes son las
instituciones líderes y las instancias ausentes. Por otra parte, se
discute la participación de México en el Comité Técnico
Internacional de Normalización en Nanotecnologías ISO/TC229
debido a que el CTNN-Mx es su comité espejo. En este marco, se
analiza el papel de México en la discusión de temas en conflicto
como el etiquetado de productos que contienen nanomateriales.
Finalmente, además del panorama del estado de la regulación de
las nanotecnologías en México se reflexiona sobre si es un
proceso alineado o una auténtica incidencia con responsabilidad
social.
Institutionalization of public policies & diffusion of innovation:
the case of interventional radiology Philippe Gorry,
GREThA CNRS 5113, Dpt. of Social Sciences, University of
Bordeaux; Benoit Cyril, Sciences Po Bordeaux; Pascal
Ragouet, University of Bordeaux
Diffusion of innovation theories are many among various
scientific fields including sociology. In its seminal work Rogers
emphasis the role of social system & legitimation as a major
force during the so-called phase of persuasion toward market
penetration. But markets are a myth as it has been stress by
Flingstein: they are social constructions designed by political
work of the different stakeholders who needs institutions that
limit uncertainty & enable action. Indeed the healthcare market is
a good example with many institutions such as drug market
access & pricing/reimbursement regulation. With its theory of
prescribers, Hatchuel highlights the role of the physician as well
the role of agencies (government health agencies, WHO, …) in
providing unknown information ie value to the buyer in this
uncertain world. Today, the social construction of the value of
medical innovation, & its social recognition is dependent on the
increasing role of the evaluation made by the agencies of Health
Technology Assessment (HTA). It’s a multidisciplinary analysis
tool that examines medical, economic, social & ethical
implications of value, distribution & use of medical technology
in public health. The emergence of new medical imaging
practices such as interventional radiology involves specific
institutional conditions (regulations, laws, norms, standards, ...).
We postulate that medico-economic evaluation by HTA agencies
contributes to the social construction of the value of these
medical innovations acting as a brake or as an accelerator of
diffusion. By looking at HTA national public policy, academic
expertise & knowledge circulation, our analysis underlines the
influence of the country’s healthcare system & exogenous
macroeconomic factors
Discerning the Effects of the Economy on Scientific Expertise
David Caudill, Villanova University
In this paper, I acknowledge Mirowski’s useful focus on the
systemic or structural effects of the commercialization of science.
Science-Mart (2011) goes beyond the discourse of scientific
fraud in order to evaluate the pernicious effects of
commercialization on “good science,” including scientific
expertise in legal contexts. However, his examples tend toward
an individualistic perspective and a sociology of errors. I want to
link this blind spot to Mirowski’s twin criticisms of symmetry in
science studies, and of actor-network theory. Mirowski’s
examples of decline include (1) “just-in-time” science (involving
“quick and dirty techniques”); (2) the “sound science” movement
in (involving hidden organizations that promote industry-friendly
science); and (3) the degradation of patent quality. These
examples do not appear to exemplify systemic effects on “good
science,” but rather to highlight individual responsibility (1 & 3)
or fraud (2). This can be explained by Mirowski’s commitment to
conventional categories, such as the strict division between the
“open” academy and commerce. In his engagement with
courtroom expertise, Mirowski admires pre-existing research and
condemns “litigation science,” i.e., research done after
commencement of a lawsuit, (i) viewing it as a corporate
enterprise (even though it is plaintiffs who need litigation
science), (ii) labeling it just-in-time science, and (iii) blaming
science studies for symmetrically evaluating litigation science
and peer-reviewed science. As examples of analyses of the
interaction between science and the economy that do not assume
such distinctions, I discuss Callon’s network model, which blurs
conventional boundaries, and Kleinman’s examples of systemic
effects in Impure Cultures (2003).
Regulating New Technologies: A Case Study of Legal
Foresighting Shawn Harmon, Univresity of Edinburgh;
Fabiana Arzuaga, MINCYT
New technologies, particularly those emergent from the life
sciences, generate uncertainty and risks, and existing regulatory
frameworks are often poorly suited to facilitating the most
optimal development of those technologies, in part because those
frameworks were often designed for very different technical and
social conditions. The prevailing innovation setting is
characterised by promise and consternation, fluidity and pace,
fragmentation and complexity. Our collaborative research on the
regulation of regenerative medicine in the UK and Argentina,
and on the values held by key stakeholders in that field, has led
us to design the concept ‘legal foresighting’, which, we argue,
has few examples and needs to be expanded, enhanced, and
improved as an approach to regulatory practice (and with the
understanding that we must not expect too much of law when
regulating emerging fields). We understand ‘legal foresighting’
to mean the identification and exploration of possible and
desirable future legal or quasi-legal developments aimed at
achieving valued social and technological ends. It is a
fundamentally active and outcome-oriented reformative process
that should help us create pathways into the unknown. It is very
much concerned with ‘law in society’, and making law more
effective in its social operation and in its relationship with the
object of its attention – dynamic, complex and uncertain science.
In this paper, we report on a pilot example which was undertaken
in Argentina between 2008 and 2012.
107. Aproximaciones teóricas y escenarios de educación no
formal
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Soldi
Chair:
Eileen Bernal, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Participants:
Materias CTS en currículos de formación por ciclos en
Ingeniería en Colombia Eileen Bernal, Universidad Nacional
de Colombia
Siguiendo a la OEI el enfoque CTS, aborda tres modalidades en
la educación: CTS como añadido curricular, CTS como añadido
de materias y ciencia, tecnología y sociedad a través de CTS. Al
respecto, los currículos de formación por ciclos propedéuticos en
ingeniería en Colombia, han establecido dentro de sus
lineamientos, la inclusión de programas CTS como añadido de
materias configurando un escenario de reconocimiento para los
ingenieros en formación sobre las consecuencias sociales,
ambientales y ecológicas que traen la ciencia y la tecnología; sin
embargo, los propósitos de educación científico-tecnológica en el
contexto de los programas CTS, que se buscan con esta práctica
no son visibles, en tanto promover la apropiación de la ciencia y
la tecnología. Dicha cuestión resulta de vital importancia para el
análisis desde los estudios sociales de la ciencia en tanto aporta a
la reflexión sobre el modo en que se han configurado dichos
currículos en las instituciones universitarias, entre las que cabe
destacar la Universidad Distrital FJC y el Instituto Tecnológico
de Medellín reconociendo los diferentes actores y sus intereses;
así como las motivaciones que los han guiado dentro del proceso
de inclusión del enfoque CTS en la formación por ciclos. La
metodología que se sigue, parte del análisis de los discursos
sobre el enfoque CTS que se han institucionalizado, las prácticas
que han adoptado los docentes y los intereses que se han
consolidado frente a las percepciones sobre ciencia y tecnología
que se considera deben tener los ingenieros en formación.
Educação CTS: sentidos sobre tecnologias em uma proposta
pedagógica politécnica Raquel Folmer Corrêa, UFSC
Neste artigo, examino sentidos sobre tecnologias na Proposta
Pedagógica para o Ensino Médio Politécnico e Educação
Profissional Integrada ao Ensino Médio do Governo do Estado
do Rio Grande do Sul/Brasil. Além de buscar compreender os
modos pelos quais as tecnologias são entendidas nessa proposta
(processos de produção de sentidos), a intenção é verificar
possibilidades e limites de desenvolvimento exitoso desse tipo de
iniciativa tendo em vista que o termo tecnologia, e os que dele se
derivam, é polissêmico, está relacionado aos seus contextos de
produção e de circulação e é carregado de conteúdo ideológico.
O suporte teórico e metodológico para tal empreendimento vem
dos Estudos Sociais das Ciências e das Tecnologias Latinoamericanos, sobretudo em uma perspectiva educacional. O artigo
é basicamente de ordem teórica, no qual inicialmente introduzo
os princípios teórico-metodológicos norteadores, depois
apresento o corpus de análise, faço um breve levantamento
histórico-bibliográfico sobre politecnia e ensino politécnico,
ensaio um exame da proposta pedagógica em questão e,
finalmente, encaminho considerações sobre o estudo realizado
em uma tentativa de articular leituras em Educação CTS ao tema
da politecnia. O exame da proposta politécnica aqui efetuada
ampliou em alguma medida compreensões sobre as tecnologias
em contextos pedagógicos e permitiu uma reflexão geral acerca
das potencialidades e limitações de propostas de
desenvolvimento de processos educacionais que contemplem
uma formação humana crítica, integral e permanente no contexto
brasileiro. Além disso, permitiu encaminhar uma iniciativa
preliminar de agendas nas quais os Estudos Sociais das Ciências
e das Tecnologias possam contribuir com pesquisas em áreas
educacionais.
Cidadania sociotécnica na formação de engenheiros: desafios
para a educação CTS Edson Jacinski, Universidade
Tecnológica Federal do Paraná
Este artigo analisa os sentidos construídos por estudantes
formandos do curso de Engenharia Eletrônica da Universidade
Tecnológica Federal do Paraná(UTFPR) sobre as interações entre
tecnologia e sociedade e cidadania no exercício da profissão.
Essa questão torna-se significativa para o campo da Educação
CTS, na medida em que a formação dos futuros engenheiros
pode ser um momento de significativos questionamentos
relativos a uma atuação profissional comprometida em participar
na construção de uma sociedade mais inclusiva e sintonizada
com os desafios sociotécnicos da realidade brasileira e latinoamericana. Desse modo buscamos saber em que medida tais
estudantes receberam uma formação que possibilitasse
estabelecer conexões críticas, reflexivas e socialmente
comprometidas sobre as relações envolvendo ciência tecnologia e
sociedade. . Para enfrentar tais questões buscamos articular um
quadro conceitual fundado nos Estudos Sociais da Tecnologia e
Estudos latino-americanos de Tecnologia Social com uma
abordagem construtivista de currículo. Em termos
metodológicos, privilegiamos o enfoque discursivo dos Estudos
da Linguagem do Circulo de Bakhtin. Tal estudo, realizado a
partir de fontes documentais e orais, mostrou a preponderância
de uma perpectiva dicotômica e determinista das relações entre
tecnologia e sociedade ao longo da formação curricular e voltada
basicamente para uma atuação profissional monopolizada pelos
interesses do setor industrial. Contudo, também mostrou uma
enfática interrogação sobre outros devires profissionais mais
sintonizados a uma perspectiva sociotécnica democrática e
inclusiva.
A Precarização dos Docentes de Ensino Superior: O Olhar da
Saúde do Trabalhador Katia Reis Souza, FIOCRUZ
A precarização e a intensificação do trabalho docente na
universidade vêm aumentando consideravelmente. De fato, podese verificar, no cotidiano universitário, tanto a proliferação de
vínculos temporários e instáveis, quanto uma aceleração da
produção docente; bem como o prolongamento do tempo que o
professor despende no trabalho. A exigência despropositada do
aumento da produção acadêmica coloca em risco a qualidade da
educação e da pesquisa, assim como o panorama de precarização
nas universidades federais no Brasil abre caminho para que os
professores vivenciem uma condição de trabalho deteriorada,
com um impacto significativo do ponto de vista da saúde. A
partir dessas constatações, vem sendo realizado no Estado do Rio
de Janeiro um projeto de pesquisa de caráter interdisciplinar e
interinstitucional em parceria com o Sindicato Nacional dos
Docentes Universitários (ANDES-SN), cujo principal objetivo
consiste em investigar o modo como os processos de trabalho em
curso interferem na saúde de professores. Pesquisa esta
circunscrita no marco teórico do campo da saúde do trabalhador,
segundo o qual se deve conceber o trabalho como uma forma de
relação social, o que significa afirmar que ele se desdobra em um
mundo caracterizado por relações de desigualdade, de poder e de
dominação. Nesse trabalho, pretende-se focar em proposições de
estratégias coletivas de intervenção e mediação nos locais de
trabalho para modificação das condições laborais – como as
comissões de saúde e trabalho –, construídas coletivamente com
os próprios trabalhadores, de modo a servirem como um projeto
político e epistêmico contra-hegemônico.
tecnología-innovación-sociedad, desde las ciencias sociales pero
¿Cuáles son las características de la producción de conocimiento
del campo CTS en México? Para responder a esta pregunta se
tomaron en cuenta diferentes factores que moldean la forma en
que se produce el conocimiento; los estímulos de la política
científica y tecnológica, los establecimientos educativos y la
disciplina a la que pertenecen los investigadores. Esta
investigación se desarrolló dentro del enfoque la Sociología
constructivista, usando el análisis-sociotécnico. Otro eje que se
retomó fue el de los tipos ideales, modo I y modo II planteados
por Gibbons, et al. (1997) Se construyó y se analizó una base de
datos que tiene un total de 213 investigadores mexicanos con
temas referentes a los estudios CTS, que participaron en las
nueve Jornadas de Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia y la
Tecnología que se han realizado desde el año1995 y se hicieron
entrevistas a la muestra analizada. Los resultados de esta
investigación vislumbran los inicios de la construcción de este
campo de estudio en México, así como sus debilidades y
fortalezas que permiten su consolidación.
Revisión del esquema conceptual básico de los estudios CTS+i
vistos desde el triángulo del conocimiento Jose Antonio
Hernanz Moral, Universidad Veracruzana, Dirección
General de Desarrollo Académico e Innovación Educativa;
Rubén López Domínguez, Universidad Veracruzana.
Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas.
Conocimiento criminológico y política criminal: un estudio de
caso Héctor Javier Avila, Centro de Estudios de Seguridad
Urbana FCPyS UNCuyo
Un esquema típico de la relación entre innovación y producción
social del conocimiento es el conocido como “triángulo del
conocimiento”, que vincula innovación, educación e
investigación. Este esquema se suele aceptar de manera muy
poco crítica en la discusión sobre la apropiación sociocultural de
la tecnociencia, lo que supone un grave error, ya que profundiza
en la concepción mercantilista de las sociedades del
conocimiento, al tiempo que radicaliza el uso del conocimiento
como mercancía. Todo ello parece incidir significativamente en
la cada vez más axfisiante presión de las políticas globales sobre
la soberanía de los países, especialmente de los periféricos, para
“liberalizar” el mercado del conocimiento, con la perspectiva de
que igual que el dinero, el conocimiento -y por ende su principal
expresión, la innovación- no tiene patria, de suerte que puede
separarse la producción de conocimientos del entramado
sociopolítico desde el cual se realiza Sin embargo, a través de
estructuras conceptuales innovadoras y creativas, se puede usar
esta imagen para replantear los fundamentos de los estudios
CTS+i y su potencia teórica por medio de la correlación entre
algunos elementos abstractos (epistemológico-ontológicos) de su
fundamentación con el proceso económico de la innovación y el
despliegue político de la formación para la ciudadanía. En este
ponencia se pretende explorar, por lo tanto, un esquema
conceptual desde el cual estudiar y discutir los fenómenos CTS+i
para adaptarlos a un horizonte claramente distinto al de las
sociedades industriales.
108. Producción de conocimiento y políticas públicas: tensiones y
oportunidades de una compleja relación I
Paper Session
8:30 to 10:30 am
Intercontinental Hotel: Verdi
Chair:
Héctor Javier Avila, Centro de Estudios de Seguridad Urbana
FCPyS UNCuyo
Participants:
Hacia la construcción del campo de los estudios CTS en México
Jazmín Anaid Flores, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana
El campo de los estudios sociales de la ciencia y la tecnología
(CTS) está consolidado en Estados Unidos y Europa, los países
latinoamericanos han tenido avances significativos en estos
estudios, sin embargo, aún es un campo minoritario y tiene gran
potencial para las investigaciones sociales. En México se observa
que cada vez es mayor el número de científicos que se involucran
en la investigación transdisciplinaria de la relación ciencia-
En Argentina se observa la emergencia de un número creciente
de investigaciones que plantean como objetos de estudio la
violencia, el delito, la criminalidad, la conflictividad social, el
orden y las respuestas punitivas del Estado frente a estos
procesos sociales. No obstante, la incidencia de este
conocimiento en el complejo sistema de intereses y relaciones de
poder de la política criminal continúa siendo una materia
pendiente. En este sentido, desde un enfoque sociológico, el
presente trabajo intenta realizar un aporte a una mejor
compresión de la dinámica social del conocimiento
criminológico en la Argentina y sus posibilidades y limitaciones
para vincularse activamente con las políticas públicas, develando
los procesos de producción, intermediación y uso de
conocimiento específicos generados en una universidad pública
argentina. Para ello, partiendo de marcos conceptuales
concernientes al campo de estudio CTS y de un estudio de caso,
se analizan algunos aspectos de la producción de conocimiento,
los procesos de intermediación que se dan entre los grupos de
investigación y el gobierno y el uso que los decisores políticos
hacen del conocimiento producido. Con esto se persigue el
propósito de obtener un enfoque diagnóstico basado en el campo
CTS que sea potencialmente aplicable a otros casos de
producción de conocimiento en el campo de la criminología en
Argentina y que permita mejorar la vinculación entre
investigación y el diseño de política criminal en las instituciones
gubernamentales
La medición como práctica administrativa y su papel en la
construcción de objetos de frontera y gobernabilidad Yuri
Jack Gómez Morales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Este trabajo toma como caso de estudio la producción de
conocimiento experto representado por la bibliometría y la
manera como este conocimiento transforma las prácticas
administrativas y otorga un plus de legitimidad-para y
gobernabilidad-sobre el objeto de la política, en este caso, el
sistema nacional de ciencia y tecnología colombiano. El caso es
interesante porque ilustra los proceso de co-producción (Jasanoff,
2006)que tienen lugar entre ciencia, tecnología y sociedad y
permite explorar desde una perspectiva de estudios sociales de la
ciencia un tema relativamente descuidado en este campo como lo
es el de la política pública.
Movilización y mediación de conocimientos. Regulaciones en
salud en Argentina Ezequiel Benito, Center for Science,
Technology and Society - Maimonides University
El presente trabajo examina las problemáticas asociadas a la
utilización de conocimiento científico en el proceso de toma de
decisiones para el establecimiento de regulaciones de salud en
Argentina. Para dar cuenta de este campo realizo una descripción
de las coyunturas que surgen en la interacción de actores
políticos con los científicos o con aquellos medios o
representantes a través de los cuales el discurso de la ciencia es
puesto en escena como elemento informativo. Este objetivos
tiene por justificación ilustrar los elementos característicos de un
espacio de encuentro que reúne lógicas muy diferentes, la
científica y la política, en consideración de su articulación con la
sociedad, a partir de la reflexión sobre el tipo de problemas que
se construye. El ámbito estudiado fue la Comisión de Acción
Social y Salud Pública de la Honorable Cámara de Diputados de
la Nación Argentina (HCDN), ámbito donde es negociada
inicialmente la formulación normativa de diversas regulaciones
en salud que luego pueden continuar su trayectoria hasta alcanzar
el estatuto de Ley. En el contexto de estas consideraciones, se
analizan dos casos, un proyecto de regulacion del sodio y otro de
regulación de los anticonceptivos hormonales de emergencia. El
estudio se basa en trabajo de campo y entrevistas a los actores
para ofrecer una reconstrucción de los fenómenos de framing
(encuadre), formación de consensos, rol de los organismos
internacionales, movilización, uso, y mediación de
conocimientos científico-técnicos en el contexto de la árena
pública.
Planes Nacionales de Ciencia y Tecnología de Argentina y
definición de agendas de investigación Victoria
Ugartemendia, UBA
Durante la década de los ´90 comienzan a desarrollarse en
Argentina Planes de Ciencia y Tecnología. Esta práctica se torna
más sistemática luego de sancionada la Ley Nº 25.467 en el año
2001. La Secretaría de Ciencia y Tecnología elaboró el Plan
Estratégico Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación
“Bicentenario” (2006- 2010), continuado por el Plan Nacional de
Ciencia Tecnología e Innovación (2012-2015), desarrollado por
el Mincyt. Aquí nos proponemos analizar las perspectivas de
política científica que subyacen a estos planes. La definición de
áreas prioritarias, la propuesta de construir un sistema nacional
de innovación, el rol de la evaluación, el papel mediador del
Estado, el lugar preponderante dado a la innovación y a las
empresas privadas, son aspectos que emergen en el análisis y que
se encadenan a un conjunto de significaciones que pretendemos
explicitar y problematizar. También nos proponemos abordar el
estudio de un caso de definición de las agendas de investigación
en diálogo con las agendas de política científica estatal: la
Universidad Nacional de San Juan. A partir de ello
reflexionamos sobre los problemas que surgen en la dinámica de
definición de las agendas de investigación, los actores que están
involucrados, el rol de los gestores de la universidad y el desafío
de la evaluación de estos procesos. La metodología de trabajo
es cualitativa y las fuentes serán los Planes mencionados,
entrevistas a investigadores y funcionarios de la Universidad
Nacional de San Juan realizadas en el mes de noviembre de 2013
y bibliografía sobre política científica de Argentina y del
exterior.
109. Ciência, Tecnologia e Gênero I
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
Chairs:
Maria Margaret Lopes, State University of Campinas
(UNICAMP)
Maria Conceição da Costa, Unicamp (Brazil)
Participants:
A Produção de conhecimento em Gênero, Ciência & Tecnologia
em periódicos latino-americanos Rebeca Buzzo Feltrin, State
University of Campinas (UNICAMP); Maria Margaret
Lopes, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP); Maria De
Cléofas Faggion Alencar, Embrapa; Bruna Vasconcellos,
UNICAMP
Em sua palestra de abertura do Annual Meeting of the Society for
the Social Studies of Science, em 1987, Evelyn Fox Keller
apontou para a necessidade dos trabalhos no campo dos estudos
sociais da ciência incluírem gênero como categoria analítica. Na
ocasião, revelou que em uma busca no periódico da Social
Studies of Science que incluía palavras como women’
‘feminist/m’ ou ‘gender’, encontrou, no período de 12 anos,
apenas um artigo que relacionasse gênero e ciência. De lá para cá
o panorama internacional sobre tais intersecções de áreas
disciplinares que se forjaram em paralelo, mudou radicalmente.
Ambos campos disciplinares se multiplicaram, se subdividiram,
se especializaram e produziram inúmeras interfaces nas diversas
e inovadoras abordagens em que se pulverizaram. Passados 50
anos da emergência desses campos disciplinares e de suas
interações, encontros e desencontros, cabe ainda nos
perguntarmos qual o panorama de tais intersecções na América
Latina. Até que ponto gênero, feminismos, mulheres fazem parte
do universo dos estudos sociais da ciência e tecnologia (ESCT)
nos diversos países latinoamericanos? Nesse sentido, o presente
artigo pretende analisar a produção de conhecimento em Gênero,
Ciência e Tecnologia através das publicações nos principais
periódicos latinoamericanos no campo dos ESCT, como a Redes
e Revista Iberoamericana em ciencia, tecnología y sociedade.
Também acompanha como a temática aparece em revistas de
ciências sociais em geral e naquelas voltadas ao estudo de
gênero, como Cadernos Pagu, REF, Mora, Debate Feminista. As
revistas foram selecionadas com base em sua disponibilidade na
internet, especialmente, indexadas na base da Scielo.
La participación de la mujer en el sistema CTI argentino: 20002014 Patricia Bárbara Flores, Centro REDES
María Elina Estébanez y Patricia Bárbara Flores El objetivo de
este trabajo es realizar un diagnóstico actual de la situación de
género en las actividades de investigación y desarrollo (I+D) en
la Argentina, tomando como referencia la información relevada para el periodo 1997-2002- en el “Proyecto Iberoamericano de
Ciencia, Tecnología y Género” GENTEC-UNESCO. Los
indicadores actualizados describen la evolución de las
características de participación de la mujer en los diversos
estadios de los itinerarios que atraviesan los RHCT que
promueven el desarrollo del país: la formación superior y las
elecciones disciplinarias; los estudios y la obtención de becas de
posgrado; la inserción en las actividades de investigación
científica; y la distribución en cargos de toma de decisión y de
evaluación CyT. El objetivo principal, es proponer interrogantes
e hipótesis abiertas a la reflexión que atiendan fenómenos de
segregación vertical y horizontal para la propuesta de políticas de
equidad en la materia.
Fanny Tabak e os primeiros passos dos estudos sobre Ciência,
Tecnologia e Gênero no Brasil Bruna Vasconcellos,
UNICAMP; Márcia Maria Tait Lima, Universidade Estadual
de Campinas - UNICAMP/Brazil
Neste artigo traremos da trajetória pessoal e intelectual de Fanny
Tabak, uma das únicas representantes do sexo feminino que fez
parte da primeira geração de pensadores do PLACTS Pensamento Latino-Americano em Ciência, Tecnologia e
Sociedade. Este trabalho é parte de um projeto de pesquisa que
visa resgatar a vida e obra dos(as) principais pensadores(as) do
PLACTS, entendido como o movimento surgido na década de 60
no bojo de uma movimentação intelectual mais ampla de
contestação ao desenvolvimentismo e a dominação cultural
vivenciada pelos países latino-americanos no Pós-Guerra, e que
essencialmente contestavam a visão de um modelo linear de
inovação e disputavam a necessidade de construção de
conhecimento científico e tecnológico desde a América Latina.
Entre os nomes pesquisados pelo projeto, a maioria são figuras
masculinas, como Amilcar Herrera ou João Leite Lopes, no
entanto, busca-se aqui dar visibilidade ao papel desempenhado
por Tabak neste período, mostrando a originalidade de sua
abordagem e as principais contribuições para os estudos de C&T
na América Latina, destacando também seu pioneirismo nos
estudos sobre participação feminina na vida política e na
educação superior no Brasil. Fanny Tabak foi precursora ao abrir
espaço para a crítica feminista dentro do pensamento sobre a
C&T na América Latina, e ao dar os primeiros passos no
direcionamento de uma política científica engajada com as
questões de gênero. Consideram-se suas contribuições
especialmente relevantes enquanto primeiros passos dados na
constituição no Brasil e América Latina, dos Estudos de Ciência,
Tecnologia e Gênero ou Estudos Feministas em Ciência e
Tecnologia (EFCT).
110. Prospectos para la innovacion colaborativa en America
Latina
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
Chair:
Tonatiuh Anzures, University College London
Participants:
Scientific migration and distant collaboration. Mexican
immigrants in the UK Tonatiuh Anzures, University College
London
Scientific migration has often been framed as a negative
phenomenon, particularly for Latin America. In the case of
Mexico, a growing number of highly-skilled migrants leave the
region every year, generating loses to the country’s specialised
knowledge production and manpower. However, this traditional
conception of the “brain drain” is only part of the story. STS
literature and science policy may contribute to a more
comprehensive, realistic understanding of the phenomenon.
According to the UK Border Agency, there are currently more
than 9,000 Mexicans living in the UK –either working or
studying– but there are only estimations on how many of them
are highly-skilled, and even less is known about their fieldwork
or expertise. This limited information complicates the
delimitation of alternatives to overcome the negative aspects of
migration, such as the different possibilities that distant
collaboration can offer. This presentation is part of an ongoing
doctoral research that aims to transcend the quantitative aspect of
Mexican highly-skilled migration in the UK, though a series of
interviews with 20 Mexican scientists and engineers who live and
work in the UK. In these conversations, the notions of the “brain
drain”, as well as the views on distant collaboration and other
alternatives are addressed as possibilities for encouraging a wider
science and technology policy, not only for Mexico but for the
Latin American region as whole. This talk can be given in
English or Spanish.
Highly skilled mobility and migration: Latin American trends
and interpretations from the brain drain to globalization
Lucas Jorge Luchilo, centro redes e instituto universitario en
ciencias de la salud
This paper aims to analyze the interpretations on international
skilled mobility in Latin America and, also, to synthetize the
main regional trends on the subject. The purpose of the paper is
to discuss the persistence of the “brain drain” approach,
regardless the justified objections both to its theoretical
framework and to its empirical flaws. The strength of the
approach rests in the intertwining of conceptual and political
standpoints. From the conceptual angle, the brain drain approach
combines contributions from the neoclassical theory of
migration, from the measurement conceptions and practices in
the field of human resources in science and technology coined by
the OECD, and from the Latin American studies on development
and dependency –influenced by the theories on the relation
between skilled human resources and development–. From the
political standpoint, the countries of origin of highly skilled
migrants usually express a deep concern about the loss of human
resources, and the destination countries try to attract qualified
people to solve what they perceive as a shortage of professionals.
In both cases –but with different impacts– the governments try to
manage the movements of skilled personnel. The political
approaches tend to be simplistic and in many cases are based on
a blunt distinction between “good” and “bad” migration. The
paper suggests that the brain drain approach –and also the “brain
gain” hypotheses– cannot deal with the complexities of
contemporary highly skilled mobility. The impacts of the
expansion of higher education, of the globalization of academic
and industrial R&D, or the growth of the internal labor markets
of the multinational firms, pose challenges both in terms of
conceptual and methodological frameworks and sources of
information– that cannot be properly addressed within the brain
drain approach. The paper ends with a proposal of a typology of
the main groups and rationales for internationally skilled
mobility, and of the policies aimed to manage the flows of skilled
personnel.
Por uma cultura hacker: software livres e direitos autorais Flora
Rodrigues Gonçalves, UFMG
Desde meados da década de 90, são crescentes os debate sobre o
conceito de indivíduo dentro dos direitos autorais – ou direitos da
pessoa, e sua relativa reconfiguração dentro de ambientes
tecnológicos, artísticos e acadêmicos. Esses debates levam em
consideração, sobretudo, a transformação do conhecimento em
propriedade intelectual e da propriedade intelectual em
propriedade privada. Dessa forma, o objetivo desta proposta é
compreender e discutir as diversas formas de gestão de
propriedade intelectual que surgem, inicialmente, dentro do
movimento de software livre e circunscrevem uma rede social
imensa de humanos e não humanos, tomando como referência os
modelos de compartilhamento que envolvem a discussão de
propriedade intelectual e autoral e suas demais apropriações por
movimentos artísticos culturais de Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
Apoyo para el comercio justo: Inequidades y perspectivas entre
actores José Aramis Marin Pérez, Université de Lorraine;
Juan Morúa Ramírez, Université de Lorraine; Igor Rivera,
Instituto Politécnico Nacional; Christophe Schmitt,
Université de Lorraine
La Fundación en México, de una trasnacional norteamericana de
supermercados, permite a otras fundaciones o empresas sociales,
sin ningún costo, colocar en tienda los productos que elaboran.
Incluso, la Fundación absorbe los gastos de transporte desde el
Centro de Distribución hacia cada tienda. Sin embargo, dada la
poca integración de los actores y la inequidad en las tecnologías
disponibles para cada actor, especialmente de comunicación y
transporte, hace que el apoyo a los productores no pueda
concretizarse de forma exitosa. Esta comunicación tiene por
objetivo demostrar que es necesario resolver desde las políticas
públicas, las inequidades estructurales que impiden operar
programas de comercio justo. Se ha hecho uso de la observación
participante, durante un año, en el departamento de proyectos
productivos de un Instituto que apoya a un grupo de productoras
de mermelada en una de las zonas más marginadas de México.
Los resultados nos demuestran que aun cuando se pone en
marcha un programa de comercio justo como parte de la
Responsabilidad Social de la trasnacional, y se disponen algunas
facilidades tecnológicas desde el Instituto, las inequidades que
restan sin resolver como la falta de infraestructura pública, hacen
surgir juegos de poder que entorpecen dicho ejercicio. Nuestra
aportación radica en apoyar empíricamente la hipótesis de que
cualquier integración productiva entre actores heterogéneos debe
partir de objetivos compartidos, los cuales se establecen con el
diálogo, con un actor facilitador, y se refuerzan con una política
pública encaminada hacia el desarrollo sustentable y
generalizado, no de quienes ostentan el dominio tecnológico.
111. Historia y estudios sociales de la Infraestructura
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Chopin
Chair:
Ericka Herazo, Universidad de Los Andes
Participants:
A importância dos Centros de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento
(P&D) na gênese do processo científico e tecnológico
brasileiro Tânia Rosa Cascaes, Reynaldo de Oliveira
Ferreira
Para a efetivação da ciência e da tecnologia em torno da ação
produtiva e numa visão mais humanista, os Centros de Pesquisa e
Desenvolvimento (P&D) propiciam condições de criação e
transmissão de conhecimentos técnicos científicos à formação do
profissional adequado ao mundo do trabalho atual. Passando a
incluir mão de obra endógena e constituindo-se em vetor para um
desenvolvimento autossustentável, torna-se imprescindível num
mundo globalizado deste terceiro milênio. Este estudo é o recorte
de uma dissertação de mestrado e oferece um conjunto de
informações do ponto de vista histórico e sobre o
estabelecimento da ciência e da tecnologia com suas aplicações
práticas neste campo do conhecimento, retratando a relevância
das iniciativas das políticas públicas ao criar infraestrutura de
natureza científica gerencial e de investimentos capazes de
enfrentar os problemas da dependência tecnológica nos países
emergentes. O trabalho é uma pesquisa qualitativa de cunho
interpretativo quando busca ratificar a importância de um lócus
onde a transmissão desse saber-fazer materializa a prática e
amplia a criação de um modelo de desenvolvimento livre de
subserviências hegemônicas.
Cambio Tecnológico y Desarrollo Local: Estudio de caso sobre
FRE. Ariamnis Tomasa Alcazar, Professor; Jorge Núñez
Jover, Universidad de La Habana
El empleo de las Fuentes Renovables de Energía (FRE) se ha
incrementado en Cuba a partir de los Lineamientos promulgados
en 2011. Teniendo en cuenta prioridades nacionales (producción
de alimentos, energía, construcción de viviendas) se han
desarrollado múltiples proyectos con énfasis en estas líneas para
el desarrollo local y sustentable. La investigación, con
presupuestos teórico-metodológicos de los ESCT, analiza el
proyecto (Biomas Cuba) en un municipio cubano. La misma
responde a un encargo de la Estación Experimental de Pastos y
Forrajes Indio Hatuey (EEPFIH), institución de la educación
superior cubana. Grupos sociales relevantes, estrategias locales,
procesos de aprendizaje etc. son algunas de las nomenclaturas
empleadas. Dicho proyecto fomenta el desarrollo integrado de
alimentos y energía con énfasis en la agroecología y las FRE en
varios municipios cubanos. El estudio mapea y analiza
tecnologías, innovaciones y grupos sociales relevantes en torno al
proyecto Biomas Cuba en el municipio Cabaiguán. A partir de
los resultados obtenidos, se brindan algunas recomendaciones y
propuestas de políticas para el desarrollo local. Investigaciones
de corte social que ilustren el cambio tecnológico que se opera en
escenarios locales teniendo en cuenta determinadas “tecnologías”
constituyen un aporte peculiar a los ESCT. A ello se suma, la
relevancia que adquieren estas propuestas para la nación cubana
actual, llamada a mejorar sus niveles de producción y eficiencia.
Diálogos em busca de uma cena: a contínua polêmica do
programa alimentar Multimistura no Brasil. Lucimeri Ricas
Ricas, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Por meio dos estudos de Ciência – Tecnologia – Sociedade
(CTS) descrevo nesse artigo um quadro das relações entre a
“ciência oficial” e a “ciência não-oficial” até o ano de 2013 a
respeito do programa alimentar Multimistura, adotado no Brasil
por populações carentes desde a década de 70. Apresento três
narrativas onde ressalto a transformação das relações entre os
conhecimentos científicos, a postura dos nutricionistas (regulada
pelo Conselho Federal de Nutricionistas) e os defensores da
Multimistura que se opõem às recomendações dos experts e
rejeitam a visão oficial do CFN. A primeira narrativa conta a
história de uma mãe, pobre, nordestina frente à situação de fome
no Brasil na década de 70 e a busca por rápidas soluções
alimentares. A segunda é a “versão de realidade” dos
profissionais de nutrição em luta pelo reconhecimento
profissional na área da saúde e a não legitimação da Multimistura
baseada em numerosos estudos de laboratório. A terceira é a
“versão de realidade” de uma rede heterogênea que se estabelece
em torno da Multimistura, envolvendo a Pastoral da Criança, o
trabalho, as voluntárias, as ocupações, a religião, os alimentos, a
crianças, morte, vida, afetos, propriedades nutricionais etc., o que
demonstra a necessidade de um enquadramento que permita
incluir nas suas análises, diálogos além dos resultados
considerados científicos.
Movilidad en el desarrollo de recursos humanos en la ciencia en
México Eduardo Robles Belmont, IIMAS, UNAM
La movilidad científica ha sido un tema de interés en las ciencias
sociales desde diversos enfoques. En estos estudios, la movilidad
de recursos humanos altamente calificados ha sido analizada
desde el enfoque de las diásporas científicas y recientemente en
torno a la problemática de la fuga de cerebros. La literatura
académica es bastante amplia en estudios cuantitativos. En este
trabajo nos interesamos sobre el tema de la movilidad de recursos
humanos en el contexto de la formación científica a través de los
estudios de doctorado en México. Se trata de una investigación
en proceso donde el enfoque es una primera etapa es cuantitativo
para la caracterización de la movilidad de estudiantes mexicanos
para efectuar estudios de doctorado en el extranjero. Los datos
para este estudio conciernen a los investigadores mexicanos que
forman parte del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores. A través de
un análisis estadístico descriptivo y de un análisis de redes
sociales aplicado a la localización geográfica de los lugares de
obtención del grado de doctorado, los resultados presentados
proporcionan un panorama dinámico en el tiempo de la
movilidad de los investigadores durante su formación doctoral.
Estos resultados nos permiten identificar por áreas del
conocimiento y países a los investigadores mexicanos que se han
formado fuera del país, lo que nos proporciona una base de datos
de investigadores a encuestar en una segunda etapa enfocada a la
compresión de las dinámicas de sus temáticas y líneas de
investigación, entre otros puntos que emergen en nuestra
investigación.
Los jóvenes y la investigación Analía Sclavo, Comisión
Sectorial del Investigación Científica - Universidad de la
República; Andrea Waiter, Comisión Sectorial del
Investigación Científica - Universidad de la República
El fomento y apoyo a la investigación de jóvenes universitarios
ha sido una de las principales preocupaciones de la Comisión
Sectorial de Investigación Científica (CSIC) de la Universidad de
la República (UdelaR). A lo largo de 20 años se han generado
diversas estrategias de impulso a la investigación durante
instancias “tempranas” de la vida universitaria y académica
buscando vincular a la población más joven con la práctica de
investigación. Estas estrategias estuvieron influenciadas tanto por
el contexto universitario de los últimos años como por la
evolución del concepto “iniciación” en la actividad académica
propiamente dicha. Las transformaciones resultantes han
afectado de forma directa el diseño de los instrumentos políticoprogramáticos destinados a robustecer las capacidades de los
jóvenes universitarios para el desarrollo de investigación de
calidad en etapas tempranas de su trayectoria. Una mirada
reflexiva sobre lo hecho con proyección hacia nuevas y mejores
estrategias requiere una perspectiva CTS; a la inversa, la
problemática de la “iniciación a la investigación” es CTS por
derecho propio. Este trabajo analiza la evolución de las políticas
de CSIC en este sentido: el Programa de Apoyo a la
Investigación Estudiantil (PAIE) y el Programa de Iniciación a la
Investigación. A partir de éstos se pretende ilustrar la evolución
de un concepto en tensión, relacionando los cambios en su
acepción con las transformaciones evidenciadas en el contexto y
en otras esferas de las políticas de fomento a la investigación así
como la búsqueda de garantías de competencia en igualdad de
condiciones para jóvenes postulantes a estos Programas.
Mobile broadband standardization, the technopolitics of shaping
infrastructure. Diego Vicentin, University of Campinas
According to the ITU report “Measuring Information Society –
2013” the number of mobile broadband subscriptions has
increased in average 40% per year in the last 3 years. There will
be 6.5 million subscriptions by 2018 which means that the
Internet is going mobile. We find ourselves within a scenario of
growth of mobile broadband networks as the means of access to
cyberspace. Then, it is a technopolitical matter to understand how
the basic infrastructure that supports the working of this
communicative dimension is shaped. This shaping process is
quite complex involving different actors, conflicts,
contradictions, power assemblages and domains of knowledge.
The proposed paper will contribute to address the matter of
mobile broadband reticulation by looking to the standards
development process. Technical standardization is frequently
seen as one of the factors responsible for ICTs advances, given
that interoperability among networks is a prerequisite in order for
them to serve as a true means of communication. From our
perspective, the standards development arena is a privileged
point to access the link between different dimensions acting on
the shaping process of mobile broadband infrastructure.
Technical standardization is a confluence point that concentrates
at least 3 important dimensions: (1) technical problem-solving
activity, (2) business strategy and (3) technology governance.
These dimensions will be explored and articulated on this paper
through the fieldwork research that has been done at the premises
of an international Standards Development Organization (SDO).
112. Beyond Infrastructure: Theorizing Alternatives and
Absences
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Dalí
For two decades, theories of infrastructure in STS and allied fields have
helped us to think differently about the techno-scientific worlds around us.
Scholars of infrastructure have produced new insight into the obduracy of
our systems and practices, unearthing new forms and patterns of
‘stickiness.’ They have provided analytic methods, exemplars, and tricks of
the trade that call infrastructural realities to attention, showing us aspects of
the worlds around us rendered invisible under mundane function. And they
have revealed deep politics at the heart of infrastructural practices, showing
how infrastructures may include and exclude, empower and disempower,
the human agents and worlds they touch. This two-session series pushes
beyond this rich history of contribution to ask: what next? What else can
be said about infrastructure that hasn’t already been said? How are
infrastructures themselves changing, in ways that might stretch and
challenge the term? What does infrastructure not name, and what extended
or alternative languages might we bring to correct this? How might these
insights translate into practice, altering the way we design, imagine, and
engage the infrastructures around us? In sum: how can we think and do
infrastructure differently – in our systems, our lives, and the forms of work
that ‘we’ (as STS scholars) and ‘we’ (as citizens and people) engage?
Chair:
Paul N. Edwards, University of Michigan
Participants:
How to Fix Infrastructure Studies: Repair as Creative
Entanglement Steven Jackson, Cornell University
Much work in infrastructure studies has emphasized the
weightiness of infrastructure: the accretion of histories, practices,
systems, and material objects that shape and limit action in the
world. In contrast, the art of the fix is very often light:
contingent, artful, and grounded in the often creative
entanglements of humans with extant systems and objects. Fixing
work turns out to be central to how infrastructures build and hold
force in the world (local productions of global stabilities). But it
is also a key source and moment of infrastructural change, and
site at which modes of human care and connection can be built
into the infrastructures around us. This produces a kind of
ambivalence or balancing act at the heart of infrastructure studies
that the field has sometimes struggled to maintain: on the one
hand, as structure of power and constraint that dominates and
limits our lives (the Foucault proposition); on the other, as site of
creative human action and possibility in which our best hopes of
an effective and meaningful collective life are expressed (a
position assigned loosely to Tim Ingold). Drawing on fieldwork
with “fixers” across a range of empirical sites in the U.S.,
Europe, and South Asia, this paper explores breakdown,
maintenance, and repair as constitutive moments in the life
histories of infrastructure, and acts through which a more lively
relationship to infrastructure may be imagined and expressed.
Living in the broken city: favelas, infrastructural inequity and
the materiality of the digital Padma Chirumamilla,
University of Michigan; David Nemer, Indiana University
How can we understand the means by which people come to live
with infrastructural uncertainty as a persistent condition of their
everyday life? Drawing from ethnographic work conducted in the
favelas—urban slums—of Vitória, Brazil, we wish to think about
the small-scale activities and responses that form, in their
continuance, a way by which people come to terms with the
precarity and instability—infrastructural and otherwise—that
characterizes their daily lives. The infrastructure that shapes the
transmission and production of social and technical knowledge is
indisputably shaped by the precarity and unevenness of
contemporary urban life. Repair can be understood as a way of
living with, and enduring through, situations of uncertainty and
persistent failure. Inspired by histories of technology calling for a
renewed focus on maintenance, and recent writings on the act of
repair, we turn to closely examine the LAN house—a blend of
cybercafé and PC repair shop. In particular, we think that the
LAN houses of the favela serve as exemplary illustrations of the
daily encounter with failure and breakage that characterize
ordinary life in this particular cityscape. Understanding the
technical and social knowledge that constitutes the work of PC
repair in LAN houses allows us to envision repair as a
constitutive part of an uneven urban infrastructure. From this, we
hope to construct a broader notion of repair as a response—
always partial in addressing, always in contentious struggle
with—the conditions of long-term infrastructural uncertainty that
delineate and define these areas.
‘O Infrastructure, Where Art Thou?’: old and new
infrastructures for social media datasets. Jean-Christophe
Plantin, Université de Compiègne
The relationship between the social media service Twitter and
researchers is a complicated romance, which went through
several tensions since its creation in 2006. Twitter has
consecutively adopted several ways to release its data, all of them
bearing different consequences for researchers. A brief overview
shows that Twitter data have successively been available through
its application programming interface (API), with limitations in
terms of numbers of requests; through selected official data
retailers (such as Gnip or Topsy), requiring the
researchers/departments to subscribe to their service; more
recently, through a ‘Twitter data grants’ contest, which directly
targeted researchers by providing ‘public and historical data’ to
the selected institutions — raising intellectual properties issues.
Surprisingly enough, both data providers and researchers have so
far ignored the cyberinfrastructures that traditionally archive and
redistribute large datasets in social sciences, such as the InterConsortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), located at
the University of Michigan. This communication will present the
preliminary results of a current twofold study, which investigates
how cyberinfrastructures address the need to archive and
disseminate web-based datasets. The methodology adopted
symmetrically investigates both the data infrastructure side
(through a participatory observation at the ICPSR) and the
researchers side (through interviews with researchers using
Twitter data). Two results will be presented. Firstly: it will
present the path dependency of social sciences
cyberinfrastructures towards specific datasets, hence preventing
them from collecting and processing heterogeneous forms of
web-based datasets. Secondly: the publication possibilities on the
Web allow the birth of several ad hoc, more flexible and
temporary data repository that can accommodate social media
datasets, which disrupts the skills and standards of traditional
cyberinfrastructures.
On Infrastructure Time Paul N. Edwards, University of
Michigan
Stability and endurance over long periods — decades to centuries
— have been among the major defining features of
infrastructures from railroads and electric power grids to
telephone and the Internet. Infrastructures such as these display a
development curve lasting 30 to 50 years from inception to
maturity, related to the need to build expensive, large-scale
physical systems, as well as to the large, complex organizations
that support and maintain them. Second-order infrastructures —
built “on top of” pre-existing infrastructures — seem to present a
different story, with major, highly reliable, widely used systems
emerging in just a few years (and often vanishing just as fast).
Software-based systems and services epitomize this rapid cycle
of development and decline. Yahoo, Google, MySpace,
Facebook, and Twitter are obvious contemporary examples, but
software-based second-order systems also make possible
alternative infrastructures. FidoNet, a networking system based
on landline telephony, arose alongside the Internet in the 1980s;
it reached 4 million users worldwide at its peak in the 1990s, and
was especially popular in the developing world. Though
launched only in 2007, the M-PESA mobile banking service,
based on cellular telephony, is currently used by the large
majority of Kenyans and has spread to a number of other African
countries. In a twist on Leigh Star’s question “when is an
infrastructure?”, this presentation interrogates the temporal
structure of infrastructure. How long does a system have to last
to function as genuine infrastructure? Does the stacking of
services made possible by software represent a fundamental
difference between physical and cyberinfrastructure?
A Reverse Salient in the Uneven Contours of Information
Infrastructure Innovation Robin Williams, University of
Edinburgh
As the field of studies of electronic information infrastructures
(II) has progressed we are able to move beyond a first round of
investigation that went from case-studies of particular moments
of II development to explore similarities between various kinds
of II to a second round of research that can examine longitudinal
developments and also explore systematic differences
surrounding II development across different settings. We may
note that IIs in research (described variously as e-science
[Europe] and cyber- or knowledge- infrastructures) appear to
present rather different challenges to those in health service
delivery. The development and longer-term sustainability of
Health IIs seem to present particular challenges. On the one hand
we find huge investments geared towards expectations of
significant improvements in quality, safety and efficiency of
service. On the other we find recurrent patterns of failure which
have in turn been attributed to a long list of factors including –
the huge scale of operations (UK Connecting for Health cost
c$20bn); the growing range of functions and users encompassed;
the complexity of health interventions; the multiplicity of
professional expertise; the difficulties for providers in meeting
demands for service innovation/differentiation from health
practitioners; the inhibition of innovation by the inflexible
regime for managing such sensitive and safety critical
information exchange. However, this is not an Iron Law. Within
this broad pattern, characterised by obstacle and challenge, we
find instances in which particular innovation strategies seem to
have been effective in meeting both demands for local
differentiation and for ‘generification’ of solutions.
Infrastructure and Interventions Eric Monteiro, Department of
Informatics, University of Oslo
The research programme on “infrastructure” (including but
delimited to work on knowledge infrastructure, standards and
information infrastructure) has been and is a vibrant,
interdisciplinary strand. Explicitly urging to go beyond the “here
and now” of design and use of technology, infrastructure studies
have broadened the scope by including historical, institutional
and technological precursors to local accounts. Infrastructure
studies have looked at the making of different large-scale
endeavours including research infrastructures, communication
technology, health care standards and generic software
production. With an affinity to longitudinal, multi-site
approaches, infrastructure studies make visible (“inversion”) the
underlying machinery underpinning infrastructures. Longitudinal
studies have highlighted the deep-seated and heterogeneous
nature of infrastructure inertia or path dependency. In this
presentation I pose the question whether we might have
exaggerated the case for inertia - in the sense that opportunities
for infrastructure dynamics (generalising the rhetoric-prone
notion of “innovation”) may be overlooked. Drawing on
illustrations from a variety of cases (public sector and corporate;
North and South; organisations and communities), I discuss
conditions for/ characteristics of dynamics of (information)
infrastructures. I’m particularly interested in discussing drawing
implications for how, where and when to intervene with
infrastructure-in-the-making.
Discussant:
Lucy Suchman, Lancaster University
113. Materializing, Practicing and Contesting Data II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Miró
Participants:
What are we monitoring?: Environmental bridging
organisations and local knowledge for children’s
environmental health (CEH) Paivi Abernethy, University of
Waterloo; Nicole Klenk, University of Toronto
Current approach to environmental monitoring is insufficient for
assessing the local environmental safety in relation to CEH.
Particularly endocrine disruptors can be detrimental to both
human health and ecosystem services, because they interfere with
the brain development of children and other living organisms and
are associated with a range of chronic diseases. Sufficient
monitoring of necessary compounds is, however, beyond the
budgetary means of most communities, especially in sparsely
populated rural areas. Finding ways to integrate monitoring of
both environmental and health indicators as well as using local
knowledge to guide research focus would be, therefore,
beneficial for the long-term sustainability of any region.
UNESCO biosphere reserves, mandated for environmental
research, education, and community engagement, were explored
for their potential as bridging organisations bringing together
cross-sectoral stakeholders to assess the local situation and
available knowledge relevant to CEH. Case studies of two British
and two Canadian biosphere reserves employed semi-structured
interviews, document analysis, and participant observations to
identify perceptions and CEH related understanding within the
organisations. Results were used to evaluate how the current
environmental data gathering could be improved. The potential
role of citizen science and lay knowledge in supporting local data
collection and decision-making, relevant to CEH outcomes, will
be discussed. Results indicate that environmental bridging
organisations could play a vital role in gathering meaningful
local knowledge. However, research revealed possible
unaddressed environmental health concerns. Therefore
deliberative local engagement might create new power dynamics
that in turn could have unsettling biopolitical consequences, even
beyond the regions in question.
Military Fallout: Conflict over the origins and response to
environmental health problems Jennifer Ohayon, University
of California, Santa Cruz
From 1941-2003, the U.S. military used the small, populated
island of Vieques for training purposes, including intensive
bombing from land, sea, and air. While the site is undergoing
environmental remediation under federal statutes and regulations,
there is a contentious political climate over the extent to which
military waste and past weaponry testing can be implicated in
illnesses and ecological degradation. On one hand, island
residents and, the scientists and lawyers representing them, are
insistent that elevated mortality and disease rates are because of
longstanding military tenure on the island. Military and
regulatory representatives, however, argue that there is little
conclusive evidence of this and have challenged the
interpretation of “independent” studies. Despite accusations on
both ends of falsifying, misrepresenting, or withholding
information, much of the conflict does not stem from deliberate
attempts to mislead, but rather differences in how to approach 1)
Insufficient knowledge on the nature and extent of contamination
and the impossibility of reconstructing past health exposures 2)
The limits in modeling the risk of persistent, cumulative, and
synergistic exposures to contaminants 3) Differences in
methodological philosophies, including how to account for
illnesses in small populations, which may be attributed to chance
variations. Given these issues, what controversies can be
resolved via expanded and comprehensive scientific studies
versus where do knowledge production systems fail in grappling
with environmental health problems? Drawing on semistructured interviews and analysis of environmental and health
assessments, I discuss how the current policy and regulatory
framework negotiates these issues and the consequences for a
just science.
The Problematic Adoption of an Air Quality Index in China
Rodolfo Andres Hernandez, Tsinghua University
The problematic adoption of an air quality index (AQI) in China
begin in the 1980s and has remained in governmental agenda
until the present, due to continuous raising levels of atmospheric
pollution,adoption of new technologies, findings and accurate
data in areas such as epidemiology (lung cancer) and atmospheric
sciences (particles such as PM 2.5). Today open access to
China’s AQI serves to raise awareness among citizens, press,
local governments to adopt more effective policies, and for
scientists to produce evidence-based assessment. This article
presents the results of an ongoing research about evidence and
mitigation of air pollution policy, specifically about the problem
of consensus between three actors involved: government (Beijing
meteorological bureau), academy and citizens (net-citizens). The
author analyzes during the period of 2008 and 2011 three sources
of information: governmental policies and regulations, interviews
to atmospheric science experts, and common net-citizens
websites (micro blogs). There is a particular attention in the
definition of the ‘best’ AQI, that is, the proposed by Beijing
authorities or the ones formulated by international agencies
(WHO, EPA). This problem will be formulated upon recent
academic discussions in the field of Science and Technology
Studies about the misrepresentation of scientific knowledge as
undisputable and clear-cut proof for environmental policy
(Herrick and Sarewitz 2000; Herrick and Jamieson 2001;
Oreskes 2004; Owens et al. 2006; Juntti et al. 2009). Some
findings include: 1. Scientists and experts acknowledge that the
evidence does not necessary play a fundamental role in choosing
AQI. 2. Trust in the institution that establishes AQI is key to
adopt new versions. 3. Net-citizens are, for the first time,
important define which AQI should be adopted.
Precios Cuidados: Experiments in the Collectively Controlled
Sensing of Quantitative Change Ana Gross, University of
Warwick; Lucia Ariza, IIGG, University of Buenos Aires
How is price variation sensed as righteous? In this paper we
explore some of the relations between inflation and affect by
looking at the environments and infrastructures that modulate the
sensing of price stability and change. We do so by
problematising a heterodox price control regime established in
Argentina since December 2013: Precios Cuidados. In this
regime of price control, citizens/consumers, sometimes equipped
with digital application devices, are urged to monitor and report
any increase in prices that exceeds those guaranteed by the
government in a series of ‘price freezes’ agreed with producers
and retailers, aimed at constraining inflation in the country.
Rather than attempting to assess the actual efficacy of this
initiative as a mechanism of price governmentality and control,
we here pursue two lines of enquiry: firstly, that the programme
itself, together with the establishment of reference prices for a
selected number of consumer goods, modulate and stabilise the
collective appreciation of inflation. Such collective modulation is
important we argue in the context of Argentina’s latent cultural
atmospheres of hyperinflation on one hand, and its recent
Consumer Price Index controversy on the other. Secondly, we
claim that the enrollment of citizens/consumers as price sensors
is made possible in their enactment as affective agents, as
persons whose investment in prices and price stability should
exceed rational expectations. At the end of the paper we compare
initiatives like this with other inflation devices such as Personal
Inflation Calculators to explore how these enact collective and
individual appreciations of inflation differently.
114. Engaging society in research and innovation II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Moliere
Chair:
Marie Louise Jørgensen, The Danish Board of Technology
Foundation
Participants:
Functional Study of the Science Museum Xiang Li, Tsinghua
University, Shenzhen School
As scholars in the field of public understanding of science
argued, science museums have been playing an increasingly
important role for improving public’s engagement and their
literacy of science. More and more science museums and science
centers concentrate on exhibiting, presenting and communicating
science in their spaces. However, a significant question is: which
dimensions of science have been representing in the science
museum? To answer this question, it is not just important to
know the public’s right, needs and requirements to science and
technology, but the historical shaping of the science museum as
well. In this context, the distinctive role of science museum,
which was proposed by John Robert Durant in 1992, may be
necessary to reconsider. Based on a historical review and a
quantitative analysis of the Science Museum in London that has
been a pioneer of science, technology and industry museums in
the world, a new typology of science museums was introduced in
this article, which made the relation between different types of
science museums, especially between traditional science museum
and modern science center clarified. Only by this clarification
may we explain the different dimensions of science that have
been representing in the different sorts of science museums,
which is a gap of museum studies in the field of STS.
Nowcasting the Aurora: Curiosity and Beauty Driven Citizen
Science Andrea H Tapia, Penn State University; Nicholas
LaLone, Penn State University; Elizabeth MacDonald,
NASA; Michelle Hall, Science Education Solutions
In this paper we present the results of a year of development and
early use of a citizen-science community website. With the
advent of new technological tools, public participation in
scientific practice has been enabled and supported to a degree
unavailable even recently. This research presents a centralized
website and mobile application (Aurorasaurus.org) focused on
allowing participants to participate in developing an early
warning system through space weather and the beauty of the
aurora borealis. The novelty of our approach is to take an
activity that average citizens seek to engage in as entertainment
or leisure, and use traces of this engagement as input to an early
warning system. We find that citizens are curious about auroral
activity, and this motivates them to seek information about when
and where these events occur. We also find that citizens are
willing to share information about auroral sightings with others.
Aurorasaurus leverages this to gather real-time data about the
aurora in two ways, by direct entry into a questionnaire, and by
continuous scanning of Twitter for tweets about sightings.
Combined with data from Earth-based and satellite observatories,
this allows Aurorasaurus to offer real-time predictions (i.e. early
warnings) of auroral activity in both text and map form, with
much greater accuracy and timeliness than the current state of the
art. Our project involves citizen scientists in scientific
observation through contribution of tweets, structured reports,
pictures, and video of aurora activity; verification of Twitter
observations; and the analysis of the corrected data to inform
science.
Patient-Powered Research: Bringing Laboratory Medicine to
the Real World Michael Burnam-Fink, Arizona State
University; Heather M Ross, Arizona State University
Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for
medical research, establishing scientific credibility for clinical
knowledge and therapeutics.RCT outcomes are presented as
universal knowledge verified by rigorous methodology that
eliminates vagaries of place and chance. However, RCTs are
typically conducted in select centers with the sophisticated
research infrastructure necessary to manage the research, and
with carefully selected local patient groups without co-morbid
conditions or adverse sociodemographic circumstances. RCTs
represent idealized cases, yet are appropriated to guide patient
care in real-world conditions that significantly diverge from the
laboratory. Even real-world population studies like Framingham
are critically biased by place. Finally, RCTs reduce research
subjects and patients to biocapital; valued for their capacity to
generate scientific results and purchase treatments rather than as
autonomous agents. In response to this critique of traditional
medical research, clinical trials are moving from specialized
research centers to patient-powered research networks (PPRNs)
that shift the power dynamic via patient self-enrollment
regardless of place or clinical context. This paper uses key
stakeholder interview and discourse analysis to understand
emerging power dynamics and infrastructure needs in the PPRN
paradigm, including implications for informed consent and
opportunities for meaningful transnational and transcultural
research when the geography of the clinical trial is no longer an
issue. From this analysis we will address theoretical questions for
STS: Do PPRNs make laboratory medicine more like the real
world? Do PPRNs extend the techniques of the laboratory
medicine into the real world? Or do PPRNs collocate the
laboratory and the real world simultaneously?
Research portfolios for societal problems: conceptual
frameworks and analytical tools Matthew Wallace, Ingenio
(CSIC-UPV), Univ. Politècnica de València; Ismael Rafols,
INGENIO (CSIC-UPV), Universitat Politècnica de València;
Tommaso Ciarli, SPRU, University of Sussex
While portfolios have been extensively used as a heuristic for
managing R&D with tangible economic benefits, they remain illdefined in the wider science policy context, when in the context
of research is aimed at achieving societal outcomes. We therefore
analyze the uses of the term “research portfolio”, using analogies
derived from the financial sector, but arguing for a new
conception of public research portfolios. In particular, we insist
on making connections to research landscapes, considering levels
of diversity in research, focusing on interactions between
projects, and adopting a broader interpretation of risk and
benefits of public research. We illustrate our proposal with
mapping techniques applied to avian influenza research. We
argue that these new foundations can lead to tangible benefits for
public sector research, fostering inclusivity, allowing for
“alternative” portfolios to be considered, as well as promoting
cost-effectiveness and transparency. Most importantly, we
believe that our robust, yet basic, foundations for research
portfolios can facilitate dialogue public deliberation and lead to
the development of new science policy tools.
The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation and the
Problem of Plant-related Citizen Science Brian Beaton,
University of Pittsburgh
This presentation contributes to STS discussions about cultures
of expertise and public science infrastructures. It concerns an
ongoing collaboration between STS scholars and the Hunt
Institute for Botanical Documentation, a North American
research unit dedicated to the global history of botany,
horticulture, and plant science. The larger purpose of the
collaboration is to use STS approaches to co-create procedures
and technologies that will allow the Hunt Institute to become a
“trusted” repository for the tremendous amount of plant-related
citizen science happening worldwide outside of formal scientific
communities. Can the Hunt, which has a mandate to document
and preserve the history of plant science but focuses the bulk of
its current attention on university-based science, modify its
mission and procedures to help capture, store, and steward citizen
science research data, field notes, and project documention for
future re-use? Findings from Phase 1 of this project were
presented at the 2013 4S meeting in San Diego, California. This
presentation covers findings from Phase 2, which has moved
from an assessment of the Hunt’s capabilities as a science
archive and research facility to the creation of several prototypes
for connecting the Hunt to individual citizen science groups, and
for experimenting with the acquisition of citizen science
materials. A major focus of the presentation will be on recent
obstacles and challenges. The Hunt’s initial focus on scientific
biography and on key human actors in the plant sciences, it will
be argued, created unanticipated challenges in terms of reorienting the Institute toward crowd-driven scientific work.
115. Nanoparticles and macro policy: Reflections on the
development of of nanotechnology in the Americas II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat I
Chair:
Tomás Javier Carrozza, Universidad de Mar del Plata
Participants:
Nanotechnology, Nanofoods as The new frontier of the
agrofoods systems : The Brazilian case Paulo Roberto
Martins, RENANOSOMA
This paper will show what are the nanotechnologies and
nanofoods, their importance for the development of agroofoods
systems in our XXI century. Taken the Brazilian development of
nanofoods process as a case study, the text will discuss the
nanofoods , security and sovereignty as an example of science,
technology and society study applied to agriculture
Science and technology in food production: a discussion on
nanofoods Tânia Elias Magno Da Silva, Universidade
Federal de Sergipe (Brazil); Wilson Engelmann, UNISINOS;
Diego Rodrigues Souto Calazans, Universidade Federal de
Sergipe (Brazil)
The nanofoods are being produced and consumed in the world,
despite the controversy about its possible damage to health and
the environment. The research and its application in food chain
are promising in agriculture, food industry and packaging. Some
enthusiasts present nanotechnology as one of the most
promissing techinal ways to end world hunger, a geopolitical
problem. However, despite the benefits, the employment of
nanotechnologies in food production is also followed by risks.
There is no scientific certainty regarding the extension of toxic
effects of the nanoparticles that are interacting with the
environment and the human body and there is not a specific
legislation on this subject. In this paper, we analyze the debates
between scientists, researchers and environmentalists, with
emphasis on Brazilian and Latin American case, concerning the
actual and potential benefits and risks of the use of
nanotechnology on food production.
Trends in nanotechnology regulatory scenarios: food industry
and biofuels Adriano Premebida, FDB
Foods derived from nanotechnological procedures, or
incorporating these technologies, configure a new offshoot of
discussions on food culture and technology. The general purpose
of this paper is to evaluate, the hegemonic approaches the
theoretical point of view, about the epistemological assumptions
and legal regulation of the sector. Furthermore, it will be mapped
as USA, European Union and Brazil are defining their
governance and control of nanoparticle materials produced
voluntarily. Finally, will be examined structure of the trajectory
of socio-technical controversies on the theme, the management of
their risks, and the advantages and disadvantages of emerging
and current regulatory frameworks for nanotechnology applied to
food industry and biofuels. The normative and legal production
for the management of these artificial entities is an important
agenda for the social sciences. It is essential to think about a
society of multiple interests, strongly guided by development and
interaction of new technologies and categories of perception and
action in the world.
Nanotecnologias aplicadas aos agroquímicos e o Direito Raquel
von Hohendorff, Unisinos; Wilson Engelmann, UNISINOS
Abordar-se-á a necessária inovação no/do Direito provocada
pelos avanços nanotecnológicos que vem ocorrendo no setor de
produção no mundo inteiro, trazendo conjuntamente uma série de
preocupações acerca dos riscos à saúde e ao meio ambiente e dos
possíveis impactos sócio-jurídicos. O uso de produtos
nanoagroquímicos tem sido muito alardeado como uma possível
solução para o combate à fome no mundo, mas potencializa os
riscos decorrentes dos agroquímicos. As interfaces entre as
nanotecnologias e o Direito precisam ser dissecadas para que se
torne possível uma nova abordagem dos riscos decorrentes desta
tecnologia, promovendo a ideia de precaução, não de forma a
estancar o progresso científico, mas sim de modo a incentivar um
desenvolvimento nanotecnológico responsável, preocupado
também com as futuras gerações. Assim objetiva-se estudar os
elementos e as condições à elaboração de uma árvore de decisão
com base nas diferentes fontes do Direito para o caso dos
produtos nanoagroquímicos de forma a aproximar o
desenvolvimento tecnocientífico e o Direito. O Direito precisa
perpassar outras áreas do conhecimento para tentar compreender
a complexidade da realidade nanotecnológica, para que se
viabilize a inovação no/do Direito. O uso das árvores de decisão,
instrumento advindo da Administração, com a aplicação do
diálogo entre as diferentes fontes do Direito, passando pelo filtro
de uma nova perspectiva normativa contido na Constituição e no
controle de Convencionalidade, para a gestão dos riscos advindos
das nanotecnologias é uma alternativa que abre a possibilidade
para evoluir e inovar, inclusive no Direito, sem causar maiores
prejuízos ao Planeta e seus habitantes.
116. STS and “the State”
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Monserrat II
Chairs:
Nicholas J Rowland, Pennsylvania State University
Jan-Hendrik Passoth, Technische Universität Berlin
Participants:
Oceans Apart: Law and Politics of Maritime Direct Action,
1957-1963 Mary Mitchell, University of Pennsylvania
In 1958 Albert Bigelow and three other men set sail for the
Marshall Islands aboard a small sailboat, the Golden Rule.
Theirs was no pleasure cruise. As an act of protest, they hoped to
sail through America’s nuclear proving grounds during Operation
Hardtack I, a series of thirty-five atmospheric nuclear
detonations. Although the Golden Rule was stopped before it
reached the testing area, the voyage prompted a broader move to
the seas as sites of protest. Using archival sources, this paper
examines why and how activists began to see the oceans as
powerful places of protest during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
I argue that atmospheric nuclear testing opened up a new
biopolitical consciousness among peace advocates. Seeking
ways to expand the polity to match the vastness of the threat to
existence they saw in nuclear weapons, they repurposed the
oceanic legal regimes of industrial capitalism with varying
degrees of success. The paper accordingly builds upon work on
sovereignty, territory, and biopolitical resistance, adding a
sensitivity to the ways in which legal regimes, technology, and
the natural world create affordances for protest.
Is the state an actor or not? Jeffrey A. Knapp, Pennsylvania
State University; Sarp Yanki Kalfa, Pennsylvania State
University
Our claim: Debates about whether or not the state is an actor are
as old as state theory itself, and, to wit, have a home even here in
STS. Perhaps no scholar in STS is more critical of the idea of the
actor-state as Patrick Carroll whose vision of the state as a plexus
-- or network of networks -- has now become iconic of the STS
view on the state. However, for all his support of the plexus-state
idea, his rejection of the actor-state idea is not buttressed with
near as much support. We conclude that answering the question
“is the state an actor or not?” is better formulated if asked “when
is the state an actor and when is it not?” which is a classic STS
move. Our evidence: We present a case study of the 1974
“Cyprus Dispute” as depicted in newspapers in the US, the UK,
Turkey, and Greece. In our emerging analysis, we pay particular
attention to headlines (i.e., titles of journalistic accounts) for
hints of “state entitivity” (i.e., that the state is an actor). We
explore how and when the state is and is not depicted as an actor
with the backdrop being a multi-national conflict over Cyprus.
We also notice that depending upon the news sources, some
states seem more like actors than others. Our conclusion: No
matter how vigorously claimed, the rejection of the state-actor
idea does not match our findings.
State multiplicity, in alphabetical order Nicholas J Rowland,
Pennsylvania State University; Jan-Hendrik Passoth,
Technische Universität Berlin
Our claim: If economic theory is an engine and sociological
theory a camera, then, after careful review, we conclude that state
theory is an “engine-camera” whose surfaces multiply
descriptions of the state like a mimeograph. The result is a mass
of descriptions that populate the interdisciplinary world of state
theory, which are not merely synonymous or conceptually
equivalent copies. “More than one, less than many” is the oft
heard description of multiplicity, and we apply this notion to the
state as it appears in state theory, which we consider from an
actor-network perspective, given that ANT was never really a
theory but a theory of theories. Our evidence: We illustrate our
arguments two ways. First, we consider a few statements from
the extant literature about states that exemplify multiplicity;
showing how multiplicity (nota bene: singular noun) is actively
made in individual pieces of scholarship. Second, we have
amassed the beginnings of an “encyclopedia” of state
descriptions; showing how multiplicities (nota bene: plural noun)
hold together on the broader stage of state theory as well as
which descriptions of the state repel each other in a constellation
of presences and absences that is state theory.
Translating the State. Digitization of Governmental Information
Flows from an ANT perspective Annalisa Pelizza, University
of Twente, NL
Which novel subjects of authority and geographies of
sovereignty are emerging from the re-design of administrative
procedures due to the digitization of governmental data flows?
The ongoing “Translating Institution” research – funded under
the FP7 Marie Curie Actions – assumes that processes of
digitization of governmental information infrastructures are
optimal opportunities to observe state reordering, not so much on
a global scale, but in its globalization-related capabilities. By
introducing the notion of "translation" as framed in ANT and
semiotics, it argues that, far for simply dragging actors and
processes into the "virtual" domain, digitization of information
flows in governmental settings is unnoticeably and routinely
challenging the existing institutional order, and triggering
divergent information-policy orders, novel subjects of authority
and procedures of legitimacy. In other words, the TI research
argues that in a process of digitization which entails the redesign
of technological infrastructures, the whole actor-network made
up of material, technological and legal elements is being reassembled. At disciplinary level, the TI research asks whether
and how STS anti-essentialist epistemology can undertake a
mutually enriching dialogue with political science's insights
about novel forms of authority emerging in the global era. Over
the last decade the digitization of administrative information
flows has deeply affected practices of state-making. However,
scarce attention has been paid to the interplay of organizational,
political and technological dimensions of such major change:
there seems to be a lack of inquiry on how institutions - as stable
repositories of methods for legitimizing information - restructure
their administrative routines to face digitization.
Securing the Human: Xenotransplantation, Securitization, and
Human-Animal Relations Rachel Carr, University of Sydney
This paper considers the securitization of health in
xenotransplantation as a site producing human-animal relations.
Clinical Xenotransplantation involves the deliberate circulation
of biological fragments from one species to another, mainly from
pigs to humans, to improve health. As Foucault notes in Security,
Territory, Population this logic of circulation is one of the key
ways in which contemporary power apparatuses secure
populations. At the same time xenotransplantation technologies
are also framed as a public health risk through potential transfer
of animal diseases into the human population (zoonoses).
Concerns about zoonoses indicate a sense of insecurity in
response to increasing biological circulations, and reassert
biological boundaries between humans and animals via the
‘species barrier’ concept. Tied to the reassertion of species
boundaries, I argue, is an imagining of the human population as a
body at risk from outside animal diseases: a species body.
Drawing on interviews and documentary sources, this paper
explores the construction of a species body imaginary in the
xenotransplantation field and the tensions between circulation
and border protection. Using Foucault’s analysis of security
apparatuses I discuss two current approaches to protection of the
species in xenotransplantation governance, in the U.S. and
Australia, which affirm/enact different models of the species
body. The implications for power relations are explored,
especially regarding human-animal relations. This paper
contributes to STS by investigating the intersections between
knowledge practices (virology and epidemiology), state driven
public health governance, and the production of human-animal
boundaries and relations; further developing connections
between STS and Human-Animal Studies.
Science Technology and Society and post-Keynesian / postFordism Regime of Production Ricardo Gonçalves Da Silva,
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico &
Tecnológico- CNPq
The restructuring of social policies, as consequence of the
disassemble of science and technology is one of the main
problems related to the process of restructuring the ways to
produce and the ways to organize and manage S&T not only in
L.A, but in almost all over the world. This process has been
happening, more effectively, since the 1980’s, in the midst of the
transformations initiated by the capitalist crises of the 1970’s and
by the expansion of neoliberalism, among them highlights the
move from the Keynesian / Fordism Regime of Production (KFP)
to the post-Keynesian / post-Fordism Regime of Production
(PosKFP), anchored in the entrepreneurial Schumpeterian ideas
and also in the reduction of individuals to standard classifications
that demarcate the normal from the deviant and authorize
varieties of social control. In the context of this problematic, the
main objective of this paper is to detect the concrete effects on
STS policy on the passage from the state (KFP) to the (PosKFP)
state, effects that are linked to the changes in the relation
between state and society and also between the market economy,
including the work market, and the policy STS, characterized by
how people perceive elements of STS and society, and how the
state are absence in STS policy and how the human beings
organize, and periodically reorganize their ideas about reality
under circumstances of (PosKFP) state.
117. Agricultural research, GMO, and STS I
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Mozart
Chair:
Mariana Cuello, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes
Participants:
Public versus private interest: contested definitions of property
rights in the GMO debate in Chile Maite Paulina Salazar,
Universidad Santo Tomás
After several decades of commercialization, genetically modified
crops continue to generate controversy with adoption rates and
public acceptance varying amongst countries. The public battle
has centered on a wide range of issues yet the technology’s
novelty and disruption rests in great part on its (re)definition of
property rights applied to the life sciences in general and
agriculture in particular. In this study we explore the definitions
and contestation of property rights in the debate over GM crops
in Chile. We specifically focus on how and if new objects and
forms of ownership are delineated in the technology’s movement
to the “south”. We analyze public documents in two recent
controversies over GMOs in Chile: 1) over public access to
GMO regulatory information and 2) over plant breeder-rights
legislation. We discuss the implications of these definitions for
regulatory policy.
Obstáculos para la diversidad tecnológica: problemas de
coexistencia de alternativas productivas en algodón en
Argentina Valeria Arza, CENIT, Buenos Aires; Patrick van
Zwanenberg, CENIT, Argentina
El modelo establecido de producción en la agricultura argentina
desde fines de los ‘70 consiste en la producción de cultivos poco
diferenciados orientados al mercado de exportación utilizando
tecnologías intensivas en capital y en insumos externos. Las
semillas transgénicas y sus tecnologías asociadas son la última
novedad tecnológica de este modelo que logró aumentar los
rendimientos pero también generó problemas sociales y
ambientales que llevaron a algunos referentes de la política
pública a promover modelos alternativos de producción que
agreguen valor en origen, que fomenten la inclusión y el empleo
y que sean amigables con el medioambiente. No se espera que
estos últimos reemplacen al establecido que es fuente de ingresos
y divisas; sino que lo complemente mejorando así la
sostenibilidad ambiental y social de la producción agropecuaria.
En este trabajo discutimos los problemas que enfrentan los
modelos alternativos para emerger y consolidarse resaltando en
particular los conflictos que aparecen en la coexistencia con el
modelo establecido. Utilizamos el marco conceptual de los
estudios socio-técnicos de transición, que tiene una fuerte
impronta de los estudios de ciencia, tecnología y sociedad, y el
caso del algodón transgénico y agroecológico en Argentina.
Argumentamos que aunque el modelo agroecológico dio buenos
resultados económicos y sociales para los agricultores que
participaron, no logró consolidarse ni difundirse porque no pudo
superar los desafíos que enfrentan las actividades novedosas
especialmente en un contexto de conflicto de coexistencia con las
prácticas establecidas. La información proviene de talleres
participativos con productores y entrevistas con diversos actores
durante 2010-2012.
La transferencia tecnológica en Universidades y el rol de las
Oficinas de Transferencia Tecnológica en proyectos de
biotecnología agropecuaria Facundo Romani, Universidad
Nacional de Quilmes; Pablo Ariel Pellegrini, Instituto de
Estudios sobre la Ciencia y la Tecnología, Universidad
Nacional de Quilmes / CONICET; Darío Codner,
Universidad Nacional de Quilmes
Históricamente la producción de conocimiento científico en
Argentina se caracterizó por una mayoritaria inversión del sector
público, con escasa transferencia de tecnología hacia el sector
productivo. En los últimos años se han hecho esfuerzos para
cambiar esta estructura y promover la interacción de los
laboratorios con el sector productivo. Uno de estos esfuerzos es
la creación de Oficinas de Transferencia Tecnológica en las
universidades nacionales. En el presente trabajo se analizan
dinámicas de transferencia tecnológica en laboratorios de
universidades nacionales dedicados a proyectos vinculados a la
agrobiotecnología, campo de particular relevancia para la
estructura productiva del país. En particular, se analiza el rol que
cumplen en esas dinámicas las Oficinas de Transferencia,
fundamentalmente a la hora de influenciar las líneas de
investigación de los laboratorios y relacionarlos con el sector
productivo y otros organismos del Estado, así como también en
cuanto al asesoramiento en el uso de diversas herramientas para
la apropiación efectiva del valor generado por esos
conocimientos. La metodología consiste en la exploración
empírica de diversos casos según un abordaje fundamentalmente
cualitativo y comparado, utilizando un enfoque biográfico de los
actores involucrados, a través de una serie de entrevistas en
profundidad a los actores principales. Para este trabajo se
presentan dos casos tomados de laboratorios de universidades
nacionales vinculados con proyectos de innovación en
biotecnología agropecuaria, caracterizando también estos
ámbitos particulares. El análisis contribuye a plantear algunos
desafíos con los que se enfrentan las actividades de transferencia
tecnológica en los contextos en estudio.
La soja RR en Argentina: bordeando la mercantilización del
conocimiento Mariana Cuello, Universidad Nacional de
Quilmes
Desde mediados de los años noventa, la producción agrícola
Argentina comienza un proceso de transformación con la
aplicación de un conjunto de innovaciones nucleadas en torno a
la soja RR, que logran dinamizar al sector convirtiéndolo en el
motor de la economía. El marco regulatorio local de los derechos
de propiedad intelectual sobre las variedades genéticamente
modificadas, jugó un papel fundamental en este proceso, al
amparar ciertas prácticas culturales de los productores agrícolas
que permitieron la difusión de la soja RR, al filtrarse los
conocimientos básicos de esta innovación al dominio público.
Esta “grieta” en la legislación, genera una puja de intereses por
las ganancias económicas con un reclamo de las grandes
corporaciones que pone en jaque no sólo a la actividad
productiva y la rentabilidad de los productores, sino además a la
continuidad del modelo sojero del país. Este trabajo busca
contribuir con el estudio de las legislaciones de propiedad
intelectual de otros países promoviendo, a partir del caso de la
soja RR en Argentina, la reflexión sobre los efectos potenciales
de la liberación de determinados conocimientos al dominio
público sobre los sectores productivos y sobre la economía en
conjunto. Asimismo, se busca aportar a la discusión de los
aspectos filosóficos de la lógica de equilibrio en el régimen de
patentes vigente, a partir de los debates y controversias generadas
en torno a ellas, tanto en el plano práctico como ideológico.
Os Transgênicos e o Imperativo da Modernização Agrícola Notas Sobre o Caso Brasileiro Vivianne Caroline Santos
Sobral, UFSCar
O texto apresenta o uso de transgênicos na agricultura como um
deslocamento característico da Modernidade. Para tanto, traz à
tona os elementos que colocam a ciência moderna num lócus
privilegiado, se comparado a outros saberes. Não obstante,
também é feito um resgate da agroecologia, como uma
perspectiva de ciência socialmente enraizada, oposta à
biotecnologia moderna. Por fim, tendo como base alguns dados
empíricos (patentes, financiamento público de pesquisas em
C&T )são feitas algumas pontuações com o intuito de explicitar o
embate existente entre caminhos alternativos de desenvolvimento
e as prioridades políticas e econômicas dos países (Brasil).
Los conocimientos científicos y la definición de la toxicidad de
los agroquímicos en el contexto argentino. María Paula
Blois, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Desde una perspectiva socio antropológica, en este trabajo se
exploran las maneras en que el conocimiento científico es
significado y utilizado por diferentes actores en el marco del
debate sobre la toxicidad y el uso de agroquímicos en el actual
contexto argentino. En Argentina, la adopción de organismos
vegetales genéticamente modificados en la agricultura, ligados
fundamentalmente al uso intensivo de ciertos herbicidas, no ha
suscitado resistencias masivas ni la visibilización pública de la
figura del experto. No obstante, en los últimos años el
cuestionamiento por parte de ciertos especialistas, comunidades
campesinas, indígenas y organizaciones vecinales, comienza a
hacerse notorio. La definición de la toxicidad de los
agroquímicos aparece como un tema científico- médico que se
dirime en un marco de múltiples intereses y perspectivas en
pugna, donde las políticas científicas, productivas y sanitarias se
debaten, cuestionan y defienden. El proceso social en el que se
define la toxicidad no está exento de sufrimientos, invectivas y
descalificaciones, lo cual revela que lo que está en juego excede
cuestiones meramente científico-técnicas. Tomando como
elementos de análisis entrevistas, trabajos científicos e informes
de organismos públicos, se examinan algunos temas usualmente
tratados en por los estudios STS: ¿Quién puede producir
conocimiento legítimo? ¿Quién puede impugnarlo? ¿Qué
conocimientos? ¿Con qué fines? El abordaje de este debate
particular da lugar a conceptualizaciones generales que
contribuyen a la reflexión acerca del lugar y los usos de los
conocimientos científicos en un contexto socio-histórico
caracterizado por grandes desigualdades en el acceso a recursos
materiales y simbólicos.
118. South-North-South dialogues on Science and Technology II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Picasso
Chair:
Ricardo B. Duque, Alabama State Univeristy
Participants:
Configuring the ICT4D User for Financial Inclusion Tanya
Rabourn, School of Information, The University of Texas at
Austin
Information and Communication Technology for Development
(ICT4D) focuses on technological interventions to foster
economic development primarily in the global south through
design practices developed in the global north. Considering
ICT4D as technology transfer from global north to south,
however, ignores the complex site of technology design and
production that makes up many ICT4D projects. This paper
explores how users are discursively shaped in the liminal space
opened up by an ICT4D project. It considers how post-colonial
aspirations along with transnational flows of people, knowledges
and financial resources shape the predictions that ICT4D
practitioners make about their users’ expected motives and
aspirations. Specifically, by building on the STS literature that
takes a semiotic approach to consider the configuring of users
during the technology design process, it discusses the discursive
shaping of the ICT4D user within a mobile financial services
project intended to promote "financial inclusion" in sub-Saharan
Africa. My methodological and theoretical framework makes use
of ethnographically informed discourse analysis through
participant observation to consider context, text, and naturally
occurring talk during design activity to ask: how is the ICT4D
user shaped during the design process and how is this imagined
user rhetorically mobilized to justify design choices?
Post-colonial nanotechnology? The absence of governance
rationales from the South Paulo de Freitas Castro Fonseca,
Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra; Tiago
Santos Pereira, University of Coimbra
The post-colonial perspective developed by Boaventura Santos
offers useful tools to address issues regarding the overspread
primacy of research an innovation in both the global North and
South. The rationale for the governance of emerging technologies
may draw on technoscience either as a “globalized localism” or
as a “localized globlalism” (Santos 1995). In the Southern
context, the first case occurs when particular values are adopted
without a critical assessment of the suitability or desirability of
the so-called “best practices” of the North. However, if taken in
this second view, that is, if scientific knowledge is interculturally translated and associated with the distinct civic
epistemologies (Jasanoff 2005), and more particularly with
“Epistemologies of the South” (Santos 2014), it has the potential
to be used as a counter-hegemonic and effective device to
promote social development. In this presentation, we apply the
“sociology of absences and emergences” (Santos 2006) to
discuss about alternative epistemic groundings of scientific
governance. Drawing on a recent research about two cases of
nanotechnology development in Brazil and Portugal, the work
discusses the absences and possible emergences the local policy
and research rationales of nanotechnology. We identify the latin
american approach of "Social Technology" as a southern
governance framework that has been discarded and made absent
from valid options for local science policy in Brazil. This
approach, however, may contribute to the emergence of a more
suitable and desirable way to promote nanotechnology
development, not only in Brazil, but also in semiperipheral
contexts such as Portugal.
From the land to the virtual: Facebook and Inuit users. Alex
Castleton, Carleton University
Online social networks sites - first Bebo and now Facebook, have
widely spread across Nunavut, Canada, among Inuit users. This
paper explores how young Inuit are using such sites to access
information, and to engage in dialogues negotiating Inuit
identity. The methodology developed was ethnographic, applying
interviews, participant observation, and digital ethnography on
Facebook pages. The fieldwork took place at the Arctic College’s
student residence in Iqaluit, the capital community of Nunavut. It
was found that Inuit youth do not individually use online social
networks sites in any different way from other users. This relates
to the actor-network constructivist concept that technologies
inscribe a user in a script, and thus, it could be interpreted as an
insidious form of colonization. Furthermore, Facebook is used to
form groups (such as Nunavut Hunting Stories), which engage in
the discussion of Inuit identity in a multimedia interface: through
pictures, videos, comments, conversations, etc. These groups are
a means through which Inuit share knowledge, negotiating with
the world and with each other what it means to be Inuit today.
Given the intensive use that Inuit youth give to a social network
sites such as Facebook, these sites could be a proper way to
engage in communication with cultural value and a platform for
social support.
Cognitive justice, open access and digital literacy Florence
Piron, Université Laval
The concept of cognitive justice, well described by Santos
(2007), refers to the moral and political recognition of the
diversity of knowledges (particularly those from the Global
south) within the dominant scientific order. The movement
advocating open access to scientific publications and data is often
presented as a demand for more justice, since it would give
researchers from the Global south free access to the whole
scientific production. I will show that this moral justification of
open access does not really fall into the "cognitive justice"
category since it does not take into account the difficulties related
to the use of open access in the Global south, and the lack of
reciprocity. In fact, digital literacy of researchers from the Global
south is a major challenge for the ideal of cognitive justice. In
response to this challenge, I will present a draft MOOC on how
to use open scientific resources. It is a project done in
collaboration with Haitian researchers.
119. Responsible Research and Innovation: Legitimizing
Emerging Technologies II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Quinquela
Chair:
Javier Ignacio Garcia Fronti, University of Buenos Aires
Participants:
Apropiación tecnocientífica de saberes tradicionales
socioambientalmente relevantes Laura Alicia Olivares
Lagos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Cuando se aborda críticamente el tema de la apropiación de
saberes tradicionales, la atención recae en los mecanismos
institucionales y jurídicos que regulan la obtención y distribución
de beneficios económicos, por ejemplo la salvaguarda de la
propiedad intelectual a través de patentes y marcas colectivas;
difícilmente se reflexiona acerca del papel que las comunidades
científicas desempeñan en estos procesos de apropiación. El
presente trabajo se aboca no sólo a esta última tarea sino que,
además, propone una innovadora caracterización del proceso de
apropiación de saberes tradicionales socioambientalmente
relevantes, incorporando como elemento central de análisis el
concepto de tecnociencia desarrollado por el Dr. Javier
Echeverría Ezponda. Dicha caracterización converge con la
perspectiva de los Estudios Sociales en Ciencia y Tecnología,
toda vez que permite analizar transversalmente el rol de las
comunidades científicas tanto en el ámbito de la producción del
conocimiento como en el de su uso, gestión y aprovechamiento.
En ese sentido, uno de los principales aportes de este trabajo al
campo de los ESCT es que permite apuntar hacia una evaluación
crítica e integral del rol de las comunidades científicas en estos
procesos de apropiación, así como aportar elementos reflexivos
para el desarrollo de prácticas científicas socioambientalmente
responsables y sensibles a las particularidades de cada contexto.
Así, los aportes y la reflexión contenidos en este trabajo se
sostienen en una revisión de la literatura atinente a la apropiación
de saberes tradicionales y al estudio de las prácticas científicas; a
partir de cuyo análisis abordamos un caso particular de
apropiación.
The Student and the Device Cristina Popescu, Grhapes (EA
7287) – INS HEA, EHESS, France
This communication outlines the place of digital and
technological innovation within the education of students with
disabilities. We therefore present a digital notes-taking tool
aimed to be tested within a large population of students with
visual and hearing impairments, dyslexia, developmental
dyspraxia and dysphasia from four French regions. If variations
to norm are less important within a « normal » population,
creating unifying or general devices for people with a large
spectrum of impairments and needs might be a challenge. We
therefore present the case of a prototype, or a device in the
making, whose legitimacy and design are discussed by its users.
Through a qualitative research, including ethnographic data
collection and a study of the different discourses, we will show
how the technological object becomes a nonhuman actor within
the educational network. It is designed and designated as a
adjuvant for the students, a kind of prosthetic device intended to
replace or compensate the missing organic function of its user.
Therefore, two big figures, the Student and the Device, will
reunite around them less visible actors like educational, technical
and care professionals. This contribution will finally help to
better understand the connections one can establish between STS
and disability, as well as the influence of the Design for All
(Barnes, 2011) new paradigm on technical innovation.
Redesign do processo de confecção de imagens sacras e
Tecnologias Sociais em Aparecida, SP, Brasil Isabela
Batista Graça Grego, Faculdades Integradas Teresa D'Ávila
- FATEA; Rosinei Batista Ribeiro, Universidade do Estado
do Rio de Janeiro - FAT/UERJ; Camila Loricchio Veiga,
Universidade Federal de Itajubá; Adilson Silva Mello,
Universidade Federal de Itajubá; Bianca Siqueira Martins
Domingos, Universidade Federal de Itajubá - UNIFEI;
Gilbert Silva, Universidade Federal de Itajubá - UNIFEI
A pesquisa interdisciplinar teve como objetivo desenvolver, no
espaço do turismo religioso na cidade de Aparecida / São Paulo,
Brasil, novos produtos a partir da inserção de cargas de terra de
diatomáceas em diferentes composições em gesso para a
indústria de imagens sacras. Desta forma, serão integrados
conceitos no campo das Ciências Sociais e processos inovativos
visando à aplicação de Tecnologias Sociais. As intenções
residem no aprimoramento da produção em pequenas
organizações que desenvolvem produtos utilizando gesso como
principal material, com a finalidade de aperfeiçoar sua cadeia
produtiva, reduzindo custos de forma sustentável e ampliando a
geração de renda para o produtor. A pesquisa de campo
contempla as características do município e da empresa estudada,
com a coleta de materiais e a apreensão do saber-fazer das
imagens sacras e suas significações. A metodologia experimental
consistiu na produção do material com adição de terra de
diatomáceas em diferentes composições para obtenção dos
corpos de prova. No processo seguinte foi feito a análise
morfológica da superfície do material via Microscopia Eletrônica
de Varredura (MEV) e Óptica (MO), e realizou-se ensaio
mecânico tipo flexão três pontos para determinação da resistência
mecânica do material em relação às diferentes composições
químicas. Os resultados alcançados norteiam na melhoria da
qualidade do produto, redução de 30% do peso das imagens e a
diminuição do uso da água no processo.
Unloking: apropiacion de la tecnologia celular ilegal en Bogotá
Elkin Fernando Marin Osorio, Universidad Nacional de
Colombia
El robo de teléfonos celulares es en un fenómeno que ha
adquirido notoriedad en Colombia, debido a las elevadas cifras
de víctimas y a los episodios dramáticos expuestos por los
medios de comunicación, tales como asesinatos de menores de
edad durante asaltos. Una indagación en los centros de servicio
técnico donde se realizan procedimientos ilegales ligados al
comercio de celulares robados, permitiría observar cómo el
conocimiento puede ser mediador en una diversidad de prácticas
de las personas involucradas, en aspectos que atañen a la
subjetividad, tales como la solidaridad grupal, la creación de
códigos lingüísticos, la aparición de comportamientos
ritualizados, y la elaboración de reglas propias de una
comunidad. Entonces, en esta ponencia se indagará por los
procesos de apropiación y uso de conocimiento tecnológico
especializado en la construcción de comunidades de técnicos que
operan en las fronteras de la legalidad, tomando en cuenta que
allí se presentan procesos de difusión, adaptación, reutilización y
eliminación de la tecnología, hecho que implica el surgimiento
de procesos de innovación en este contexto especifico. Para
explorar los procesos de apropiación de conocimiento
tecnológico, en este grupo particular, se recurrirá a observaciones
etnográficas y entrevistas, así como al seguimiento de las
diversas tecnologías utilizadas en este tipo de trabajo, para
identificar las relaciones que allí se dan entre actores humanos y
no humanos, así como las diferentes redes que se generan en la
construcción de un conocimiento no aceptado legalmente.
120. Governance-in-the-making I
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Soldi
Chairs:
Nicolas Baya-Laffite, Medialab, Sciences Po Paris
Stefan Cihan Aykut, EHESS, Paris
Participants:
Realizing instruments of governance Jan-Peter Voss,
Technische Universität Berlin
The paper presents a conceptual perspective on instruments of
governance in-the-making. The perspective and its potential are
illustrated with cases from the fields of environmental markets
(emissions trading, biodiversity offsetting and banking) and
public participation methods (citizen jury, consensus conference,
planning cell. The main argument is that epistemic and political
authority are co-produced in the course of innovation journeys
which comprise interlinked processes of establishing knowledge
about governance, in the form of functional models, and
configuring practices in various sites of "implementation".
Instruments are realized in the sense of "coming to know" and
"bringing into existence".
Isomorphism and Innovation Policies: a Comparative Analysis
Carolina Bagattolli, UFPR - Universidade Federal do
Paraná
In recent decades, technological innovation is been increasingly
seen as fundamental to economic growth and social development.
In line with this perspective, countries around the world – with
different sizes and inserted in different socioeconomic and
cultural-historical contexts – have adopted a series of policy
measures in order to foster business innovation. Financial support
mechanisms were redesigned, new ones were created, the legal
framework has been enhanced and public resources available for
business innovation activities have grown considerably - even in
the recent context of international crisis. Even as in other public
policies, one would naturally expect that the contents of the
Science, Technology and Innovation Policy reflects the great
diversity of resources and the particular socio-cultural
characteristics in a given society. However, the reality seem to be
the opposite: a growing similarity between the sectorial policies
of various countries. Apparently, although there remain some
specificities in national policies, countries worldwide are
adopting common models of how the country should position in
relation to various social domains, and related to science,
technology and innovation is no exception. Grounded by this
discussion, our main goal is foster the comprehension of the
isomorphism in the national innovation policies from the
comparative analysis of policies implemented by three American
countries, inserted in different stages of industrialization and
developing: Brazil, the United States of America and Canada identifying, from this comparative analysis, the common
characteristics and main guidelines differences.
Randomised controlled trials, health agencies and consumer
organisations: the political resolution of controversies Alain
Giami, INSERM - France
Randomised controlled trials (RCT) are considered the ‘gold
standard’ of clinical evidence, providing scientific and clinical
proof, opening the approval of new treatments by public health
agencies. However, public health decisions are not only
evidence-based based. The case study proposed here is based on
the analysis of documents and ethnographies of conferences in
sexual medicine. produced during the process of approval of two
pharmaceutical drugs for the treatment of Hypoactive Sexual
Desire Disorder that were either rejected or approved partially by
the FDA: Intrinsa (2004) and Flibanserine (2010). It aims to shed
light on the interaction between the "evidence-based" discourse,
the pharmaceutical industry, the activists' consumers position and
the public health system requirements their different function in
the resolution of controversies. I will present: 1) the definition of
the disorders for which these treatments were developed:
Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder, listed in the major
classifications (DSM and CIM); (2) the RCT and the evidence
advanced by the industry to demonstrate the efficacy and safety
of these products; 3) the procedure of the FDA system of ‘public
hearing’, which enables representatives of civil society and of
consumers, independent experts and all citizens who feel that the
problem concerns them to express their point of view, supported
by the evidence; 4) the arguments put forward by consumer
associations to counter those of the pharmaceutical industry; 5)
the final decisions for these drugs.
Loose Governance of Life Yoshizawa Go, Osaka University
Conventional governance perspective is formalized, static and
restricted to organizational processes and networks, the decisionmaking in which is based on either libertarian individuals or
authoritarian society. In Japanese context, however, as
represented by terms like ‘seken’ and ‘kuuki’, people often never
make a clear decision on but rather deal with an event in a tacit,
ad hoc and peer-pressured manner. The event ranges from lifethreating (e.g. war, nuclear accident, vaccination) to daily (e.g.
eating, overtime, personal identification). Here, this study
proposes a novel concept and theoretical framework of ‘loose
governance’ by challenging the conventional governance
perspective. In the sense that the looseness allows uncertainty,
ambiguity and loopholes in governance, the concept of loose
governance resonates with the recent STS discourse on
governance referred to as being anticipatory (Barben et al. 2008)
and mundane (Woolgar & Neyland 2014), but less with adaptive
(Folke et al. 2005), reflexive (Voss, Bauknecht & Kemp 2006)
and responsive (von Schomberg 2011). The study also sheds
light on the methodology to understand dissociation and conflict
between public and private selves, and problematize observer
effect and reflection in STS researchers’ non-laboratory life.
The Chilean import of cognitive objects of government: family
violence and bullying Claudio Ramos Zincke, Universidad
Alberto Hurtado; Fernando Valenzuela, Universidad Andres
Bello
In Chile, since 1990, two cognitive configurations, called family
violence and bullying, have been incorporated into public use,
being object of legislation, governance and diverse institutional
processes. They refer to two social realities that in past decades
were not perceived with the empirical specifications, value-laden
connotations, clarity of borders and sense of relevance that are
now perceived in both the public and private spheres. They have
been configured or assembled as social realities and, more
precisely, as realities that are object of government; its cognitive
constitution itself is used instrumentally to regulate the behavior
of the population. It is, thus, an ontological process associated
with government and social regulation. They have become
objects of government In this paper such a process of
incorporation is studied focusing on the process of arrival in the
country of these epistemic objects, coming from central countries
in the North, and analyzing the role played by international
organizations, social science, social movements, the mass media
and the action of various agents putting in place these new
cognitive entities through legislation, State practices, and
measurement, recording and diagnostic devices The research is
based on more than 30 interviews with participants at different
points in the chain of arrival and installation of these epistemic
objects; the review and analysis of documents, manuals and
instructions for measuring and diagnosing processes; and
ethnographic observation at multiple points in the constitutive
and regulatory operation of family violence and bullying.
121. Producción de conocimiento y políticas públicas: tensiones y
oportunidades de una compleja relación II
Paper Session
11:00 to 1:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Verdi
Participants:
Políticas públicas y producción de conocimiento colectivo: un
acercamiento al portal educ.ar Marisa Alvarez, UNTREF;
Veronica Xhardez, UNTREF
Este trabajo refleja los primeros avances de una investigación
mayor que aborda la cuestión de la producción, distribución y
uso de conocimiento colectivo en sectores específicos a partir del
desarrollo e implementación de políticas públicas que promueven
el desenvolvimiento de comunidades de práctica por medio de la
puesta en marcha de portales web. Durante esta etapa inicial de
investigación se explorarán el entramado de relaciones de actores
y las tensiones existentes en contextos de producción de
conocimientos y políticas públicas a partir del análisis de una de
las experiencias: el portal educ.ar del Ministerio de Educación de
la Nación. (*) Desde el punto de vista teórico este trabajo sigue
una doble perspectiva: el análisis de políticas publicas siguiendo
la perspectiva de Thoening (1997) que las considera como un
constructo complejo desarrollado en un contexto específico, y
que toma en cuenta el juego de fuerzas entre los actores
involucrados (en acción); y las TIC como mecanismos y
dispositivos útiles para producir, almacenar, procesar y compartir
información en un contexto sociocultural determinado, y cuya
importancia radica en su capacidad de impulsar o condicionar
estos procesos, según sean las relaciones sociales en las que se
producen. Así, se pondrá en discusión la premisa de que aquellos
dispositivos promueven el desarrollo de comunidades de práctica
(existentes con anterioridad, Wenger, 2001) de manera que sus
miembros comparten y construyen conocimientos que impulsan
cambios en sus prácticas (aprendizaje). Metodológicamente este
primer acercamiento utilizará el trabajo con fuentes y el análisis
de los dispositivos y sus características, articulado con
información de los agentes recabada en el campo (entrevistas a
promotores de las políticas, gestores de los espacios y usuarios).
Se espera que el análisis de la experiencia permita contribuir a la
caracterización y debate de las tensiones y vínculos que se
establecen entre producción de conocimiento y políticas públicas.
(*) La investigación principal indagará comparativamente,
además, las estrategias de los portales:
www.gobiernolocal.gob.ar (Ministerio del Interior y Transporte)
y www.agendadigital.gob.ar (Jefatura de Gabinete de Ministros).
La comunidad científica frente al poder político en México
Vanessa Sandoval-Romero, CIRST/UQAM; Rosalba Casas,
Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM
El propósito de este trabajo es estudiar las opiniones de la
comunidad científica mexicana publicadas en diarios de
circulación nacional entre 2006 y 2014 para analizar las
percepciones de sus miembros frente al poder político. Nos
interesa identificar las espacios en los que estos actores
participan (o no) en la definición de la agenda pública en México
de acuerdo con las teorías de políticas públicas, tomando en
cuenta la influencia de los procesos interactivos que buscan
vincular diferentes sectores de la sociedad en la elaboración de la
política de ciencia, tecnología e innovación desde los años
noventa. El estudio de las opiniones y percepciones tomará en
cuenta los factores que influyen en las actividades diarias de los
investigadores: como sus nombramientos en puestos académicoadministrativos de alto nivel o en instancias gubernamentales. A
partir de un análisis de redes, los resultados de esta investigación
demuestran, en términos generales, la existencia dos grupos o
tendencias: por un lado, los científicos de reconocidas
trayectorias tanto en la investigación como en el ámbito
académico-administrativo quienes buscan ampliar sus roles
insertándose en los círculos de poder como expertos para
participar en el debate público e incidir en la definición de la
agenda pública; y por otro lado, un grupo de actores en el que
convergen científicos reconocidos, miembros de la iniciativa
privada e instancias gubernamentales quienes buscan reorientar
el debate hacia temas que inciden sobre el campo científico de las
disciplinas, sobre la organización de la comunidad científica y
sobre los procesos productivos.
Los modos de producción de conocimiento en los instrumentos
de promoción científica y tecnológica en Argentina: La
formulación y evaluación del Programa de Áreas
Estratégicas Victoria Castro, UBA
Una de las perspectivas del campo de estudios CTS sostiene que
la mayoría de los países latinoamericanos cargan con la herencia
del modo de producción científico-tecnológico de los países
desarrollados. Actualmente, algunos autores plantean que el
crecimiento y consolidación de la ciencia y tecnología en países
como Argentina fueron acompañados de la aplicación de
modelos teóricos importados que guiaron la formulación de
políticas. Así, en la bibliografía especializada se pone en
discusión si las dificultades para el desarrollo de la científico y
tecnológico en nuestro país se deben al modelo lineal, ofertista, a
la desarticulación entre instituciones, o a la falta de inversión por
parte del sector privado, entre otros argumentos. Este trabajo
presenta un análisis -a través de la investigación documental- de
los mecanismos formales construidos para la formulación y
medición de los resultados del Programa de Áreas Estratégica
(PAE) implementado en 2006 por la Agencia Nacional de
Promoción Científica y Tecnológica Argentina, cuya finalidad
consistía en aumentar las capacidades científicas y tecnológicas
para dar respuesta a problemas sociales sectoriales y prioritarios
establecidos en el Plan Nacional de CyT. El mismo pretende
contribuir con resultados preliminares a mejorar la gestión de la
política del sector, aportar al estudio de los modos de producción
de conocimientos en la implementación de políticas científicas.
Y, en el plano de los marcos teóricos, ofrecer observaciones en
relación con las nuevas teorizaciones expuestas, y su contraste
con los sustanciales aportes hechos por los autores del llamado
Pensamiento Latinoamericano CyT.
A Política Científica para o Câncer no Estado de São Paulo:
características da agenda de pesquisa Renan Gonçalves
Leonel, State University of Campinas, UNICAMP; Maria
Conceição da Costa, University if de Campinas
Como uma política pública para as ciências é estabelecida? Qual
o papel do Estado no desenho de uma agenda de política
científica na área de biomedicina? Para responder essas
perguntas, esta pesquisa pretende apresentar uma análise dos
principais atores e iniciativas de política pública para a pesquisa
em Câncer no Brasil, especificamente no estado de São Paulo, a
partir dos anos 1970. O objetivo é entender os fatores que
levaram os formuladores de política a escolher uma agenda para
se produzir conhecimento. Levantamos dados sobre projetos
aprovados sobre o tema pela Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do
Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), de 1994-2012, das instituições
de ensino e pesquisa em Câncer em São Paulo. Foram aplicadas
entrevistas com importantes pesquisadores atuantes em tais
centros, aliado à pesquisa documental em publicações oficiais de
órgãos de fomento à ciência e tecnologia (federais e estaduais).
Os contexto de definição de agendas de pesquisa possui um
significado importante, pois nela fica evidente que distintos
interesses políticos e sociais influenciam na escolha de temas
para se produzir conhecimento. Este trabalho pretende contribuir
com os Estudos Sociais da Ciência e da Tecnologia na medida
em que interpreta a construção da política científica como um
empreendimento coletivo, culturalmente situado, mediado por
diferentes formas de interação política e social.
Ciência e política na cooperação Sul-Sul: panorama da
cooperação brasileira em saúde Nicole Aguilar Gayard,
University of Campinas; Maria Conceição da Costa,
University if de Campinas
O marcante crescimento nas iniciativas de cooperação técnica
internacional fomentadas pelo Brasil a partir de 2003 chama a
atenção para um novo protagonismo do país no cenário global.
Estas iniciativas, em grande parte baseadas em áreas de
reconhecida expertise nacional - como saúde e agricultura -, são
discutidas pelo presente artigo com base nas complexas relações
existentes entre as esferas política e científica, no
estabelecimento de redes de produção e utilização do
conhecimento que definem um modelo nacional de saúde.
Coloca-se em evidência a questão: "que aspectos da produção de
conhecimento e da política de saúde no Brasil confluíram para
estabelecer redes em que o conhecimento brasileiro alcança
novos países e novas fronteiras?" O artigo descreve os contextos
de produção e utilização do conhecimento em saúde no Brasil,
apresentado a atuação dos principais organismos de produção do
conhecimento em saúde envolvidos na cooperação: Fiocruz,
Ministério da Saúde, e outros. Com base nestes elementos,
discute como os contextos de produção e uso do conhecimento se
relacionam e promovem um modelo que passa a ser transladado
para outros países. Esta discussão contribui ao debate sobre o
papel político da cooperação Sul-Sul, e procura descrever um
panorama de difusão e translação de práticas e conhecimento de
base científica a partir de um país periférico na ciência mundial.
Tecnologías de gobierno en las prácticas de intervención y
gestión de jóvenes internados por infracciones a la ley
Janaina de Souza Bujes, Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Sul
La investigación analiza el entramado burocrático de
intervención jurídico-estatal en la gestión de adolescentes
internados por la práctica de infracciones en la ciudad de Porto
Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. El trabajo enfoca la
construcción de una problemática pública, la construcción de un
aparato de atención sanitaria para jóvenes con trastornos
mentales en situación de privación de libertad y busca
problematizar los modos de gestión de jóvenes internados, así
como la construcción de la categoría “jóvenes enfermos” y
usuarios de medicamentos psiquiátricos. La metodología de
trabajo utilizada fue la observación participante en reuniones,
entrevistas con los interlocutores y análisis de documentos, con
los cuales se construyeron redes de actores implicados en tales
procesos, principalmente aquellos involucrados en la discusión
jurídica sobre la elaboración de una política pública de atención a
la salud para jóvenes infractores. La investigación plantea
actuaciones en derechos humanos que estén articuladas en
políticas “de la” y “para la” vida en las redes de relaciones que
constituyen los sujetos, los sentidos y las prácticas que abarcan
las nociones de enfermedad, diagnósticos, medicalización y que
son movilizadas por los agentes en la construcción de
subjetividades. Estos procesos no son predeterminados, sino muy
contingentes y están involucrados en distintos procesos de
negociación y reconfiguración de prácticas y moralidades.
Producen saberes políticamente situados que son promovidos,
reconstituidos y mediados en diferentes niveles y que generan
desplazamientos de las fronteras y distintas formas de
(i)legibilidades en las relaciones entre los sujetos involucrados.
122. Engineering Studies Meeting
Special Event
1:00 to 2:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
123. SSS Meeting
Special Event
1:00 to 2:00 pm
Outside restaurant (TBD): Outside Restaurant
124. Ciencia, tecnología, innovación y género
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Biblioteca: Biblioteca
Chairs:
Magalí Turkenich, UNLP/ Centro Redes
Marília Gomes de Carvalho, Professor of master and Doctorate
Program- PPGTE- UTFPR
Gabriela Elisa Sued, Universidad de Buenos Aires-Centro
Redes
Participants:
Indicadores de desenvolvimento em CTS e a Autonomia
feminina nadia terezinha covolan, rosendo a. covolan e
antonia maria covolan; Marília Gomes de Carvalho,
Professor of master and Doctorate Program- PPGTEUTFPR
Tomando por base indicadores de desenvolvimento sensíveis à
condição social feminina, propomos uma aproximação dos
estudos de ciência, tecnologia e sociedade (CTS) com a questão
de gênero em suas múltiplas dimensões. Para Amartya Sen
(2010), as mulheres são as principais protagonistas do
desenvolvimento humano/social e sua agência se estabelece
mediante a educação e o emprego formais, portanto ele elabora
indicadores de desenvolvimento de gênero. Por outro lado,
Cristina Carrasco (2012) elaborou indicadores não
androcêntricos, enfocando a experiência das mulheres,
especialmente no trabalho não remunerado do lar. No entanto,
nenhum dos indicadores (de gênero ou não androcêntricos)
contempla ciência e tecnologia, apesar de ambas afetarem de
modo peculiar a vida das mulheres. Estas representam metade da
população mundial, no entanto possuem poucas possibilidades de
exercer sua autonomia no que tange à C&T. Nesse contexto,
políticas sociais têm sido elaboradas para ‘incluir’ mulheres na
área cientifica e tecnológica e também para que elas tenham
acesso aos recursos que o desenvolvimento cientifico e
tecnológico proporciona. Cabe indagar: até que ponto suas vozes
estão subsumidas ao enfoque das teorias e práticas instrumentais?
A ciência e tecnologia hegemônicas atendem suas reais
necessidades? Os estudos CTS criticam a concepção instrumental
da C&T, cujo modelo vem sendo considerado o único capaz de
produzir ‘verdadeiro’ bem estar e ‘desenvolver’ pessoas e
comunidades. Nesta ótica, trazemos ao debate as possibilidades
de elaboração de indicadores de desenvolvimento humano, que
identifiquem com maior fidedignidade a condição de autonomia
das mulheres em ciência e tecnologia, incorporando esta temática
aos estudos CTS.
Las mujeres y la computación: representaciones de jóvenes
acerca de la informática a nivel laboral y educativo. María
Florencia Botta, UBA/Conicet/CCTS Universidad
Maimonides; Lucila Dughera, Centro Ciencia, Tecnología y
Sociedad/Universidad Maimónides/CONICET; Guillermina
Yansen, UBA/Centro Ciencia, Tecnología y
Sociedad/Universidad Maimónides/CONICET
Este trabajo presenta los resultados preliminares de una
investigación, realizada durante 2013 por el Equipo e-TCS y
financiada por la Fundación Sadosky, dependiente del Ministerio
de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva de la Argentina
(Mincyt), que se aboca al estudio de la relación entre género y
tecnología digital . Más específicamente, partiendo de constatar
la baja presencia femenina en el ámbito de la informática, tanto a
nivel laboral como educativo, esta investigación busca estudiar
las representaciones de los y las jóvenes acerca de la actividad en
cuestión. En ese sentido, se identifican y analizan las
representaciones, motivaciones y expectativas respecto de la
informática, existentes en estudiantes de escuelas secundarias del
Conurbano de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (Argentina). Para
ello, se indaga en las representaciones sobre el mercado de
trabajo, las carreras universitarias, las tecnologías digitales y las
aptitudes y gustos de los entrevistados. Metodológicamente, se
utiliza un abordaje cuali-cuantitativo, cuyo principal instrumento
de recolección de datos consiste en un cuestionario estructurado
que se suministra a una muestra representativa compuesta por
620 estudiantes secundarios, apoyado en la realización de focus
groups a una selección de la muestra encuestada.
Género, tecnología y pobreza. El caso de las explotaciones
familiares algodoneras en el Chaco argentino Gabriela Elisa
Sued, Universidad de Buenos Aires-Centro Redes
Este trabajo forma parte de un proyecto de investigación que
aborda el rol de las mujeres en la producción algodonera actual
de baja escala, desarrollada en establecimientos menores a 50 ha.
ubicados en la región chaqueña argentina. El mismo deriva de
una investigación marco orientada al diseño de políticas
tecnológicas destinadas a los pequeños productores algodoneros.
El problema común que abordan ambos proyectos es la
introducción de semillas transgénicas de algodón en el proceso
de producción algodonera, y los efectos que dicha introducción
produjo en los pequeños productores. En particular, nuestro
trabajo intenta determinar el rol de las mujeres pequeñas
productoras de algodón en ese contexto, apoyándonos en tres
marcos analíticos que han incluido una perspectiva de género
para abordar los problemas del desarrollo, el estudio del mundo
rural, y la relación entre tecnología y sociedad. Intentando
presentar una mirada diferente a la problemática de la vida de la
mujer rural, nos apoyamos particularmente en los estudios de
género y tecnología. En este trabajo nos limitamos a exponer dos
ejes importantes para nuestro trabajo: la circulación de
conocimientos y las representaciones sociales sobre el sistema
productivo algodonero. Describiremos a través de estos dos
puntos dos tipos de patrones de innovación asociados a estos
procesos: uno asociado a sistema productivo transgénico, y otro
asociado al agrobiológico. Se nos presentó como interesante que
estas dos modalidades diferentes de siembra dieron lugar a
patrones de género distintos.
Construcción de indicadores académico-profesionales en
ciencia y tecnología con perspectiva género. Encuesta
Nacional de Género, Ciencia y Tecnología. Magalí
Turkenich, UNLP/ Centro Redes; Eleonora Baringoltz,
MINCyT
En las últimas décadas la problemática de la equidad de género
se ha ido convirtiendo en un asunto relevante con una presencia
cada vez más notable en la agenda de los organismos
internacionales que insisten en desarrollar e impulsar estudios y
acciones orientadas hacia la promoción de la equidad. Se destaca
enfáticamente que la divulgación de la información obtenida a
partir de distintas formas de relevamiento, es una estrategia
eficaz y empíricamente fundada a la hora de expresar los
requerimientos y proponer las recomendaciones de acciones y
políticas a futuro. En Latinoamérica y específicamente en
Argentina, se han realizado algunos trabajos relevantes
tendientes a obtener información empírica respecto de la
situación de la mujer en el sistema científico tecnológico, pero
ninguno de ellos ha sido, hasta el momento, diseñado ni
instrumentado desde los organismos estatales encargados
producir información. En este contexto, el Ministerio de Ciencia,
Tecnología e Innovación Productiva de la Nación (MINCyT), ha
trabajado en la formulación de la Encuesta Nacional de Género
en Ciencia y Tecnología (ENGECyT), herramienta pionera en su
tipo. Este trabajo presenta, el análisis de los antecedentes
relevantes sobre la incorporación de la perspectiva de género en
el marco de los estudios CTS y las principales experiencias de
construcción y validación de indicadores sensibles al género que
han sido considerados para el diseño de la herramienta de
recolección de datos. Se exponen y analizan además, los
principales indicadores propuestos.
The social life of statistics in LGBTQ activism: Health
discourse, quantification and political power Somjen Frazer,
Columbia University
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people
have had a complex relationship to the biological and social
sciences (Terry, 1999). During the early years of the AIDS
epidemic, activists demanded inclusion in clinical trials and were
able to influence the course of science as a result (Epstein, 1996).
More recently, LGBTQ activists have demanded inclusion in
non-HIV studies and framed various rights violations (bullying,
hate crime, anti-gay policies) as primarily of concern because of
their health consequences. While the use of “health” discourse
has contributed to policy successes in the United States, it has
also obscured the ways in which health statistics are themselves
products of social processes, beginning with the use of predetermined categories of “sex,” “gender” and “sexuality”. Using
archival and interview methods, this paper will contribute to
science and technology studies by treating the statistics created
and deployed by LGBTQ social movement organizations as
social artifacts and situating them in larger debates about health
citizenship and the rights of sexual and gender minorities.
Building upon Epstein’s (2007) ideas of “inclusion and
difference,” this paper will suggest that in demanding inclusion,
LGBTQ activists have enhanced their status as experts in an
emerging field of LGBTQ health disparities and obtained
additional political power and funding. However, activists’ use
of opportunities afforded by discourses of “health” have also
precluded explorations of what sexual orientation and gender
identity might mean beyond the categories used by health
research.
125. STS to and from psychology
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Borges
Chair:
Ezequiel Benito, Center for Science, Technology and Society Maimonides University
Participants:
Productivity, economy and scientific policy: Scientific
community facing hard times. Alejandra Carolina MoralesNasser, Monterrey Institute of Technology
The aim of this research was to explore the relationship among
economics, policy, and scientific productivity in Mexico from
1982 to 1993. These period showed interesting, because of a
strong economic crisis taking place, as well as the beginning of
systematic action from the government to enhance scientific
development. A tandem mixed methods design QUAN-QUAL
was accomplished. For the quantitative approach, a
retrospective-longitudinal-multivariable design was used.
Variables accounted: economic and political indicators (GDP,
GDPST, presence/absence of official documents on science
policy for each government period under analysis). Productivity
was assessed basing on number of articles indexed by Science
Citation Index, and Psychinfo. Inside articles, some variables,
considered as representative of research dynamics were assessed.
For the qualitative approach, it was used a semi structured
interview focused on experts, with a purposive sampling of
gradual selection, which included 18 researchers. Even when
results show a close interrelation among scientific productivityeconomy-science policy, it is even more interesting to look at:
the dynamics of research teams; the way in which academic
science prevails in a developing country; the way in which
science people perceives the importance of science policy linked
to an effective economic support. It is of remarkable interest
how they face their working responsibilities, and they manage
their scientific practice during times of serious economic lacks.
Spanish: El objetivo de esta investigación consistió en explorar la
relación entre economía, política y productividad científica en
México entre 1982 y 1993. Este periodo se mostró interesante
debido a que tuvo lugar una fuerte crisis económica, así como el
inicio de acciones sistemáticas en cuanto a política científica. Se
utilizó un diseño de métodos mezclados tipo tándem. Para la
aproximación cuantitativa se utilizó un diseño de tipo
longitudinal -multivariado-retrospectivo. Como variables, se
consideraron datos económicos y políticos oficiales (PIB,
PIBCYT, existencia o ausencia de política científica especificada
en documentos oficiales para cada periodo de gobierno bajo
análisis). La productividad se evaluó con base en el número de
artículos indexados en SCI y Psychinfo. Al interior de los
artículos, se analizan algunas variables representativas de las
dinámicas de la investigación. Para la aproximación cualitativa se
recurrió a un diseño de entrevista semiestructurada dirigida a
expertos. Se eligió un muestreo propositivo de selección gradual
integrado por 18 científicos, considerados, según criterios
preestablecidos, actores clave. Si bien los resultados muestran
una estrecha interrelación entre productividad científicaeconomía-política científica, más interesante es apreciar las
dinámicas en los equipos de investigación, la forma en que la
ciencia académica predomina en un país en vías de desarrollo y
la forma en que los científicos perciben la importancia de la
política científica ligada a un apoyo económico efectivo. Destaca
cómo afrontan sus responsabilidades laborales y cómo gestionan
su práctica científica en épocas de carencias económicas
importantes.
La psicología y pedagogía en el Gimnasio Moderno de Bogotá:
La transferencia de conocimiento, apropiación y adaptación
de subjetividades en torno a la infancia Joan Sebastian Soto
Triana, Universidad Nacional de Colombia
El trabajo tiene por objetivo aportar al desarrollo de la
historiografía de la psicología y la pedagogía, disciplinas
entrelazadas por la actividad intelectual, profesional y
administrativa de Don Agustín Nieto Caballero, en un momento
particular de la historia colombiana entre los años 1914 – 1935,
que darán lugar al surgimiento de una pedagogía fundamentada
en una psicología del sujeto activo, articulado en un centro de
formación de la élite colombiana: el Gimnasio Moderno. El
trabajo explora las condiciones contextuales de la vida
colombiana de la época, la construcción de los dispositivos
conceptuales y tecnológicos necesarios para responder a la
intención de promover un tipo novedoso de educación, teniendo
en cuenta el análisis de las redes socio-técnicas nacionales e
internacionales de Nieto Caballero, los intercambios
tecnocientíficos, así como la co-producción de discursos y
prácticas institucionales en torno a la pedagogía de la primera
mitad del siglo XX. A través de una metodología de análisis
documental de archivo y apoyándonos en los estudios sociales de
ciencia, especialmente desde la construcción de red de actores, se
avanza más allá de la clásica versión de difusión norte-sur, para
comprender las estrategias de apropiación y acomodación de
técnicas para la redefinición de subjetividades en torno a la
infancia y la educación.
A visualization of the structure and dynamics of multiple
independent discoveries in science. Sofia Liberman,
Facultad de Psicología. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México
The study of independent simultaneous discoveries has focused
on the possibilities of having multiple scientists finding and
publishing a discovery at the same time or almost at the same
time without being aware of the others. Reasons for the
occurrence of simultaneous discovery have been approached
from various points of view. Very few studies have focused on
what has happened in the scientific community after this multiple
discoveries have occurred aside from conflict in relation to
recognition. Our concern is not on how the discovery was
achieved, or if there is a dispute of who appeared earlier, but on
the subsequent development of the discovery in time through
coauthorship analysis. Through social network analysis we
visualize the structure and dynamics of major co-authoring
groups in the subject and it’s development. Our approach to this
subject is a new way to document the development and structure
of communication of scientific discovery and the formation of
groups involved in the topic.
Emotions as a Driver of Science: Bill Hamilton and Kin
Selection Ullica Christina Segerstrale, Illinois Institute of
Technology
Emotions are not usually addressed much in science, which
focuses largely on cognitive achievements. It is as if emotions
were something external to the pursuit of science. Indeed, the
mere recognition of emotions would seem to conflict with the
ideas of “disinterestedness” or “objectivity”. At the same time,
the scientific life is a hotbed of emotions. Scientists are basically
concerned about getting it right. For this they need to convince
both themselves and their peers. The conviction that one is right,
however, may soon be overshadowed by frustration with “unfair
referees”. Or a struggle for priority may be involved. Sometimes
what spurs a scientist on is a strong wish to prove someone else
wrong, especially someone who is irritatingly wrong. Belief or
disbelief in certain theories, or different views of “good science”
create natural scientific in-groups and out-groups. Emotions
motivate the scientist’s work. Without them, he or she would not
be undertaking the difficult and frustrating endeavor that science
often is. We can know this from autobiographical notes and
studies of scientists’ lives. A case study is British evolutionist
Bill Hamilton’s triumphs and disappointments as he struggles
with the scientific System, but also with himself when he dislikes
the implications of his own theories. Hamilton’s career and the
reception of ‘kin selection’ is a study of the emotions of a
creative paradigm-changing scientist and his scientific peers. My
2013 biography of Bill Hamilton, Nature’s Oracle, is a
contribution to the psychology and social psychology of science.
On being a member of 4S and a psychologist of science Mike
Gorman, University of Virginia
At the time I got my graduate degree in social psychology. I was
hoping to study how science and scientists worked, and was
surprised to find that almost no psychologists studied science.
Psychologists wanted more than anything else to be scientists and
had mostly bought into a naïve, positivistic view which I think
made them reluctant to study science. To find a community, I
started going to 4S, and found there a community that was
socially deconstructing science, one of whose prominent thinkers
(Latour) had declared a moratorium on cognitive approaches. I
was straddling a classic incommensurable divide, and I found the
discontinuity both irritating and exciting. My academic
appointments were in engineering schools, and I found them a
good haven because engineers are more interested in results than
in epistemological foundations. I am now President of the
International Society of Psychology of Science and Technology
(ISPST) and have also served on the 4S Council and as a
Program Director in the STS program at NSF. In this brief
presentation, I will discuss the future of psychology of science
and its relationship to 4S.
Discussant:
Michael E. Gorman, National Science Foundation
126. Embodied Identities Online
Paper Session
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Intercontinental Hotel: Chopin
Chair:
Hector Carrillo, Northwestern University
Participants:
Virtual Gay Spaces and the Realization of Flexible Sexual
Identities Hector Carrillo, Northwestern University
I present findings from a study involving 100 straigh