95673 - Social Studies of Science and Technology (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students:1. have knowledge of the main theories, concepts and approaches developed by social studies of science and technology (STS), and can analytically compare them and discuss their pros and cons; 2. understand basic issues about the materiality of and governance by data infrastructures and their social and philosophical implications;3. have developed basic experience in designing a research on data infrastructures

Course contents

The course provides an introduction to the social studies of science and technology (STS). STS are a long-standing research field which has developed perspectives to address scientific and technological development by using epistemologies, heuristic tools and methods from ethnography, sociology, history, philosophy and semiotics. The course draws the roots of the field on R. Merton’s sociology of science and T. Kuhn’s structure of scientific revolutions, to then focus on the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK), the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) and Actor-Network Theory (ANT). These approaches are studied with the support of hands-on exercises and empirical case studies (weeks 1-4).

In the last week we focus on data infrastructures. We will address some sociopolitical implications of data infrastructures. All these topics are tackled by reading, presenting and commenting leading international literature and empirical case studies.

Throughout the course, interactive moments are devoted to developing empirical research design skills, ranging from research question design to research methodologies. Such moments are finalized to support the STS research design to be submitted as part of the course assessment.

Week 1 – Merton and the Sociology of Science, Kuhn and the Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Week 2 – The Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK

Week 3 - The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)

Week 4 – Actor-Network Theory (ANT), or the sociology of translation

Week 5 – Data infrastructures and classification; STS and communication studies

Readings/Bibliography

The reader is made of journal articles and book chapters. They are all available on Virtuale or through the UniBO digital library (AlmaRE). See Virtuale for reader details and copies of the material.

 

Week 1 – Introduction; Merton and the Sociology of Science; Kuhn and the Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Merton, R. (1942), Sismondo, S. (2010), Chap. 3

Kuhn, T. (1962, Sismondo, S. (2010), Chap. 2

Week 2 – The Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK)

Bloor, D. (1976), Pp. 3-13

Law, J. (2015)

Week 3 - The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT)

Pinch, T. J., & Bijker, W. E. (1984)

Bijker, W.E. (1987)

Week 4 – Actor-Network Theory (ANT), or the sociology of translation

Callon, M. (1986)

Latour, B. (1992)

Law, J. (2007)

 

Week 5 – Data infrastructures; STS and communication studies

Bowker, G.C. and Star, S.L. (1999)

Suchman, L. (1994)

Recommended:

Boczkowski, P., & Lievrouw, L. A. (2008)

Bijsterveld, K. (2014).

Dourish, P. (2017)

Gitelman (2013)

Pelizza (2016)

Teaching methods

The teaching style favours interactivity. Classes include lectures by the teacher, presentations by students and class discussions.

The aim of presentations is threefold: 1) to support and develop students’ understanding of the literature; 2) to support and develop students’ analytical and research skills before the formal evaluation; 3) to trigger peer-learning.

To achieve these goals, the draft reports that are to be submitted for the final evaluation will be preliminary and collectively discussed in class (see assessment methods).

Assessment methods

The learning process is assessed against two written texts. The first (interim) consists in a comparative analysis of a given case study using SCOT and ANT. The second (at the end of the course) consists in an STS empirical research design. Drafts of both texts are preliminarily and collectively discussed in class.

Teaching tools

Classes are conducted in presence: in class, computer with video beamer and digital whiteboard.

The teaching material consists of the reader, the lectures prepared by the teacher and the case studies. When not protected by copyright, the teaching material is made available to students through the Virtuale teaching platform of the University of Bologna. Copyrighted texts in the reader are available at the FILCOM library and at other libraries of the University of Bologna.

Office hours

See the website of Annalisa Pelizza