MICHIEL VAN OUDHEUSDEN

Managing Science and Technology in Society (MSTS)

INTRODUCTION

MICHIEL VAN OUDHEUSDEN

ATHENA INSTITUTE

[email protected]

2025-2026Some basic definitions?▪Science ▪Technology ▪Society Birth of STS Science and Technology Studies (STS) = the study of S&T&S a relatively recent discipline (multiple disciplines), originating in the 60s and 70s, following Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962).STS was the result of a “sociological turn” in science studies.▪Science, Technology, and Society (STS) ▪Social Studies of Science (SSS) One STS origin story…

Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts

▪1979 book by sociologists of science Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar ▪Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego (CA) ▪Studied how the daily activities of working scientists lead to the construction of scientific facts ▪Like anthropologistsstudy “strange tribes” ▪Focus: Writing / texts / diagrams (“transcriptions” and “inscriptions”) ▪“The main purpose of a laboratory is to take statements of one level of facticity and transform them to another level” →How facts are stabilized 1 / 4

Reality is socially constructed

Example (Latour & Woolgar1979):

TRF(thyrotropin releasing factor; a chemical structure) is Pyro-Glu-His-Pro-NH2 Nonsense →Possible →False →Possibly True →Solid Fact Latour is not denying facticity  From speculation to fact 1.TRF began as a hypothesis, described with uncertainty 2.Lab work: Through assays, purification, and experiments, the substance gained credibility 3.Inscriptions: Data were turned into graphs, printouts, and papers, stabilizing the claim

4.Social uptake: Repeated citation and community acceptance helped close debate

5.Result:TRF was no longer a hypothesis but a scientific fact, constructed through practice and consensus At least three ‘technologies’ needed to make facts (Shapin, 1984) ▪Material (experiments) ▪Literary (accounts) ▪Social (witnesses)

▪Not a ‘God trick’: the myth that science can be separated from

social, political, economic, etc. influences = you should write about it (media)  Lab life today

Flash-forward: Socio-technical integration

research (STIR) http://cns.asu.edu/research/stir

▪= Laboratory engagement studies that assess and compare the varying pressures on –and capacities for –laboratories to integrate broader societal considerations into their work 2 / 4

What does this tell us?Example question: Why are you using chemical X in your assay? Why not chemical Y?Answers: Considerations may be of a material nature (physical, chemical, mechanical properties) and bound to finite resources (time, space, money); they may be of a social nature(laws, institutions, culture, group dynamics); or human nature (ethics, psychology, personal beliefs, interests).→Science as a social system and a social practice; more than purely ‘technical.’ From the lab to the ‘outside world’ http: //www. tv newscheck . com/ma rk etsha re/wp-content/uploa ds/2015/11/nuclea r-wa ste-wa rning -sig n-rotten-g rung y -29917617. jpgTypologyof problemstructures (Hisschemöller& Hoppe1996) Unstructured

problems:

endless debates Moderately structured

problems:

debateon set of means Moderately structured

problems:

debateon values Structured

problems:

debateon technicalitiesClose to certainty Close to agreement http: //www. soc. ucsb. edu/sexinfo/sites/defa ult/files/files/sty les/la rg e/public/field/ima g e/A bortion--008. jpg

structured problem example:

breaking leg and going to the hospital  Complex, intractable (“wicked”) problems ▪a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize (Wikipedia)

▪Science and technology: remedy and poison

▪Science and technology intricately linked: “techno-

science” ▪e.g., scanning tunnelling microscope When you are observing a process you are at the same time intervening  3 / 4

From descriptiveto prescriptive

▪Descriptive: What is?

▪Prescriptive: What should be? Opportunities

Medical innovation Opportunities Drones (e.g., Ukraine) Problems

MICRO, MESO, MACRO

SCALES

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