|
The Science and Technology Studies Network
The Science and Technology Studies Network is an informal grouping of New Zealand researchers with interests in the various relationships between science, technology, and society. The STSN is based at the University of Canterbury but is open to all interested researchers in New Zealand.
At present the STSN is active in three areas:
- An international conference-Technologies, Publics and Power-organised in conjunction with the National Centre for Research on Europe, to be held in February 2004
- A seminar series
- A website providing information on upcoming conferences, fellowships, etc.
If you are interested in joining the STSN, or would like more information about it, please contact Joanna Goven or Jim Tully.
| |
STS has come to recognise science and technology as neither wholly autonomous juggernauts nor simply neutral tools ready for any ulitisation whatsoever. Instead, science and technology are... perceived as value-laden social processes taking place in specific historical contexts shaped by, and in turn shaping, the human values reflected in cultural, political, and economic institutions. Such a view does not deny the constraints imposed by nature or the physical reality of technological artifacts, but it does insist that our knowledge and understanding of nature, of science, and of technology are socially mediated processes. It is toward just such a holistic and interdisciplinary understanding, coupled with the hope that society will be better able to shape and control its science and technology as a result, that STS aims...
Stephen Cutcliffe, Ideas, Machines, and Values
|
|
