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Fostering interdisciplinary and engaged scholarship in social studies of science, technology, and medicine across the globe.

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Lead Editor(s) | Social Studies of Science

Published On: Jun 21, 2024

Deadline: Oct 10, 2024

The journal Social Studies of Science (SSS) is inviting expressions of interest for the journal’s Lead Editor(s).

The SSS Lead Editor(s) are expected to fill the position for a minimum of three years following a transition in collaboration with the current Editor, Sergio Sismondo, with possible renewal for a second term. We are glad to consider proposals either from individuals, or for co-editorship. The Lead Editor or editorial team has primary responsibility for the ongoing curati...

Call for Proposals for Special Issues: STHV

Published On: Mar 7, 2024

Deadline: Jun 21, 2024

The editorial group of Science, Technology, & Human Values announces the journal’s 2024 Call for Proposals for Special Issues. Interested scholars should submit a proposal by 21 June 2024. In August 2024, the editors of ST&HV will choose one Special Issue proposal to proceed. The editors may also select and invite other proposals to proceed as shorter Thematic Collections if suitable. Diversity of contributions from scholars internationally, and at different career stages, is encou...

Seeking Nominations for ASA Anti-Racism Awards

Published On: Mar 2, 2024

Deadline: Mar 15, 2024

The 4S community is invited to submit nominations for two prizes from the American Sociological Association (ASA) recognizing antiracism scholarship and practice it the intersection of science, knowledge, technology, and society.

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4S Publications

Science, Technology, and Human Values

For more than forty years, Science, Technology, & Human Values has provided the forum for cutting-edge research and debate in the field of science and technology studies.

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Corrigendum to “Political Prescriptions: Three Pandemic Stories”

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.

Scripts of Security: Between Contingency and Obduracy

Annalisa Pelizza

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
The special issue on Scripts of Security proposes to advance interdisciplinary exchanges between Science and Technology Studies and Critical Security Studies. While performativity,...

Creating Interpretative Spaces in and with Digital Infrastructures: How Editors Select Reviewers at a Biomedical Publisher

Felicitas Hesselmann

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
Digital infrastructures, such as editorial management systems (EMS), play a crucial role in academic publishing. However, despite their ubiquity, they have received surprisingly...

Who Predicts? Scientific Authority and User Expertise in Dutch Storm Warnings 1860-1920

David Baneke

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This paper shows that expert authority can be the result of a process of co-construction by scientists and users, using the case of the Netherlands’ storm warnings system....

Observer 8: Outliers, Attention, and Situated Knowledge in a Qualitative Behavioral Assessment of Laboratory Mouse Welfare

Maisie Tomlinson

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This article explores how an innovative animal welfare methodology (Qualitative Behavior Assessment) negotiates subjectivism and objectivism in its distinctive epistemology,...

Engaging Science, Technology and Society

Engaging Science, Technology, & Society is an online, open access publication of The Society for Social Studies of Science.

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Caring for Scholarship in Transition

Published On: Apr 15 2024

Ali Kenner, Clément Dréano , Noela Invernizzi , Duygu Kaşdoğan , Aalok Khandekar , Angela Okune , Grant Jun Otsuki , Sujatha Raman , Tim Schütz , Federico Vasen, Amanda Windle , Emily York

This editorial briefly reflects on the idea of transition—a theme that cuts across energy systems, migration, and education, to name a few—and is likely familiar to many readers. In this issue, we focus on transition within...

Collaborative Ethnography and Matters of Care in Counterspaces

Published On: Apr 22 2024

Coleen Carrigan, Joyce Yen, Cara Margherio, Christine Grant, Claire Horner-Devine, Eve Riskin, Julie Ivy, Burren Peil

This paper offers a reflexive analysis of an interdisciplinary and cross-race collaboration to advance equity in engineering called LATTICE (Launching Academics on the Tenure-Track: an Intentional Community in Engineering). We...

Algorithms in the Margins: Organized Community Resistance to Port Automation in the Los Angeles Harbor Area

Published On: Apr 22 2024

Taylor M Cruz, Jaewoo Park, Emily Moore, Austin Chen, Andrea Gordillo

Public deliberations on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) provoke strong interest in automation, or the perceived displacement of human labor due to general technological advances. Social science scholarship...

Maintenance and Its Knowledges: Functional Exploration, Biographical Supervision, and Behavioural Examination

Published On: Apr 22 2024

Jérôme Denis, Daniel Florentin, David Pontille

This introductory article to the thematic collection entitled “Maintenance and its Knowledges” makes a significant departure from breakdown-centred studies. It foregrounds the epistemic virtues of maintenance, a practice that...

4S Blog: Backchannels

Keywords in the Critical Medical Humanities: A Model for Research and Teaching

Melissa L. Miller
Jul 22, 2024
In a three-day conference at Colby College, faculty across the small liberal arts college shared their research, teaching, and partnerships in critical medical and health humanities. Their goal was to collectively define the field by connecting their work to critical keywords.

Spawnless Nature in the Making

Mariko Yoshida
Jul 17, 2024
This blog post illustrates the processes by which the Pacific Oyster is transformed into a capitalist commodity to meet the demands of market consumption and resistance against underwater precarity.

Technofixes and Place: Environmental Building in Montana

Annika Hirmke (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Jun 24, 2024
In this post, Annika Hirmke explores the tensions between the abstract techno-visions of environmental design projects in Montana within the contexts of settler colonialism and structural challenges of climate change.

Contextual Nuances of Knowledge Translation in Ghana

Joyce Koranteng-Acquah
Jul 01, 2024
In this reflection based on her fieldwork in Ghana, Joyce Koranteng-Acquah shows how farmers engage with scientific institutions to produce knowledge and technologies, addressing the complex dynamics between scientific research, community engagement and policy development.

Backchannels content is contributed by our members to highlight news relevant to their work.

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Making and Doing: STS Beyond the Four Corners of the Paper

STS News

Items submitted by the community and emailed to members monthly.

Lead Editor(s) | Social Studies of Science

Jun 21, 2024
The journal Social Studies of Science (SSS) is inviting expressions of interest for the journal’s Lead Editor(s).

The SSS Lead Editor(s) are expected to fill the position for a minimum of three years following a transition in collaboration with the current Editor, Sergio Sismondo, with possible renewal for a second term. We are glad to consider proposals either from individuals, or for co-editorship. The Lead Editor or editorial team has primary responsibility for the ongoing curati...

BKC Summer 2024 Internship Program

Mar 09, 2024
The Berkman Klein Center’s Summer Internship Program gives interns the opportunity to become deeply embedded within the projects and work happening across the Center. Interns spend the summer months working side-by-side with Berkman Klein staff, fellows, and scholars to keep projects moving forward, learning along the way. Interns will make valuable contributions over the course of the summer, to a wide range of projects based on the Center’s needs and the intern’s skills.

Public seminar: Call for abstracts - The ends of data: Theories, methods, and interventions in critical data and AI studies

Mar 09, 2024
What are the ends of data—meaning, which purposes are they created to serve? And what are the ends of data— meaning, when and how are data permitted to expire, be deleted, or die? This symposium investigates the intersection of these two questions within data-intensive social practices and infrastructures, where historical data are consistently integrated into new routines, domains, and frameworks to address novel inquiries.

Three-year Research Specialist position with benefits--hybrid-remote based in North Carolina Now 2024 - 2027

Mar 09, 2024
The Multidisciplinary Extreme Weather Toolkit for Small-scale and BIPOC Farmers proposes to conduct research with North Carolina farmers to investigate attitudes toward weather extremes; farm, personal and community practices to contend with weather extremes; and methods and modes of education and information delivery. This research aims to inform North Carolina Cooperative Extension programs, program development, and educational approaches toward climate responsive agricultural practice adoptio...
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