4S Mission

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

Latest 4S News

4S Palestine Forum | Contributions Call

Published On: Jul 30, 2024

The 4S Palestine Forum, launched earlier this year as the initial project of the Working Group on War and Genocide that was initiated at 4S Honolulu in 2023, is welcoming further contributions.

Please submit new short blog-style entries, as well as references to published work, syllabi, and other resources by writing info@4sonline.org.

View the Palestine Forum in its entirety here: https://www.4sonline.org/palestine_forum.php

4S Digital Website Coordinator

Published On: Aug 20, 2024

4S seeks to appoint a new Digital Website Coordinator, to work for 10 hours per week for at least 12 months. Appropriate candidates should have familiarity with STS as a domain, solid technical skills with digital infrastructures, and the ability to work collaboratively with the Managing Director and elected leadership at 4S as well as the external provider (Memberleap). The rate of pay is US$25–30 per hour depending on skills and experience, for an annual rate of pay of US $12,500–1...

Animals, STS, and the Problem of Humanity in Gaza

Published On: Aug 21, 2024

This blog post asks, how can STS respond to dehumanization?

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.

Of Bridges, Translations, and Practical Necessities

Sonja van Wichelen

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This essay is part of a Thematic Collection of Science, Technology & Human Values on the work of Adele E. Clarke (1945–2024).

Becoming Scientific-Environmental Citizens Through Citizen Science in China

Coraline Goron

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This article advocates for a closer study of the forms of citizenship nurtured among individual participants in citizen science (CS) projects by highlighting some salient...

Making Kin with Adele: From Pathologizing in Vienna to Collaborating in Denver

Donna J. Haraway

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This essay is part of a Thematic Collection of Science, Technology & Human Values on the work of Adele E. Clarke (1945–2024).

Covalence in Cow-veillance: Sensing Technologies and Human-Animal Affinities in Dairying

Camille Bellet

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This article considers how the widespread use of camera surveillance systems in dairy farming affects engagements between farmers and cows. While literatures on visual...

Standardizing Excellence: Metric Assemblages in Mathematics Research in Chile

Fernando A. Valenzuela

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This study investigates the development, implementation, and establishment of evaluation metrics within the mathematics research community in Chile, a discipline where...

Engaging Science, Technology and Society

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

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

ST&HV Summer School 2024: Reflections on academic generosity and doing STS in Singapore

Lauren Kelly
Oct 03, 2024
Lauren Kelly reports back from the STS Summer School in Singapore in June 2024, sponsored by Science, Technology and Human Values

Intervention and Responses: a critical historical period for Feminist Science Studies and STS. By Daiwie Fu. Taiwan: China Times Publishing, 2022, 208 pp.

Daiwie Fu
Sep 30, 2024
While today feminist science studies and STS are often considered inseparable, Daiwie Fu examines their once tumultuous relationship. In this post, he offers a brief review of the convergence between feminist studies and STS.

Missing Indian Bodies in the Medical Research on Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Maitreyi Redkar Shashank Deora
Sep 23, 2024
In this post, Maitreyi Redkar reflects on the medical research on Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, identifying how it neglects Indian women and their lived experiences.

Regulating Generative AI Threats and Social Commons in the Public Interest

Sarah Cheung (University of Edinburgh)
Aug 26, 2024
In this post, Sarah Cheung (University of Edinburgh) examines the ways in which generative AI continually refigures the 'digital public sphere', portending new regulatory regimes and possibilities.

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

STS News

Items submitted by the community and emailed to members monthly.

4S Palestine Forum | Contributions Call

Jul 30, 2024
The 4S Palestine Forum, launched earlier this year as the initial project of the Working Group on War and Genocide that was initiated at 4S Honolulu in 2023, is welcoming further contributions.

Please submit new short blog-style entries, as well as references to published work, syllabi, and other resources by writing info@4sonline.org.

View the Palestine Forum in its entirety here: https://www.4sonline.org/palestine_forum.php

New Book | Leaving Fossil Fuels Underground

Oct 04, 2024
Amsterdam University Press is excited to announce the publication of the new open-access book in the liveable future series: Leaving Fossil Fuels Underground: Actors, Arguments, and Approaches in the Global South and Global North.
The book's contribution shows how to link effective climate action to socially and ecologically inclusive development while also taking stock of the dynamics and legitimacy of local resistance.
This wonderful first volume to start off the Liveable Futures Series...

New Book | Generations of struggle: honoring the faces of resistance

Oct 04, 2024
The book "Generations of struggle: honoring the faces of resistance" was recently released. As a product of a 3 years-length multicultural dialogue, e-book is multilingual: it has been written and translated to Brazilian Portuguese, Tupi-Nheengatu, Finnish and English, helping to echo the voices of social leaders coming from different backgrounds: Indigenous, Roma, shellfish farmers, fishermen, homeless people and recyclable material collectors belonging to traditional communities and...

New Book | A Place for Science and Technology Studies

Oct 04, 2024
An exploration of science and technology studies in eight different places, and the possibilities that arise for observation, intervention, and collaboration. Where does science and technology studies (STS) belong? In A Place for Science and Technology Studies, Jane Calvert takes readers through eight different rooms—the laboratory, the conference room, the classroom, the coffee room, the art studio, the bioethics building, the policy room, and the ivory tower—investigating the possi...