Linguists first used the term backchannel to refer to the spontaneous responses and signals that provide interactivity to what is only apparently a one-way communication. Social media users have adopted the term to refer to the unofficial, multi-directional online conversation that parallels formal academic exchange at a lecture or conference. The Backchannels blog is intended to have a similar relationship to scholarly discourse in STS. It provides an outlet for alternative-format scholarly communications, publishing shorter, timelier, media-rich communiques of interest to the global STS community. The editors welcome proposed contributions.
Sep 22 2025
Can energy enliven political ecology’s relationship to disability? Dr. Emerson Cram has been lingering with this question as they feel through remnants of poor farms, state asylums, and other carceral institutions negating “abnormal” dependencies.
Sep 8 2025
This report shares insights drawn from the panel “Navigating the Grey: Assemblage Thinking and Digital Artifacts” conducted during the 10th Annual STS Italia Conference hosted in Milano (11–13 June 2025). The panelists and authors of this post investigate the ways in which assemblage thinking might assist STS analyses of digital artifacts.
Sep 5 2025
Click along if you wish to know more about the Taiwanese STS scholarship.
Aug 25 2025
Following a recent review of 'A Place for Science and Technology Studies: Observation, Intervention, and Collaboration' (MIT Press, 2024) published by 4S Backchannels, author Jane Calvert (University of Edinburgh) discusses their new book with Aaron Gregory (Editor, 4S Backchannels).
Aug 18 2025
In this post, Siyi Chen discusses the emergence of a distinct form of lay epidemiology, in China's Hanan Province, prompted by a local HIV/Aids crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aug 11 2025
Ludovico Rella (Durham University) reviews 'A Place for Science and Technology Studies: Observation, Intervention, and Collaboration' by situating Calvert's insights on STS and place through the lens of Geography and space. This is the first of a two-part series, including a forthcoming interview with Dr. Calvert discussing the place of this text within the shifting landscape of STS.
Aug 7 2025
In this post, Tridibesh Dey reflects on an ethnographic case from summer 2023 in Canning, the last town and railway terminus in India at the fringes of the Sundarban. This post proffers situated insights into why a single-use plastic product continues to be popular.
Jul 28 2025
Reporting from the 10th STS Italia conference “Technocience for Good”, Valeria Burgio (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia) explores several questions guiding panel discussions: In which ways do images, graphs, diagrams, and other visual forms contribute to the construction of scientific knowledge? Does data visualization convey only scientific information, or does it also express cosmologies and the organization of thought? Does transporting scientific images into exhibition cont...
Jul 14 2025
4S Backchannels is Hiring Assistant Editors for its Global North team!
Jul 6 2025
Purbita Das advocates for a policy framework to safeguard Ayurveda’s regionality, plurality and its epistemological richness in light of increasing efforts to standardise its practices for the global health market.