Published On: Apr 25 2026
In Machineries of Similarity and Difference, David Ribes theorizes interoperability, or how to make different things work together. For the last 30 years, standardization has been the dominant social scientific motif for understanding coordination and collaboration across time and space. But across those years much has changed, in part through computational and other technical advances, in part through a new orientation to the value of similarity and difference. Interoperation is an ascendent social form.
Published On: Apr 25 2026
Biodiversity loss now ranks alongside climate change as a threat to human survival. The United Nation’s secretary general has declared that “humanity is waging a war on nature.” According to some observers, humans are failing to do enough to avoid an extinction crisis. In Conservation by the People, Taylor Dotson challenges the catastrophic story that often gets told about the world’s ecosystems, uncovering the complex scientific, political, and cultural reasons why people disagree about conservation.
Published On: Mar 31 2026
Do our tools for knowing about the world actually obscure important knowledge? Anne Beaulieu's 'Revealing Relations" uncovers how knowledge infrastructures—including satellite tracking, climate models, machine learning and citizen science apps—shape our understanding of contemporary crises. Rooted in logics of resource assessment, these systems often reinforce extractive thinking, even when intended to protect.
Published On: Mar 31 2026
Doing science is an increasingly prevalent strategy of social and environmental justice movements. But while it seems apparent that science can aid in the pursuit of justice, it can be hard to explain how it does so--and thus hard to know how to deploy science most strategically. In 'The Science of Repair,' Gwen Ottinger offers transformative account of the role science plays in combatting injustice: While proving that people have been harmed, in itself, rarely advances justice, the process of investigating injustice can deepening our moral commitments to each other. Specifically, research can...
Published On: Mar 31 2026
Attending to the development and instantiation of an ethic of access in mental health, Martyn Pickersgill's new book, 'Configuring Psychology,' examines how political, economic, legal, and social dynamics intertwine with clinical norms and expertise. These interactions configure broader healthcare contexts, defining not only entry into therapy but also exclusion from it. Through close attention to policy developments, professional strategies, and psychologists' experiences, Pickersgill examines how access reforms shape clinical knowledge, therapeutic practice, and understandings of the psychol...
Published On: Jan 26 2026
In a world increasingly defined by inequality and existential threats, Sociological Realism: Society as the Walls of Our Imprisonment offers a bold reinterpretation of society’s role in shaping the individual. Beginning with the premise that society is a reality sui generis―a unique and formative system―Sal Restivo carefully constructs an argument about how institutions, cultural traditions, and historical processes shape our identities, behaviours, and beliefs. Tracing the development of the sociological imagination from antiquity to the present day, the author introduces foundation...
Published On: Jan 13 2025
Deadline: Jan 23, 2025
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Washington, DC, USA, and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Trieste, Italy, are seeking candidates to participate in the annual summer course on science diplomacy to be held on 21-24 July, 2025 in person in Trieste, Italy.
The AAAS-TWAS Science Diplomacy training program was established in 2014 to expose scientists, decisionmakers, diplomats and other interested stakeholders and institutions to science diplomacy concepts, explore key contemporary international policy issues relating to science, technology, environment and he...
Published On: Oct 18 2024
Deadline: Dec 2, 2024
The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) invites proposals from IAP member academies and regional networks, for projects that would help advance IAP’s mission and strategic goals. Proposed projects should preferably be collaborative across member academies and regional networks. Priority will be given to project proposals that aim to establish or continue support for collaborations across disciplines (for example, collaborations across academies of science, medicine and engineering), especially in areas linked with recent or ongoing IAP projects, and/or involve long-term IAP member academies a...
Published On: Nov 27 2025
Deadline: Dec 15, 2025
The Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) is looking for STS graduate students, postdocs or early career scholars from/based in the Global South (especially Africa, Middle East, Asia) who can contribute as Assistant Editors for 4S Backchannels.
The candidate will be part of the team sharing and disseminating STS news, research from/about Global South in the form of short academic writings. Besides some editorial skills, they will encourage potential authors to contribute with their works. The Assistant Editor will assist the collection, editing and publication of the writings in Ba...
Published On: Aug 8 2025
Concerns regarding brain injury in sport have escalated into what is often termed a “concussion crisis,” fueled by high-profile lawsuits and deaths. Although athletes are central figures in this narrative, they comprise only a small proportion of the people who experience brain injuries, while other high-risk groups—including victims of domestic violence and police brutality—are all too often left out of the story. In Violent Impacts, Kathryn Henne and Matt Ventresca examine what is and what isn’t captured in popular discourse, scrutinizing how law, science, and s...