167. Whatever Happened to 'Communalism' in Science and Technology? Reimagining and Enacting Solidarity from STS Standpoints
Luis Felipe R. Murillo, University of Notre Dame; Shannon Dosemagen, Open Environmental Data Project; MatÃas F. Milia, Post-Doctoral Researcher;
In the history of social studies of science, 'communalism' figures as the first norm in the ideal-typical elaboration on the scientific ethos by Robert K. Merton's CUDOS (Communalism, Universalism, Disinterestedness, and Organized Skepticism). STS scholars have responded to the structural-functionalist approach with historical and ethnographic studies of 'moral economies' that provided a more grounded and nuanced understanding of technoscientific practices in distinct 'thought collectives,' 'epistemic cultures,' and 'mentorship genealogies.' In this panel we ask for paper contributions on the question of the "common", that is, the practices and values of sharing for the purposes of community-building in science and technology. What can be learned about 'commoning' in the context of 'Open Science' as an emergent, multidisciplinary field of applied research and development concerning questions of the accessibility, transparency, reproducibility, and internationalization of technoscientific production? Conversely, how can STS help us investigate the process of corporate capture with the ongoing 'platformization' of the technosciences that are often celebrated as 'open, collaborative, and innovative'? We welcome papers that examine the question of the 'common' to determine whether 'openness' is enacting new forms of solidarity and/or advancing the value extraction and capture of free technical and scientific labor. Our panel will engage the following topics: 'Open Scientific Data' trusts with public, private, or common stewardship; 'Open Scientific Software' as a key component of research infrastructures; 'Open Science' in governmental, institutional, and corporate settings; "Open Access" in public and corporate publishing platforms; and 'Open Hardware' for scientific instrumentation.
Keywords: Information, Computing and Media Technology, Data and Quantification, Infrastructure, common, communality, open scientific data, open science, open hardware, free and open source software
