Entanglements: Conversations on the Human Traces of Science, Technology, and Sound

by Simone Tosoni, Trevor Pinch (Contribution by)

Overview

Conversations with a founder of the influential Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) approach in science and technology studies offer an introduction to the field.

Science and technology studies (STS) is a relatively young but influential field. Scholars from disciplines as diverse as urban studies, mobility studies, media studies, and body culture studies are engaging in a systematic dialogue with STS, seeking to enrich their own investigations. Within STS, the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) theory has proved to be one of the most influential in its neighboring fields. Yet the literature has grown so large so quickly, it is difficult to get an overview of SCOT. In this book, conversations with Trevor Pinch, a founder of SCOT, offer an introduction and genealogy for the field.

Pinch was there at the creation—as coauthor of the groundbreaking 1984 article that launched SCOT—and has remained active through subsequent developments. Engaging and conversational, Pinch charts SCOT's important milestones. The book describes how Pinch and Wiebe Bijker adapted the “empirical program of relativism,” developed by the Bath School to study the social construction of scientific facts, to apply to the social construction of artifacts. Entanglements addresses five issues in depth: relevant social groups, and SCOT's focus on groups of users; the intertwining of social representation and practices; the importance of tacit knowledge in SCOT's approach to the nonrepresentational; the controversy over nonhuman agency; and the political implications of SCOT.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262336567
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	11/04/2016
Series:	The MIT Press
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	466 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Simone Tosoni is a Researcher at Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan.

Trevor Pinch is Goldwin Smith Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University and coeditor of The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (anniversary edition, MIT Press).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: A Five-Step Guided Tour of the Social Construction of Technology ix

1 The Sociology of Scientific Knowledge 1

1.1 The Early Years and the Edinburgh Strong Programme 1

1.2 The Bath School: Scientific Controversies and Tacit Knowledge 11

1.3 The Bath School: The Experimenter's Regress and the Externality of Observation 21

1.4 The Bath School: Methodological Relativism 37

1.5 Reflexivity 49

2 SSK at Large 55

2.1 The Golem Trilogy 55

2.2 Science Wars 61

3 Social Construction of Technology 73

3.1 An Integrated Program for Science and Technology 73

3.2 Relevant Social Groups, Interpretative Flexibility, Closure 83

3.3 Rethinking Users and Stabilization 88

3.4 Sellers and Testers (and Sociologists) 98

3.5 Materiality and the Nonhutnans 109

3.6 Back to the Golem: SCOT and Politics 126

4 Other Entanglements 141

4.1 Selling Revisited 141

4.2 The Materiality of Sound 147

4.3 New Developments in STS: The Ontological Turn 161

References 169

Index 195

What People are Saying About This

Don Ihde

With Entanglements you are there!This is a book of a conversation between Simone Tosoni, a media theorist, and Trevor Pinch.It is a time-zoom through the birth of SSK, the sociology of scientific knowledge, SCOT, the social construction of technology, through the science wars and the Golem books on into sound studies.Trevor Pinch was a principal in all these contemporary movements and his descriptions bring you right into the fray of the times—you feel you are there.It is a romp: the stories include talesabout othergiants like Harry Collins, Bruno Latour, John Law, and many others.And beyond the social, the networks, one gets the personal.All of us interested in science and technology studies need this deep perspective.

Sandra Harding

Entanglements provides a splendid introduction to the bewildering complexity of the social construction of technology (SCOT) and its larger science and technology studies (STS) history. Pinch's recollections of 'eureka!' moments and his often amusing anecdotes reveal the important roles of mentorships, friendships, the influences of students, chance encounters, and intellectual disputes with other significant figures in generating his own innovative and influential projects.Simone Tosoni's contributions as a highly informed, intellectually involved, and vigorously curious interviewer are significant. This is an illuminating and enjoyable read for students new to these fields as well as for seasoned researchers and scholars from the many other fields that are increasingly interacting with SCOT and STS.

Harry Collins

In the 1960s and '70s there was an academic revolution in our understanding of the nature of science.Here, Tosoni, working through the eyes of Trevor Pinch, recaptures the feeling of those times—uncanny!Pinch was in at the beginning of the 'sociology of scientific knowledge' and then cofounded the 'social construction of technology.' Fascinating stuff.

Endorsement

In the 1960s and '70s there was an academic revolution in our understanding of the nature of science.Here, Tosoni, working through the eyes of Trevor Pinch, recaptures the feeling of those times—uncanny!Pinch was in at the beginning of the 'sociology of scientific knowledge' and then cofounded the 'social construction of technology.' Fascinating stuff.

—Harry Collins, Distinguished Research Professor, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University

From the Publisher

Pinch, skillfully interviewed by Simone Tosoni, tells us the inside story of how the sociologies of science and technology came to be the cutting edge fields they are now. Pinch was there, knows how it happened, and tells it like it was and is. Bravo!

—Howard S. Becker, author of Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance and Art Worlds

Entanglements provides a splendid introduction to the bewildering complexity of the social construction of technology (SCOT) and its larger science and technology studies (STS) history. Pinch's recollections of 'eureka!' moments and his often amusing anecdotes reveal the important roles of mentorships, friendships, the influences of students, chance encounters, and intellectual disputes with other significant figures in generating his own innovative and influential projects. Simone Tosoni's contributions as a highly informed, intellectually involved, and vigorously curious interviewer are significant. This is an illuminating and enjoyable read for students new to these fields as well as for seasoned researchers and scholars from the many other fields that are increasingly interacting with SCOT and STS.

—Sandra Harding, Distinguished Research Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

With Entanglements you are there! This is a book of a conversation between Simone Tosoni, a media theorist, and Trevor Pinch. It is a time-zoom through the birth of SSK, the sociology of scientific knowledge, SCOT, the social construction of technology, through the science wars and the Golem books on into sound studies. Trevor Pinch was a principal in all these contemporary movements and his descriptions bring you right into the fray of the times—you feel you are there. It is a romp: the stories include tales about other giants like Harry Collins, Bruno Latour, John Law, and many others. And beyond the social, the networks, one gets the personal. All of us interested in science and technology studies need this deep perspective.

—Don Ihde, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Stony Brook University

In the 1960s and '70s there was an academic revolution in our understanding of the nature of science. Here, Tosoni, working through the eyes of Trevor Pinch, recaptures the feeling of those times—uncanny! Pinch was in at the beginning of the 'sociology of scientific knowledge' and then cofounded the 'social construction of technology.' Fascinating stuff.

—Harry Collins, Distinguished Research Professor, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University

Howard S. Becker

Pinch, skillfully interviewed by Simone Tosoni, tells us the inside story of how the sociologies of science and technology came to be the cutting edge fields they are now. Pinch was there, knows how it happened, and tells it like it was and is. Bravo!