Last class before Reading Week

In tomorrow’s class your paper proposals will be returned, and we’ll be covering topics that will be crucial to your research as well as to upcoming readings and critiques.

My lecture will provide an historical overview of we have meant when we talk about the social construction of science and technology, focussing on the Strong Programme, large technological systems approaches, feminist critiques and cyborg studies, and Actor-Network Theory.

We’ll sum up Stengers’ The Invention of Modern Science and discuss what it contributes to our understanding of science, technology and innovation – and we’ll discuss if and how it can act as social and cultural critique.

I’ll also introduce the topics for the rest of the term and discuss how technoscientific design and innovation play increasingly important roles in social and cultural life. This will be followed by small group discussions of Thrift’s article.

Next week is Reading Week and there is no class. We return on Feb 28th to explore questions of life and death (!) and your papers are due on Mar 7th. Some of you have critiques due on these days as well, so be sure to plan your time accordingly.

~ by anne on February 13, 2007.