Strategic prospects for the institutionalization of reflexive STI-policy - the case of the Danish Board of Technology
Rasmus nielsen
The Danish Board of Technology (DBT) is here seen as an example of the attempted insti- tutionalization of reflexive modernity in STi policy. i will outline the contours of the strategic space in which such efforts take place.
The DBT has been seen by many as a trail-blazer for dialogue and citizen participation in STi governance. Some iconic methods developed by the DBT include the “Danish model” of Consensus Conferences carried out to inform Danish policy-makers on citizens’ informed views on emerging technological issues and the World Wide Views method, a multi-site in- ternational citizens’ hearing designed to inform global policy-makers about citizens’ wishes for Un environmental policy. But while such dialogue-based approaches to policy-support do reflect a strong Danish tradition for informality and deliberation, it would be wrong to assume a neat transition in the Danish STi-policy system from a paradigm of self-confident expert-driven modernization to a second reflexive and inclusive modernity.
Tracing the history of the formal and informal institutional development in and around the DBT, it becomes clear that the strategic space in which the DBT exists is skewed in favor of policy-approaches associated with first-order modernity, which promote technology-driven growth. Public pressure from movements like the anti-nuclear movement did temporarily result in increased responsiveness within the national STi policy-system institutionalized in the DBT and other advisory bodies. But overarching processes of transnational integra- tion (globalization, Europeanization) have resulted in a redistribution of responsibilities and competencies in which difficult questions regarding unintended impacts of technology are pushed upwards to transnational arenas of decision-making while the national STi-system largely reverts to its traditional focus on top-down modernization.
Looking forward, further efforts at institutionalizing reflexive practices in the STi-policy must re-imagine institutionalization on the premises of trans-nationalization and renew coalition building for the de-institutionalization of the engines driving top-down modernization.
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PRODUCING DATA 2
Room: 06.1-032
Chair: Line Vestergaard Knudsen Language: English
Curiosity, continuity and cane toads: Contextual quandaries in anthropology and STS Jon Rasmus nyquist
in this paper i explore certain quandaries of contextualization and continuity from a vantage point in what has been termed an ‘AnThropological interface’. i use empirical vignettes from my fieldwork with researchers and community groups in Western Australia who attempt to control an invasive species of toad as entry points into questions concerning curiosity and speculation. in what directions do we allow ourselves to be curious? What might be the criteria for contextualization beyond following the curiosity of our informants? How can we have curiosity without speculation, paradox and suspicion? And how can we do contexts without inadvertent explanation, reduction and generalization?
My vantage point is an anthropology that on the one hand has struggled with an STS influ- ence that is felt by many to deny our most forceful tool – context – and on the other hand is very much influenced by its meticulous following of trails and radically grounded empiri- cism. On the basis of three rough models of contextualization – a classic anthropological model, an STS ‘philosophy of adding’ and a sideways conceptualization that either tries to strip down or add on contexts in order to unsettle and destabilize – i explore how curiosity can be an AnThropological contribution to an exchange that has been largely one sided; in- fluence flowing from AnT and STS to anthropology and not so much the other way. Based on the ethnography i explore a model of contextualization that is motile and lateral, rather than linear and probing. i argue we should question what futures and what sort of directionalites are embedded in our practices of contextualization and experiment with a focus on the form rather than content of our informants’ contextualizations and enactments.
Exploring the scientific expedition – reflections of hidden work and hidden actors in sci- entific production
Claudia Bagge-Petersen
Science studies have often been equated with the study of one particular site, namely labo- ratories. Science studies scholars are clearly well aware that other locations such as con- ferences, journals, expeditions or lecture halls play important roles, but science studies nevertheless tends to be written from the perspective of the laboratory. The purpose of this paper is to explore scientific practices from the perspective of a less described site of science, namely the expedition. The paper is based on a six-week anthropological study conducted onboard a research vessel crossing the north Atlantic. The study follows the hidden and unmanageable objects of the expedition, such as gas in the atmosphere and
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Friday at 13.45the ocean, bubbles, storms and climate. it also accounts for the various types of expected and unexpected work and collaboration that takes place between participating scientist and the vessel staff. in more general terms, the study explores the types of work and relations that are established on board the vessel and in relation to non-present scientific sites, such as the home laboratory and the future conferences. On this basis, the study reflects on the topology of the scientific expedition and on the relation between practices and actors that are sometimes hiding and sometimes made visible.
The digital shaping of humanities research René Brauer & Mats Fridlund
The epistemological affordances of technologies such as the internet and computers are – yet again – offering promising and threatening opportunities to reshape humanistic re- search. The large digitization efforts within humanities has created new kinds of ‘big data’ textual source materials only a ’mouse click away’ (e.g. google books, JSTOR or the Bodle- ian Digital Library). This socio-technical development presents new epistemological chal- lenges for research within various humanities disciplines. To aid this effort, some research- ers are turning to new kinds of (digital) data-mining methods to tackle this complexity. The subject of this study, topic modeling (TM) is such a digital humanities method.
The presentation systematically surveys academic applications of topic modelling – an al- gorithm that parameterizes word concurrences within digitized texts – within historical re- search. The aim is to answer questions such as; what are the stated benefits of TM, whether there is qualitative differences between TM and traditional methods, and what new episte- mological challenges TM creates for historical research. Our starting point is 2004 with the first peer-reviewed historical article and end point in 2013 with the publication of a special journal issue on applications of TM.
Our preliminary results show that TM indeed affords new possibilities of innovative qualita- tive approaches in historical research. However, for all practical purposes TM is, as of yet, not a ‘black-boxed technology’ as many of its key variables still lack general agreed upon standards. This incorporation of TM within historical studies appears to be analogues to earlier developments in disciplines such as human geography or psychology. These earlier introductions of quantitative tools and methodologies into previously qualitatively dominated disciplines ultimately changed the character of these disciplines. if this will occur within historical studies in particular or humanities in general remains to be seen.
Keywords: topic modeling, research technology development, ‘black boxing’ technology, history studies, digital humanities
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