Entanglements: Conversations on the Human Traces of Science, Technology, and Sound (Mit Press)

Tosoni, Simone

ISBN 10: 0262035278 / ISBN 13: 9780262035279

Published by The MIT Press, 2016

About this Item

Seller Inventory # MESILLABC-060216729

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Entanglements: Conversations on the Human Traces of Science, Technology, and Sound (Mit Press)
• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262035278
• ISBN 13: 9780262035279
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

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).