On the Relations of Science, Technology and Society

What is science and what is technology? How do they relate to society? And how can we best understand these relationships? This course will tackle these and additional questions, drawing heavily on theories and concepts from Science & Technology Studies (STS). We will explore why it is important in our times to understand in which ways science, technology and society are entangled. The course covers broadly four topical areas. First we investigate what can be gained from analysing science as a social enterprise. Secondly, we will take a closer look at technology and its various ways of interrelating with society. Third, we will discuss how Actor-Network Theory, including its most recent developments, help us understand the complex relations between science, technology and society. Finally, the idiom of co-production provides a different view how science and technology on the one hand and society on the other mutually shape each other.

The core of this course is to learn to work with theories and concepts: How do they relate to methods? What are theories? How can we make theories work for different case studies? Consequently, an important part of this course is the reading and discussion of theoretical texts and how they can be applied in a project, to understand what theories allow us to see or not to see. The latter is done in the form of an essay.

The examination consists of the following parts:

- Active participation during class (15%)

- Preparation and moderation of one discussion workshop, including the creation of a hand-out (25%)

- Reading of texts and writing reading reflections (20%)

- Applying the theories in/on a project (essay of 3000 words minimum, excl. bibliography) (40%)

Students from other study programs or other universities are welcome, provided the room capacity permits.