Instead of considering »being with« in terms of non-problematic, machine-like places, where reliable entities assemble in stable relationships, STS conjures up a world where the achievement of chancy stabilisations and synchronisations is loca…

Instead of considering »being with« in terms of non-problematic, machine-like places, where reliable entities assemble in stable relationships, STS conjures up a world where the achievement of chancy stabilisations and synchronisations is local. We have to analyse how and where a certain regularity and predictability in the intersection of scientists and their instruments, say, or of human individuals and groups, is produced. The paper reviews models of emergence drawn from the history of cybernetics—the canonical »black box,« homeostats, and cellular automata—to enrich our imagination of the stabilisation process, and discusses the concept of »variety« as a way of clarifying its difficulty, with the antiuniversities of the 1960s and the Occupy movement as examples. Failures of »being with« are expectable. In conclusion, the paper reviews approaches to collective decision-making that reduce variety without imposing a neoliberal hierarchy. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/meiner/zmk/2014/00002014/00000001/art00009

The literature on risk perceptions often assumes that there exist differences in risk judgements between experts and lay people and that the differences are stemming from the differences in expertise between the groups. Therefore, reducing the risk inform…

The literature on risk perceptions often assumes that there exist differences in risk judgements between experts and lay people and that the differences are stemming from the differences in expertise between the groups. Therefore, reducing the risk information gap has become the goal of risk communication policies. By analyzing two survey data of BSE risk perceptions among experts and lay people, this study aims to explore whether differences in perceptions of BSE between experts and lay people really exist and, if so, whether they are resulted from differences in expertise. The results of this study show that experts do view BSE risks and related issues differently from members of the lay public but that the different view is due to socio-demographic differences between the two groups rather than differences in expertise on BSE. Also, while the differences in risk perceptions are salient in their judgements of scientific evaluations of BSE risks, they cannot be explained by expertise either. Finally, risk perceptions among experts show higher levels of variations than those among lay people. This findings suggest that risk policies should focus more on acknowledging diversity of risk perceptions and encouraging discussion to coordinate them democratically than on reducing risk information gap. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://kiss.kstudy.com/journal/thesis_name.asp?tname=kiss2002&key=3190178

This paper discusses the ways in which the Korean government has mobilized science for Korea’s economic development and, in so doing, how its utilitarian view of science has affected the norms and practices of Korean scientists. In early 1960s, the Korea…

This paper discusses the ways in which the Korean government has mobilized science for Korea’s economic development and, in so doing, how its utilitarian view of science has affected the norms and practices of Korean scientists. In early 1960s, the Korean government set its first national plan for science and technology promotion, brought a number of Korean scientists back from abroad, and set up state-funded research institutes to assist local firms, which were struggling to enter knowledge based industries. Since the 1980s, it has also pushed university research toward applied and developmental research by distributing government fund in the direction. This paper argues that the Korean government’s efforts to mobilize science and technology for economic development not only had a distinctive impact on the institutional development of Korean science but also encouraged Korean scientists to embrace the utilitarian values of science that view scientific research as a tool for industrialization and nationalism in science that equates scientific advance with national progress. Well before analysts in the US worried about how UIRs were shaping the norms of science, Korean government policies were shaping the norms of science and doing so in a way that deviate from the Mertonian ideal and in a way analysts see as more consistent with the values associated with the incursion of industry into academic science. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://kiss.kstudy.com/journal/thesis_name.asp?tname=kiss2002&key=3185557

During traditional consensus conferences, organizers control the formal information available to participants—by compiling structured background materials and recruiting expert panelists. Less formally, however, participants are encouraged to bring …

During traditional consensus conferences, organizers control the formal information available to participants—by compiling structured background materials and recruiting expert panelists. Less formally, however, participants are encouraged to bring their own experiences into the deliberations, and in doing so, they often seek outside information. We explore this heretofore understudied phenomenon of information seeking during a deliberative event: the U.S. National Citizens’ Technology Forum (2008), which addressed the convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science on the potential development of human-enhancement technologies. Through interviews with participants and observation of in-person and online deliberations, we identify outside information-seeking strategies and motivations. Our study demonstrates that conceptualizing models of deliberation as standalone settings of communication exchange ignores the reality of the complex information environment from which deliberative participants draw when making sense of technical issues. Future citizen deliberations must incorporate outside information seeking in the design of the exercises. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://pus.sagepub.com/content/22/8/955.short

This article utilizes the ongoing debates over the role of certain agricultural insecticides in causing Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)—the phenomenon of accelerated bee die-offs in the United States and elsewhere—as an opportunity to contribut…

This article utilizes the ongoing debates over the role of certain agricultural insecticides in causing Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)—the phenomenon of accelerated bee die-offs in the United States and elsewhere—as an opportunity to contribute to the emerging literature on the social production of ignorance. In our effort to understand the social contexts that shape knowledge/nonknowledge production in this case, we develop the concept of epistemic form. Epistemic form is the suite of concepts, methods, measures, and interpretations that shapes the ways in which actors produce knowledge and ignorance in their professional/intellectual fields of practice. In the CCD controversy, we examine how the (historically influenced) privileging of certain epistemic forms intersects with the social dynamics of academic, regulatory, and corporate organizations to lead to the institutionalization of three interrelated and overlapping types of ignorance. We consider the effects of these types of ignorance on US regulatory policy and on the lives of different stakeholders. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://sth.sagepub.com/content/38/4/492.short

STS studies into science documentaries for television are rare, and they do not even reflect the constructivist fruits of STS. STS have been calling for the need of analyzing ‘science-in-the-making’ in order to understand science more deeply. Similarly,…

STS studies into science documentaries for television are rare, and they do not even reflect the constructivist fruits of STS. STS have been calling for the need of analyzing ‘science-in-the-making’ in order to understand science more deeply. Similarly, our starting point is the assumption that science documentary can be better understood when we look into its making process. Under this assumption, we adopted the method of participant observation in analyzing ‘documentary practice’, trying to open the ‘black box’ called ‘science documentary’. We have here focused on the documentary named “Light” made by a scientific documentary team of EBS, who made “Culture and Mathematics” and “Life”. Each of us worked as a main consultant and an assistant staff in making “Light”. We will address two main points in this study. First, based on our participant observation and interviews, we will show that the members of documentary making team are thinking about ‘science’ in distinctive ways. The team tended to emphasize visualization, knowledge linked to people’s everyday life, and the distinctive characters of scientists who appear in the documentary. Second, by looking closely into the interaction between the team members and the consultant in the process of completing the script of the documentary, it was possible to understand how the contents of the documentary was constructed more accurately. In the making process, consultant’s idea was not simply accepted by the making team, but there were conflicts and compromises. By showing this, we will be able to bring up a reflexive question about the role of consultant in the process of making a science documentary. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://www.dbpia.co.kr/Article/3204641

This paper examines experts’ activities and their contested knowledge productions in the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. Because water governance involves complex interactions among nature, society, and techno-science, the contestations include po…

This paper examines experts’ activities and their contested knowledge productions in the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project. Because water governance involves complex interactions among nature, society, and techno-science, the contestations include political, economical, and scientific problems simultaneously. Theoretically, this paper is based upon expertise studies and social movement studies to understand the political nature of expert knowledge. Empirically, this paper draws on 18 in-depth interviews with experts who have participated in the project in various ways. The paper is composed of the following sections. In the first section, we introduce our research question concerning why we studied experts’ activities and roles in the project, explaining the importance of science’s role in environmental controversies. In the second section, we undertake literature reviews of the politics of expertise and its role in social movements. We also explain why the politics of expertise emerges as a central problem in contemporary social movements and introduce sample case studies set in Korea that analyze experts’ diverse modes of participation. In the third section, we discuss our research methods. In the fourth and fifth sections, we describe how experts supporting and opposing the Four Major Rivers Restoration Project emerged or were recruited, and we examine their roles and activities. In the sixth section, we examine the contestations of expert knowledge in five areas: (1) the dams’ effectiveness for flood control and the safety of the dams themselves, (2) water security and water pollution problems, (3) legal problems, (4) economic issues, and (5) effects of the project on the ecosystem. In discussion, we argue that the contests between experts concerning the project can be understood as a conflict between an alliance of bureaucratic knowledge and an alliance of oppositional knowledge. In conclusion, the politics of expertise in this case simultaneously raises substantial techno-scientific and legal questions that eventually threatened to fracture relations between the state and experts on water governance. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://www.dbpia.co.kr/Article/3213692

The paper looks in detail at patients that were treated at one of the most discussed companies operating in the field of untried stem cell treatments, Beike Biotech of Shenzhen, China. Our data show that patients who had been treated at Beike Biotech view…

The paper looks in detail at patients that were treated at one of the most discussed companies operating in the field of untried stem cell treatments, Beike Biotech of Shenzhen, China. Our data show that patients who had been treated at Beike Biotech view themselves as proactively pursuing treatment choices that are not available in their home countries. These patients typically come from a broad variety of countries: China, the United Kingdom, the United States, South Africa and Australia. Among the patients we interviewed there seemed to be both an awareness of the general risks involved in such experimental treatments and a readiness to accept those risks weighed against the possible benefits. We interpret this evidence as possibly reflecting the emergence of risk-taking patients as ‘consumers’ of medical options as well as the drive of patients to seek treatment options in the global arena, rather than being hindered by the ethical and regulatory constraints of their home countries. Further, we found that these patients tend to operate in more or less stable networks and groups in which they interact and cooperate closely and develop opinions and assessments of available treatment options for their ailments. These patients also perform a multiple role as patients, research subjects, and research funders because they are required to pay their way into treatment and research activities. This new social dynamics of patienthood has important implications for the ethical governance of stem cell treatments. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2011.01929.x/full

Based upon 18 months of fieldwork, this paper analyzes the roles of science and medical knowledge in a labor health movement responding to workersʼ illnesses in semi-conductor factories. The disease, known as ʻSamsung Leukemia,ʼ led to a se…

Based upon 18 months of fieldwork, this paper analyzes the roles of science and medical knowledge in a labor health movement responding to workersʼ illnesses in semi-conductor factories. The disease, known as ʻSamsung Leukemia,ʼ led to a series of scientific and political conflicts among activist patients, the Korean government, and corporations. This paper especially focuses on a form of knowledge politics in which movement organization builds up site-centered science opposing the governmentʼs official epidemiological studies and Samsungʼs hired science. Theoretically, this paper is based on concepts and arguments developed by combining the sociology of science and technology with social movement studies. In particular, we rely on such illuminating concepts as local knowledge, the politics of expertise, and the interest-ladenness of science. For this study, we conducted fieldwork for 18 months. Our data include various sources such as interviews, participant observations, scientific papers and reports, presentation materials, and news media. We conducted 16 in-depth interviews with activists, experts, and patients as well as a focus group interview with 6 patients (or patientsʼ families). This paper is composed of the following contents. First, we understand this movement as a labor health movement and introduce theoretical background, research methods, and core data. Second, we describe how workersʼ individual diseases were politicized and developed into a social movement. Third, we analyze the constructions and contestations of illness among the movement organization, the Korean government, and Samsung. As these parties sought to prove or disprove causal linkage between workersʼ illness and their factory environment, controversies centered on three issues: the presence of toxic chemicals, the degree of workersʼ exposure, and scientific acceptance of the disease. In this process, the government conducted official epidemiology studies and Samsung hired a scientific consultant company, while oppositional experts refuted those studies and attempted to mobilize scientific knowledge to support patients. Fourth, we show how patients and oppositional experts criticized the governmentʼs and Samsungʼs management-centered science. In the discussion section, we argue that while this labor health movement is class-centered, it also has universal appeal and radical character in that it conveys universal human sufferings and allows for solidarities with other groups. In this sense, it can act as a critical leverage for social change. Ultimately, we understand this groupʼs site-centered science as a combination of patientsʼ ʻdesperate scienceʼ and oppositional expertsʼ ʻthoughtful scienceʼ confronting an implicit alliance among power, capital, and official science. In conclusion, we criticize the political dangers of positivistic science trapped in objectivity and neutrality and argue that science should be reconstructed to emphasize its public nature. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://www.dbpia.co.kr/Article/3155430

In this article, we explore the politics of expertise in an ongoing controversy in the United States over the role of certain insecticides in colony collapse disorder–a phenomenon involving mass die-offs of honey bees. Numerous long-time commercial …

In this article, we explore the politics of expertise in an ongoing controversy in the United States over the role of certain insecticides in colony collapse disorder–a phenomenon involving mass die-offs of honey bees. Numerous long-time commercial beekeepers contend that newer systemic agricultural insecticides are a crucial part of the cocktail of factors responsible for colony collapse disorder. Many scientists actively researching colony collapse disorder reject the beekeepers’ claims, citing the lack of conclusive evidence from field experiments by academic and industry toxicologists. US Environmental Protection Agency regulators, in turn, privilege the latters’ approach to the issue, and use the lack of conclusive evidence of systemic insecticides’ role in colony collapse disorder to justify permitting these chemicals to remain on the market. Drawing on semistructured interviews with key players in the controversy, as well as published documents and ethnographic data, we show how a set of research norms and practices from agricultural entomology came to dominate the investigation of the links between pesticides and honey bee health, and how the epistemological dominance of these norms and practices served to marginalize the knowledge claims and policy positions of commercial beekeepers in the colony collapse disorder controversy. We conclude with a discussion of how the colony collapse disorder case can help us think about the nature and politics of expertise. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://sss.sagepub.com/content/43/2/215.short

This paper first aims to reveal that, in the current trend of "the participatory turn" in STS, there are divergent positions subtly different from each other, and that the understanding of these divergent positions can be significant to study the differen…

This paper first aims to reveal that, in the current trend of "the participatory turn" in STS, there are divergent positions subtly different from each other, and that the understanding of these divergent positions can be significant to study the differences, similarities and interfaces between the various models of scientific governance discussed in STS and those in risk governance developed by risk studies. Secondly, this paper shows that theoretical differences among STS scholars on scientific governance and public participation goes back to the 1970s and 1980s, during which they first laid down the conceptual basis of STS. All ideas and theories have their own historicity. This article is about the "historical epistemology" of the participatory turn of STS, and is to seek "political epistemology" that can become a shared vision of STS. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://www.dbpia.co.kr/Article/3068121

Korean people believe that English proficiency is one of themost important factors in achieving professional success, and because of this they spend a great deal of time and money to master English. Along with this frenzy over English, a discourse o…

Korean people believe that English proficiency is one of themost important factors in achieving professional success, and because of this they spend a great deal of time and money to master English. Along with this frenzy over English, a discourse on the “English brain” has recently emerged. Many Koreans believe that to achieve linguistic excellence, one has to train a particular brain region—the so-called English brain. This discourse was formulated and became popularly authoritative as certain information on relevant brain research was transferred across scientific, popular, and commercial sectors. Neuroscientific research, particularly studies of bilingualism, provided interesting information for the media and companies. This information was used to promote novel commercial devices and educational programs specifically designed for learning English. Themedia transformed the results of such research into a more popular discourse about the English brain. Interactions among neuroscientific research, commercial strategies, and the media made the English brain a reality. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://easts.dukejournals.org/content/6/3/303.short

In recent years, the adequacy of the ‘gift’ model of research participation has been increasingly questioned. This study used focus groups to explore how potential and actual participants of biobanks in the UK and Germany negotiate the relationship be…

In recent years, the adequacy of the ‘gift’ model of research participation has been increasingly questioned. This study used focus groups to explore how potential and actual participants of biobanks in the UK and Germany negotiate the relationship between concerns over privacy protection, reciprocity and benefit sharing. In Germany, 15 focus groups (n=151) were conducted: 11 general public groups (n=116) and 4 with former cohort study participants including the KORA and the Popgen cohort study (n=35). In the UK, 9 focus groups (n=61) were conducted: 4 general public groups (n=33) and 5 with UK Biobank and European Huntington’s Disease (Euro-HD) Registry biorepository participants (n=28). Forms of reciprocity were found to partially mitigate potential and actual biobank participants’ concerns over personal privacy risks and future unintended consequences of biobank in both Germany and the UK. Specifically, notions of individual reciprocity were at the forefront in the context of personal disadvantages to participation, while communal reciprocity was prominent when potential and actual participants were discussing the uncertainty of the long-term nature of biobanking. The research indicates that reciprocity can be viewed as a mode to deal with individuals’ concerns about participating in a biobank, both by acting as a return ‘favor’ or ‘gift,’ and through establishing an ongoing relationship between participants, researchers and society. It is suggested that future biobanking projects will need to flexibly combine individual and communal forms of reciprocity if they are to recruit and maintain sufficient numbers of participants. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/22722691

Biobanks containing human biological samples and associated data are key resources for the advancement of medical research. Efficient access to samples and data increases competitiveness in medical research, reduces effort and time for achieving scientifi…

Biobanks containing human biological samples and associated data are key resources for the advancement of medical research. Efficient access to samples and data increases competitiveness in medical research, reduces effort and time for achieving scientific results and promotes scientific progress. In order to address upcoming health challenges, there is increasing need for transnational collaboration. This requires innovative solutions improving interoperability of biobanks in fields such as sample and data management as well as governance including ethical and legal frameworks. In this context, rights and expectations of donors to determine the usage of their biological material and data and to ensure their privacy have to be observed. We discuss the benefits of biobanks, the needs to support medical research and the societal demands and regulations, in particular, securing the rights of donors and present IT solutions that allow both to maintain the security of personal data and to increase the efficiency of access to data in biobanks. Disclosure filters are discussed as a strategy to combine European public expectations concerning informed consent with the requirements of biobank research. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/22722689

Scholars have emphasized public trust in institutions which produce new knowledge and are responsible for controlling risks associated with it as a crucial determinant of public perceptions of science-related risks. Analyzing a nation-wide survey results,…

Scholars have emphasized public trust in institutions which produce new knowledge and are responsible for controlling risks associated with it as a crucial determinant of public perceptions of science-related risks. Analyzing a nation-wide survey results, this paper examines how Koreans perceive GM food and what determine it with an emphasis of the effects of trust in science and the government on the perception. Perceptions of GM food were ambivalent in Korea, so recognition of benefits and concern about risks exist hand in hand. Compared with EU citizens, Koreans show higher levels of recognition of benefits of GM food while they show similar levels of concern about risks of it. It turns out that the levels of trust in science and the government have direct effects as well as indirect effects through perceptions of GM food on the acceptance of GM food. Also, as people look for information on GM food more, they tend to have negative perceptions of it. Political orientation has little effect on the acceptance level and consumer behavior of GM food and only limited effect on the perceptions of GM food. These findings support the claim that risk politics on food safety should be understood as life politics which goes beyond the conventional conflict between progress and conservative political ideologies. Click the following link for downloading the article: http://kiss.kstudy.com/journal/thesis_name.asp?tname=kiss2002&key=3145341