Spring Semester, 2001

Advanced Proseminar Sponsored by the Center for Western European Studies

ERG 290-2

(3 units max. Arrangements encouraged) 


Social Studies of Technology and Technical Systems

Part Deux:

Problems, Prospects, and Paradigms


Co-Convenors

Jane Summerton

Dept. of Technology & Social Change, Linköping University, Sweden

Gene Rochlin

Energy and Resources Group, University of California, Berkeley

Mondays, 4-7 pm (with munchie break)

Harris Room, Institute of Governmental Studies (119 Moses Hall) 

The original Call for participants:

As many of you well know, we (the undersigned) will be offering an advanced STS doctoral proseminar at UCB during spring term. This seminar is intended
to be a more in-depth and focused follow up to our proseminar of fall 1998 in which many of you participated. As outlined in the proposal which led to
our award from the Institute of European Studies enabling this seminar, the purpose of the prosem 2001 is twofold:

More specifically, what we have in mind is as follows. The seminar will provide a dissertation-oriented forum for in-depth discussion of themes (or clusters of themes) as identified by participants as directly relevant to their work. Participants will be asked to propose and develop themes in close cooperation with us as seminar facilitators, as well as to provide suggestions as to literature that should form the basis for the thematic discussions. This literature may be any of the following: 1) core theoretical literature that provides "advanced entry level" understanding of the issues to be discussed, 2) especially complex, relevant or interesting literature that is challenging and perhaps baffling to a seminar participant who is struggling to engage with it on her/his own (and would like help in interpreting by e.g. multiple readings and discussion), and 3) theoretical chapters from participants' on-going dissertation or project work, in which the theoretical concepts and/or perspectives are applied, interpreted, mangled etc. Ideally, during each of our thematic sessions, at least two of the three categories above would be represented, with the choice being made with an eye also to the interests and knowledges of the larger group as a whole.

One prerequisite for making this work is that the proseminar is offered only to a limited number of participants. Another prerequisite is that all participants make an explicit commitment to come aboard not only with a direct responsibility for at least one theme as outlined above, but also with a commitment to engage on an on-going basis with the seminars and themes prepared and identified by others. Ideally, the proseminar will be designed in such as way that thematic clusters which are central to some students' work are at least complementary/supportive to that of many other students in the group as well. The themes should be chosen to ensure that all will be engaged with intensity by all the seminarians.

These ideas have been discussed in several forums by Gene and PSSST since last spring. During a recent visit to Berkeley in mid-October, Jane met with several of you within PSSST to get your more detailed feedback on this general format and to start to thrush out some thematic clusters. In the enthusiastic conversation that followed (as well as individual talks with several of you), a number of preliminary themes vied for airspace, among them:

- science, technology and their publics
- technoscience, race, gender & power
- time and space
- science, technology & identity
- technoscientific communities of practice
- science, politics and me
- boundary objects, boundary transgressions (community members as scientists, etc)
- science, technology and the politics of rationality
- science & non-science in policy advice

Obviously it is going to be difficult to handle all of these themes in the allotted 10-week framework. One suggestion that has been made is to focus on a total of 3-4 themes which are explored at depth at 2-3 sessions, depending upon how the commitments and interests of the individual participants tend to cluster, as well as the relative popularity of the various themes within the group as a whole. Some of these are interlinked in various ways, or share common threads; this provides a potential guide to selection of one or more themes that would maximize common areas of interest and inquiry.


 
 

Sessions:


 
 

First Week: Introduction and Orientation

Second Week: (1/22)

  • Presenter: Gwen Ottinger
  • Respondent: Jennifer Fishman
  • Readings:

    • Third Week: (1/29)

  • Presenters: Kate O'Neill and Diahanna Lynch
  • Respondent: Louise Wells
  • Readings:

    • Fourth Week: (2/05)

    Special "where are we now and where are we going with this" session, 6-9 pm (Harris Room), with food.

    Fifth Week (2/12)

    Sixth Week (2/19)

    Seventh Week (2/26)

    Eighth Week (3/05)

    Ninth Week (3/12)

    Tenth Week (3/19)