Science, technology, security: Towards critical collaboration

Abstract

Science and technology play a central role in the contemporary governance of security, both as tools for the production of security and as objects of security concern. Scholars are increasingly seeking to not only critically reflect on the interplays between science, technology and security, but also engage with the practices of security communities that shape and are shaped by science and technology. To further help this growth of interest in security topics within science and technology studies (STS), we explore possible modes of socio-technical collaboration with security communities of practice. Bringing together literatures from STS and critical security studies, we identify several key challenges to critical social engagement of STS scholars in security-related issues. We then demonstrate how these challenges played out over the course of three case studies from our own experience in engaging security communities of practice. We use these vignettes to show that there is a rich vein of developments in both theory and practice that STS scholars can pursue by attending to the interplay of science, technology and security.

Sociotechnical Imaginaries of EU Defence: The Past and the Future in the European Defence Fund

“…Second, we intend to make the case that drawing from science and technology studies (STS), which has examined the innovation‐security‐industry interface more closely than EU studies has, offers novel insights. While there is growing interest in what STS approaches beyond Latourian actor‐network theory might bring to the engagement of critical security studies with technology (Bellanova et al, 2020; Evans et al, 2020), we suggest that EU studies as a discipline can also benefit from such interactions.…”

Taking the trouble: science, technology and security studies

“…In their chapter focusing on STS research on security practices, Kathleen Vogel et al (2017) emphasise the increasing attention to knowledge (and non-knowledge) practices as well as the challenges of carrying out STS-informed research in the field of security. Unfortunately, STS researchers studying security pay only marginal attention to research carried out by critical security studies scholars (Evans, Leese, and Rychnovská 2020). Similarly, CSS has thus far shown limited interest and engagement with STS research focusing on security practices.…”

Ephemeral Infrastructures of Drug Smuggling Mobilities

“…In section one we discuss the turn to the materialities of infrastructure and specifically contributions from the STS literature. STS as a field has demonstrated the interplay between Science, Technology and Security (Evans et al, 2020; Vogel et al, 2017) and specifically Actor Network Theory has been utilized to explore issues related to security, flagging the mutual constitution of security assemblages, including the contested role of technology and security threats (Andersson, 2015; Braun et al, 2019). The second section accounts for the theoretical affinity between, STS, infrastructural studies and the new mobilities paradigm.…”