The Turn to Technology in Social Studies of Science

Woolgar, Steve

doi:10.1177/016224399101600102

Cited by 249 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

107

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The scope for human agency-in particular, the potential for humans to adapt technology (whether as developers or users) in multiple and contingent ways-was thus significantly understated in many theories of technology, as was the notion of technological construction, that technologies are artifacts whose operation and outcomes are neither fixed nor given a priori, but always temporally emergent through interaction with humans in practice. The search for theories that had greater resonance with my lived experiences with technology began, and it led me on a journey through Berger and Luckmann (1966) and the social construction of reality, then the social construction of technology (Bijker et al 1987, Bijker and Law 1992, Woolgar 1991, and on to Giddens's (1976Giddens's ( , 1979Giddens's ( , 1984 structuration theory. Interestingly, structuration theory has very little to say about technology, but its articulation of consequential, recursive, and mutually constitutive relations between humans and structures was very compelling.…”

Section: Practice Theory In Practice: Our Storiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory

Feldman

Orlikowski²

2011

Organization Science

1,242

1,077

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

T his paper describes the emerging field of practice theory as it is practiced in relation to organizational phenomena. We identify three approaches-empirical, theoretical, and philosophical-that relate to the what, the how, and the why of using a practice lens. We discuss three principles of the theoretical approach to practice and offer examples of how practice theory has been used in the organizational literature and in our own research. We end with a discussion of the challenges and opportunities that practice theory affords organizational scholarship.Key words: practice; practice theory; genres; resourcing; routines; technology in practice; sociomateriality History: Published online in Articles in Advance February 23, 2011. IntroductionIn this paper we discuss the value of practice theory for issues of concern to organization theorists. We are motivated to write this by our own experiences, primarily our experiences as researchers and teachers but also our experiences as editors and reviewers of papers that investigate practices empirically and use practice ideas theoretically. Central to a practice lens is the notion that social life is an ongoing production and thus emerges through people's recurrent actions. We have become intrigued by the capacity that such a lens affords for analyzing social, technological, and organizational phenomena, and we write this piece with the intent of sharing our understanding and interest in that capacity.We believe that a practice lens has much to offer scholars of organization. And we believe this is especially the case today. Contemporary organizing is increasingly understood to be complex, dynamic, distributed, mobile, transient, and unprecedented, and as such, we need approaches that will help us theorize these kinds of novel, indeterminate, and emergent phenomena (Barley and Kunda 2001, Child and McGrath 2001, Ciborra 1996, Law and Urry 2004, Stark 2009). We believe practice theory, with its focus on dynamics, relations, and enactment, is particularly well positioned to offer powerful analytical tools to help us here.We begin by positioning the practice lens as a specific approach to understanding the world. We discuss a number of core principles of practice theory and offer a few illustrations of current organizational scholarship that is informed by these principles. We then describe some experiences of using practice theory in our own research practice so as to ground its use in the details of specific projects and intellectual histories. We end with a brief discussion of some of the challenges faced by practice scholars, as well as the value that can be derived from engaging in practice scholarship. Positioning a Practice LensIn our consideration of practice theory, we situate it in relation to three ways of studying practice (Orlikowski 2010): an empirical focus on how people act in organizational contexts, a theoretical focus on understanding relations between the actions people take and the structures of organizational life, and a philosophical focus on the con...

show abstract

Section: Practice Theory In Practice: Our Storiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory

Feldman

Orlikowski²

2011

Organization Science

1,242

1,077

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To a great extent echoing the impact of the belated discovery of Vygotsky, pedagogical and learning theories have sought to positively revalue common sense everyday experiences and knowledge as socially situated and continuous with classroom knowledge (expert knowledge relayed by expert transmitters), and thus offering the potential to be used as a platform for scaffolding more effective and inclusive learning experiences (Aikenhead 1996;Cunningham and Helms 1998;Kelly 2000;Snively and Consiglia 2001;Barton 2002). This pedagogic approach is framed in a constructivist language that clearly resonates with what had by then become an established paradigm within STS (Woolgar 1991;Michael 2002).…”

Section: The Bodmer Reportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediating Science and Society in the EU and UK: From Information-Transmission to Deliberative Democracy?

Tlili

Dawson

2010

Minerva

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper we critically review recent developments in policies, practices and philosophies pertaining to the mediation between science and the public within the EU and the UK, focusing in particular on the current paradigm of Public Understanding of Science and Technology (PEST) which seeks to depart from the science information-transmission associated with previous paradigms, and enact a deliberative democracy model. We first outline the features of the current crisis in democracy and discuss deliberative democracy as a response to this crisis. We then map out and critically review the broad outlines of recent policy developments in public-science mediation in the EU and UK contexts, focusing on the shift towards the deliberative-democratic model. We conclude with some critical thoughts on the complex interrelationships between democracy, equality, science and informal pedagogies in public-science mediations. We argue that science and democracy operate within distinct value-spheres that are not necessarily consonant with each other. We also problematize the now common dismissal of informationtransmission of science as inimical to democratic engagement, and argue for a reassessment of the role and importance of informal science learning for the ''lay'' public, provided within the framework of a deliberative democracy that is not reducible to consensus building or the mere expression of opinions rooted in social and cultural givens. This, we argue, can be delivered by a model of PEST that is creative and experimental, with both educational and democratic functions.

show abstract

“…Our landscapes have become filled up with cables, pipelines for oil and gas, just as well as roads, and now also masts for mobile telephony, related to the "cells" covering the territory. They were 14 When Woolgar introduced the idea of technology-as-text (Woolgar 1991), he discussed various ways of understanding "reading" technology-as-text. In the interpretive (or social construction of technology) approach, the variety of possible readings is emphasized.…”

Section: Materials Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology as prospective ontology

Rip

2009

Synthese

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Starting from common-sense notions of 'furniture of the world' a process ontology is developed in which prospective is an integral part. Technology as configurations that work (precariously) embodies expectations which structure further development. Examples (a cloned puppy, hotel keys, DC airplanes, stem cells, and overpasses on Long Island) are used to develop the notion of material narratives that are "written", not just by engineers and designers/producers, but also by users: "reading" implies some further "writing". In contrast to prevailing notions of technological control (through manipulation of building blocks), the "writing" of nanotechnology is modulation of the invisible and impredictable -an extreme example of unruly technology and repair work after the fact, where in practice control is a gesture not so different from magic. Because ontology cannot be other than prospective, it is political throughout. Thus, prospective technology highlights ontological politics.

show abstract

The Turn to Technology in Social Studies of Science

Cited by 249 publications

References 11 publications

Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory

Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory

Mediating Science and Society in the EU and UK: From Information-Transmission to Deliberative Democracy?

Technology as prospective ontology

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About