A Place for Science and Technology Studies

Observation, Intervention, and Collaboration

Jane Calvert

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9780262376921
• Edition: 0
• Subtopic: Teaching Science & Technology

Where does science and technology studies (STS) belong? In A Place for Science and Technology Studies, Jane Calvert takes readers through eight different rooms—the laboratory, the conference room, the classroom, the coffee room, the art studio, the bioethics building, the policy room, and the ivory tower—investigating the possibilities and limitations of each for STS research.

Drawing from over a decade of work in synthetic biology, Calvert explores three different orientations for STS—observation, intervention, and collaboration—to ask whether there is a place for STS, which, as an undisciplined field, often finds itself on the periphery of traditional institutions or dependent on more generously funded STEM disciplines. Using examples of failures and successes and tackling enduring concerns about the relations between social scientific researchers and their fields of study, Calvert argues for an approach to STS that is collaborative yet allows for autonomy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: Why Rooms?
• 1. The Laboratory
• 2. The Conference Room
• 3. The Classroom
• 4. The Coffee Room
• 5. The Art Studio
• 6. The Bioethics Building
• 7. The Policy Room
• 8. The Ivory Tower
• Conclusions: Toward a Collaborative Science and Technology Studies
• References
• Index