EASST Review Volume 32 (4) European Association for the Study of Science and Technology December 2013 EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Editor: Ann Rudinow Saetnan (NTNU) Tel:(+ 47) 73 59 17 86 (Saetnan) email:annrs@svt.ntnu.no Membership queries: admin@easst.net EASST Review on the Web: http://www.easst.net EASST Review (ISSN 1384-5160) is published quarterly, in March, June, September and December. The Association's journal was called the EASST Newsletter through 1994. Council of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology: Marton Fabok (University of Liverpool, Student representative) Ignacio Farias (Social Science Research Centre in Berlin (WZB)) Maja Horst (Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen) Pierre-Benoit Joly (National Institute of Agronomic Research, Paris) Laura Watts (IT University of Copenhagen) Attila Bruni (University of Trento) Fred Steward, President (Policy Studies Institute, Westminster University) Estrid Sørensen (Ruhr-Universität, Bochum) Harro van Lente (University of Utrecht) Trevor Pinch (President of the Society for Social Studies of Science, ex-officio) Co-opted members: Samsa Hyysalo (editor of Science & Technology Studies) Ann Rudinow Sætnan (editor EASST Review) Ingmar Lippert (manager EASST Eurograd list) Krzysztof Abriszewski (organizer of 2014 EASST conference) Subscription: Full individual membership fee (waged and resident in high income countries): EUR 40 annual. Students, unwaged or resident in all other countries pay a reduced fee of EUR 25. Library rate is EUR 45. Please note that subscriptions can be made through the EASST website by following the ‘Join EASST’ link. EASST's Institutional Members: EASST is in the process of rethinking its approach to institutional membership and its relationship with national STS organizations and centres. Any enquiries to admin@easst.net EASST's Past Presidents: Christine Hine, 2005-2008; Sally Wyatt, 20002004; Rob Hagendijk, 1997-2000; Aant Elzinga, 1991-1997; Stuart Blume, 1987-1991; John Ziman, 1983-1986;Peter Weingart, 1982. Member benefits: EASST organizes a biennial conference and supports a number of “off-year” events such as workshops, PhD summerschools and national/regional STS meetings. Members are offered reduced registration rates for the biennial EASST conference and many other EASST events. EASST offers travel stipends to EASST events for Ph.D. students, young scholars and researchers from developing countries. EASST funds and awards three biennial academic prizes for excellence in various aspects of community-building – the Olga Amsterdamska award for a creative collaboration in an edited book in the broad field of science and technology studies, the Chris Freeman award for a significant contribution to the interaction of science and technology studies with the study of innovation, and the John Ziman award for an innovative venture to promote the public understanding of the social dimensions of science. EASST publishes the EASST Review and offers member access to the journal Science & Technology Studies. Cover Illustration: Political Map of Europe, from YourEuropeMap.com EASST Review's Past Editors: Chunglin Kwa, 1991 – 2006; Arie Rip, 19821991; Georg Kamphausen, 1982. 2 EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 On the Geographies of STS. A Brief Introduction. Editorial by Ann Rudinow Saetnan One day of EASST’s most recent council meeting was devoted to the various national and regional STS networks around Europe. Eleven (11) national and regional networks were represented, in one way or another. Some had sent representatives, some were present in that one or more members happened to also be members of council. Still, eleven is not the complete set of such networks around Europe. The main part of that day’s meeting was a presentation round, first introducing each network in terms of its size, functions, structure and history, then presenting key concerns the respective networks are dealing with currently. It was striking how different these networks are. For instance, the Dutch network arose out of a national policy some years back of organizing PhD programs through national thematic and/or disciplinary networks. An STS network was formed across multiple universities and has since been operating a series of post-graduate courses and summer schools. Many STSers have participated in one or more of these summer schools, which are obligatory for Dutch PhD students but also open to students from other countries. Thanks to this role, the Dutch network is well-funded. But at the same time, it does not have the grassroots, activist style of, say, the Spanish network (see their presentation in this issue). Besides the locally specific academic and/or public functions of the networks, they tended to share one difference from EASST: Their activities are grounded in their respective national languages. We (and not only those of us who are native speakers of English) tend to think that more or less all European academics are sufficiently fluent in English that crossnational academic communications can flow freely in that language. Well, that may be so, but language is the tool with which we think and create, and we are best at those things in the language we grew up speaking and the language we currently use in the greatest variety of settings. Turning that claim around for a moment, I can offer a personal example. I came to Norway in 1969 and learned the basics of Norwegian in a 2-month intensive course. Then I started attending university in Norwegian. Through determined refusal to speak English and equally determined immersion into Norwegian (leaving a radio on the national station from dawn ‘til midnight, taping lectures and listening to them repeatedly, signing on to a book club and reading through what most Norwegians had read in school, etc.) I was quite fluent by year 2. From then on I took my exams in Norwegian, taught school in Norwegian, did my research in Norwegian, and so on. I was told that my research reports were particularly clear and well-written. Then one day, in about year 15, I was invited to write a journal article in English. What a difference! I could be clear in Norwegian, but in my native language I could be playful, I could make new discoveries even as I wrote by twisting simple statements into metaphors and thinking through them. Now when my PhD students realize that they need to publish in English, I have two pieces of advice for them: First, write like Hemmingway. Keep your sentences clear and simple. Use clear images as thinking tools. Don’t think you have to write convoluted sentences just to appear intellectual. Second, do at least some of your writing in your native language, especially if it’s a language I too can read and therefore can still offer supervision. You’ll find you do your best thinking when writing in your native tongue. Find settings EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 where you can present and discuss in your native tongue too. When you’re happy with what you’ve worked out, you can go back to advice point one and translate for publication in English, or some other language with a global reach. So … returning to the theme of national and regional networks: Besides their various other functions relating to local circumstances (economic crises, academic structural demands, historical discipline structures, and so on), such networks also serve to enrich STS thinking, stretching our imaginations by utilizing the full potential of our language experience from infancy to academe. EASST council therefore does not view national and regional networks as rivals within the STS field, but as natural allies. EASST is happy to have provided “seed money” for initial meetings of several of the national and regional networks, and is now looking into further ways of linking with such networks for mutual benefit. The next issue of EASST Review is being planned as a thematic issue, focusing on national and regional networks. We are 4 anticipating a number of network presentation pieces, but as we now publish on-line and have no page restrictions, please feel free to submit more! Contributions should be sent to the editor (me, annrs@svt.ntnu.no) by the first week of March. Meanwhile, enjoy the following report from the Spanish national STS network’s third meeting, and view their video from that meeting on-line at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpQh0 k9mJRU. Other EASST news in this issue: EASST has contributed to the launch of a new open-source publishing channel for books – Mattering Press. And by all means take note of two important EASST deadlines: First, the call for tracks for our 2014 conference in Torun. That deadline has now been extended but is still only a few weeks away. The length of a track abstract has also been reduced to 250 words. So make the most of those Winter holidays to put in a submission. Second, we repeat the call for nominations to our three prizes for community-building efforts. The deadline there is longer, but we don’t want you to forget! EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 “What if we don’t buy it? Unmaking and Remaking Common Worlds” Report on the Third Meeting of the Spanish STS Network, 19-21 June 2013 (Barcelona) By: Pablo Santoro (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) The 3rd Meeting of the Spanish STS Network (esCTS), under the title of “What if we don’t buy it? Unmaking and Remaking Common Worlds”, took place on 19-21 June 2013 in Barcelona. For the third consecutive year, a varied group of researchers interested in STS (regardless of disciplinary affiliation or academic position) responded to the open call of the Network and gathered for three days of presentations, debates and social interaction – and for the enjoyment of the first days of summer in Barcelona. The event, free of charge and with the support of EASST, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the IN3 (Internet Interdisciplinary Institute), was held in the Media-TIC Building, a strikingly modern building located in the recently developed “techno-industrial district” called 22@Barcelona. This self-defined “information and communication technology hub, designed to incubate, generate, exhibit and invite new ideas and developments”, provides space for universities and research centres, but also for public institutions, private companies and technological start-ups. Therefore, the place offered a sort of “liminal” or hybrid space – between society and the market; between private and public; between governmental institutions and techno-capitalism – which (even with its frictions and contradictions) proved to be a fitting place for an STS meeting. It was not only the location that spoke of hybridity, but also the mixed nature of the attendance: among the 178 participants in the meeting there were philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists, architects and historians, of course, but also hackers and urban theorists; art scholars and social activists; independent EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 researchers and public servants. Though the meeting is initially Spanish in character, it attracted researchers from a number of other countries (Portugal, Brazil, UK, Italy, Belgium... even India). Additionally, some of the panels incorporated presenters from the civil society (members of a citizens’ panel, activist collectives, NGOs...), adding to the feeling of an opening-up of STS ideas and lines of research to a wider set of social actors and concerns. The mixed audience could participate in 9 panels and 4 symposia (with more than 60 communications in total), as well as 3 special sessions (a post-graduate workshop, a feminist intervention in Wikipedia and a lunch seminar organized by the EU FP7 project ADDPRIV). A very lively general assembly of the Network took place on Thursday where, for instance, the issue of the growing international attendance was raised: there were several proposals on how to improve the participation of non-Spanish speaking scholars in future meetings, and there was a debate on whether to maintain or not the “Spanish” label on the name of the Network. The heterogeneous character of the meeting, as well as the significant growth in attendance from previous meetings, testifies to the appeal of the philosophy of the esCTS Network and the maturity it has achieved in its 3 years of existence. The Network started as an e-network in 2010, with the main goal of promoting a permanent, yet flexible, network of cooperation and dialogue between STS scholars in Spain and abroad.1 The 1 There are previous reports on the network, its philosophy and its previous meetings available in Vincenzo Pavone and Adolfo Estalella “«Making Visible the Invisible» STS Field in Spain”, EASST 5 Network now includes more than 170 members and maintains a permanent digital interaction through several platforms2. There is an immediate self-reflective and experimental spirit animating the Network with regard to the politics of the “scientific association”. Besides being open to everyone interested (both academic “experts” and “nonexpert” actors), there is no formal membership nor a stable structure or directive committee. Decisions are taken in meetings and virtual spaces of interaction. The network has tried to celebrate meetings in nonacademic venues, in a conscious desire to open up spaces of dialogue between STS and other social actors and institutions and to encourage the experimentation with formats of presentation. The growth in attendance from previous meetings meant that, for many participants, (myself included), the Barcelona meeting was their first contact with the Network. This was also the first meeting with parallel sessions, as it was the only way to accommodate the number of proposals received. Therefore, this review is to be read only as a personal view on the meeting, with forceful omissions and probable misinterpretations. I would like to single out three issues that, in my opinion, run transversally to most of the presentations and debates I participated in, and that can help in capturing, if not the “state” of the STS field in Spain, at least some of the concerns, questions and lines of thought the esCTS Network seem to share: acknowledging and fostering diversity, beyond academia and the politics of research. Review Vol 30(3), September 2011; and Adolfo Estalella, Rebeca Ibañez and Vincenzo Pavone, “Prototyping an Academic Network. Three years of the Spanish Network for Science and Technology Studies”, EASST Review Vol 32(1), March 2013, this last article providing a more personal view on the network as an experiment in “prototyping” a new modality of academic association. 2 Mail group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/ sts-espana; Facebook website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/263816193653962; Blog: www.redescts.wordpress.com 6 Acknowledging and fostering diversity As noted above, the variety of topics, perspectives and people was the first issue that grabbed the attention. This speaks of the importance that the Network gives to heterogeneity and openness within STS. In fact, instead of making a disciplinary retreat to reinforce the traditionally weak academic field of STS in Spain, the esCTS Network has opted instead for acknowledging and fostering diversity – thematic diversity, disciplinary diversity, even transnational diversity. Theoretically, this means the resort to an operative logic of collective thought, which allows for partial agreements from where to build stronger common perspectives. Politically, as will be remarked below, it leads to a strong emphasis on collaboration and on the integration of other actors in the exploration of collective alternatives and new “common worlds”. This acceptance of diversity and multiplicity was also a running thread in the way most of the presentations I saw conceptualized their objects of study. If one had to point out a common point of departure it would be a material-semiotic perspective which recognizes the irreducibility of technoscientific phenomena and embarks in a collective attempt to take care of that multiplicity by exploring what Annemarie Mol’s has called ontological politics. Beyond academia A central issue present in several of the sessions I attended was the questioning of the lay/expert divide, or more precisely, the boundaries of academic practice. The problem of participatory politics in techno-scientific research – and in STS particularly– was insistently tackled, both through the discussion of on-going practices of “coresearch” in the Spanish state (consensus conferences, citizen panels, collective research groups and other para-academic experiences) and through methodological and theoretical interventions on the potentialities and pitfalls of these experiments. Of particular interest were the sessions where non-academic participants presented their EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 experiences and channelled the debate about the relationship of STS to the wider social context, and especially to citizens groups. Several participants in a recent consensus conference carried out in Barcelona around the theme of social digitalization and the elderly came to discuss their experience, and the closing panel on the meeting included presentations from the Foro de Vida Independiente (Forum on Independent Living), a community of activists with what has come to be labelled in Spain as functional diversity (to escape from the term disability), and the Metropolitan Observatory of Barcelona, an activist research group. But there were also other examples of “mixed” or “hybrid” research collectives throughout several sessions. In fact, the overarching theme for this edition explicitly addressed the novel practices of definition/intervention in the public sphere that go beyond the academy, referring to the “new activist and citizen responses creating new experimental objects, new methodologies and proposals of collective designs [...] seeking to revitalize the common world”, as the call for papers put it. The call had a great response since political issues and new practices of activism (from feminist politics to trans-gender activism, from urban interventions to critical disability) had a great protagonism through the meeting. Several presentations dealt with, or included references to, the Spanish 15-M movement which has channelled since 2011 a great deal of the political discontent in Spain. The two panels devoted to the biosciences and technologies also acquired an overtly political angle, as the politics of patient associations and health activism featured prominently in diverse presentations. In this respect, the Barcelona meeting corroborated a trend already made apparent in previous editions: a significant part of the Spanish STS community – traditionally rooted in a purely academic ground – is developing new forms of entanglement with citizen networks and political activism, without abandoning theoretical exploration. This entanglement is not without its EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 difficulties, something that debates following most of the presentations proved: Still is to be seen how the twofold impact of STS on activism and of activism on STS will transform our modes of knowledge production and practicing research. Tracing the on-going course of this problematic will be one of the main interests of future activities and meetings of the Network, especially given the actual dismantlement of the University and Research infrastructure in the country. The politics of research The keynote speech, delivered by David Pontille (Centre de Sociologie de l’Innovation, ENSMP) and Didier Torny (RITME, INRA), and discussed by Oriol Saurí (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and Lluís Rovira (i-CERCA, Government of Catalonia), could be interpreted as a somewhat counterpoint by turning attention to the “internal” dynamics at stake in academic publishing. But the problematization of the politics of research is obviously the other side of the coin of the increasing political edge of the STS community and has been one of the driving forces in the constitution of the esCTS Network as such, and not as a “traditional” scientific association. Through the meeting it was also obvious that the far-reaching transformations in universities and academic life are having a profound impact on STS. In fact, it could be argued that, at least in part, the renewed interest in politics among Spanish STS scholars derives in part from concerns about the current state of public universities and research institutes in Spain, harshly affected by cutbacks in public spending that are seriously threatening public-funded research. Opening up to other social worlds is no longer only a political or epistemic option, but instead a course of action many of us are being forced to take. In this context, several questions were urgently repeated time and again. With whom should we collaborate? Which sort of alliances should we promote and which role is STS to take in them? What effects, what 7 transformations, should the application of an STS “sensibility” bring to public issues? And what changes in academic practice will follow from these novel assemblages? Of course, frictions and doubts accompany this collective exploration. For instance, a presentation of the EU FP7 ADDPRIV Project, in which STS scholars work within a consortium of consulting firms and transport companies to develop an “ethical surveillance” system, prompted a heated discussion and raised interesting questions: in a moment where STS perspectives and methodologies are demanded from the market, how are we to engage with users, with public institutions, with companies and corporations? What “common worlds” – and strategies for producing them – should we engage with? What are the consequences for our established practices of research? These questions are not fully answered yet and will keep surfacing, so 8 we can expect further debates members of the Network. among To end How to include diversity? How to act politically? How to rethink academic practice? Three questions that permeated the Barcelona meeting and that will surely continue to inspire future activities of the esCTS Network. The meeting ended by inviting the participants, as well as other Spanish scholars and the wider STS international community, to the next meeting of the Network, to be held during the first days of June 2014 at the University of Salamanca. Note: Special thanks to Rebeca Ibáñez, Daniel López and Vincenzo Pavone for comments and suggestions EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Mattering Press: New forms of care for STS books By: Sebastian Abrahamsson, Uli Beisel, Endre Dányi, Joe Deville, Julien McHardy, and Michaela Spencer Mattering Press is a new book publishing initiative committed to the creation and publishing of widely accessible, carefully produced, and intellectually vibrant books in Science and Technology Studies (STS). Our first books are due to be published in 2014. In September of this year we had the opportunity to introduce the press at a reception held at the annual conference of the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) in London. In announcing the press in this setting, we were supported by both EASST who generously contributed to the funding of the running costs of the press this year, CRESC who offered us the opportunity to present the press, alongside other academic publishers, and two further partners: the EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process at Goldsmiths, University of London and the Hybrid Publishing Lab at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University. Mattering Press started in early 2010 as a publishing initiative of the Flows, Doings, Edges collective: a peer-support group of early career researchers interested in relational research. Sensitive to the relational and material politics of knowledge production, in early 2012 we began to explore the possibilities of alternative modes of engaging with works we find interesting and important. The term ‘mattering’ comes from Science and Technology Studies, and captures at least three important components of our thinking about Open Access publishing. 9 1. The first is materiality, that is, the STS insight that all knowledge comes from particular places and its successful formulation strongly depends on the alignment of all kinds of entities, from buildings through laboratory equipment to physical bodies. Within academic life, texts are not only crucial parts of such alignments, but are also often considered to be their most important outcomes. We believe it is fascinating and increasingly necessary to consider their production as experimental interventions in research practice, rather than its afterlife. 2. The second is that the way academic texts are produced matters – both analytically and politically. Dominant publishing practices work with assumptions about the conditions of academic knowledge production that rarely reflect what goes on in laboratories, field sites, university offices, libraries, and various workshops and conferences. They tend to deal with almost complete manuscripts and a small number of authors, who are greatly dependent on the politics of the publishing industry. This is particularly true in the social sciences and the humanities, where books have a great importance, not only in academic debates, but also in (early) career development. 3. The third component is to consider publishing as an ongoing process: mattering suggests that working with authors and manuscripts is an activity that doesn’t necessarily start with almost complete manuscripts and hardly ever ends with the publishing of a book. What constitute book-like texts and how they circulate are questions just as important as those related to their commissioning and editing. These are the concerns that we hope Mattering Press will be able to hold in focus as part of a growing and ever-changing STS community, and as part of an active initiative to reflect on and innovate around our own knowledge production practices. Informed by these points, Mattering Press is organised 10 around the following three sets of practices, each of which in turn draws on our ongoing thinking about what new relations more careful modes of academic knowledge production might produce. 1. We care about open access to academic work. This means that all our books will be accessible as digital texts and downloadable e-books for free on our website. We are committed to sharing both academic knowledge, and the very practical knowledge that we are acquiring over the course of setting up this project. In this vein, we are working on a number of collaborative initiatives that will hopefully benefit not just us, but more widely the Open Access community. We also care for printed academic books, and so will sell high quality, professionally designed copies of all Mattering books, partly as a way of generating revenue for the press, and partly because we value the material tactility of books. 2. Like all academic presses, we care a lot about quality and academic standing of our publications. Unlike most presses, however, we believe that double blind peer review is not always the best way of ensuring academic excellence. Rather, we believe that academic work in the social sciences benefits from open, productive collaboration of authors and reviewers. We are therefore recommend that reviewers provide open, signed peer reviews where possible. We expect this will help to establish a relationship of care between reviewers, authors and editors, and will eventually also benefit the resulting texts. For some texts, we are also experimenting with more sustained collaborative relationships between reviewers and authors which we expect to be particularly beneficial for early career researchers. 3. Last but not least, care in open access academic publishing means working towards the financial sustainability of the press and to try to pay those who do not have a stake themselves in academic EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 knowledge production (such as typesetters, website programmers, proofreaders, text editors, and designers). This means trying to develop a financially viable model of open access book production in the difficult institutional and industry funding landscape of academic publishing. This also means engaging potential readers in the practical and financial challenges of open access book production, given that we suspect that many will have very little idea of the work that goes into the production of not simply a book, but a self-sustaining academic press. Getting the press up and running has already taken many hundreds of hours of unpaid labor not just from us, but a range of friends and supporters. We are therefore keen to experiment with ways of making this work visible on our website and possibly in our books, as a way of drawing potential readers into the debate about what it really means for academics EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 to take responsibility for the outcomes of their own knowledge production practices. Our presentation at the CRESC conference reception marks the moment when Mattering Press announced itself to some of its potential publics. Next year, we look forward to an official launch of the Press. Our first batch of books will include a collection of essays provisionally titled Practising Comparison: Revitalising the Comparative Act, edited by Joe Deville, Michael Guggenheim and Zuzana Hrdlickova, a collection of essays provisionally titled The Empirical Baroque, edited by John Law and Evelyn Ruppert, and an English translation of a book by a major STS scholar, which we hope to be able to announce soon. It is expected that our second batch of books, to be released in 2015, will include several texts by promising early career researchers. In the meantime, you can find us at: www.matteringpress.org 11 EASST 2014 – Call for Tracks, Deadline Near! EASST 2014 - Situating Solidarities: social challenges for science and technology studies. Torun, Poland - 17th - 19th September 2014. Call for tracks. Deadline December 16th 2013. The EASST conference 2014 addresses the dynamics and interrelationships between science, technology and society. Contributors are invited to address the meeting's theme of 'Situating Solidarities' though papers on any topic relevant to the wider field are also welcome. The theme of 'situating solidarities' addresses asymmetries of power through a focus on material, situated sociotechnical configurations. Heterogeneous networks of actors are stabilised to different degrees through complex negotiations. Rather than seeking universal abstractions the theme asks questions such as: What do the chains and networks of asymmetries look like? How do they travel? What do they carry? Do asymmetries translate to inequalities? What are the solidarities that shape the practices, artefacts and 'know-hows' in situated material contexts? Political and ethical engagement is a central concern for a view of science as changes in collective practice, rather than as individual contemplation. How should STS observe or influence the raising and erasing of social and technical asymmetries in everyday life? What do the 'situated solidarities' of dealing with asymmetries and inequalities look like? Can STS contribute to the work of solidarising to connect asymmetric agents, places, moves and networks to weaken inequalities and change hegemonic relations? The Conference will take place on the 17 - 19th September 2014. It will be hosted by Faculty of Humanities scholars at the Nicolas Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. The city of Torun is located on the banks of the River Vistula. It has an extensive medieval town centre which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 12 university and the city provide a great location for the EASST 2014 conference. Call for tracks: Continuing the approach adopted in the 2010 EASST conference in Trento, the 2014 conference involves a first stage call for tracks and convenors, with a subsequent call for papers and sessions. The conference will be organized in parallel thematic tracks that may run through part or the whole of the conference. This initial call is for thematic tracks by convenors who will be responsible for organizing them. Convenors of track proposals accepted by the Programme Committee of the conference will manage their theme within the call for abstracts, and will be responsible for reviewing, accepting/rejecting and organising submissions into their track. Teams of convenors (up to a maximum of four people) are welcomed, particularly if they are international in composition. Track proposals are invited for EASST 2014 which address any theme within the field of science, technology and innovation studies. Track proposals may address (but are not limited to) the particular focus on Situating Solidarities. These could include some of the following themes (more topics on webpage: http://www.easst.umk.pl/): . Socio-technological innovation . Solidarity: technologically embodied and embedded . Exclusive and inclusive scientific practices . Global situatedness and trajectories of technoscientific objects . Technoscience and the reversing of power relations . Ethics, culture, and technological myths . Technoscience and modernity necessary or contingent relation? . Capitalism and technoscience - is it possible to think of technoscience without capitalism? EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 . Socio-technical progress and economic growth . Communication, media, and solidarities . Politics of mobile technologies . Technoscience and development of underdevelopment . Medical practices in socio-scientific controversies, and their international travels . From Science to research, from research to neoliberal control over innovation process . Socio-scientific controversies and neoliberal politics . Technoscience in the context of local and global inequalities . Technoscience and gender relations . Body, gender, technoscience . Technoscience, utopias and dystopias . Science studies meets city studies . Sustainability transitions . Theoretical tensions and philosophical perturbations in STS Tracks should address broad issues and themes within the field of science, technology and innovation studies, in order to attract a large number of scholars and can last for the entire duration of the conference or be shorter. We are open to different types of sessions: traditional ones with standard papers, practitioners' workshops, open debates concentrated upon specific topics. Track proposals should consist of track title, name(s) & email(s) of convenor(s) (with a short description of their position and location), and a short abstract elaborating the proposed theme and the area of interest, naming exemplary problems or giving other information crucial to a participant interested in proposing a paper (maximum of 500 words). There will also be an open stream, whose convenors will be indicated by the Programme Committee of the conference. Track proposals should be sent to easst2014tracks at umk.pl by December 16. IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINES: January 8: Proposal for convenors and thematic tracks deadline Early February 2014: Communication to the convenors of acceptance of tracks Mid-February 2014: Call for submission of abstracts with the final track list included The EASST Awards – 2014 Call Still Open By Fred Steward, EASST President A year ago, at our conference in Copenhagen, EASST celebrated collaboration and cooperation in our field through a new set of awards. This was seen widely as an important and innovative initiative and Council has decided to make these awards again in 2014. This article summarises the thinking behind the awards and outlines the new call. The tension between the recognition of individual achievement and the appreciation of collective contribution is a long observed dilemma of the academic endeavour. EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Although there is some evidence in the wider knowledge system of a shift toward team efforts and greater collaboration, the institutional career reward system has increasingly favoured individually authored publication outputs as the prime measure of performance. This is accompanied by a growing tendency toward competitive pointscoring between institutions. As an organisation representing a broad collection of professional scholars and researchers, the EASST Council feels there is a need to restore a healthier balance within the 13 reward system between individual achievement and collective contribution. There is a need to recognise more explicitly significant types of collaboration or leadership that has contributed to the cohesion of, and community within, our field. In order to do this a new range of EASST awards was launched in 2012 designed to reward outstanding activities which have significantly developed interactions between individuals and resulted in novel and influential collaborative results. We also feel that the significant potential of STS scholarship in Europe for influencing politics and public dialogue is not sufficiently exploited, and the creation of awards can help to remedy this by creating more visibility of STS insights. Three awards were established to honour some individuals who are no longer with us, yet have left an enduring imprint on our distinctive European scholarly identity over the last 30 years. They were awarded for the first time at the joint EASST / 4S Conference in Copenhagen in 2012 and the idea of this different kind of award was received very positively. EASST Council is pleased therefore to announce that these 3 awards will be made again at the next EASST conference in September 2014. Ziman award John Ziman had a distinguished career as a theoretical physicist and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1967. He died in 2005 at the age of 79. His book on the social dimensions of science – Public Knowledge, was published in 1967 and marked the first of a series of influential studies of science as a collective human endeavour. In the mid 1980s he joined the Department of Social and Economic Studies at Imperial College, London and set up the Science Policy Support Group for the Economic and Social Research Council. He was actively involved in a variety of initiatives concerning the social responsibility of science. John Ziman was a key figure in the formation of EASST and was its President 14 from 1983 – 1986. He was an avid promoter of initiatives at the public interface of science and was an eloquent and witty commentator on the popular understanding of science. The Ziman award will be made for a significant innovative cooperation in a venture to promote the public understanding of the social dimensions of science. This could involve, for example, a forum or discussion community, or an interface with non academic users. Selection will be based on originality and influence alongside collaboration and / or wider participation. Amsterdamska award Olga Amsterdamska was lecturer in Science & Technology Studies at the University of Amsterdam for 25 years. She died in 2009 at the age of 55. Following a study of schools of thought in linguistics she focused her personal work on epistemology in biomedicine. She was editor of Science, Technology & Human Values between 1994 and1998. During Olga's editorship of the journal, the STS community benefitted from all of her core traits as an academic – her open mind and broad vision of the field and dedication to its development, her warmheartedness and inclusiveness, and her incisive critical thinking and high standards of quality. These were also qualities that Olga brought with her to EASST and 4S meetings through the years and that helped make those meetings the community-building enterprises they have become. She was one of the editors of the third edition of the Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (2007). The Amsterdamska award will be made for a significant creative collaboration in an edited book or special issue in the broad field of science and technology studies. Selection will be based on an anthology in the broad field of STS, that through its publication process (such as series of meetings, collective work, etc.) and due to the quality of the volume makes a substantive contribution to the field in terms of originality or impact; the quality of the editing, as reflected in the quality of the volume as a whole; interdisciplinarity, while not a EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 requirement, will be valued; inclusiveness across career stages will also be valued. process (such as series of meetings, collective work, etc.) as well as the publication itself. Freeman award Chris Freeman was Professor of Science Policy at the University of Sussex for over 20 years and also with the University of Limburg for many years. He died in 2010 at the age of 88. An economist by background, he produced many highly influential works addressing the dynamics of innovation and the Schumpeterian analysis of long waves of technological change. He also wrote on the social and political aspects of science. He was a founder of the major research centres SPRU and MERIT and was the founder and long standing editor of the journal Research Policy. An internationalist in outlook he was a key promoter of PAREX, a European collaboration in the history and social studies of science that was the direct forerunner of EASST. A modest yet inspiring figure he was renowned for his warm enthusiasm and supportiveness for all who shared a genuine interest in science, technology and society, whatever their background. He was deeply committed to social change for a more just and sustainable world. The Freeman award will be made for a publication which is a significant collective contribution to the interaction of science and technology studies with the study of innovation Selection will be based on the successful development of social approaches to the dynamics of innovation, originality, and better understanding of the pursuit of innovation for societal and environmental goals. Consideration will be given to the publication The general conditions of the awards are as follows: – An award of €1000 will be made in each case – For the Amsterdamska and Freeman awards, publications must occur in the time period 1 July 2012 to 1 April 2014. For the Ziman award, impact / influence over the last 2 years should be demonstrated but can result from activities which occurred in the time period 2004 – 2014. – Call for nominations (all awards) – deadline 1 April 2014. – An underlying criteria for all awards is evidence of collaboration – Collaborations should have a distinctive European dimension – Self-nominations accepted – The award process will be managed by the EASST Council and may involve appropriate reviewers from outside the Council – Submissions for one award may be considered for another if deemed appropriate – Council members and reviewers are not eligible for the award during the time of their service – Nominations should be made using the form available from the EASST website (www.easst.net) Please contact the EASST office (admin@easst.net) for further details. EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 The list of winners of the first awards can be found on the EASST website homepage (www.easst.net) and the citations can be read in the December 2012 EASST Review. 15 Announcements Dear eurograd list members, Because the list is experiencing stress in the form spamming we are setting the list to be manually moderated. Please do not be surprised if posts to the list are delayed by max 36 hours. To post, as usual, send an email to Eurograd at lists.easst.net. Please try to avoid attachments and instead add links. Unsubscribe or edit your subscription options at http://lists.easst.net/listinfo.cgi/eurograd-easst.net. If you have any questions or remarks, please do not hesitate to contact us at Eurograd-owner at lists.easst.net. Kind regards, Ingmar Lippert (Eurograd list manager, National University of Singapore) Most of the following announcements first appeared on the EASST-Eurograd email discussion list. To join easst-eurograd and receive messages as they are posted follow the instructions at http://www.easst.net/joineurograd.shtml. It is also possible to view the EASST-Eurograd archive via this link. Messages are also included in EASST Review if they are still relevant at the time of publication. Conference/Event Announcements and Calls for Papers Stefan Laube, Thomas Scheffer and I are organising a special panel for the next IASSTS conference in Graz, to be held on the 5th and 6th May 2014. The panel is titled 'Inside the Parliament', and it could be read as a call for symmetrical, STS-inspired analyses of democratic politics. Below is the panel description - the deadline for submitting an abstract (max. 250 words) is the 31st January 2014. Please note that the abstract should be sent to Stefan Laube, Thomas Scheffer or me _and_ Thomas Berger thomas.berger at aau.at More information about the conference is available here: http://www.ifz.tugraz.at/ias/IASSTS/Upcoming-Activities/STS-ConferenceGraz-2014 If you have any questions about the panel, do not hesitate to get in touch. With best wishes, Endre Call for submissions for Special Session 8: Inside the Parliament (Endre Dányi, Stefan Laube & Thomas Scheffer, Department of Sociology, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main) 16 Parliaments are among the least likely research sites in STS. Science studies scholars tend to assume that if one is interested in politics, one needs to go to unconventional sites, such as labs, hospitals, innovation centres, markets, and museums, because that’s where the really important decisions are being made about our technoscientific future. Ironically, while this assumption has greatly helped to produce a range of exciting studies that show how scientific, economic and artistic practices are always already political, it has also contributed to the strengthening of a rather simple understanding of politics. To put it bluntly, more often than not, STS conceives of politics as clashes of arguments and discrete acts of decision making, dictated by ideology and interest. The aim of this session is to problematise this understanding by taking STS inside parliaments, where politics – or so we claim – is already being done differently. We’re particularly interested in bringing together studies that address politics as being more than ‘just talk’ or public debate. Such studies may show the embedded and embodied, sequential, contingent, and tactical EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 character of the work that goes into making things political. They may also examine how the parliament incorporates logics, orderings, and practices associated with other places (like labs and markets), and, conversely, how parliamentary modes of doing politics reach out, travel to and show up in other places. Therefore, presentations in our proposed session should address one or more of the following themes: - Materiality: Assuming that politics is a compound of praxis, what practical roles do material infrastructures and media equipment play? How do architectures, bodies, documents, archives, etc. enact certain political realities, and how do they make others impossible, at least for the time being? - Politics as political work: How are political issues actively made, remade and connected to other issues? How are political issues collectively fabricated at various sites associated with the parliament, e.g. in offices, meetings, etc.? What divisions of labour do we find and how do different divisions matter? - Incorporating different logics: How does the parliament nexus of practices exclude, incorporate, or modify logics from other contexts like science or markets? In what respect does parliamentary politics involve versions of experimentation, trade, entertainment, etc.? How does it perform its uniqueness and distinctiveness vis-à-vis other logics? -Endre Dányi Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Sociology Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Grüneburgplatz 1, 60323 Frankfurt am Main Web: http://www.fb03.unifrankfurt.de/46226207/edanyi Email: danyi at em.uni-frankfurt.de Office: PEG building, 3.G 043 Telephone: +49 69 798 365 Center for Policy Analysis and Studies of Technologies (PAST-Centre, Tomsk State University, Russian EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Federation) and Department of Health, Ethics and Society (HES, Maastricht University, the Netherlands) are pleased to invite you to the International Conference "Social Sciences & Medical Innovations" which will take place on May 15-17 in Tomsk. The conference is organized as a collaborative endeavor between Maastricht University and Tomsk State University. Innovations in medicine and public health - genetic technologies, e-health, monitoring technologies, etc - are commonly presented as key to improving health, wellbeing and quality of life as well as to decreasing the costs of health care. However, new medical and health care technologies often are not implemented in practice as is promised, innovations raise moral and social issues and an ''implementation gap'' becomes a challenge. This conference aims to explore the complexity of innovation processes in medicine and health care from a perspective of social sciences, including science and technology studies (STS), medical anthropology and sociology of biomedicine. The Conference will involve: Key-Note lectures by Klasien Horstman (Professor of the Philosophy of Public Health, Leader of the Research Programme Health, Ethics and Society; Maastricht University) and Jessica Mesman (Associate Professor at the Department of Technology and Society Studies; Maastricht University); followed by discussion sessions with professionals and academics from various fields. Conference sessions covering key topics, including Co-production of Science and Society; Innovation Design and Implementation; Innovation Governance; Innovation, Culture and Gender. Master-classes on "Doing social science research in medicine and health" by Nora Engel (Assistant Professor of Global Health, Department of Health, Ethics and Society; Maastricht University) and Anja Krumeich (Associate Professor of Global Health, Department of Health, Ethics and Society; Maastricht University). Practical Information: 17 Please send your abstracts by the 20th of February, 2014, to the conference organizers: medicalinnovations2014 at gmail.com. Abstracts submissions should be limited to 600 words (including a short CV of 100 words). The title of the paper should be limited to 10 words. See more details on the website of the PAST-Centre: http://en.pastcentre.ru/ and the website of HES: http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/web/Instit utes/FHML/CAPHRI/DepartmentsCAPHRI/ HealthEthicsSociety.htm Call for Papers: 2nd Workshop on 'Standardisation Management' http://www.comsys.rwth-aachen.de/team/kaijakobs/ws-standardisation-management/wsstandardisation-management-copy-1/. 24 March 2014, Ecole des Mines AlbiCarmaux, France. In conjunction with the IESA'12 conference (Interoperability for Enterprise Systems and Applications) http://www.aidima.es/iesa2012/index.htm Objective of the Workshop: The WS aims to address aspects relating to the management of standardisation. That is, it will look at managerial issues of corporate standardisation as well as at standards management in the public sector. Accordingly, the main objective is to contribute to the identification of bestpractices in organisational standardisation management. Corporate standardisation management also entails the selection of the most appropriate standards bodies. Thus, a secondary objective is to identify the criteria upon which this selection is based. This, in turn, will (hopefully) contribute to a more effective and efficient standardisation landscape. Topics Covered (this is a non-exclusive list): approaches to corporate standardisation management in the public and the private sector; corporate standardisation strategies; intra-organisational flow of information about standardisation; 18 the individual in standards setting ? selection, training, motivation; new ways of co-operation between standards bodies; potential new standardisation landscapes. Submission Guidelines: Original (unpublished) papers not exceeding 6 pages are solicited. Formatting guidelines may be found at http://2014.i-esa.org/IESA14Template.zip. All papers will undergo a double blind peer-review process. Accepted papers will be included in the workshop proceedings, to be published by ISTE Publications, UK. Outstanding papers will be considered for inclusion in the International Journal on IT Standards and Standardization Research (JITSR). All submissions (in .doc/.docx/.rtf/.pdf format) should be sent to: Kai.Jakobs at comsys.rwth-aachen.de Deadlines: Submissions due: 20 December 2013. Notification: 30 January 2014. Final papers due: 1 March 2014. Programme Committee: Kai Jakobs (Chair), RWTH Aachen U., DE Knut Blind, FhG FOKUS, DE & RSM, NL Tineke Egyedi, TU Delft, NL Vladislav Fomin, Vytautas Magnus U., LT Stephan Gauch, TU Berlin, DE Ian Graham, U. of Edinburgh, UK Klaus Turowski, U. of Magdeburg, DE Henk de Vries, Erasmus U., NL Tim Weitzel, U. of Bamberg, DE Robin Williams (tbc), U. of Edinburgh, UK Does your research address the intersections and connections between human and animal health; the roles of animals in war; wildlife management and disease; animal health and welfare; farming, or anything else related to the history of animal health and veterinary medicine (broadly construed)? If so, then please consider submitting an abstract for the next congress of the World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, to be held at Imperial College London on September 10-13 2014. EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 The call for papers is now open at www.veterinaryhistorylondon.com, deadline of 31 January 2014. This meeting routinely attracts well over 100 delegates from over 20 countries. Up to 10 student bursaries are available. Our keynote speakers are: - Dr Hilda Kean, Ruskin College, Oxford: ‘Animals in wartime Britain: The Home Front’ - Professor Donald Frederick Smith, Professor of Surgery and Dean Emeritus, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine: ‘The Three Parts of One Health’ This meeting is generously sponsored by: The Wellcome Trust; Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Knowledge; Society for the Social History of Medicine; Royal Veterinary College, University of London; Kings College London; University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine; The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh. NB! PLEASE NOTE NEW CONTACT DETAILS: Dr. Angela Cassidy Wellcome Trust Research Fellow Department of History Room C3, East Wing King's College London Strand, London, WC2R 2LS angela.cassidy at kcl.ac.uk; angela.cassidy at gmail.com http://kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/history/people/ staff/academic/cassidya.aspx http://kcl.academia.edu/AngelaCassidy Call for Papers 2nd Energy & Society Conference. Midterm conference of ESA RN 12, in cooperation with ISA RC 24, Krakow, 4th – 6th June 2014. Energy Transitions as Societal Transitions: Challenges for the Present and the Future. It is clear that energy transitions are strongly linked to wider societal change. Questions remain, however, regarding how these links can be characterized and whether proposed energy transitions currently place enough emphasis on the implied EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 transformations to societal structures, including habits, life styles, social structures and norms. Further, it is unclear whether the extent of change and the sometimes quite radical implications for society are adequately captured in existing attempts to chart transitional pathways. Two key overarching concerns are at the centre of this conference. First, issues relating to whether non/changing societies are enabling or blocking wider technological or infrastructural transformations. This includes problems of societal acceptance, participation and living cultures, as well as political structures and the nature of contemporary societies (e.g. capitalist, neo-liberal societies). Second, questions about the ways that technological or infrastructural transition intersects with economic, cultural, social, and political routines. This incorporates concerns about environmental justice and capability effects and social sustainability that may be disrupted through technological and infrastructural transition. We invite all researchers interested in the social aspects of energy transitions to submit abstracts for the 2nd Conference of the International Energy and Society Network, which will be held at the Institute of Sociology (Jagiellonian University), Krakow, Poland, on June 4-6, 2014. The conference aims at bringing together researchers interested in the relations between energy and society, providing an opportunity for them to connect with others for the purpose of international exchange and possible research collaboration in this area. The conference will feature a keynote by Elizabeth Shove. In addition to thematic panels of regular paper presentations, the program will include workshops and scheduled time and space for discussions. Additionally, optional excursions will be organized, likely to include a visit to the Laboratory of RES and Energy Safe Technologies or to a Coal Mining site. Submissions: We encourage submissions on a wide variety of topics, including but not limited to the following: 19 - Energy policies as public policies: social impacts of energy transitions, socially conscious shaping of transitions. - Structural changes to the energy system and changes in society: decentralization, shifts from “big players” to a multitude of actors, from consumer to prosumer. - Energy transition as local project: local initiatives, citizen power plants, local strategies, and the interplay of governance levels. - Conceptual approaches to energy transition research: existing concepts-new applications, innovations in theory. - Energy transition in context: national and regional conditions, paradigms and pathways, energy cultures. - Interlinking socio-technical systems: energy – water, energy – waste, energy – food. - Practice, materiality, energy and social change: innovations in practice, embeddedness, technology and change - Energy poverty, justice and development: energy poverty research and concepts, environmental justice, political and personal conceptions. Public acceptability: implications for energy system transitions, approaches to understanding acceptability. - Energy demand, markets and innovation: the shaping of demand, implications of energy market innovation for demand. Please send your abstracts of no more than 250 words by 15th of December 2013 via e-mail: Energyandsociety at uj.edu.pl. Notifications of acceptance will be given in January 2014. Full Papers are welcome but are not a requirement. Any full papers submitted will be distributed to the conference participants. A journal special issue is planned as an output of the conference. More information is available at www.energyandsociety.uj.edu.pl. About the Energy and Society Network The Energy and Society Network was established in 2010 by academics active in the European Sociological Association Research Network on Environment and Society and in the International Sociological Association 20 Research Committee on Environment and Society. Over 140 researchers from Europe and elsewhere contributed to the first conference of the Energy and Society network, which was held in Lisbon in 2012 as a Midterm Conference of the ESA’s Research Network on Environment and Society. The network published a selection of papers from the first conference in a special issue of Nature+Culture due for release in 2014. Scientific organizing committee Marian Niezgoda Institute of Sociology Jagiellonian University (Poland) Aleksandra Wagner, Institute of Sociology Jagiellonian University (Poland) Maria Swiatkiewicz-Mosny, Institute of Sociology - Jagiellonian University (Poland) Cigdem Adem, the Public Administration Institute for Turkey and the Middle East (Turkey) Françoise Bartiaux, Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) Catherine Butler, Cardiff University - School of Psychology (UK) Ana Horta, Universidade de Lisboa - Instituto de Ciências Sociais (Portugal) Matthias Groß, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research and University of Jena (Germany) Pia Laborgne, IWAR/TU Darmstadt and European Institute for Energy Research (Germany) Giorgio Osti, Università degli Studi di Trieste - Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali (Italy) André Schaffrin, Europäische Akademie (Germany) Luísa Schmidt, Universidade de Lisboa Instituto de Ciências Sociais (Portugal) EASST 2014 - Situating Solidarities: social challenges for science and technology studies. Torun, Poland - 17th - 19th September 2014. Call for tracks. Deadline December 16th 2013. The EASST conference 2014 addresses the dynamics and interrelationships between science, technology and society. Contributors EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 are invited to address the meeting's theme of 'Situating Solidarities' though papers on any topic relevant to the wider field are also welcome. The theme of 'situating solidarities' addresses asymmetries of power through a focus on material, situated sociotechnical configurations. Heterogeneous networks of actors are stabilised to different degrees through complex negotiations. Rather than seeking universal abstractions the theme asks questions such as: What do the chains and networks of asymmetries look like? How do they travel? What do they carry? Do asymmetries translate to inequalities? What are the solidarities that shape the practices, artefacts and 'know-hows' in situated material contexts? Political and ethical engagement is a central concern for a view of science as changes in collective practice, rather than as individual contemplation. How should STS observe or influence the raising and erasing of social and technical asymmetries in everyday life? What do the 'situated solidarities' of dealing with asymmetries and inequalities look like? Can STS contribute to the work of solidarising to connect asymmetric agents, places, moves and networks to weaken inequalities and change hegemonic relations? The Conference will take place on the 17 - 19th September 2014. It will be hosted by Faculty of Humanities scholars at the Nicolas Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. The city of Torun is located on the banks of the River Vistula. It has an extensive medieval town centre which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university and the city provide a great location for the EASST 2014 conference. Call for tracks: Continuing the approach adopted in the 2010 EASST conference in Trento, the 2014 conference involves a first stage call for tracks and convenors, with a subsequent call for papers and sessions. The conference will be organized in parallel thematic tracks that may run through part or the whole of the conference. This initial call is for thematic tracks by convenors who will be responsible for EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 organizing them. Convenors of track proposals accepted by the Programme Committee of the conference will manage their theme within the call for abstracts, and will be responsible for reviewing, accepting/rejecting and organising submissions into their track. Teams of convenors (up to a maximum of four people) are welcomed, particularly if they are international in composition. Track proposals are invited for EASST 2014 which address any theme within the field of science, technology and innovation studies. Track proposals may address (but are not limited to) the particular focus on Situating Solidarities. These could include some of the following themes (more topics on webpage: http://www.easst.umk.pl/): . Socio-technological innovation . Solidarity: technologically embodied and embedded . Exclusive and inclusive scientific practices . Global situatedness and trajectories of technoscientific objects . Technoscience and the reversing of power relations . Ethics, culture, and technological myths . Technoscience and modernity necessary or contingent relation? . Capitalism and technoscience - is it possible to think of technoscience without capitalism? . Socio-technical progress and economic growth . Communication, media, and solidarities . Politics of mobile technologies . Technoscience and development of underdevelopment . Medical practices in socio-scientific controversies, and their international travels . From Science to research, from research to neoliberal control over innovation process . Socio-scientific controversies and neoliberal politics . Technoscience in the context of local and global inequalities . Technoscience and gender relations . Body, gender, technoscience . Technoscience, utopias and dystopias 21 . Science studies meets city studies . Sustainability transitions . Theoretical tensions and philosophical perturbations in STS Tracks should address broad issues and themes within the field of science, technology and innovation studies, in order to attract a large number of scholars and can last for the entire duration of the conference or be shorter. We are open to different types of sessions: traditional ones with standard papers, practitioners' workshops, open debates concentrated upon specific topics. Track proposals should consist of track title, name(s) & email(s) of convenor(s) (with a short description of their position and location), and a short abstract elaborating the proposed theme and the area of interest, naming exemplary problems or giving other information crucial to a participant interested in proposing a paper (maximum of 500 words). There will also be an open stream, whose convenors will be indicated by the Programme Committee of the conference. Track proposals should be sent to easst2014tracks at umk.pl by December 16. IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINES: December 16: Proposal for convenors and thematic tracks deadline January 2014: Communication to the convenors of acceptance of tracks January 31 2014: Call for submission of abstracts with the final track list included Call for Papers: Crossworlds: Theory, Development, & Evaluation of Social Technology. Monday 30th June and July 1st, 2014. Chemnitz, Germany Chemnitz University of Technology http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/index.html.en; http://www.crossworlds.info Organizers: Research Training Group Crossworlds, Department of Computer Science and Institute for Media Research We invite researchers from various disciplines to submit short papers to CrossWorlds 2014, the 1st international 22 conference on theory, development, and evaluation of social technology. Social technologies include both technologies that directly interact with users (e.g. social robots, virtual agents, assistance systems) and technologies that facilitate the interaction between two or more users (e.g. computer mediated communication, multiplayer games, multitouch tables). Digital technologies have become an inherent part of our society, thus evolving into social actors themselves. This development changed the focus of research from questioning the general potential of technologies to more specific issues. Research from different disciplines addresses topics from modeling social aspects of technology to the design of human-computer interfaces. Following these focused approaches, it becomes even more important to understand the emerging connections between users, contexts and social technologies. The conference addresses this issue and provides a platform for vital discussions about different aspects of social technology. To enable a broad debate on the subject, approaches from various disciplines, methods and perspectives are encouraged. Presentations may feature algoritms, technology, implemented systems, empirical research, and theoretical considerations. Conference topics include (but are not limited to): * What makes social technology social and intelligent and which procedures can be employed? * How can we model social behavior theoretically and practically? * Do we need new methods? How can we assess social interaction in the context of technology usage and development? * Which methodological approaches are appropriate for evaluation? Can social technology evaluate itself? * How can we account for ethical issues as well as non-affirmative and critical approaches in HCI? * How can social technology be employed to catalyse interaction between users in non-virtual space? EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 * How can the design of social technology be carried out interdisciplinarily? * How do developers' tacit knowledge and concepts of sociality affect the design of social technologies? * How do different degrees of virtuality shape social interaction? * How can social technology motivate user interaction and interaction between users (e.g. gamification, proxemics, mobile interaction)? * How can virtual and augmented reality be designed to create (virtual) sociality? * How can social technology account for user needs? In which ways can systems act proactively? * How can we shape user experience of social technologies? How important is it for social technology to be entertaining? * How can computer based learning be facilitated by social technologies? SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: We invite you to submit short papers (PDF, between 10.000-25.000 characters including spaces, figure captions, but excluding references) to the program committee (crossworlds2014 at tuchemnitz.de) no later than 31.01.2014. The submissions will be subject to peer reviews. Please make sure, that you remove any author information including author names and references as well as acknowledgments and funding information. However, you should send your author and contact information on a separate cover page for the program committee. Papers should make absolutely clear what the current status of the proposed work is. A preference is given to finished work ready for presentation (note: this also includes theoretical/conceptual papers, if the concept itself is the main subject of presentation). By submitting a paper the authors agree to personally present their research at the conference. Conference Papers will not be published/indexed, but are electronically distributed to the conference attendees. However, selected papers will be invited to extend their papers to full papers to be EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 published in an edited collection of the conference proceedings. Please use the IEEE template for your submission. Further information on the paper layout can be found here: http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/confe rences/publishing/templates.html DEADLINES CFP-Deadline: 31.01.14 Notification of acceptance: 31.03.14 Camera-Ready-Deadline: 13.04.14 Conference: 30.06./01.07.14 ORGANIZING CHAIRS Andreas Bischof (andreas.bischof at phil.tuchemnitz.de) Benny Liebold (benny.liebold at phil.tuchemnitz.de) PROGRAM CHAIRS Michael Teichmann (michael.teichmann at informatik.tu-chemnitz.de) Michael Heidt (michael.heidt at informatik.tuchemnitz.de) For more detailed information, please visit http://www.crossworlds.info/conference We look forward to meeting you in Chemnitz! CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: STS Conference Graz 2014 - "Critical Issues in Science and Technology Studies" Graz, Austria, May 05-06, 2014 We invite interested researchers in the areas of science and technology studies and sustainability studies to give presentations. The conference provides a forum to discuss on a broad variety of topics in these fields -especially abstracts are encouraged which refer to aspects of the mentioned conference themes and special sessions. CONFERENCE THEMES Gendered careers and disciplinary cultures in science and technology Life Sciences/Biotechnology Towards Low-Carbon Energy Systems Challenges in Green Public Procurement Research Sustainable Food Systems SPECIAL SESSIONS 23 -Special Session 1: Social justice and Diversity -Special Session 2: Energy systems in transition -- strategies of incumbent actors -Special Session 3: Energy Consumption in Organizational Settings -Special Session 4: Foodscapes Beyond the Alternative/Conventional Food Networks Binary -Special Session 5: Key Concepts of Agro-Food Studies -Special Session 6: Bodies -Technologies -- Gender -Special Session 7: The politics of ICTs -Special Session 8: Inside the Parliament -Special Session 9: From STS to SSH: Translating STS concepts for the study of social sciences and humanities (SSH) -Special Session 10: Societal discourse on Synthetic Biology For more information on the call and the specific outlines of the conference themes and special sessions please visit: http://www.ifz.tugraz.at/ias/IASSTS/Upcoming-Activities/STS-ConferenceCall-for-Abstracts-2014 Submissions should be sent to Thomas Berger (thomas.berger at aau.at ) until January 31, 2014 as a DOC/DOCX-file*.* Abstracts should include no more than 250 words, comprising detailed contact information, affiliation and *specification of the conference theme or special session you are referring to*. The STS Conference Graz 2014 is the joint annual conference of STS - the Institute of Science and Technology Studies at AlpenAdria-Universitaet Klagenfurt - Vienna Graz, IFZ - the Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture and IAS-STS - the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society. Call for panels and papers: Governance and beyond: Knowledge, technology and communication in a globalizing world. 24 Interpretive approaches to research and analysis - methodologies and methods concerned with situated meaning(s), historical context(s), and the importance of human subjectivity - are experiencing renewed interest and revitalisation in the social sciences broadly. They constitute the basic cornerstone of a critical approach to policy analysis which challenges the positivism and scientism that still characterize much policy analytic research. Following on successful meetings in Birmingham, Amsterdam, Essex, Kassel, Grenoble, Cardiff, Tilburg and Vienna, the 9th International Conference in Interpretive Policy Analysis will be held in Wageningen, the Netherlands, hosted by several research groups at Wageningen University. The theme for the meeting is 'Governance and beyond: Knowledge, technology and communication in a globalizing world.' Keynote speakers Silvio Funtowicz - Professor, Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University of Bergen, Norway. Title: 'Is the Internet to Science what the Gutenberg press was to the Church? Collapsing the monopoly on knowledge' Nikolas Rose - Professor of Sociology, King's College, London. Title: To be announced Susan Wright - Professor of Educational Anthropology, Danish University of Education, Aarhus. Title: To be announced Further details available on the conference webpage: http://www.ipa2014.nl Conference theme In recent years, practices of policy, governance, and society have been profoundly shaped by growing globalization. Knowledge, communication, resources and products flow across different localities and scales, thereby connecting different spaces and the human and non-human actors that inhabit them. Although globalization seems inescapable, its trends, directions and impacts are unevenly distributed and far from clear. Despite ‘the global’ pervading many aspects of daily life, this has by no means resulted in EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 a flat world of free and equal global citizens. Rather, frictions, disparities and inequalities abound. While often great hopes are attached to international governance regimes, global forms of scientific knowledge, large-scale industrial and agricultural technologies, and generic blueprints for socio-economic development and trade, their results in enhancing important objectives, such as dealing with our environment in a sustainable way or achieving equality, well-being or democratic self-determination, are mixed at best, with successes in some places and failures in others. These mixed results warrant sustained critical scrutiny of on-going practices in governance, including the roles of knowledge, technology and communication in these. Interpretive approaches are crucial to deepen our understanding of the situated practices in which the global and the local meet, and to create innovative perspectives on what it might mean for policy to ‘do’ knowledge, technology and communication differently and to effectively address the challenges that our globalizing world faces. Organizers of the 2014 IPA conference invite submissions that engage the theme, as well as proposals that engage other aspects of interpretive policy analysis. Conference venue The conference will be held in the Hof van Wageningen, a hotel and conference centre in the centre of Wageningen, a small city on the Lower Rhine, near Arnhem. Hof van Wageningen Lawickse Allee 9 6701 AN Wageningen The Netherlands http://www.hofvanwageningen.nl/ Registration fee Before 10 April 2014: Regular fee: € 275.00. Ph.D. student fee: € 175.00. After 10 April 2014: For all participants: € 300.00. Persons who are retired, unemployed, or working and living in one of the countries of the Global South may be eligible for a discount on the regular fee if registering before 10 April. Please e-mail inquiries no later than 3 April to ipa2014 at wur.nl. EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Organization Hosts: Communication, Philosophy and Technology Section, Wageningen University Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, Wageningen University: Public Administration and Policy Group, Wageningen University Organising Committee (all at Wageningen University): Severine van Bommel and Noelle Aarts: Communication, Philosophy and Technology; Esther Turnhout: Forest and Nature Conservation Policy; Art Dewulf: Public Administration and Policy Advisory Board: Anna Durnová, University of Vienna (AT) Peter H. Feindt, University of Wageningen (NL) Frank Fischer, Rutgers University, New Jersey (USA)/Kassel (Germany) Herbert Gottweis, University of Vienna (AT) Steven Griggs, De Montfort University (UK) Navdeep Mathur, Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad, IND) Tamara Metze, Tilburg University (NL) Aletta Norval, University of Essex (UK) Merlijn van Hulst, Tilburg University (NL) Hendrik Wagenaar, University of Sheffield (UK) Dvora Yanow, Wageningen University (NL) and Keele University (UK) Philippe Zittoun, University of Lyon/IEP Grenoble (FR) Call for panel, roundtable, and paper proposals: The organising committee welcomes proposals for full, paper-based panels, roundtables, and individual papers which engage the conference theme or Interpretive Policy Analysis more generally. The conference explicitly welcomes contributions from or about developing or transitional countries. This year the organizing committee will follow a 1-step procedure with a single deadline for submission of all proposals: Friday, January 17, 2014. Proposals will be accepted in one of these formats: 1. Full, paper-based panel (word limit: 1250) A proposal for a full panel consists of the organizer’s name and contact information, the 25 title and abstract of the panel, and the names and affiliations of at least 3 and at most 4 participants, with the titles and abstracts for each proposed paper. We prefer panels that include presenters from different countries and institutions over those from a single country, single institution or single project. We also encourage panel proposals that include a chair and a discussant (and their contact information). The organizer may fill one of these roles or be a paper author. In case of co-authored papers, please indicate which authors are planning to present the paper. 2. Roundtable and other non-traditional panel formats (word limit: 1000). The conference encourages the use of innovative formats for interaction beyond traditional paper-based panels, such as roundtables that bring together a handful of participants to discuss various aspects of a single topic. Previous meetings have included “author meets readers” (or “author meets critics”) sessions in which panelists discuss recently published books, with the author present to respond. The IPA conference has also been developing a specialization in “practice panels” that bring together practitioners, such as policy-makers or politicians, and academics to explore and interpret a policy problem jointly. These panels seek to create a close interaction between practitioners and researchers leading to joint learning concerning interpretations of policy and research dilemmas and practices. We prefer roundtable and other nontraditional panel proposals that stipulate a session chair; the organiser may take this role and/or be one of the participants. Proposals should include the organizer’s name and contact information, the session title, a list of participants and their institutional affiliations, and an abstract describing the topic and explaining its relevance to the conference. We will consider proposals for a series of two or at most three panels or roundtables that address a shared theme. Each of these panels should have a distinct title but otherwise should follow the guidelines above (word limit for proposals with two panels: 2225; with three panels: 3225). 26 3. Individual paper (word limit: 400). A proposal for a stand-alone paper should include the title and abstract, plus the contact details of the author(s). In case of co-authored papers, please indicate which authors are planning to present the paper. Accepted papers will be grouped together in panels by the organizing committee. For all proposals: • Please include a maximum of five keywords signaling theoretical focus, substantive topic (e.g., city planning, nature conservation, health), and method(s). • Please label your submitted file with your last name and the type of submission you are making (e.g., Jones.full panel; Smith.roundtable; Belt.paper). • Formatting: Word document, please, not a pdf file; 10-12 pitch font; double spaced. Note: In an effort to increase the range of possible participation, participants in this year’s conference will be limited to 2 substantive program appearances (i.e., not counting service as chair or discussant). In addition, organizers will accept no more than 3 panels or roundtables proposed by the same individual or group. All submissions should be made through the IPA 2014 website: http://www.ipa2014.nl. Proposals will be reviewed in a double blind peer review process by two reviewers selected by the organising committee on the basis of their theoretical, substantive and/or methodological focus. Decisions on proposals will be sent around at the end of February. Methodology Workshops Up to three conference sessions will be devoted to methodology workshops, which have become a regular feature of this conference. Following the approach employed in earlier conferences, these workshops build on the idea of a “master-class” in musical studies: in each session, two experienced researchers, specialists in different aspects of interpretive policy analysis, engage 2-3 researchers with less experience in those specific aspects (i.e., at any rank) to discuss issues the latter have encountered in the use of a particular methodological strategy or method in their research. The emphasis will EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 be on methods-focused questions, with the research projects and the discussions treated as case studies from which, it is hoped, all attending the sessions might learn. The goal of the workshops is to discuss questions about designing and conducting interpretive research and to exchange experiences concerning a range of relevant topics, such as discourse analysis, interviewing, and participant observation. The sessions, which will be facilitated, are fully incorporated into the regular conference program; and, as part of an effort to create a collaborative learning environment, they are open to all conference participants. The intention is to create a setting in which all those attending a Workshop session can benefit from focused interaction with more seasoned researchers. In past years, discussants have included such established figures in various fields of interpretive policy analysis as Hal Colebatch, Frank Fischer, Maarten Hajer, David Howarth, Navdeep Mathur, Aletta Norval, Cris Shore, Hendrik Wagenaar, Susan Wright, and Dvora Yanow. Each presenter selected for participation will have 5 minutes in which to introduce her/his research project, pointing to particular methodological questions that have arisen in their research and/or field experiences, which they would like to explore in the workshop. The next 10 minutes are devoted to responses from the more experienced researchers, leading to a wider discussion involving others attending the session. Proposals to participate in a workshop should include: • your full name, institutional affiliation and email • title of your research project • your career stage (e.g., year of your PhD studies and year PhD dissertation defense is anticipated; or year of post-doc work and date PhD was received; or professorial rank) • a brief description of your research project, its methodological approach and the problem that you would like to discuss. File labeling EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Please label your submission ‘last name.Methodology Workshop proposal’. Formatting Word document (not pdf); 3 pages maximum, double-spaced (500-600 words) All submissions should be made through the IPA 2014 website: http://www.ipa2014.nl/ Preconference Course Academic convenors: Merlijn van Hulst (m.j.vanhulst at uvt.nl) and Dvora Yanow (Dvora.Yanow at wur.nl) For the fourth time, a day-long preconference course is being planned, to take place on Wednesday, 2 July 2014. As in years past, the morning session will be devoted to an introduction to interpretive thinking, situating interpretive policy analysis in the broader context of interpretive methodologies and methods. Three parallel sessions will be held in the afternoon, each focused on a topic within interpretive policy analysis, each with two instructors. Previous such sessions have focused on discourse analysis, ethnography, interviewing, and research design and involved such instructors as David Howarth, Steven Griggs, Aletta Norval, Merlijn van Hulst, Hendrik Wagenaar, Ruth Wodak, and Dvora Yanow. This year’s program will be announced by the end of February via the conference webpage, http://www.ipa2014.nl/. 1 ECTS (course credit) will be awarded through the Wageningen School for Social Sciences (WASS). Time: 9.30 to 17.00 hrs, with coffee/tea and lunch breaks. Deadline: Registration for the course will open on the conference website when conference registration opens. Admission will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration and payment of course fee are requested by 10 April 2014. The course will take place only if there are at least 25 registered participants, who have paid the course fee, by that date. An announcement concerning the status of the course will be placed on the conference webpage by 15 April 2014. Participation in the course does 27 not guarantee participation in the conference, and vice versa. Fee (includes coffee/tea breaks and lunch): For people who also register for the conference: Before 10 April 2014: € 90.00; After 10 April 2014: € 110.00. For people who do not register for the conference: Before 10 April 2014: € 110.00; After 10 April 2014: € 130.00. For questions: Please contact the academic conveners by sending an email to ipa2014 at wur.nl. For questions about the methodology workshops, please mention ‘methodology workshop’ in the subject line. For questions about the pre-conference course, please mention ‘IPA pre- conference course’ in the subject line. Visit the IPA 2014 website http://www.ipa2014.nl regularly for information about registration, venue, accommodation and travel. We look forward to seeing you in Wageningen! FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS: 5th International Sustainability Transitions (IST) Conference - IMPACT AND INSTITUTIONS - August 27-29, 2014 Utrecht, The Netherlands The 5th anniversary of the International Sustainability Transitions (IST) Conference is celebrated in Utrecht. The IST conference is the central venue for scholars to share theoretical and empirical advances in the field of sustainability transitions. Sustainability transitions are transformations of major sociotechnical systems such as energy, water, transportation, and food towards more sustainable ways of production and consumption. It is a multidisciplinary field with inputs from heterodox economics, environmental governance, innovation studies, sociology and history. The conference is part of the activities of the STRN network and <http://www.transitionsnetwork.org/> linked to Elsevier's journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. 28 “Impact and institutions”: The 5th anniversary conference will pay special attention to the impacts of sustainability research as well as to recent debates on the role of institutions in sustainability transitions. Keynote lectures will address the core conference themes: Impact and Institutions Confirmed keynote speakers are: Marjan Minnesma (Urgenda), Prof. Raghu Garud (Penn State Smeal College of Business), and Prof. Johan Schot (TUE / SPRU). Impact sessions: The Impact sessions focus on the societal impact that we, as an academic community, have on actual transition processes in society. Can our research outcomes be applied in society and do we actually influence the transformation of our economic system? Institutions sessions: The Institutions sessions focus on the role of institutions in sustainability transitions. Institutional theories can help us better understand the impact of formal and informal rules on the behavior of actors. Studying the strategies of actors to change institutional settings is also a fruitful avenue to deepen our understanding of sustainable transition processes. Present your research: In addition to submissions related to the conference theme we invite submissions from the broad range of research topics related to sustainability transitions. We invite scholars who want to present their research at IST 2014 to send in full papers related to sustainability transitions, like for instance: * The meso dynamics of socio technical transition processes * The micro dynamics of transition processes (strategies, agency, incumbents, entrepreneurs) * The modes of governance needed to influence transition processes * New methods, theories and frameworks to study transition processes * Applications of existing models to new empirical fields * The geography of sustainability transitions EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 We strive for high quality oral and poster presentations and a limited number of parallel sessions. For oral presentations the submission of a full paper is required. An exception is made for PhD students, who may also submit an extended abstract (2000 words). Important dates 1 February, 2014: Paper submission opens 15 March, 2014: Deadline for full paper/extended abstract submission 30 April, 2014: Acceptance decision based on review of full paper 15 July, 2014: Deadline submission revised papers 27-29 August, 2014: IST2014 http://www.ist2014.com; ist2014 at uu.nl International Association for Media and Communication Research, Emerging Scholars Network Section, Call For Papers 2013, Submission Deadline February 10, 2014. The Emerging Scholars Network (ESN) welcomes submissions for the Annual Conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) to be held at the Hyderabad International Convention Center (HICC) on July 15-19, 2014 in Hyderabad, India. We invite you to submit abstracts (250300 words) of your research papers. We welcome submissions on a variety of topics pertinent to communication and media studies research. We also encourage submissions that address this year’s conference theme *Region as Frame: Politics, Presence, Practice*. For more information on this year’s conference theme, please refer to the conference theme webpage http://iamcr2014.org/conference-theme/. If you are submitting a work in progress, we welcome your submission! Please state that it is a work in progress in your abstract. The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 10, 2014 via the Open Conference System (OSC) at http://iamcrocs.org. Submissions must include author name(s), affiliation, address, e-mail address, and paper title. Please note that this deadline will not be extended. The OCS opens on November 8, 2013 and closes on February 10, EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 2014. Early submission is strongly encouraged. Please note that individuals may submit 1 abstract (paper) per Section or Working Group as lead author, and a maximum of 2 abstracts (papers) to a single IAMCR conference in general. Please be aware that the same abstract or another version with minor variations in title or content must not be submitted to ESN and other Section or Working Group for consideration. Such submissions will be deemed to be in breach of the conference guidelines and will be automatically rejected by the Open Conference System, by the relevant Head or by the Conference Program Reviewer. Such applicants also risk being entirely removed from the conference program. Decisions on acceptance of abstracts will be communicated to individual applicants by the Section co-chairs on *March 24, 2014*. For those whose abstracts are accepted, *full conference papers* are to be submitted via the IAMCR OCS by *June 20, 2014*. Please also take a look at our suggestions on how to write an Abstract http://iamcr.org/component/docman/doc_dow nload/315-2010-esn-how-to-write-an-abstract. About ESN: ESN is a section dedicated to the work and careers of emerging scholars in the field of media studies and communication. Therefore, we especially look for works in progress from graduate students and new university instructors/professors who are interested in substantial feedback and comments intended to advance their projects. The ESN organizes emerging scholar panels and joint panels with other sections. Our emerging scholar panels provide a comfortable environment for the presentation of theses and works in progress, where emerging scholars can receive feedback from colleagues also at the beginning of their careers and from senior scholars who act as respondents to individual papers. In line with the purpose of our section, the ESN also organizes panels and special sessions about issues affecting emerging scholars, such as: 29 Publishing research results; Mentoring and the Student-mentor relationship; Academic work and academic jobs; Neoliberalism in the academy; Language barriers in academia. These panels often feature conversations between senior scholars, emerging scholars, and/or practitioners of media and communication professions. Further announcements on panels and events on such topics, and practical information on the ESN mentorship programme, will follow over the coming months. For further information, please do not hesitate to contact the section co-chairs Francesca Musiani (francesca.musiani at gmail.com) and Sandra Ristovska (sristovska at asc.upenn.edu). Special Call: As part of a joint IAMCR effort to engage with international debates around communication and social transformations in the digital age, ESN welcomes papers that are related to the World Summit on the Information Society +10. ESN and IAMCR Communication Policy Task Force organized a successful session on WSIS+10 at the annual meeting in Dublin last year. Therefore, the section provides another platform for emerging scholars to present on WSIS related topics. These may include (1) thematic assessments of what has been achieved in the past 10 years in specific areas mentioned in the official WSIS documents; (2) critical analysis of controversial aspects of information societies expected to inform the WSIS+10 debates; (3) research outlining either core concepts, such as sustainable knowledge societies, or methodological aspects, such as indicators. The selected papers may be profiled and included (upon the authors' approval) in a global database https://exchange.asc.upenn.edu/owa/redir.asp x?C=-jGDcZTES0KN2ibAHIHScjuMUncodAIxVBUxkdTAsPvmAr34eNbDkuh2IgerCkegHzX vvi8Ww.&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.globa lmediapolicy.net%2f - as a contribution of the IAMCR scholarly community to the WSIS+10 process and 30 debate. For further information, please do not hesitate to contact the section co-chairs Francesca Musiani (francesca.musiani at gmail.com) and Sandra Ristovska (sristovska at asc.upenn.edu) CFP: Designing Things Together: Intersections of Co-Design and ActorNetwork Theory, Special Issue of CoDesign - International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts. Guest editors: Cristiano Storni, Dagny Stuedahl, Thomas Binder and Per Linde. Link to Call's extended version: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/cfp/ncdncfp. pdf. In this call, we acknowledge the emergence of an interesting space at the intersection of co-design and Actor-Network Theory (ANT), especially as design research is confronted with increasingly complex issues such as sustainability, social responsibility, inclusion and democracy; and new approaches such as design activism, design participation, and social and participatory innovation. The influence of Science and Technology Studies (STS) on design research has a long history and it is still enjoying a great deal of attention (Hanset et al, 2004; Ingram et al, 2007; Woodhouse and Patton, 2004). Through the establishment of pioneering work in various disciplines such as architecture (Yaneva, 2008), participatory design (Ehn, 2008), human-computer interaction (DiSalvo, 2012), user-centred design (Steen, 2012), critical design (Ward and Wilkie, 2010) some design scholars have already started to explore this ‘coming together’ of theoretical thinking and design practices where different traditions, approaches and people meet. The interest is mutual and while some STS scholars have started to appreciate design as a key concern (Latour, 2008a,b, 2013; Yaneva, 2009; Storni, 2012), the more activist wing of STS are looking at design to extend and re-think the impact of social research (Woodhouse et al, 2002; Venturini, 2010). As technology is EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 becoming ubiquitous and pervasive, and design is increasingly recognized as a driving force for social change, approaches that draw on both STS (conceptually equipped to deal with socio-techno-scientific issues), and design (methodologically equipped to intervene in such issues) are of increasing importance. In this context, we are interested in exploring, mapping and more systematically investigating approaches emerging from exchanges in which ANT (as well as related STS approaches such as post-phenomenology, feminist and post-colonial studies) and codesign become mutually relevant. Indeed, participatory and collaborative design has a long tradition of focusing on the politics of design, the methods, tools and techniques used for democratic design, and the nature of participation (Kensing and Blomberg, 1998). These concerns seem to be shared by recent developments in ANT (e.g. Latour, 2004, 2008a,b) to further affirm that this emerging area is worth exploring and mapping. In this call, we aim to create an opportunity for exchange and reflection on the interesting intersections between ANT and co-design. We seek theoretical discussions as well as empirical case studies carried out using methodologies underpinning the ANT approach. We seek reflections, connections and mutual influences; we seek new questions, a forward-looking attitude and constructive critical analysis. Specific topics may include but are not limited to: *ANT as a conceptual framework for participatory design and co-design* - ANT and material-semiotic/relational perspectives on design; - Design, *dasein*, (post-)phenomenology and ANT; - ANT to unpack the relationship and mutual shaping between design, technology and society; - ANT to rethink the design/use divide: design, meta-design, and appropriation; - How to use ANT as a pedagogical tool with design students; *ANT as a descriptive tool for co-design* EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 - ANT as a descriptive tool supporting social investigation, design research and design processes; - ANT to re-think traditional notion of design and participation; - ANT to re-think (participatory and collaborative) design methods; Design as translation/composition/ instauration: implications for design and the design of designs; - ANT to rethink the ontological status of the design object/subject; *ANT and design for democracy and participation in techno-science* - ANT and design as a social experiment, design to make things public, design (for) public participation, design as mode of (co)existence; - ANT and critical design, design for debate; - ANT, ‘*cautious Prometheus’* and the issue of re-presentation: the role of design in the Ding-politik; - Design, care and matters of concern; - Mapping controversies, mapping participations, mapping design processes: implications for co-design; SCHEDULE Submission of intentions to contribute: March 17, 2014 Notification of relevance: April 14, 2014 Deadline for submission of full papers: September 1, 2014 Post-review notification of decisions: November 24, 2014 Deadline for submission of revised papers: February 27, 2015 Post-review notification of decisions revised papers: April 27, 2015 Final selected papers to production: June 29, 2015 Publication of special issue: September 2015 INSTRUCTION FOR AUTHORS: Submission of intentions to contribute - In the first instance, potential contributors are invited to send an intention to contribute, in the form of a document of 1500 – 2000 words that outlines the content of the paper. The 31 document should be sent by email to cristiano.storni at ul.ie in MS-Word format (.doc or .docx). Submissions of full papers (for preselected authors only): Following an initial evaluation of the potential of submitted proposals, full manuscripts will be invited, these will be subjected to the normal review procedure of the journal. Potential authors should contact cristiano.storni at ul.ie with any questions about this special issue. For further information about CoDesign go to: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/ncdn This is to announce this year's Design and Social Science Seminar series, Data Practices, to be held throughout the academic year (2013-2014) at Goldsmiths. Data Practices will explore the burgeoning analytic interest and methodological preoccupation with ‘data’ and the shifting terrain of data practices across design and social science. Incorporating lectures, workshops and demonstrations, the seminar series brings together a resonant range of events on data practices that provoke questions about the formation and force of data, the claims made for and through data, and the altered practices and politics of data. Presently, and according to recent sociological thought, the social sciences are in the midst of a ‘crisis’ where innovations in and practices associated with ‘big data’ are challenging the discipline’s authority to describe and explain the patterning of social and cultural life. Here, emphasis is placed on the role that information technologies play in the pervasive production and harnessing of social data. In what ways do new modalities of data generate altered regimes of intellectual accountability and governance? How do assemblages of data production that are deployed and administered by institutional actors with primarily commercial or governmental interests give rise to novel forms of biopolitics? And how do changing patterns of data inform the emergence of new sociological methods? 32 At the same time, therefore, such developments, set alongside developments in ‘digital sociology’ and ‘digital methods’, are viewed as an opportunity for sociology to rejuvenate its methods, where bespoke tools of social research are purposively designed to engage with novel data practices. Sociological methods concerned with data begin to intersect with design in compelling ways, in this way, by bringing questions of the practices of data to the fore. For design, emerging technologies and practices associated with data production provide opportunities to territorialize novel modes of living. Such data practices may take the form of reworking or speculating on data as a market-based or market-forming activity; or may give rise to design research that explores sociotechnical presents and futures where data practices manifest through distinct socio-material means. Here, arguably, data has a Janus-faced role. On one side data is produced by or as a product of design’s outcomes and the materialization and enactment of social worlds. On the other side, data is a new material for designers to work with and the object of social science research methods. The seminars are open to all and require no advance booking. Times and locations are noted below and on the attached PDF. All seminars will take place in the Richard Hoggart Building, (RHB) Goldsmiths. Autumn Term:  Wednesday November 27th Series introduction: a “thing to talk with” With Alex Wilkie, Jennifer Gabrys, Evelyn Ruppert & Noortje Marres 16:00 – 18:00 | RHB143  Wednesday December 4th Materialising, practicing and contesting environmental data Citizen Sense Lab (Goldsmiths) 16:00 – 18:00 | RHB137 Spring Term  Wednesday January 22nd Through thick and thin: data as source and resource Interaction Research Studio (Goldsmiths) & Noortje Marres (Goldsmiths) EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 16:00 – 18:00 RHB137a  Tuesday January 28th The data practices of citizen science Jerry Ravetz (University of Oxford) & Dan McQuillan (Goldsmiths) 16:00 – 18:00 RHB137  Wednesday February 5th Dresses and data: methods for making archival materials matter Kat Jungnickel (Goldsmiths) 16:00 – 18:00 RHB137  Wednesday February 19th Big data practices: Panel from the Journal Editorial Team, Big Data & Society, SAGE 14:00 – 17:00 RHB137a  Wednesday March 12th Machines of the code-sharing commons, a mid-way report on a slightly large scale analysis of software repositories Matt Fuller (Goldsmiths) 16:00 – 18:00 RHB143  Wednesday March 19th Mapping participation Chris Kelty (University of California, Los Angeles) 16:00 – 18:00 RHB137  Wednesday April 2nd Data collaboratories: gleaners, heroes and packers Adrian MacKenzie (Lancaster University) & Ruth McNally (Anglia Ruskin University) 16:00 – 18:00 RHB137a  Wednesday April 30th What was visual data? Isaac Marrero-Guillamon (Goldsmiths) & Michael Guggenheim (Goldsmiths) 16:00 – 18:00 RHB137a  Friday 23rd May Database imaginary: from deep sea to flat file and back Tahani Nadim (Zoological Museum, Berlin) 16:00 – 18:00 RHB137a EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 The STEPS Centre invites applications to take part in its third annual Summer School. Applications are invited from highlymotivated doctoral and postdoctoral researchers or those with equivalent experience, working in fields around development studies, science and technology studies, innovation and policy studies, and across agricultural, health, water or energy issues. Participants will explore the theme of pathways to sustainability through a mixture of workshops, lectures, outdoor events and focused interaction with STEPS Centre members. The Summer School takes place on the Sussex University campus, near Brighton, UK. The deadline for applications is 5pm on 31 January 2014. There is a fee to attend, but scholarships are available. For details of how to apply, financial support, programme information, and materials from the last two years' events, visit the STEPS website: http://www.steps-centre.org/summerschool Summer school film: Watch our film with STEPS Centre directors Melissa Leach and Andy Stirling talking what the Summer School is about, why we do it and what to expect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQzfBwtA UlA Video testimonials: Watch a video of some of last year's participants talking about their experiences at the Summer School. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czI96kov AR0 Announcement / call for registration Symposium on Mediating morality: Using unmanned aerial systems for decision making in moral situations. Tuesday 21 January 2014, Eindhoven University of Technology Time: 10:00 – 17:00 Location: TU/e campus, Traverse building, Dorgelo Room (1.52) Program: http://p-e.ieis.tue.nl/node/132 33 Following the increasing civil and military deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles, an intense public debate on the positive and negative effects of drones has emerged. The ECIS symposium “Mediating morality: Using unmanned aerial systems for decision making in moral situations” focuses on how the use of drones affects decisionmaking in moral situations. Current research in moral philosophy and moral psychology provides no clear answers regarding the effects that drones have on moral decision making. The aim of the workshop is to bring together stakeholders and researchers in the field of technology, philosophy and psychology to discuss the consequences of using drones. The goal of the symposium is to share insights from theory and practice on technological mediation in moral situations and combine insights from these diverse disciplines to guide future interdisciplinary work. Program: 10:00 - 10:30 Registration with coffee 10:30 - 10:40 Welcome - ECIS Synergy Dr. Bart van Bezooijen ♦ Eindhoven University of Technology, Philosophy & Ethics, TU/e 10:40 - 10:50 Overview of the symposium Gen. Maj. (ret.) Kees Homan ♦ Clingendael Netherlands Institute of International Relations 10:50 - 11:50 Keynote speech - Killing in the name: Stopping autonomous warfare Prof. dr. Noel Sharkey ♦ University of Sheffield 11:50 - 12:25 Bounding the debate on drones: the paradox of postmodern warfare Commodore prof. dr. Frans Osinga ♦ Netherlands Defence Academy 12:25 - 13:10 Lunch 13:10 - 13:45 Autonomous killing machines? Lessons from machine ethics Dr. Mark Coeckelbergh ♦ University of Twente, 3TU Centre for Ethics and Technology 13:45 - 14:20 A moral approach to armed uninhabited vehicles: Preventive arms control Dr. Jürgen Altman ♦ Technische Universtität Dortmund 34 14:20 - 14:35 Coffee break 14:35 - 15:10 The ethical boundary agent and the moral implicaties on autonomy and distance Dr. Tjerk de Greef ♦ Delft University of Technology, University of Oxford 15:10 - 15:45 Death at a distance: Unpacking the psychological effects of drone warfare Prof. dr. Wijnand IJsselstein ♦ TU/e School of Innovation Sciences 15:45 - 16:20 Forum discussion Discussion leader: Gen. Maj. (ret.) Kees Homan 16:20 - 17:00 Reception and drinks Participation in the symposium is free, but registration is required. You can register for the program by emailing Rianne Schaaf (m.j.schaaf@tue.nl). For more information about the program, please contact Bart van Bezooijen (b.j.a.v.bezooijen@tue.nl). Lunch will be provided by the organisation. For more information about the program, please refer to the website: http://pe.ieis.tue.nl/node/132. The directions to the TU/e can be found via the link: http://www.tue.nl/contact-menu/contact/. This symposium is generously sponsored by the Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies (ECIS) and the NWO program ‘Socially Responsible Innovation’ (SRI grant no. 313-99-110). SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS FOR EDITED VOLUME ON THE ‘FUKUSHIMA EFFECT’. Working Title: The Fukushima Effect: Nuclear Histories, Representations and Debates. Editors: Richard Hindmarsh and Rebecca Priestley Routledge supports this proposed follow-up book to Richard Hindmarsh’s first book on Fukushima: Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima Daiichi: Social, Political and Environmental Issues (2103 April with Routledge Studies in Science, Technology and Society, NY: see: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780 415527835/). EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Aim: to produce a volume on the international effect of the Fukushima disaster 3 years out from the disaster and to determine the extent and scope of this effect, on either: Area 1: national histories, debates and policy responses on nuclear power development (in both well established ‘nuclear nations’ and emergent ones (apart from China, S. Korea, Taiwan, NZ and Portugal, for which we already have authors). We are especially interested to get abstracts from Japan, European and Asiatic countries, the USA and UK, and any other countries not mentioned above. OR Area 2: long standing international and national debates, e.g. the safety of nuclear energy, radiation risk, nuclear waste management, development of nuclear energy vis-à-vis other energy options, the moral debate, anti-nuclear protest movements, nuclear power representations, media representations of the effect, and any other areas considered relevant. The broad scope of the Fukushima Effect is in contexts of STS themes that connect variously to: environment, energy futures; risk society, public trust; regulation and good governance; politics and/or public policy; citizenship and/or public engagement; history of S&T and controversy; disaster studies; protest movements; etc. STS themes include social shaping of technology; S&T (and environmental) governance; technology and democracy; the nature and practices of S&T; the impacts and control of S&T – with particular focus on risk to peace, security, community, democracy, citizenship environmental sustainability, and/or human values and attitudes, public understanding of S&T, scientific controversy etc. Second abstract submission deadline: 20 December 2013 [send to: r.hindmarsh@griffith.edu.au] EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Abstract guidelines: A maximum of one page (@ 1.5 lines) (and no less than half a page) is required with working title, affiliation, and title and contact of the corresponding author. Please do not insert or cite references. After selection we will finalise our book proposal for submission to Routledge and plan to kick off with three dates of editing during 2014 and 2015 to submit in the first 3 months of 2015 for a publication date (typically 6 mths later) in late 2015. Acceptance will depend on adequacy and coherency of explanation of the paper’s aim, direction and argument (without too much theoretical denseness); subject matter; and adherence to the Areas, topics and themes, esp with reference to a ‘Fukushima effect’ somewhere. Note on the Editors: Dr Richard Hindmarsh is Associate Professor, Environmental Politics and Policy and STS at Griffith School of Environment and the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. He has published 7 books (6 as edited volumes: all with reputable publishers including Cambridge University Press), 4 special journal issues as first editor, as well as over 75 refereed publications]. He also cofounded the Asia-Pacific Science, Technology and Society Network in late 2008: http://apstsn.org/ Dr Rebecca Priestley is Senior Lecturer in History and the Philosophy of Science, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. A key focus is on nuclear and radiation histories. Among her publications, she has edited two books and a special journal issue, and has a monograph called Mad on Radium: New Zealand in the Atomic Age (2012 Auckland University Press: NZ). 35 Opportunities Available Call for Editor of Science & Education. The International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group (IHPST) invites applications for the position of Editor of Science & Education, to begin January 1st, 2015. Science & Education, owned and published by Springer, is the official journal of the International History, Philosophy and Science Teaching Group (IHPST). The journal publishes the results of research and perspectives about using historical, philosophical, and sociological approaches to improve teaching and learning in science and mathematics. In addition, the journal's scope includes the role of such approaches in model curricula, teacher education, and educational philosophy and policy. Science & Education is distinctly interdisciplinary, and fosters fruitful discourse among scientists, mathematicians, historians, philosophers, cognitive psychologists, sociologists, science and mathematics educators, and school and college teachers. The journal currently publishes 10 regular issues per year, approximately 1350 pages. IHPST is seeking an internationally respected scholar with a background featuring elements of both science education and history, philosophy, or sociology of science and who has prior editorial and/or managerial experience. The Editor serves for five years and receives compensation from Springer. Information, including a complete job description and application requirements, may be found online at: http://ihpst.net/journal/editor-search. Application deadline is February 1, 2014. Questions, requests for further information, and completed applications may be sent to the Search Committee at: editor-search at ihpst.net. Research Fellow (STS) Salary from: £34,953 to £38,984 pa incl London Weighting 36 (due to the available funding) available from 1 March 2014 Fixed-Term until 1 March 2016 (with the possibility of application for followon sub-projects) Goldsmiths, New Cross, London. Working within Goldsmiths Department of Sociology you will become part of a vibrant community of Science and Technology Studies (STS) researchers and sociologists. You will be working on an ERC funded programme (MISTS) which asks: “Can Markets Solve Problems?” The project draws together ideas from the recent Science and Technology Studies (STS) interest in markets, value and values, with long standing debates in the more policy oriented aspects of STS focused on problems and solutions. The programme will involve ethnographic engagement with four fields in which markets have come to prominence in discussions of problems and solutions, comprising: privacy, health, the environment and education. This is the second post funded by MISTS and will be focused on markets and health. You will have a PhD in Social Science (or equivalent research experience). Knowledge and experience of qualitative research and analysis techniques in the social sciences and experience of negotiating access to project informants and conducting interviews, is essential. The desire to take on increasing responsibility in research planning and collaboration will be desirable. If you have any questions, please contact the principal investigator Daniel Neyland: d.neyland at gold.ac.uk. For further information on the research post:http://jobs.goldsmiths.ac.uk/fe/tpl_golds miths01.asp?s=4A515F4E5A565B1A&jobid= 87379,4871621287&key=82956217&c=2387 35585834&pagestamp=seeflgtluakzzeynaq For further information on MISTS: http://www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/research/res earchprojects/mists/ Please quote Ref: SOC000050 EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Closing Date: 17th December, 2013. Interview Date: Week commencing 13th January, 2014. Committed to equality and diversity From the Website: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/graduatestudy/openda y/. Studying at the Oxford Internet Institute. We are the only major department in a topranked international university to offer multidisciplinary social science degree programmes focusing on the Internet. We offer an MSc in Social Science of the Internet and a DPhil in Information, Communication and the Social Sciences. We are a young and innovative department, and have deliberately sought to create a teaching environment that is welcoming, supportive and stimulating for all our students. With a student to faculty ratio of just 2:1, our students benefit from frequent interaction with academics and are encouraged to get involved in a wide range of research and policy activities. If you would like to discuss the programmes with teaching faculty and current students we usually hold two open days a year, in November (physical) and December (virtual); various open days are also run by the University and individual colleges: please check the Oxford University Graduate Studies website or college websites for details Best wishes, Luciano Luciano Floridi www.philosophyofinformation.net Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford 1 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3JS Tel: +44 (0) 1865 287202 www.oii.ox.ac.uk Senior Research Analyst, Trilateral Research & Consulting, London. Trilateral Research & Consulting, a London-based EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 consultancy, specializing in research and the provision of strategic, policy and regulatory advice on new technologies, is seeking to engage a Senior Research Analyst. The candidate will be expected to work on Trilateral projects in both the publicand private sectors. The successful candidate will have expertise in any of these security related fields: 1. Expertise in issues relating to crisis and disaster management, including but not limited to, their impact on society (e.g., cascading effects) and different communities abilities to adequately prepare and respond to large-scale and cross-border crises. 2. The impacts, opportunities and challenges associated with big data, including: open data, data management, data analysis, data mining, predictive analytics and dataveillance. 3. Issues of privacy, trust, surveillance, risk, impact assessments and security as they pertain to cutting-edge innovative developments in new and emerging technologies. The post-holder will be expected to liaise with project partners across the EU and internationally and to deliver high quality research and project outputs in a collaborative and supportive research-intensive environment. Specific job responsibilities include: * Performing research work related to current projects, writing reports or sections of reports and developing other deliverables as required to fulfil contractual obligations. * Researching and writing content for grant proposals and tender submissions. * Writing content for peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, as part of projects, or as an outgrowth from projects. * Attending and/or presenting at conferences and workshops, involving occasional travel outside the UK. Qualifications: * Candidates will have a PhD and a minimum of two years post-doc experience related to one of the fields mentioned above. 37 * Candidates should have very strong, demonstrable writing skills and preferably will have already published papers in peerreviewed journals. * Candidates should either be based in London, or have the ability to attend periodic team meetings in London. To apply please send your CV to: info at trilateralresearch.com or visit our website: www.trilateralresearch.com Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society (IAS-STS) Fellowship Programme 2014-2015 The IAS-STS in Graz, Austria, promotes the interdisciplinary investigation of the links and interactions between science, technology and society, as well as technology assessment and research into the development and implementation of socially and environmentally sound technologies. Broadly speaking, the IAS-STS is an institute for the enhancement of science and technology studies. The IAS-STS invites researchers to apply for a stay between 1 October 2014 and 30 June 2015 as a Research Fellow (up to nine months); or, Visiting Scholar (shorter period, e.g. a month). The IAS-STS offers excellent research infrastructure. Close co-operation with researchers at the IFZ (Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture; see: www.ifz.aau.at), guest lectures, colloquia, workshops, and conferences provide an atmosphere of creativity and scholarly discussion. Furthermore, we can offer five grants, worth EUR 940 per month, for long-term Research Fellows at the IAS-STS. For more info see here: http://www.ifz.aau.at/ias/IASSTS/Application The Harvard Kennedy School seeks applicants for 2014-2015 Science, 38 Technology, and Public Policy Fellowship appointments (STPP). They are interested in strong STS applicants and welcome especially applicants with backgrounds in engineering and natural sciences. The call is attached: http://lists.easst.net/pipermail/eurogradeasst.net/attachments/20131114/4909e96a/att achment-0001.pdf If you are interested in pursuing interdisciplinary graduate study at the University of Oxford in philosophy and/or ethics of information in connection with digital technologies, the Oxford Internet Institute offers: 1) The eleven-month residential MSc in Social Science of the Internet. Students from a wide variety of backgrounds can combine their interests in philosophical/ethical issues with Internet-related courses in law, policy and other social sciences. 2) The doctoral programme (DPhil) in Information, Communication and the Social Sciences. This is for students wishing to undertake groundbreaking, detailed research. Students are encouraged to ask original, concrete questions and to adopt incisive methodologies for exploring them, in order to help to shape the development of digital realities. 3) The Summer Doctoral Programme. This provides top doctoral students from around the world with the opportunity to work for a few intensive weeks with leading figures in Internet/digital research. For more information, please check: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/graduatestudy/ For an initial expression of interest, please send a short CV (max 1500 words) and a short outline of research interests or project (max 1500 words) to: Mrs. Penny Driscoll, BA (Hons), MA PA to Prof Luciano Floridi Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford 1 St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3JS penny.driscoll8 at gmail.com EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 News from the Field The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, is introducing a new STS minor! Registration is open until December 31st, and the program will run in the second semester. Would you be so kind as to distribute widely among your BA-level students? A short description is provided below. More information about the courses and course registration can be found here: http://bit.ly/19itJtd. Minor Science and Technology in Society (STiS): Why do scholars write books? Do patents contribute to societal progress? How high is the pressure to perform at universities? Is it possible to measure scientific production? Why are statistical methods so highly regarded? What role do images play in science? Is science a-cultural or is it a thoroughly social institution? How can students, lecturers and other members of universities meaningfully contribute to discussions about scientific integrity and fraud? The minor Science and Technology in Society (STiS) starts from the premise that science does not arise and exist in a vacuum, but in a specific historical, political, social, and (inter-) national context. It aims to give a thorough interdisciplinary perspective on scientific cultures as they really exist (beyond first year text book introductions), their origins, key means of expression, and roles in society. In the first course, Science as Culture, students gain an understanding of the rise of scientific cultures, their histories, and their most important institutions. The course also gives a theoretical and methodological overview of the most important concepts in science and technology studies. The second course introduces students to the key facets of scientific publishing and the systematics of research evaluation (including the role of EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number4 publishers, evaluators, policy makers, researchers and research managers). Subsequently, students will gain insight into two crucial constituents of the production, communication and monitoring/evaluation of research: the number and the image. Like the two previous courses, these two follow-up modules are grounded in recent science studies literature and methods. In practical exercises, students will also learn how to apply the knowledge gained from this literature. The final STiS course discusses recent socio-technical developments that shape how scientists produce knowledge, collaborate, collect and share their data, and how they are being assessed. The course builds on the four previous modules but is also accessible for students that only took course 1, Science as Culture. Taken together, this minor will help students to take part in consecutive interdisciplinary courses and projects and provides a thorough basis for scientific and professional work at the boundaries of disciplines, or in the communication or management of science. Dr. Sarah de Rijcke Working Group Leader Evaluation Practices in Context (EPIC) Coordinator Teaching and Training Program CWTS, Leiden University http://www.cwts.nl http://www.sarahderijcke.nl blog (with Paul Wouters): http://citationculture.wordpress.nl EASST Council is pleased to announce that it will be making 3 awards for collaborative activity in our field. Awards will be made at our Conference in Torun in 2014. Details of the Amsterdamska, Freeman and Ziman awards can be found on our website www.easst.net where all details 39 of the awards, the procedure and the nomination form can be downloaded. See also separate news item in this issue of EASST Review. The deadline for nominations is 1st April 2014. Any other enquiries to admin at easst.net The European Masters Programme in Society, Science and Technology (ESST) is sponsoring an award of 1,000 € for the best undergraduate essay on the connection between science and society (or technology and society). Undergraduates of all fields, studying at any European university, are eligible to apply. Science and technology students could submit an essay that links a topic that they study to social issues. Submissions from students who major in the humanities and the social sciences are equally welcomed. Deadline: 30 June, 2014. The members of the 2014 award committee are:  Ericka Johnson, Linköping University  Peter Danholt, Aarhus University  Vasiliki Baka, IT University of Copenhagen How to apply: Applications should consist of a cover sheet (available at www.esst.eu), completed and scanned, and a double-spaced pdf copy of the student essay. Essays must be between 2,000 and 3,000 words (in English). Applicants may not submit more than one piece of work. Applications should be emailed to Aristotle Tympas (University of Athens), the 2014 ESST Award coordinator, at: tympas@phs.uoa.gr. E-mail your application by the 30th of June of 2014 and expect a confirmation of its reception within a week. Publications Note: please consider reviewing for EASST’s on-line journal, Science & Technology Studies! http://www.sciencetechnologystudies.org/ The peer reviewed open access journal Valuation Studies just published its second issue. It contains four items: • An editorial “Valuation Studies and the Spectacle of Valuation” by the editors Fabian Muniesa and Claes-Fredrik Helgesson brings up the topic that valuation is something that people may watch as entertainment, such as in television shows like the Antiques Roadshow, and suggest that there is a voyeuristic pleasure to be had in witnessing valuations being performed. • In “What Is a Good Tomato? A Case of Valuing in Practice” Frank Heuts and Annemarie Mol explore different register of valuing involved in the valuation of tomatoes 40 as well as the importance of care for making tomatoes good. • “Regulating Crisis: A Retrospective Ethnography of the 1982 Latin American Debt Crisis at the New York Federal Reserve Bank” by Julia Elyachar looks at the daily life inside the bank during the crisis and not the least the import of devices and different styles of working and generating knowledge. • The final article, “The Conditional Sink: Counterfactual Display in the Valuation of a Carbon Offsetting”, by Véra Ehrenstein and Fabian Muniesa is a case study of a carbon offsetting reforestation project in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in particular the role of counterfactual valuations in such projects. EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4 Web: http://valuationstudies.liu.se Twitter: @Val_Studies Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ValuationStudies On 12 December 2013 an exciting new volume on Gender & Genes (within the series Yearbook of Women’s History) will be launched. What: Book launch of Gender & Genes, edited by Klasien Horstman (Maastricht University) and Marli Huijer (Erasmus University Rotterdam), printed by Verloren Publishers, Hilversum. When: 12 December 2013, 17.00-19.00. Where: Atria, Amsterdam (http://www.atria-kennisinstituut.nl/atria/nl) This Yearbook of Women’s History (Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis) is dedicated to Gender & Genes. Intruding upon our everyday lives, the world of DNA, genes and genomics has become a challenging field of clinical, biomedical and socio-cultural research. The history of genetic research shows exciting, complex and understudied EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number4 intersections with the fields of women’s history and gender studies, from Nobel Prize winner Barbara McClintock’s jumping genes, Rosalind Franklin’s double helix and Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells to current practices of sex verification in Olympic sports. In this Yearbook a wide range of international scholars present top-notch studies touching upon these intersections. Eminent feminist scientists Donna Dickenson, Katarina Karkazis and Sarah Richardson further elaborate on them. Readers are invited to see for themselves how this volume inspires more sophisticated usage of the sex/gender binary in thinking about our ancestry, present genetic challenges and the postgenomic future. Including papers by among others Kristien Hens, Sahra Gibbon, Marjan Groot, Esha Shah, Ineke Klinge and Petra Verdonk. For more information, see http://www.facebook.com/vrouwengeschiede nis or http://jaarboekvrouwengeschiedenis.com/ or send an email to Evelien Walhout (e.walhout at let.ru.nl) 41 Contents of this issue 3 On the Geographies of STS. A Brief Introduction. Editorial by Ann Rudinow Sætnan 5 “What if we don’t buy it? Unmaking and Remaking Common Worlds” Report on the Third Meeting of the Spanish STS Network, 19-21 June 2013 (Barcelona). By: Pablo Santoro (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) 42 9 Mattering Press: New forms of care for STS books. By: Sebastian Abrahamsson, Uli Beisel, Endre Dányi, Joe Deville, Julien McHardy, and Michaela Spencer 12 EASST 2014 – Call for Tracks, Deadline Near! 13 The EASST Awards – 2014 Call Still Open. By: Fred Steward, EASST President 16 Announcements 16 Conference/Event Announcements and Calls for Papers 35 Opportunities Available 39 News from the Field 40 Publications EASST Review Volume 32 (2013) Number 4