4S Mission

Fostering interdisciplinary and engaged scholarship in social studies of science, technology, and medicine across the globe.

Latest 4S News

Call for Proposals for Special Issues: STHV

Published On: Mar 7, 2024

Deadline: Jun 21, 2024

The editorial group of Science, Technology, & Human Values announces the journal’s 2024 Call for Proposals for Special Issues. Interested scholars should submit a proposal by 21 June 2024. In August 2024, the editors of ST&HV will choose one Special Issue proposal to proceed. The editors may also select and invite other proposals to proceed as shorter Thematic Collections if suitable. Diversity of contributions from scholars internationally, and at different career stages, is encou...

Seeking Nominations for ASA Anti-Racism Awards

Published On: Mar 2, 2024

Deadline: Mar 15, 2024

The 4S community is invited to submit nominations for two prizes from the American Sociological Association (ASA) recognizing antiracism scholarship and practice it the intersection of science, knowledge, technology, and society.

Support for the integrity of Argentina’s science system (ISC)

Published On: Mar 1, 2024

In an letter to the network of authorities of research institutions in Argentina (RAICyT), the ISC expresses its concern regarding the future of Argentina’s science system. The ISC offers its assistance in working with local and regional communities to develop a robust science sector which contributes to Argentina’s social, environmental and economic success.

4S Publications

Science, Technology, and Human Values

For more than forty years, Science, Technology, & Human Values has provided the forum for cutting-edge research and debate in the field of science and technology studies.

Seeing Like a Model Fish: How Digital Extractions Mediate Metabolic Relations

Susanne Bauer

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
Digital models have become key sites of biological practice and science policy. This paper examines efforts to craft a digital salmon model for metabolic research. It traces...

Making Citra: Branding, Breeding, and the Co-production of New Aroma Hops in the Yakima Valley

Matt Comi

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
Using farmer-owned breeding programs operated by vertically integrated US Northwest hop growers, this article examines the novel hops produced by these programs with market...

Islands and Beaches in Science and Technology Studies

Warwick Anderson

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) annually awards the John Desmond Bernal Prize to one or more individuals who have made distinguished contributions to the...

Life as Aftermath: Social Theory for an Age of Anthropogenic Biology

Hannah Landecker

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
Anthropogenic pressures now shape the development, interrelations, and evolution of microbes, plants, animals, and humans. In an age of oxidative stress and failures of...

Hydroelectric Chimeras and “Our” Mayan Rivers: De-inscribing Security in Guatemala

Diane M. Nelson

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This essay is written in the wake of Guatemala’s thirty-six-year civil war, grounded in the Cold War–Doctrine of National Security which understood Indigenous people...

Engaging Science, Technology and Society

Engaging Science, Technology, & Society is an online, open access publication of The Society for Social Studies of Science.

Innovationism Across Transnational Landscapes

Published On: Dec 31 2023

Noela Invernizzi, Emily York, Clément Dréano, Duygu Kaşdoğan, Ali Kenner, Aalok Khandekar, Angela Okune, Grant Jun Otsuki, Sujatha Raman, Tim Schütz, Federico Vasen, Amanda Windle

This editorial introduces the thematic collection on STS and innovation. The collection includes eleven Engagements exploring the relationships between innovation studies (IS) and STS across various geographies. There is also...

Masking (Not Masking) Up: An STS Visual-Intersectional Approach to Understanding Publics and Science in Times of Rapid Change

Published On: Dec 31 2023

Susan Bell, Patrick Grzanka, Kelly Joyce, Laura Senier

In this paper we argue that a visual-intersectional approach can advance the field of science and technology studies (STS). Although there is a small but important body of work using visual methods in STS, it has rarely incorporated...

STS and Innovation: Borderlands, Regenerations and Critical Engagements

Published On: Dec 31 2023

Alan Irwin

This introduction to a thematic collection on the relationship between STS and innovation poses three main questions. When it comes to engaging with and acting upon socio-technical change, is ‘innovation’ part of the solution...

Bringing Fences Down: The Role of Critical Innovation Studies in Engaging STS with Innovation and the Contribution of Benoît Godin

Published On: Dec 31 2023

Tiago Brandão, Carolina Bagattolli

Innovation has constituted a subject of key interest for quite some time. However, only a few fields and scholars have embraced the challenge of finding ways to deconstruct our contemporary society’s most recurrent mantra. Questioning...

4S Blog: Backchannels

The Scope of Ayurveda Oncology

V Sujatha, Skanthesh Lakshmanan, Vinayak Padikkal, Taniya Gupta
Mar 20, 2024
The global discourse on diseases and treatment is dominated by the positivistic approach of biomedicine, leaving little room for dialogue with other medical epistemes of the body. This post discusses the clinical approach of Ayurveda system of medicine in treating what is known as cancer today.

Posthuman Symbiosis Masterclass: [Un]learning with Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti

Ricardo Avella, Maria Heinrich, Johanna Just, Myrto Karampela-Makrygianni, Jere Kuzmanic, Katerina Stavridi, Gert van der Merwe
Mar 11, 2024
In this exceptional collaboration, seven participants of the Posthuman Symbiosis Masterclass take us through a collective effort of (un)learning the ways we produce knowledge.

When ‘access’ is not enough: diversification of high school programs and the maintenance of social inequalities

Felipe Garcia Passos
Mar 04, 2024
The following piece offers a brief cautionary tale on how the inclusion of full-time programs and increased access to the public high education system in Brazil do not necessarily create new opportunities for social mobility but can rather reinforce old structures that perpetuate inequalities.

Making Data, Making Worlds: The Consequences of the Generative Turn in Big Data and AI

Ludovico Rella (Durham University)
Feb 26, 2024
Ludovico Rella (Durham University) reports on the 'Making Data, Making Worlds' workshop conducted in September 2023, hosted by the Royal Geographical Society in London. This report engages with the processes of world-making associated with Artificial Intelligence algorithms and large-scale simulation environments, refracted through the critical and analytic lens of the 'generative turn' that produces new articulations between algorithms, simulations, predictive modeling based on ‘real data...

Backchannels content is contributed by our members to highlight news relevant to their work.

STS News

Items submitted by the community and emailed to members monthly.

BKC Summer 2024 Internship Program

Mar 09, 2024
The Berkman Klein Center’s Summer Internship Program gives interns the opportunity to become deeply embedded within the projects and work happening across the Center. Interns spend the summer months working side-by-side with Berkman Klein staff, fellows, and scholars to keep projects moving forward, learning along the way. Interns will make valuable contributions over the course of the summer, to a wide range of projects based on the Center’s needs and the intern’s skills.

Public seminar: Call for abstracts - The ends of data: Theories, methods, and interventions in critical data and AI studies

Mar 09, 2024
What are the ends of data—meaning, which purposes are they created to serve? And what are the ends of data— meaning, when and how are data permitted to expire, be deleted, or die? This symposium investigates the intersection of these two questions within data-intensive social practices and infrastructures, where historical data are consistently integrated into new routines, domains, and frameworks to address novel inquiries.

Three-year Research Specialist position with benefits--hybrid-remote based in North Carolina Now 2024 - 2027

Mar 09, 2024
The Multidisciplinary Extreme Weather Toolkit for Small-scale and BIPOC Farmers proposes to conduct research with North Carolina farmers to investigate attitudes toward weather extremes; farm, personal and community practices to contend with weather extremes; and methods and modes of education and information delivery. This research aims to inform North Carolina Cooperative Extension programs, program development, and educational approaches toward climate responsive agricultural practice adoptio...

Data Power Conference: Doctoral Collloquium CfA (due 8 April, 2024)

Mar 07, 2024
As part of Data Power Conference, we are organizing two doctoral colloquiums in Graz and Bangalore. We invite doctoral students to submit abstracts for the Doctoral Colloquiums at the upcoming Data Power Conference. These colloquiums provides a unique opportunity for emerging scholars to present their research, engage in discussions, and receive valuable feedback from experts in the field.