Talk:Science and technology studies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is part of the History of Science WikiProject, an attempt to improve and organize the history of science content on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. You can also help with the History of Science Collaboration of the Month.
???	This article has not yet been assigned a rating on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet been assigned a rating on the importance scale.

	This article is supported by the Sociology WikiProject, which gives a central approach to Sociology and related subjects on Wikipedia. Please participate by editing the article Science and technology studies, or visit the project page for more details on the projects.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.

Contents 1 It's a Start 2 A few questions 3 STS Wiki 4 list of academic programs 5 Needs work 6 Discussion on a withdrawn merge to technology and society 7 Future of STS

[edit] It's a Start

Please expand.Bryan 00:40, 18 November 2005 (UTC) Expanded and edited. 71.48.150.76 18:21, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A few questions

• The "blind/empty" quote here attributed to Hansen I have previously seen (rather prominently) attributed to Imre Lakatos. Can we double-check this one way or the author?
• Is Kuhn really the father of mixing history and phil. of sci.? That seems like somewhat of an arbitrary line to draw to me (certainly the work done in the 1930s was a mixture of both history and philosophy of science)?

--Fastfission 02:42, 24 November 2005 (UTC)

• is ssk a branch of sociology of science, vice-versa, or both the same? capi 05:29, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

ssk is closer to sociology of knowledge, i think.--Buridan 13:19, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] STS Wiki

• STS Wiki

[edit] list of academic programs

As an article about an academic subject, shouldn't it list at some examples of STS programs? Or at the very least, provide a direct link to such a list? Expecting that readers will navigate away from Wikipedia and onto the STS Wiki is probably unrealistic. Fcendejas 23:03, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

the problem then becomes one of neutrality, are you going to list them all? or only ones you choose? if they are interested in degree programs, i bet they will go to the stswiki. The two that you chose aren't really even of sts. There is a difference between science and technology studies and science and technology in society, with different histories and movements. So until there can be some sort of neutral representation, I suggest we don't need them. --Buridan 00:27, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

I'm the founder, funder, etc., of STS Wiki, and as far as I'm concerned, anything that gets STS information out to the public is a Good Thing. If you visit STS Wiki, though, I think you'll find that there are so many programs that, even if there were just one-line links, you'd add something like 2x - 3x to the length of the page... As for whether it's realistic for people to navigate away from Wikipedia, people with special interests in STS will be motivated to do so. STS Wiki offers all kinds of info that doesn't belong in an encyclopedia - in other words info that wouldn't of interest to the general reader (like what the best textbooks are, etc.) Bryan 22:45, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Needs work

Way too many acronyms on this page. I'll take some of them off. Pretty POV in favor of its discipline. I'll remove "vibrants" while keeping "new" and "rapidly growing." --209.128.81.201 21:56, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion on a withdrawn merge to technology and society

Proposal withdrawn: I am proposing that this article be merged with Technology and society. 01:10, 14 August 2006 (UTC) SteveMc 21:07, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Oppose This article is about the academic discipline itself, not the subject of that discipline. I would not oppose a merge of Technology and Society into this article, but it might be too big for that. Nick 02:16, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Response: Separating the discipline from the study is like saying the field of civil engineering is separate from the academic discipline of civil engineering. And merging "Technology and Society" into this article is like saying that the academic discipline of civil engineering encompasses civil engineering, when it is vice-versa. Nonetheless, I do agree that the size of this article may be too large to merge into the other, so I am withdrawing my proposal. SteveMc 02:26, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

Oppose sts is broader than technology and society. in fact, technology and society probably needs to be merged into a larger article 'technology studies' which would still be a smaller category than sts. --|Buridan]] 14:20, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Response: Since User:Buridan wants to maintain this discussion, I will respond: There seems to be a confusion between life and the study of life. In my paradigm of life, facts about life are discovered in its study. As such, science is about the study of life, science is not life. Consider, let's say, plants: it is nonsense to somehow say that biology is plants, when biology is the study of plants (by definition). Would we say that sociology is society? I hope not. Nor would we say that geology is earth, when geology is the study earth. This proposed taxonomy is confusing because it states that the science (study), a man-made activity, is the phenomenon (technology and society), not man-made, under study. Sure I agree that STS includes the study of technology and society (among many other topics). But, STS is only the "study" of that relationship, not the relationship itself. Therefore, life (technology, science, and society) should be at the top of the taxonomy, and the study (STS) therewithin it somewhere. SteveMc 21:01, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Future of STS

I removed this paragraph due to it lacking WP:NPOV and seems to be unsourced original research:

STS is now sufficiently well established to have taken on a distinct identity as a field capable of offering an indispensable perspective on science and technology. At the same time, STS has won widespread respect for the rigor and excellence of its scholarship, much of which takes the form of detailed, book length case studies ^{[citation needed]}. (The term "studies" in "science and technology studies" reflects the field's preference for high-quality, in-depth, detailed case studies as a fundamental measure of scholarly achievement.) Still, some STS scholars express dissatisfaction with the field's as-yet nascent impact on science and technology practice, and call for closer, more collaborative relationships with scientists and engineers.

Not a dog 20:22, 16 August 2006 (UTC)