Beth Chopinbchopin@eden.rutgers.eduGary Schmidtschmidtg.ppt

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1、Beth Chopin bchopineden.rutgers.edu Gary Schmidt schmidtgeden.rutgers.edu,PRESENTERS,David J. Hess B.A. Economics Harvard University Ph.D. Anthropology Cornell University Professor and science, technology, and environmental movements.(source: http:/ = Science & Technology Studies (a.k.a. Science, Te

2、chnology & Society Studies). An evolving fixture on the academic landscape since the 1970s. STS implies a social constructivist view of the techno-scientific world (i.e., technology and science are socially created). Science and technology are not only socially but also culturally constructed. Hess

3、presents the perspective of “cultural relativism” to social constructivist theory under the rubric of culture and power.,INTRODUCTION,Culture and Power (or Cultural Politics),CENTRAL CONCEPTS,Culture: “The total knowledge and way of life of a group of people: both conscious and unconscious” (p. 10).

4、 Power: “More than a question of who controls an organization or who has the ability to make successful orders, power involves social practices that have differential effects on individuals and groups” (p. 13).,THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING,(all maps from the CIA Atlas of Eastern Europe 1990Czechoslov

5、akia),TECHNOTOTEMISM,Technototemism: The coproduction of technical and social difference or coherence. The formation of identity and/or group affiliation is established according to our adherence to natural and technological phenomena. “consumer culture operates according to totemic relationships. C

6、lothing, food, cars, and so on are all categorized into a myriad of divisions that allow people to make distinctions among themselves through their objects” (p. 21). What is your technototem? What factors helped create it?,TECHNOTOTEISM & NATIONAL IDENTITY,Rene Descartes (France) Religious political

7、 authority Catholic HierarchicalDeductive logic (top-down) First principles Rational/logical tendencies Holistic,Sir Francis Bacon (England) Parliamentary political authority Protestant (more progressive) More democratic (common law)Inductive logic (bottom-up) Observation Empirical tendencies Indivi

8、dualistic,Example: how scientific style is predicated on a general cultural style using the founding fathers of modern science.,“A failure to investigate more carefully such differences in the national sciences and social theories amounts to buying into the ideology of science as a supranational phe

9、nomenon that is everywhere the same” (p. 39).,TECHNOTOTEISM & NATIONAL IDENTITY,TECHNOTOTISM,Evolution and Social Darwinism “It is remarkable that Darwin recognizes among brutes and plants his English society with its division of labor, competition, opening up of new markets, inventions, and Malthus

10、ian struggle for existence.with Darwin the animal kingdom figures as bourgeois society.”-Marx, 1862,The “boomerang” of Technototemism,“The bricoleur is a jack-of-all-trades who takes whatever is at handpieces of wood, metal, spare parts, junkand reassembles them to build new objects or to fix old on

11、es” (p. 39). Hess borrows the term “bricolage” from French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss to refer to the practice of adopting ideas from other communities and reconstructing them according to ones own social identity. The concept of the bricoleur is relevant with regard to how scientific knowle

12、dge is formed within social, cultural, racial, and gender groups (p. 52).,BRICOLAGE,TEMPORAL CULTURES among the SCIENCES,The Mythology of the Scientific Revolution,SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION,The Mythology of the Scientific Revolution,SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION,Popular Heroes:Copernicus (1473-1543) the earth i

13、s not fixed and stationary in the center of the cosmos; it rotates on its axis each day and revolves around the sun each year Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) - new theoretical modifications concerning planetary orbits and their motions Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) - new theories of motion that would accommod

14、ate a moving earth Bacon, Boyle & Descartes (15611691) codification of western scienceIsaac Newton (1642-1727) - unites terrestrial and celestial bodies under one set of universal laws of motion,Western and Non-Western Whatand whois left out? Three examples:,SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION,Prior to the 14th c

15、entury, many Arabic works on optics, astronomy, mathematics and medicine were translated into Latin. Copernicus (1473-1543) the earth is not fixed and stationary in the center of the cosmos; it rotates on its axis each day and revolves around the sun each year (Copernicus work closely parallels prio

16、r work of Arab astronomer, Ibn al-Shatir of Damascus)Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) - new theoretical modifications concerning planetary orbits and their motions Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) - new theories of motion that would accommodate a moving earth (Galileo studied earlier works of Arab scientist Ibn a

17、l-Haytham)Bacon, Boyle & Descartes (15611691) codification of western scienceIsaac Newton (1642-1727),Science & technology is not only tied to culture and politics, but also to social behavior.The following examination social behavior across cultures further evidences Hess position that science & te

18、chnology do not transcend national boundaries and are not supracultural.The example of social behavior discussed here pertains to intercultural communication.,INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION,Temporal orientationPolychronic: people-oriented who multi-task.Monochronic: schedule-oriented who do one thing a

19、t a time.,INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION,low context,high context,Swiss German Scandinavian American French English Italian Spanish Greek Arab Japanese,Context Low context: information is conveyed primarily in the verbal message. High context: information is embedded in the appearance, setting and soci

20、al relationship.,CASE STUDIES,The French are snobs! Americans are materialistic bores! Germans are rude and authoritarian! How are these perceptions created? To shed some light on this question, look at the case studies presented by:Raymonde Carroll in Evidences Invisible.Hall & Hall in Hidden Diffe

21、rences.,CULTURAL RECONSTRUCTION OF SCIENCE,Technocentrism: Science and technology are viewed only from the perspective of those experts who create it. However, Hess argues that once science and technology are implemented en masse and used by non-experts, their meaning is reconstructed.Therefore, in

22、addition to being socially and culturally constructed, science and technology can also be understood as being user constructed.An example in the world of information systems,CULTURAL RECONSTRUCTION OF SCIENCE,Why do users chose not to interact with certain information systems?Information system desi

23、gners, “speak of end-user failure and think of the problem in terms of a public that suffers from computer phobia. systems tend to go unused because built into their programs are the nave assumption that their producers have about how to acquire knowledge, what counts as knowledge, and how it is use

24、d. As a result, the programmers tend to build their view of knowledge into their systems at the expense of more contextualized and socially laden knowledge.” (p. 174).User acceptanceor lack thereofis forcing system producers to re-examine their designand culture.,http:/www.ncsu.edu/chass/mds/stslink

25、s.html,STS LINKS,QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION,Is science “knowledge about the natural world” (p.1) as Hess defines it, or is it the natural world itself?,A DEFINITION OF SCIENCE?,Is STS an important part of a social sciences education? Is STS an important part of scientific and technical education? Should

26、 it be? Should it be part of the required curricula?,STS & MULTICULTURALISM IN THE CURRICULUM,Bradley, R. (1996). Review of the book Science & technology in a multicultural world: The cultural politics of facts and artifacts. Politics and the Life Sciences, 15, 2, 337-338.Carroll, R. (1988). Cultura

27、l misunderstandings: the French-American experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Forsythe, D. (1990). Blaming the user in medical informatics: The cultural nature of scientific practice. In Eds. Hess, D. & Lane, L. Knowledge and Society Volume 9: The Anthropology of Science and Technology.

28、Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Gusterson, H. (1997). Review of the book Science & technology in a multicultural world: The cultural politics of facts and artifacts. American Ethnologist, 24, 2, 467-468.Hall, A. R. & Hall, M. R. (1987). Hidden Differences. Garden City, NY: Anchor.,REFERENCES,Heath, D. (199

29、7). Review of the book Science & technology in a multicultural world: The cultural politics of facts and artifacts. American Anthropologist, 99, 1, 144-146.Hess, D. J. (1992). Introduction: The new ethnography and the anthropology of science and technology. In Eds. Layne, L. & Rip, A. Knowledge and

30、Society Volume 9: The Anthropology of Science and Technology. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Hess, D. J. (1995). Science & technology in a multicultural world: The cultural politics of facts and artifacts. New York: Columbia University Press.Hess, D. J. (1995). If youre thinking of living in STS: A guide

31、for the perplexed. In Eds. Downes, G, Dumit, J, & Traweek, S. Cyborgs and Citadels: Anthropological Interventions on the Borderlands of Technoscience. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.,REFERENCES,Hess, D. J. (1998). If youre thinking of living in STS: A guide for the perplexed. In Eds. Do

32、wnes, G & Dumit, J. Cyborgs and Citadels: Anthropological Interventions in Emerging Sciences and Technologies. Santa Fe, MN: SAR Press.Inkster, I. (1996). Review of the book Science & technology in a multicultural world: The cultural politics of facts and artifacts. ISIS.87, 3, 527-528.Jesser, N. (2

33、002). Blood, genes and gender in Octavia Butlers Kindred and Dawn. Extrapolation. 43, 1, 36. Kent State University Press.Loevinger, L. (1994). Review of the book Science in the new age: The paranormal, its defenders and debunkers, and American culture. Skeptical Inquirer. 18, 4, 413.,REFERENCES,McCl

34、enon, J. (1994). Review of the book Science in the new age: The paranormal, its defenders and debunkers, and American culture. The Journal of Parapsychology. 58, 2. 218.Taylor, P. (1996). Review of the book Science & technology in a multicultural world: The cultural politics of facts and artifacts.

35、Science Technology and Human Values.21, 3, 358-362.Voges, H. (1997). Review of the book Science & technology in a multicultural world: The cultural politics of facts and artifacts. Anthropos, 92, 1-3, 257-259.Wildermuth, M. (1999). The edge of chaos: structural conspiracy and epistemology in the X-Files. Journal of Popular Film and Television. 26, 4, 146.,REFERENCES,