Hopeful Monsters: “Can You Imagine the Pleasure of Producing One Fact?”

• In Event: Alternative Pedagogies at the Crux of Interdisciplinarity: Promises and Pitfalls of “Innovating” Education - II

Abstract

An increasing awareness of the potential biases and problematic social impacts of digital technologies is driving a renewed focus on social responsibility and ethical considerations within the fields of engineering and the computer and data sciences. Similarly, a renewed sense of complicity in our socio-technical environments has encouraged STS scholars to engage more directly in public-facing socio-technical work, often through prototyping, exhibition, and hands-on educational activities. However, practical and epistemic difficulties continue to impact our capacities to bridge across technical and social disciplines and to innovate the pedagogical activities of both areas. The so-called ‘great divide’ as described by Bowker, Star, Turner, and Gasser remains as present today as when they engaged with this issue in the late 90’s. In this talk, I will provide some reflection on my own experiences developing hybrid methodologies, the weaknesses of my past approaches, and highlight some new methodological starting points. Specifically, I will describe the importance of ‘hopeful monsters’, a term that has been used by STS scholars to describe socio-technical things that do not quite fit in the world as it stands. A re-engagement with the constructive in addition to the deconstructive opportunities of STS provides a way to activate alternative pedagogies that take seriously the interventionist needs of the technical fields while remaining connected to the objectives and goals of our own critical epistemologies.

Author

• Matt Ratto, University of Toronto