Anthropology and STS: Dis/Encounters and Potential South-North Exchanges I

Session Submission Type: Paper Session

Abstract

In their 1986 "Anthropology as Cultural Critique" Marcus and Fischer described the relationship between anthropology and science studies as being one of mutual learning. Their assessment was published when US cultural anthropologists were establishing scientific cultures as legitimate objects of ethnographic and theoretical inquiry within anthropology. Since the 1970s both this sub-field of anthropology and the interdisciplinary field of STS have developed their own distinctive concepts, methods, interpretive approaches, and forms of collaboration. Both have successfully established, institutionalized, consolidated, and maintained separate academic infrastructures (jobs, funding, workshops, circuits, etc.), although STS is more visible internationally. Meanwhile, the relationship between anthropology and STS has changed considerably and tensions have surfaced about their different approaches to research and public engagements.

This panel addresses the current relationship between anthropology of science and STS with a focus on current possibilities for renewed dialogue and cross-fertilization. It will contribute a discussion of the theoretical and methodological developments in both fields, as well as those in transit between STS and anthropology, as they gain traction in the global South. We will present and debate on-going research in anthropology of science and technology from different traditions to map out differences and alternatives that are emerging from anthropology and STS research in the global South. For this panel, anthropologists will present their research work in progress on the study of disasters, science and engineering publics, sociotechnical infrastructures, intersecting science/state policies, and global knowledge work while exploring the methodological and theoretical Anthropology/STS borderlands.

Sub Unit

• 4S / ESOCITE Meeting

Chair

• Gary Downey, Virginia Tech

Discussant

• Michael MJ Fischer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Individual Presentations

• Modeling Amazonian Environments: some considerations on the science-policy interface in Brazil - Marko Alves Monteiro, State University of Campinas

• From Technical Rationalities to Sociotechnical Relationalities - Luis Felipe Rosado Murillo, UCLA

• Forecasts and Controversies in the Ontogenesis of Climatic Realities - Renzo Taddei, Federal University of São Paulo

• Articulating STS in Contemporary Indian Contexts - Aalok Khandekar, Maastricht University