The Politics of Deficit Construction

Session Submission Type: Traditional (Closed) Panel

Abstract

The construction of societal “deficits” with regard to science and technology – e.g. in public understanding of science, in development or modernization contexts, or in terms of technical democracy – has been a target of STS critique for several decades. While the identification of such “deficit diagnoses” has yielded important insights, research on deficits has hitherto been sporadic and fractured, with no systematic framework connecting the various sites, practices, and politics of deficit construction. This track aims to put the politics of “deficit diagnosis” front and center and to develop it as a theoretical lens for understanding ongoing reconfigurations in the science-technology-society relationship. We are interested in the entire range of sites and levels of analysis at which deficit diagnoses occur (e.g. national, regional, institutional, individual…), the variegated functions for which deficits are being mobilized, and the normative agendas deficit diagnoses entail. Among the topics we hope to attract are: • Diagnosed deficits in technological or innovation capability; • Democratic or legal deficits ensuing from advances and technology; • The relationship between science, expertise, and the public, e.g. in science communication and public engagement; • Metrics and benchmarking practices associated with deficit diagnosis; • Modes of policy-making and governance related to deficit diagnosis (e.g. proliferating competitiveness rhetoric, technocratic approaches); • The co-construction of deficits and solutions/cures, and corollary constructions of deficient (and ideal) publics; • Questions of inequality and power in the diagnosis and addressing of deficits; • Future-making and promise-generation based on deficit diagnosis.

Sub Unit

• 4S Annual Meeting

Chair

• Sebastian Michael Pfotenhauer, Technical University Munich

Individual Presentations

• A Solution Looking for a Problem? Interrogating the ‘Innovation Imperative’ and the ‘Deficit Model’ of Innovation - Sebastian Michael Pfotenhauer, Technical University Munich; Joakim Juhl, DTU; Erik Aarden, University of Vienna

• New and Emerging Needs: the Case of Space Tourism - Harro van Lente, Maastricht University

• The Organ Shortage Deficit - Lindsey McKay, Brock University

• The Technology Assessment Agenda in Europe: From Institutional to Knowledge Deficit - Pierre Delvenne, Université de Liège (SPIRAL); Benedikt Rosskamp

• Deficient Populations, Deficient Policies? The Politics of Knowledge Repertoires on ‘Healthy Food’ in Obesity Prevention Practices in the Netherlands - Else Vogel, Linköping University

• Looking for a National Deficit. How the European Union Reconfigures the French National Accounts Policy Production  - Quentin Dufour, Université Paris-Dauphine