STS, Technoscience and How Discontinuation Matters I

Abstract

Abandonment of technologies and socio-technical systems occur not infrequently. However, the social construction of technology, everyday use, innovation management, technical maintenance and governance of technologies and socio-technical systems have preferentially been associated with advancement and innovation. Discontinuation is, at most, discussed as regime change, innovation setback or failure—as if advancement and innovation was the only direction in which socio-technical development and its governance would go. STS is no exception to this observation, although there are in STS important studies addressing the issue of ending directly, like Aramis in France (Latour 1992), or studies that can, in retrospect, be seen as descriptions of technologies that were, after all, abandoned, like the “male pill” (Oudshoorn 2003). Script analysis may offer another lead, e.g., when Akrich and Latour (1992) are referring to ‘de-inscription’, Geels and Schot (2007) to ‘de-alignment’, Kuhn (1962) to ‘paradigm shift’, or Utterback (2003) to ‘product and manufacturing discontinuities’. The empirical cases are legion, though. However, it is crucial to see how socio-technical systems, technological regimes, or technologies are (or have been) disappearing or are being brought to an end.

Chair

• Pierre-Benoit Joly, Lisis

Individual Presentations

• A New Era: The French Nuclear Socio-Technical System Facing Discontinuation - Martin Denoun, GSPR/EHESS

• Why Is It So Hard To Discontinue Nuclear Power? Neglected Military And Democratic Considerations - Andy Stirling, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex; phil johnstone, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex

• Phasing out, not (dis)continuing: towards a nuanced and normatively inclusive understanding of infrastructure in transitions - Aad Ferdinand Correlje, TU Delft; Toyah Rodhouse, Delft University of Technology; Eefje Cuppen, TU Delft

• Strategic options for policy to discontinue of socio-technological regimes - Stefan Kuhlmann, University of Twente; Peter Stegmaier, University of Twente

• When phasing-out technology strikes back: A social practice theory exploration of cloud seeding - Zahar Koretsky, Maastricht University; Harro van Lente, Maastricht University

Session Organizers

• Peter Stegmaier, University of Twente

• phil johnstone, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex