The Metadata is the Message

The question "What is Web Science" is still frequently asked - even by authors of papers about Web Science. In this position paper we consider what part of the Web Science cycle makes this cycle emblematically "Web Science" rather than another form of either Law and Technology or Sociology and Technology or Computer Science and HCI. Based on our research developing and evaluating Semantic Web / Web 2.0 applications, and observations of current practice, we suggest that the particularity of Web Science is strongly correlated to a focus on human repurposing of particular Web technologies to support ever more rapid types of increased social contact. Based on this analysis, we ask how Web Science may help understand and shape this phenomenon, and what the implications may be for embracing this focus as a necessary criteria for assessing Web Science relevance of research work

STSあるいは「科学技術研究」について I (2)

To deal with the contemporary problems of STS, a framework is proposed. The framework, which reflects the synchronic structure of present science and technology, expresses the two important relationships or triads: and . The former includes "the Philosophy of Science Problems", and "the Sociology of Science Problems" are in the latter. The both are self-contained in the Science and Technology Studies, whereas sociology or philosphy is a rather independently established discipline, in which S & T is occationally selected as an object. Each triad is decomposed into sub-relationships: , , and etc. These pairs are Utilized to have a critical treatment of many kind of theoretical discourses about science and technology of our time: demarcation of science and non-science, paradigm, social construction, and etc., Further, on the basis of the proposed framework, "research programs" of contemporary STS would be derived. The task will be performed in the forthcoming second part of this series

Four major task domains of science for sustainability

We propose a research agenda integrating environment-related science, technology, and innovation (STI) using a problem-solving approach to sustainable development. We argue that STI for sustainability encompasses four major task domains: (1) ecological modernization and transformation, (2) ecosystem management, (3) environmental risk assessment, and (4) adaptation to environmental change, each posing great social challenges. For each domain, naturesociety interaction increasingly relies on knowledge acquisition. The proposed agenda focuses on the investigation of R&D capacity and linking knowledge and action within and among societal spheres (i.e., science, politics, business, law, mass media, and education). While today the disciplinary niches of environment-related STI research are still fragmented, with this broader framework, STI research could develop into a major social science field of humanenvironment relations. --human dimensions of global environmental change,environmental sociology,science for sustainability,STI research,innovation research,social studies of science,so-ciology of knowledge,naturesociety interaction,noosphere,ecological modernization,ecosystem management,environmental risk assessment,adaptation to environmental change

Helga Nowotny in Conversation with Elena Esposito

Helga Nowotny, Professor emerita of Science and Technology Studies at ETH Zurich, is a leading scholar in the social studies of science and technology. In her extensive publications she dealt, among other topics, with social and individual structuring of time, technological innovation, uncertainty, social effects of AI, and the interaction between biological life and social life. Always intensely engaged in research policy, Nowotny is one of the founding members of the European Research Council and was its President from 2010 to 2013. In this conversation with Elena Esposito, she talks about her scientific biography, the role of technologies in the experience of time, and the relationship between STS and sociology of science. Drawing on her experience in the organization and funding of science at EU level, she also reflects on the relationship between research and science policy and on the ongoing transformations in the way of doing research and in gender issues

Gender and Precarious Research Careers : A Comparative Analysis

The literature on gender and science shows that scientific careers continue to be characterised \u2013 albeit with important differences among countries \u2013 by strong gender discriminations, especially in more prestigious positions. Much less investigated is the issue of which stage in the career such differences begin to show up. Gender and Precarious Research Careers aims to advance the debate on the process of precarisation in higher education and its gendered effects, and springs from a three-year research project across institutions in seven European countries: Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Iceland, Switzerland, Slovenia and Austria. Examining gender asymmetries in academic and research organisations, this insightful volume focuses particularly on early careers. It centres both on STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and SSH (Social Science and Humanities) fields. Offering recommendations to design innovative organisational policies and self-tailored \u2018Gender Equality Plans\u2019 to be implemented in universities and research centres, this volume will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as Gender Studies, Sociology of Work and Industry, Sociology of Knowledge, Business Studies and Higher Education

A manifesto for Web Science

A clarion call for a new research agenda has been sounded, notably by Berners-Lee et al (2006a 2006b) and Hendler et al (2008) for a ‘science of decentralised information systems’ to ‘discover’ generative mechanisms, and synthesise knowledge and technology to push both forwards. Computer Science alone - focussing as it does on the engineering/technology of the web - could not deliver the ambitions of this new agenda. Equally, other disciplines implicated in Web Science might use the web to support their research, or be interested in virtual life, but they lacked a coherent or unifying mandate for engaging with the web. By calling for Web Science these pioneers opened up a new space. But this is uncharted terrain. As a technology the web is still new. While it has grown rapidly and unexpectedly we are only just beginning to think about the web as a phenomena to be studied. The proponents of Web Science had the vision to see that this new approach had to include disciplines beyond their own; it had to be greater than the sum of the parts of individual disciplines. This is a radical call to leave disciplinary silos and work collaboratively to produce something bigger and better. Moreover, it takes in the founding principles of the web and a desire for a web that is pro-human: this is a call for a science that is capable of insight and intervention to create a better world. Our paper aims to take up this challenge and suggests how we might map the Web Science terrain. We come at this from a slightly different direction to the web science pioneers and want to demonstrate how social science can, and indeed must, contribute to developing Web Science. This paper will explore the contribution of social theory and sociological concepts that shape how we engage with the web. We focus on four key aspects which seem to be central to this understanding. Firstly co-constitution, the fact that the web both shapes and is shaped by humans/society. Secondly the importance of heterogeneous networks of multiple and diverse actors (including technologies themselves) that make the web as we know it. Thirdly the significance of performativity, that the web is an unfolding, enacted practice, as people interact with http to build ‘the web’ moment by moment. Finally, drawing these ideas together we see the web we have now as an immutable mobile or temporarily stabilised network. We use these ideas to map what web science could be and to suggest how we might use sociology to understand the web. Our aim is to provoke and stimulate debate and to move beyond superficial popular psychology and sociology (which envisages engineering human behaviour) and to challenge some of the ways in which social science has engaged with technology and technical actors. To facilitate this, and taking our lead from Donna Harroway, the paper sets out a radical manifesto for web science

USING TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Educational technology is a wide field. It can be considered either as a design science or as a collection of different research interests related to fundamental issues of learning, teaching and social organization. This paper aims at highlighting the importance that technology has in teaching nowadays as technology itself means the application of scientific knowledge to practical tasks. It further focuses on the idea that educational technology is based on theoretical knowledge that comes from different disciplines: communication, education, psychology, sociology, philosophy, artificial intelligence and computer science therefore it helps in improving education. It is also a complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organization, for analyzing problems involved in all aspects of human learning. Technology should facilitate learning processes and increase performance of the educational system as it regards to effectiveness or efficiency

The economics of science and technology

This paper provides a non-technical, accessible introduction to various topics in the burgeoning literature on the economics of science and technology. This is an interdisciplinary literature, drawing on the work of scholars in the fields of economics, public policy, sociology and management. The aim of this paper is to foster a deeper appreciation of the economic importance of science and technology issues. We also hope to stimulate additional research on these topics

Theoretical Contributions to a sociology of (e)valuation

Valuation and evaluation processes are currently a much discussed topic, in particular, in the sociology of science, in science and technology studies and in economic sociology. Phenomena such as university rankings or credit ratings are addressed in research on classification, categorization, commensuration, standardization, and quantification. However, beyond such discussions about ratings and rankings, the paper argues that valuation and evaluation processes should be furthermore understood as a substantial feature of the social. Valuation as the construction of classificatory systems through the attribution of value to objects, people and practices and evaluation as the enactment of such value-charged classificatory systems fundamentally contribute to the institutionalization of a commonly shared understanding of social reality. Focusing on conflicts about the attribution of value and the appropriateness of evaluation frameworks within everyday situations of decision-making might then help to address questions such as on institutional change

Ontological imagination: transcending methodological solipsism and the promise of interdisciplinary studies

This text is a presentation of the notion of ontological imagination. It constitutes an attempt to merge two traditions: critical sociology and science and technology studies - STS. By contrasting these two intellectual traditions, I attempt to bring together: a humanist ethical-political sensitivity and a posthumanist ontological insight. My starting point is the premise that contemporary world needs new social ontology and new critical theory based on it in order to overcome the unconsciously adapted, “slice-based” modernist vision of social ontology. I am convinced that we need new ontological frameworks of the social combined with a research disposition which I refer to as ontological imagination