Hubris and Hybrids in Science and Society

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Hubris and Hybridsin Science and Society

• Andrew Jamison

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A Brief History of STS

• 1970s science, technology and society
• - building bridges acrosss the two cultures
• 1980s science, technology and strategy
• - story-lines of economic innovation
• 1990s science and technology studies
• - story-lines of social construction
• 2000s science, technology, and sustainability
• - story-lines of cultural appropriation

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Hubris and Hybrids

• hubris impious disregard of the limits
  governing human action in an orderly universe
• hybrids offspring of parents that differ in
  genetically determined traits

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Hubris and Hybrids in ST

• GMOs, nano appropriate technology
• globalization sustainability
• entrepreneurship scientific citizenship
• foresight cultural assessment
• technoscience green knowledge

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The Underlying Tension

• When we look at modern man, we have to face the
  fact that modern man suffers from a kind of
  poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring
  contrast to his scientific and technological
  abundance. Weve learned to fly the air like
  birds, weve learned to swim the seas like fish,
  but we havent learned to walk the earth like
  brothers and sisters.
• Martin
  Luther King, Jr

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Dealing with the Tension

• educating phronesis, or moral judgment
• telling stories of appropriation
• focusing on contexts of use
• providing a cultural assessment of ST
• making STS matter

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Cultural Appropriation

• At a discursive, or macro level
• structural and cognitive transformations
• At an organizational, or meso level
• processes of institutionalization
• At a personal, or micro level
• practices of habituation and use

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The Age of Technoscience

• blurring discursive boundaries
• between science (episteme) and technology
  (techne)
• breaking down institutional borders
• between public and private, economic and academic
  
• mixing skills and knowledge
• across faculties, disciplines, and societal
  domains

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From Science to Technoscience

• change in range and scope
• market orientation, global reach
• university-industry collaboration
• epistemic drift (Elzinga)
• the state as strategist picking the winners

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Transdisciplinarity
Knowledge which emerges from a particular
context of application with its own distinct
theoretical structures, research methods and
modes of practice but which may not be locatable
on the prevailing disciplinary map. Michael
Gibbons et al, The New Production of Knowledge
(Sage 1994, p168)
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From Science to Research

• from doing experiments to doing business
• product-oriented, or commercial research
• from providing expertise to governing
• project-oriented, or governance research
• from enlightening to empowering
• problem-oriented, or advocacy research

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Contending Discourses

• commercial research hubris goes to market
• - globalization, competitiveness, innovation
• governance research controlling hubris
• - welfare, employment, equality, construction
• advocacy research the hybrid imagination
• global justice, scientific citizenship,
  sustainability

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Contending Institutions

• commercial research
• - innovation networks, patent systems, markets
• governance research
• - state agencies, regulations, policies, laws
• advocacy research
• - civic organizations, public education,
  assessment

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Contending Identities

• commercial research
• - academic entrepeneurs, market researchers
• governance research
• - expert consultants, policy researchers
• advocacy research
• - activist academics, action researchers

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Cultural Assessment of ST

• Reflection challenging the hype and the myths
• and giving voice to the critics
• Mediation building bridges, making spaces
• across cultures and subcultures
• Engagement doing change-oriented research
• or cultural appropriation in action

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The Hybrid Imagination

• integrative, as opposed to specialized
• contextual, as opposed to reductionist
• connective, as opposed to innovative