Entanglements: Conversations on the Human Traces of Science, Technology, and Sound

by Simone Tosoni, Trevor Pinch (With)

Conversations with a founder of the influential Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) approach in science and technology studies offer an introduction to the field. Science and technology studies (STS) is a relatively young but influential field. Scholars from disciplines as diverse as urban studies, mobility studies, media studies, and body culture studies are engaging in a systematic dialogue with STS, seeking to enrich their own investigations. Within STS, the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) theory has proved to be one of the most influential in its neighboring fields. Yet the literature has grown so large so quickly, it is difficult to get an overview of SCOT. In this book, conversations with Trevor Pinch, a founder of SCOT, offer an introduction and genealogy for the field. Pinch was there at the creation—as coauthor of the groundbreaking 1984 article that launched SCOT—and has remained active through subsequent developments. Engaging and conversational, Pinch charts SCOT's important milestones. The book describes how Pinch and Wiebe Bijker adapted the “empirical program of relativism,” developed by the Bath School to study the social construction of scientific facts , to apply to the social construction of artifacts . Entanglements addresses five issues in relevant social groups, and SCOT's focus on groups of users; the intertwining of social representation and practices; the importance of tacit knowledge in SCOT's approach to the nonrepresentational; the controversy over nonhuman agency; and the political implications of SCOT.

216 pages, Hardcover

Published November 11, 2016

Reviews

[FL · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has every reason to seem promising as a readable intro to the history/sociology of science and technology. The tone is conversational and readable, the footnotes present the useful soundbites from all the articles mentioned, it covers a lot of ground in the field, and the discussions frame the context for all of the articles and books mentioned.

Unfortunately, though, I think the book doesn't quite succeed at being an introduction to what the field is. For someone who had already read some of the articles mentioned, I think it could do a great job framing them, perhaps substituting for a course's lecture notes or the like. But for trying to know "what sorts of things to historians of science study," it's just hard to get a clear sense of the content hiding in the anecdotes.