Comments on: Why Pursue Science and Technology Studies? http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2011/04/04/why-pursu-science-and-technology-studies/ Where science collides with life, slams into culture, crashes with politics, and gets totaled. Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:28:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Hank C. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2011/04/04/why-pursu-science-and-technology-studies/#comment-94669 Hank C. Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:36:44 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/?p=17130#comment-94669 Hi Chris: I think you're right to highlight the communication issue, and I'm glad to see you drawing out the parallels with science. Part of the polemical nature of the event is an ongoing dispute (of sorts) between those who self-identity as "historians of science" and those who own the STS moniker. I wrote about this a little before (http://bit.ly/fo7K1W), and it can help answer questions similar to yours being asked elsewhere (http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2011/04/02/why-do-sts/). In short, the struggle you're detecting is a *mix* of communicative issues (STS has long been described as too jargon-heavy to be of general interest in the way it should be) and disciplinary ones (historians and STS-scholars defining themselves against one another or disowning certain parts of their shared heritage). Anyway, I'll be there (as well as at the David Brooks event next week, which should offer a whole different take on the science-/public-literacy question), and I'll let you know how they pan out. Hi Chris: I think you’re right to highlight the communication issue, and I’m glad to see you drawing out the parallels with science.

Part of the polemical nature of the event is an ongoing dispute (of sorts) between those who self-identity as “historians of science” and those who own the STS moniker. I wrote about this a little before (http://bit.ly/fo7K1W), and it can help answer questions similar to yours being asked elsewhere (http://www.corporeality.net/museion/2011/04/02/why-do-sts/).

In short, the struggle you’re detecting is a *mix* of communicative issues (STS has long been described as too jargon-heavy to be of general interest in the way it should be) and disciplinary ones (historians and STS-scholars defining themselves against one another or disowning certain parts of their shared heritage).

Anyway, I’ll be there (as well as at the David Brooks event next week, which should offer a whole different take on the science-/public-literacy question), and I’ll let you know how they pan out.

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