#sts

Another provocative interview with @quinnslobodian.com . If you’re already familiar with the main themes, the fun part starts around 2/3 in, with a discussion of populism, biologism and GMU. #sts #hps soundcloud.com/thismachinek...

401. Ruled by Bastards (ft. Qu...

Happy to share that "Race Science in Mainstream Psychology, 1960-2010" with @rhacodactylus.bsky.social is now forthcoming at Quantitative Science Studies. osf.io/preprints/ps... #philsci #philsky #sts #css

I am looking forward to Isaac Oluoch‘s PhD defence today. Feel free to join us online. It has been a pleasure to serve as his supervisor for his #PSTS MSc thesis and as his Daily Supervisor (w/ Monika Kuffer). #PhilTech #STS #RemoteSensing #GeoAI https://www.itc.nl/events/2025/4/255007/phd-defence-isaac-oluoch-frame-pro-framework-for-the-responsible-and-accountable-mapping-of-deprived-urban-areas

...put the guts of it together yet), but more the idea of making as a social research method.

First, on making, there is already a sociology of objects out there which you will come across in Science and Technology Studies #STS and through Actor-Network Theory etc, but I've always found the approach they tend to take as quite empty, in the sense that while they discuss the social life of objects, they do so conceptually, in an abstract way, purely discursively. Without actually getting hands...

Happy Easter to all who celebrate!

No cute lambs or bunnies in my files, I'm afraid. I do, however, have a *lot* of queer chickens. This is Hector, a 'hen-cock' pictured in the Sporting Magazine in March 1833 and mentioned by Charles Darwin in his 1868 book The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication!

#Easter #HistSTM #HSTM #histsci #histbio #STS @histstm #histsex #history #histodons @histodons #sex #queer #queerhistory #lgbtq #animals #birds #science #naturalhistory #art

"This paper advances the critical analysis of machine learning by placing it in direct relation with actuarial science as a way to further draw out their shared epistemic politics. The social studies of machine learning—along with work focused on other broad forms of algorithmic assessment, prediction, and scoring—tends to emphasize features of these systems that are decidedly actuarial in nature, and even deeply actuarial in origin. Yet, those technologies are almost never framed as actuarial and then fleshed out in that context or with that connection. Through discussions of the production of ground truth and politics of risk governance, I zero in on the bedrock relations of power-value-knowledge that are fundamental to, and constructed by, these technosciences and their regimes of authority and veracity in society. Analyzing both machine learning and actuarial science in the same frame gives us a unique vantage for understanding and grounding these technologies of governance. I conclude this theoretical analysis by arguing that contrary to their careful public performances of mechanical objectivity these technosciences are postmodern in their practices and politics."

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01622439251331138

#DataScience #STS #Insurance #Postmodernism #ML #MachineLearning #Risk #RiskGovernance #GroundTruth #Epistemology

"In recent years, critical data studies from the Global South have gained traction, generating debates on power, knowledge production, and the politics of data. While these discussions challenge universalist frameworks, they also risk essentializing the ‘Global South’, requiring a more nuanced approach. This special issue centres Latin America as a site of theoretical, methodological, and empirical inquiry, highlighting its potential to generate new insights into datafication, power, and artificial intelligence. Rather than treating Latin America as a passive recipient of Global North theories, this issue foregrounds its epistemological and methodological contributions to global debates. Engaging with frameworks such as capitalism, coloniality, and dependency theory, the articles explore the region's heterogeneity and intellectual traditions in social sciences, humanities, and science and technology studies. This introduction proposes a research agenda for Latin American critical data studies – one that reflects historical legacies while envisioning possible data futures through interdisciplinary and critical engagement. It interrogates the politics of knowledge production, emphasizing the need for non-extractive, dialogical approaches to studying data in, from, and with Latin America. By centering Latin American scholarship and experiences, this special issue challenges dominant narratives in critical data studies and offers alternative theoretical perspectives that are globally informed yet locally grounded."

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20539517251330160

#LatinAmerica #GlobalSouth #CriticalDataStudies #STS #AI #Datafication #Capitalism #Coloniality #DependencyTheory

1. Fuck Em, they blew it. Meanwhile Los Angeles moved heaven and earth (and a Toyota Tundra moved a Shuttle) to get an orbiter there and Houston blew it. And those things aren't easy to move.
2. Technically, Huntsville, Alabama is "Space City", and I've no love for Alabama (lived there), but I like it more than Texas.
3. Raiding The Smithsonian is just a dick move (so Ted Cruz naturally signed on).

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/why-are-two-texas-senators-trying-to-wrest-a-space-shuttle-from-the-smithsonian/

#Space #STS #Discovery

Thrilled to announce that on April 21 at 2pm Central CBI Tomash Fellow, Harvard ABD Aaron Gluck-Thaler will be giving an online Tomash Fellow Lecture entitled " Pattern Recognition and Intelligence Reform in Cold War America." Please see link below for registration for this free/public event. #ai #aihistory #artificialintelligence #aipolicy #science #tech #history #sts #sociology #anthro

@histodons
@comm
@sociology
@anthropology
@politicalscience

https://cse.umn.edu/cbi/events/2025-tomash-virtual-lecture-aaron-gluck-thaler

Firme și persoane din cercul de interese al lui Sebastian Ghiță, trimise în judecată de #ParchetulEuropean pentru o fraudă de 9,5 milioane #EUR.
Una dintre firmele inculpate, înființată de un fost șef al STS (#STS (#ServiciulDeTelecomunicațiiSpeciale)).
O parte dintre acuzați participă la licitația pentru Cloud-ul guvernamental de 743 de milioane #RON.

https://wp.me/p9KpFA-4jj2

#Știri #România #UE #UniuneaEuropeană

Travail en cours pour faire la synthèse du périmètre du secteur numérique et des tendances de l'empreinte environnementale par segment.

#numerique #sts #environnement

finally available online

Proceedings of #STShubDe 2023: Circulations: Towards encounters amongst #STS scholars in Germany

https://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/89696

@sts @stsing

What happens when someone with a background in science studies and an interest in patient experience has to stay in hospital?

Some passing thoughts on illness as a boundary object following my recent stay in hospital with a broken leg.

(seemed a good way to revive my blog)

#healthCare #hospitals #ScienceStudies #Patients #STS #scicomm #sciencecommunication
https://literacyofthepresent.wordpress.com/2025/04/03/illness-as-boundary-object/.

Read more here: www.lunduniversity.lu.se/lubas/i-uoh-... (It says admission closed on the English version of the page, but open until April 15 through antagning.se ) #STS #AI #criticaldatastudies

The Data-driven Society: Socia...

Excellent piece from @zephoria from Tech Policy Press arguing for "interventionism" - a form of pragmatism that seeks to recognise the uncertainty in socio-technical systems while ascribing importance to legal, policy and social mechanisms that counter-balance techno-solutionist narratives.

#STS

https://www.techpolicy.press/we-need-an-interventionist-mindset/

Calling for the #EASST Review. Speedy #sts contributions, due 12 May.

"We see the need to raise our voice. Critique in STS remains indispensable amid shifting political landscapes, censorship, rising austerity, and expanding corporate control over infrastructure."

https://easst.net/easst-review/

@sts
@easst

Ce matin double première :
* Intervenir au forum des Archivistes, après 4 participations
* Faire une intervention avec @LeuLeu
Merci à elle pour l'aventure, un joli temps partageé. Et voici un mini-site qu'elle a réalisé pour diffuser notre intervention de ce matin #AAFRennes2025 #Archives #STS #Infrastructure https://aldonzel.github.io/intervention-forum-AAF25/

Et je profite aussi pour remercier les personnes qui ont pu nous inspirer @jeromedenis @samgoeta @BertrandCaron

(To be clear, Williams had a wonderful #STS program and my class on Ethics of #AI with Joe Cruz was one of my favorites--but would love to see 10 new faculty members hired for this!)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/technology/reed-hastings-bowdoin-ai.html?unlocked_article_code=1.6k4.jjt8.vJNr-HVMTPp_&smid=url-share

I have been looking for someone firmly within the bounds of #STS theory to take on disinformation and the decline of trust in science and it's finally here. I'm only about 1/3 of the way through this article and it is so, so necessary.

The reliance on an inherently trustworthy, omnipresent "science" that "says" things was always at risk of failing, and has never been how science built its trust.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/02704676251324470

@benlockwood As someone who started out planning to do forest ecology (and did my first degree mostly in that) and ended up in geography and planning, I really look forward to this article and unpacking it.

There's a lot of stuff in the subfield of Science, Technology, and Society (#STS) about similar contingencies and situatedness that to me has a lot of theoretical overlap things like assembly theory and other context-oriented theory in ecology. I should probably write something about this.