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2003 Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science
Sally Davenport
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Article Text
15-19 October 2003, Atlanta, USA
The 4S was founded in 1975 and has an international membership of about 1000. The conference aims to bring together those interested in understanding science, technology and medicine, including the way they develop and interact in their social contexts. The 2003 conference was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). A large number of countries were represented, with a strong presence from Northern Europe as well as the US. It was also interesting to see the high levels of student participation reflecting the society's very active 'Students of 4S' group which runs targeted sessions on student related subjects such as career planning.
The conference did not have a specific theme but the session topics for the ten parallel streams ranged broadly across a myriad of science, technology and society themes. Typically creative session titles included 'The Race That Wouldn't End: Genetics, Population and Identity', 'Engineering Identities', 'Nanopast and Nanofuture: Putting Nanoscience into Narrative Representations', 'Ethnographies of Care', 'Biologies of Multiplicity: Lively Bodies, Life Histories and Livable Lives', 'Taming the Transgene' and 'Emerging Technoscience, Emerging Law'. Two themes, in particular, were prominent in many of the streams. Presentations addressing social and ethical aspects of genetic engineering, and related topics such as stem cell research, were popular as were papers dealing with the democratization of science and technology including critiques of citizen and expert participation in science and society debates.
The Presidential (and only) Plenary, chaired by the 2003 4S President Wiebe Bijker, was titled 'Building Democracies with Science and Technology'. First to speak was Hendrick C Marais, head of South Africa's National Advisory Council on Innovation (www.naci.org.za), who gave a fascinating (if rushed) account of the crises in, and rebuilding of, the South African innovation system. Bruno Latour, 4S President-Elect followed with an elaborate and articulate presentation of his current thinking about democracy and science, more of which we will no doubt hear about at the 2004 conference (see below).
The 4S Banquet featured the presentation of the society's prizes including the Bernel Prize for distinguished contribution to the field which was awarded to Helga Nowotny (ETH Zentrum); the Fleck Prize for the best book in science and technology studies, given to Helen Verran (University of Melbourne) for her book 'Science and an African Logic'; the Carson Prize for a book of social and political relevance to science and technology studies which went to Simon Cole. (University of California, Irvine) for 'Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification'; and the Mullins Prize for the winner of the graduate student essay competition which was awarded to Park Doing (University of Cornell). Some moments were also spent reflecting on the passing of David Edge, a leading figure in science studies and editor of the journal Social Studies of Science for many years.
Under Bruno Latour's leadership, the conference will be held in conjunction with the European Association for the Study of Science & Technology (EASST) at the Ecole des Mines de Paris, August 25-28 2004. The theme is Public Proofs - Science, Technology & Democracy and the website is www.congres-scientifiques.com/4S-EASST/. The 4S website is www.lsu.edu/ssss/, the future programmes section of which is currently indicating that the 2005 conference will take place in Honolulu.
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