10.6092/issn.2038-3460/16656
application/pdf
2038-3460
16656
1
en
Redazione Tecnoscienza
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Editor’s Note
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
2
Editorial
2011-06-27
2023-03-22
2011-06-27
2023-07-03
3-6
TS
Redazione Tecnoscienza
2011/06/27
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/16656
3
2038-3460
1
en
6
Editor’s Note
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/16656/15890
2
                                                                        Editors’ Note


    This third issue of “Tecnoscienza” is a special one, from various points of
view and in many respects.
    Its special value mainly lies in the fact that it is entirely dedicated to the
EASST010 Conference, the biennial forum of the European Association for the
Study of Science and Technology (EASST – www.easst.net), held, for the first
time, in Italy (at the University of Trento) in September 2010 and co-organized
by STS Italia.
As from its title (“Practicing Science and Technology, Performing the Social”),
the particular focus of the conference was on science and technology as per-
formative domains of an ecology of sociomaterial practices. In fact, if a key
characteristic of the contemporary world is the role played by scientific
knowledge and technological artefacts in the production and reproduction of
that peculiar configuration that is often called “society”, then the concepts of
practice and performance provide a unique perspective for studying and ob-
serving scientific and technological innovations, as well as the articulations of
different forms of sociality and ideas of the social. This is the challenge that re-
searchers are nowadays called to face in key areas such as medicine and ge-
nomics, body and gender, work and organizations, communication and con-
sumption, geographies and space.
    As a partial but representative follow-up to the aims and results of the con-
ference, in this issue we propose a selection of excerpts deriving in different
ways from the experience of the Trento colloquium.
    The first section (“Lectures”) is devoted to keynote speeches, following the
same order in which they were delivered at the conference. Retrospectively, it is
interesting to notice how each of them challenges current STS perspectives.
    Adopting a storytelling approach, in the first lecture, Silvia Gherardi tells
the story (or rather stories) of the ongoing conversations that, over time, have
given a situated meaning to the black box of STS. Focusing on intellectual tra-
ditions and research trajectories, Gherardi narrates the intricate (as well as in-
timate) texture of books, authors, images and metaphors that have contributed
to build a STS-oriented perspective. At the same time, she highlights some of
the key challenges currently facing STS, such as how a generation of academics
is going to pass the baton to a younger one.
    Lucy Suchman deals with the problem of how STS researchers make the ob-
jects of their research, considering that researchers are an integral part of the
practices through which their research objects are made. The situated use of a
schedule in a “centre of coordination” is turned by Suchman into a generative
example for questioning the order and mess regime that informs what re-
searchers regard as productive and coherent units of analysis. “The delineation


TECNOSCIENZA
Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Volume 2(1) pp. 3-6 - ISSN 2038-3460
http://www.tecnoscienza.net                       © 2011 TECNOSCIENZA
4   EDITORS’ NOTE



    of a practice is always and irremediably part of a practice”, she writes, so that
    the responsibility of our research lies in the systematic and necessary exclusions
    performed in our practice.
        The collage by Pelle Enh is a work consisting of three different layers of im-
    ages and texts, which aims at envisioning ways to combine creative design with
    participatory approaches. Referring to a few “circulating references” (texts, EU
    research project, teaching experiences), this speech addresses the challenge of
    encompassing aesthetic and democratic practices and values in designing
    “things”. In particular, as Ehn argues, by “drawing things together” and “mak-
    ing things public”.
        Mike Michael’s lecture treats of the technoscientific body, focusing on the
    role of peculiar objects whose effect upon bodies enables the emergence (and
    conventionalization) of new emotions and feelings. Stem cells and rolling lug-
    gage may seem not to have much in common with each other, but in this con-
    tribution they provide different occasions for reflecting on the construction of
    the technoscientific body, both in scientific and mundane domains. Finally,
    Michael pushes his reflection further, calling for the use of anecdotes as a
    methodological strategy to account for emerging phenomena (in our case, emo-
    tions and configurations of the technoscientific body).
        The last lecture, by Amade M’charek, engages with the question of race in
    practices, reframing two dominant and dichotomous notions as mutually con-
    stitutive: race as a fact and race as a fiction. Presenting the intriguing case of
    the discovery (in the Netherlands) of a grave of a ten-year-old child dating back
    to the 13th century, M’charek shows how race is enacted through factual and
    fictional practices. The challenge is thus not to distinguish “facts” from “fic-
    tions”, but rather to trace the connections between the two.
        As conference participants, we have been struck these contributions, not on-
    ly for their analytical quality, but also for the way they were performed and
    their evocative power. As editors, we think they are a perfect representation of
    the highly articulated and differentiated landscape of contemporary science &
    technology studies and of how STS can contribute to the understanding of a
    wide range of social phenomena and issues. Moreover, each speech adopts a
    twofold, reflexive logic: authors do not just make a point at the theoretical
    and/or methodological level, but they question the relevance and the implica-
    tions of the point made for science and technology studies, showing their will-
    ingness not to take for granted knowledge categories and classifications (not
    even the ones produced in the field of STS!). Finally, from our point of view, it
    is quite evident how, in each speech, language, narration and analytical reflec-
    tion are not ‘wor(l)ds apart’, but constitutive of one another. This is something
    STS learned quite a long time ago, and we think it is not just a matter of rheto-
    ric to remind it.
        The section “Debates” hosts two other texts deriving in some way from the
    EASST010 Conference. The first one consists in a debate around one of the
    books presented at the conference – Care in practice –, discussed for “Tecno-
    scienza” by three Italian scholars, to whom the book’s authors reply. The se-
                                                              TECNOSCIENZA – 2(1)       5



cond text presents an interview with Christine Hine, a well-known author in
the field of STS, but also the person who (during her past EASST presidency)
created the first connection between EASST and STS Italia.
   Last but not least, the cover captures an instant of a performance hosted by
the Trento conference, based on the work of the Slovenian artist Sašo Sedlaček
and its Beggar Robot.
   In order to enhance not only the international scope of this issue, but also its
willingness to widen the geographical focus on the STS world, the Journal fea-
tures a new section called “Cartographies”, with the aim of mapping the recep-
tion and diffusion of STS in countries different from the ones traditionally tak-
en into account (Netherlands, United Kingdom, North America and Scandina-
via). We start this new section by presenting a review of Spanish studies influ-
enced by Actor-Network Theory. Following the same logic, the book review
section is also given a “renewed look”, featuring reviews of mainly non-Anglo-
American books.
   As a result, and for the first time, “Tecnoscienza” is in English only. This is
a particular achievement we aimed to pursue as part of the journal project; it is
not a coincidence that, since the very beginning, “Tecnoscienza” has been sup-
plemented by an English subtitle (“Italian Journal of Science and Technology
Studies”), featuring bilingual abstracts of articles and debates and soon propos-
ing increasing parts of the journal entirely in English.
   Our aim for the future is to preserve the national character of the journal
project – offering an otherwise absent space for debate and discussion to STS
Italian scholars – but always finding strategies and occasions for dialoguing and
connecting with the international English-speaking arena. We take this as a
necessary but also challenging horizon to look at, in order to make sense of the
never-ending, fluid and hybrid character of contemporary society and… of STS
as well.


                                                                The Editorial Board



   Acknowledgements

   When it comes to special occasions, some special thanks are owed.
   We would like to express our gratitude, first of all, to Pelle Ehn, Silvia Gher-
ardi, Amade M’Charek, Mike Michael and Lucy Suchman for their vivid talks and
their kind help in transcribing their speeches into written texts, making them avail-
able to our Journal and its readers. We would also like to thank Liam Bannon for
the efforts he put in revising his keynote speech, although for a series of problems
and time constraints we were not able to publish it in this issue. But the future is
unwritten (to quote the Clash), so we hope to be able to publish Liam’s contribu-
tion in one of the next issues.
6   EDITORS’ NOTE



        These particular acknowledgements are not intended to slight the commitment
    and hard work of all the other authors (Jorge Castillo Sepúlveda, Christine Hine,
    Annemarie Mol, Ingunn Moser, Jeannette Pols… just to name our ‘international
    guests’) who contributed to make this issue a special one. Our gratitude also goes
    to them.
        The EASST010 Conference, as well as this “Tecnoscienza” issue, would not
    have had its ‘logo’ (and ‘mascot’) without the kindness and cooperation of Sašo
    Sedlaček and its Beggar Robot. This is just an ironic, easy way to thank an artist
    whose work has also triggered serious reflections.
        Finally, our warmest thanks go to the EASST Board and to its current Presi-
    dent, Fred Steward. The whole EASST010 experience would not have been possi-
    ble without their supportive attitude and practical help. We therefore owe EASST
    a special debt of gratitude and, in this sense, we are glad to recognise its valuable
    role in the making not only of the EASST010 Conference, but also of this special
    issue.




     EASST010 - During the welcome aperitif
