Suchergebnisse

Science is facing a fundamental turning point of its history. Never as in this historical moment it appears giant and powerful, but at the same time it shows high fragility: the concentration of information control power in the hands of few commercial groups, the iniquity of a system that benefits developed countries, the restriction of academic autonomy by political and economic power, the precariousness of working conditions of young researchers, the increase in the number of cases of scientific fraud and misconduct, the questioning of its authority by a portion of the public. Can openness be understood as a system capable of strengthening science and treating the diseases that afflict it?

Since they appeared, the studies of Science, Technology & Society (STS) have been interested in education as the key to help the citizens of tomorrow to participate in the discussions dealing with the future of technoscience. In Spain, the STS subjects became part of the secondary school programs since the educational reform. Nevertheless, the analysis of the textbooks used in Catalonia shows that a deterministic vision of science & technology - both of them thought as entities with their own logic of development, independent from social reality - coexists with a neutralistic conception, which considers technoscience as a basic tool that can be used by humanity either in a correct or an incorrect way. The student has the perception that science & technology shape the social reality, but that are somehow independent from society.

L'obiettivo di questo lavoro è (ri)costruire il processo di emergenza del campo di ricerca dei "Science and Technology Studies" (STS) come risultato di una complessa opera di negoziazioni disciplinari. In funzione di questo obiettivo, abbiamo elaborato una metodologia che abbiamo battezzato come "Socio-epistemologia storica". Dal punto di vista storico, questa tesi di dottorato propone una dettagliata ricostruzione del processo di emergenza del campo interdisciplinare degli STS fra gli anni '60 e la metà degli anni '80 (grazie anche a ricerche d'archivio e storia orale). In primo luogo, ci siamo occupati di tracciare alcune traiettorie intellettuali, accademiche e socio-politiche in funzione di una disamina delle condizioni di possibilità dell'emergere di tale campo (fra gli anni '30 e gli anni '60). Nel capitolo seguente abbiamo invece proposto una cartografia dei principali centri di ricerca e programmi pedagogici nei principali casi nazionali come: U.K., U.S., Francia, Repubblica democratica tedesca, Repubblica federale tedesca, Austria, e Paesi Bassi. Infine, un ulteriore capitolo è invece dedicato alla ricostruzione della nascita delle prime reti di ricerca internazionali (società e associazioni professionali) in ambito STS. I risultati di questa ricerca storica sono stati interpretati e organizzati tramite il framework della "sociologia dei campi accademici" e della "sociologia della conoscenza". A completare la nostra disamina, l'approccio filosofico ha reso possibile un'analisi epistemologica basata sui concreti processi storici e sociali di negoziazione disciplinare che hanno reso possibile il programma di ricerca interdisciplinare degli STS. In questo senso, abbiamo sostenuto che le frontiere disciplinari nelle scienze sociali siano al contempo elaborate socialmente, tramite un lungo processo di negoziazione storica, e sulla base di rivendicazioni epistemiche. ; The aim of this work is to (re)construct the emergence process of the "Science and Technology Studies" (STS) field, as a result of broad disciplinary negotiations (especially between history of science, sociology of science and philosophy of science). In order to achieve this, I proposed an integrated methodology that I labelled "Socio-Historical Epistemology". From the historical point of view, my Ph.D thesis provides a detailed survey of the academic emergence of the "STS" interdisciplinary field, from the 60s to the mid 80s (made also through archive research and oral history). First of all, I traced some intellectual, academical and socio-political trajectories, in order to explain the conditions of the emergence of this field (from the 30s to the 60s). In the following chapter I proposed a cartography of the major research units and pedagogical programs in U.K., U.S., France, German Democratic Republic, Federal Republic of Germany, Austria and Netherlands. Finally, another chapter is dedicated to the professional and international societies in STS. The results of this historical inquiry have been interpreted and organised through the framework of the "sociology of scientific fields" and the "sociology of knowledge". Furthermore, the philosophical approach has made possible an epistemological analysis of both the historical and the sociological genesis and development of the interdisciplinary context of research of the "STS". In this sense I argued that disciplinary boundaries in social sciences are, at the same time, diachronically constructed and reconstructed, through a collective process of controversies and negotiations and due to epistemological claims.