The Award was given to Andreas Birkbak (Roskilde University) and Irina Papazu (IT University of Copenhagen) for the edited book Democratic Situations, published by Mattering Press in 2022.

This year – 2024 – has been marked out a singly significant year for democracies across the world as so many important elections will take place that are likely to shape the course of the rest of the decade. Consequently, what we understand by democracy, how it operates in all of its messy complexities, is at the forefront of many of our thoughts at this time. 

Democratic Situations makes a timely contribution by its exploration of the relationship between STS thought and democracy. The book looks anew at how ideas from political theory have come into STS circles and how STS topics are now so central to political debate. We are introduced to the notion of technodemocracy and to regard democracy as a ‘materially entangled phenomenon’ (p17). 

The book is published open access by Mattering Press, which will help ensure it reaches a wide readership. While the book addresses itself more to the STS community than political theory or science, there is enough here to appeal to other audiences and generally the style is lucid and accessible.