We are pleased to call for proposals for a panel “Is Constructivism Dead?”
(Panel no. 44) in the upcoming 10th STS Italia Conference “Technoscience for
Good: Designing, Caring, and Reconfiguring,” which will be held on 11-13
June 2025 at the Politecnico di Milano, Milan (Italy). See below for a
shortened panel description.
You can submit abstracts (maximum 500 words) to the conference platform via
the "Submissions" page. The deadline for submissions is February 3, 2025. We
expect to deliver news of acceptance by February 28.
Please check the conference website for details and updates about scheduled
deadlines and registration fees as well as news about the conference program.
https://stsitalia.org/conference-2025/
Description of panels: https://stsitalia.org/program-at-a-glance-2/
Panel 44: "Is Constructivism Dead?"
Tarja Knuuttila (University of Vienna) and Martina Merz (University of
Klagenfurt)
Constructivism within STS challenged the traditional understanding of science
as a disinterested pursuit of truth. Despite the often antagonistic early
interaction between STS constructivism and the philosophy of science, the
practice-oriented philosophy of science subsequently embraced numerous
insights derived from STS constructivism and the empirical approach to
examining scientific practices. In the meanwhile, the authority of science has
eroded. In the so-called post-truth situation, STS constructivism can be
weaponized to undermine the credibility of science more radically than what
constructivists intended. The boundary between a critical approach toward
science and science denialism has blurred. Anti-science movements can co-opt
constructivist claims about the socially contingent nature of scientific
knowledge to argue for the equal validity of various kinds of knowledge
claims, reducing science to just one 'narrative' among many. At the same time,
science is criticized from within for being a form of knowledge production
rooted in Western, Eurocentric traditions. Even if STS constructivism
addresses questions of power and culture in science, its original
contributions did not deal with the concerns about epistemic fairness brought
up by postcolonial and decolonial critiques, as well as by trans* and queer
perspectives.
This panel welcomes contributions that critically discuss and/or challenge the
continued value of constructivism in analyzing science. Does the post-truth
era, combined with other critiques of science, reveal the need to rethink or
challenge STS constructivism? Should constructivism assume a new (public) role
of defending scientific knowledge and the integrity of science in view of
disinformation and science denialism? Should STS deemphasize its
constructivist roots in favor of other theoretical and conceptual approaches,
for instance, those of the philosophy of science?
EASST's Eurograd mailing list -- eurograd-easst.net@lists.easst.net
Archive: https://lists.easst.net/hyperkitty/list/eurograd-easst.net@lists.easst.net/
Edit your delivery settings there using Account dropdown, Mailman settings.
Website: https://easst.net/easst_eurograd/
Meet us on Mastodon: https://assemblag.es/@easst
Or X: https://twitter.com/STSeasst
