Social Technology Workshop

Social Technology Special Issue is out! 18 Apr, 2012

We are very pleased to announce that our special issue on ‘social technology’ has now appeared. It is the issue of April 2012 (22(2)) of the Journal Theory and Psychology. Please contact the editors for more information: Anne Beaulieu, Maarten Derksen, and Signe Vikkelsø.

The introduction to the special issue is entitled ‘Social technologies: Cross-disciplinary reflections on technologies in and from the social sciences’ Theory & Psychology April 2012 22: 139-147, doi:10.1177/0959354311427593.

Special issue in press! 30 Nov, 2011

It’s our turn to go into production at Theory & Psychology!!!

Here is the table of contents!

Who produces social technologies? 23 Oct, 2009

The relevance to the social sciences also lies in the fact that, as Bas and Paul note, the social sciences have been losing their near-monopoly on defining, analysing, producing and manipulating social relations. Social technology has been democratized. In our chapter we give the example of social software. Katja’s social network analysis is another example, and I think Jonna’s neurofeedback users do something similar but on a psychological level. That means social technology is increasingly salient as an object of study for the social sciences: sociality is more and more something that people create technically. The instrumental, technoscientific approach to social life is not the exclusive province of social scientists anymore, but by the same token, it demands all the more attention as an object of study.

What is the analytical gain? 23 Oct, 2009

In a field already replete with jargon, neologisms and other attempts at conceptual innovation, one has to have a good reason to introduce yet another new concept. Bas and Paul’s question – what is the analytical gain of ‘social technology’ in comparison with existing concepts – is to the point. I think the gain is twofold: compared to traditional social scientific concepts like institution or ritual, it highlights the instrumental aspect, asks ‘how it is done’, and to what effect. This, to me, was always the most fascinating aspect of Foucauldian work, but technology studies can offer fresh ways of looking at institutions etcetera as technological accomplishments. Second, compared to technology studies and STS in general, ‘social technology’ draws attention to what Bas and Paul call ‘the distinctiveness of human actors in a technoscientific world’. Not only does new technology allow new kinds of human – non-human collectivity (a point well made by Latourians), it also allows and provokes resistance and new ways to be distinctively human. My favorite example is behavioral engineering, which though based on the idea that human behavior is completely determined by environmental ‘contingencies’, ended up as a new way to be in control of yourself, a new way to be free.

In short, ‘social technology’ points to the technological in sociality and to the social in technology. How best to analyse social technologies, is an open question. We do not have a theory. What I would be very wary of, however, is the impulse to demarcate the set of ‘social technologies’ in advance. ‘Social technology’ is an analytical tool, not a thing.

Reporting on the workshop 16 Oct, 2009

We were lucky to be joined by Bas van Heur and Paul Wouters, who commented: (full text here)

A basic issue raised in almost all concept-centered events, such as this one, is the explanatory status of the concept. Not surprisingly, therefore, in this particular workshop the notion of social technology returned as a key topic for debate. Although most participants resisted the urge to define this concept in advance of empirical analysis, various dimensions of social technologies were addressed.
….
This approach does raise the issue, however, of how to define the notion of “social technology”. What exactly is the analytical gain of the concept of social technology in comparison with the concept of institution (or in some cases ritual)? To what extent can the social technology concept help mainstream sociology to pay more in-depth attention to social practices and routines that otherwise would be too easily subsumed under more familiar categories or concepts? In other words, in what sense is the notion of social technology useful? Is it primarily a new perspective on social institutions and processes that zooms in on the instrumental dimensions and that mobilizes the sociology of technology for this? Or are social technologies specific phenomena in the world that need particular specifications in order to be properly evaluated and understood?
….

You can find the full text here.

Paper Deadline: 22 August 19 Aug, 2009

We hope you are looking back on (or still enjoying) nice holidays and that you are looking forward to our meeting in Amsterdam.

A reminder that the deadline for full papers is 22 August 2009. Please send papers to

Anja.deHaas@vks.knaw.nl

It would be a good idea to include a short note at the top of your paper, giving some information about the text and its intended audience, in order to help ‘configure the reader’. (For example, is it a book or thesis chapter, a draft article for a particular journal, etc.)

If any of you have not yet made travel arrangements, there is some hotel and travel information on this blog.

If you have any questions regarding accommodation or how best to get to Amsterdam, do not hesitate to contact Anja de Haas (anja.dehaas@vks.knaw.nl), who assists us in organizing this workshop.