This essay presents data artifacts that accompany the journal article "Placing STS in and Through Turkey" published by Engaging Science, Technology and Society.
Cite this dataset:
Duygu Kasdogan, Aybike Alkan, and Maral Erol. 2023. "Placing STS in and Through Turkey." Multi-part. Version 1. Distributed by Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. STS Infrastructures (Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography). https://n2t.net/ark:/81416/p4hs3k.
Essay created by:
ESTS Open Data Editor Tim Schütz and ESTS Associate Editor Angela Okune
A broad movement in the scholarly community is pushing towards data sharing or “Open Data,” particularly in the natural sciences and medicine. Recognizing that there are compelling reasons why scholars in STS and related fields are wary of data sharing and careful to protect their work, the ESTS Editorial Collective (EC) has pursued experiments towards establishing a publishing infrastructure for open data with the goal of better understanding the possible benefits for the STS community from data sharing and the role that a scholarly-run journal like ESTS could play in realizing such opportunities. Our approach develops from a commitment to recognize and foster the data relations we most value as a heterogeneous community of scholars and interlocutors. We have partnered with STS Infrastructures, an instance of the Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography (PECE) designed and built by STS scholars, to understand what “Open Data” can mean in/ for STS, and develop norms, practices, and infrastructures that match the kinds of data that we work with. Read more about our understanding and approach to open data. Explore all ESTS published data.
The article “Placing STS in and through Turkey” is mostly based on two exhibitions prepared or contributed to by us, the authors of the article. These exhibitions – “An Archaeology of STS in Turkey” (Kaşdoğan, Yetişkin, and Erol 2018) and “Innovating STS in Turkey” (Kaşdoğan and Alkan 2019) – sought to reveal and systematically examine the intellectual and institutional roots of STS. Limited publicity and institutional grounding of STS also led us to turn to more-than-institutional places of STS through which STS knowledge can be produced and expanded to wider audiences. Therefore, most of the artifacts we used in the article are the products of our efforts to follow the fragmented paths and traces of STS in and through Turkey. The source data selected for this essay include:
Alkan, Aybike. 2019. “Infiltrating STS Inside the Walls of STS-Free Institutions.” Text. Distributed by Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. STS Infrastructures (Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography). https://n2t.net/ark:/81416/p4v30n.
Text written by Alkan on the first STS course opened at Bilkent University based on the interview she conducted with course directors for the IstanbuLab Blog.
Erol, Maral. 2019. “Story of the Stories for Nuclear Alla Turca.” Text. Distributed by Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. STS Infrastructures (Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography). https://n2t.net/ark:/81416/p4qc7t.
Text on the reflection of Erol on the interview Alkan and herself conducted with Can Candan about his Nuclear Alla Turca documentary project, which connects Candan’s work to the realm of STS and thereby hints at innovative ways of doing STS in the country.
Kaşdoğan, Duygu and Z. Umut Türem. 2019. “STS Talks - Interview with Z. Umut Türem.” Text. Distributed by Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. STS Infrastructures (Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography). https://n2t.net/ark:/81416/p4kk5w.
Written interview Kasdogan conducted with Z. Umut Türem on his experience of moderating a public talk given by Kaushik Sunder Rajan as part of the STS Talks event series organized by the IstanbuLab.
We think that such limited and fragmented history of STS in Turkey would be of interest to scholars, activists and intellectuals interested in the history and structures of knowledge production in Turkey, particularly about scientific and technological practices and policies. Even though it is a very selective and curated collection of artifacts and events, these data exemplify the unique conditions of Turkey in relation to higher education, technopolitics, and how democracy and knowledge production are entangled. However, this collection also underlines the importance of looking beyond the Western contexts when we talk about STS as a field, and taking into account the conditions of non-Western contexts. In this vein, we would encourage further inquiries into other non-Western contexts for STS as they have significant potential to do STS in alternative and creative ways.
We had to sift through and eliminate some artifacts from the exhibits in writing this article. This elimination was partly in order to create a coherent theme to ground our arguments, and partly due to the word limit restrictions. In the end, and through extensive discussion among ourselves, we chose the few that we thought are the most fruitful examples.
The creation and selection of most of the data in this collection relied on our personal and scholarly relationships and, to a certain extent, serendipity. We explain some of these connections in the article text. Some of the people we interviewed or asked to create content for us (like Umut Türem, Can Candan and Fatih Artvinli) are our friends and colleagues that we got to know through certain institutions, such as the schools we went to (primarily Bogazici University). Other data came through during our excavations into the institutional history of the STS, such as the creators of the STS programs in the country.
