ARTICLE ABSTRACT: The problem of how to make the transition to a more environmentally and socially sustainable society poses questions about how such far-reaching social change can be brought about. In recent years, lifecourse transitions have been identified by a range of researchers as...Read more
ARTICLE ABSTRACT: In contested areas of environmental research and policy, all stakeholders are likely to claim that their position is scientifically grounded but disagree about the relevant scientific conclusions or the weight of the evidence. In this article, I draw on a year of participant...Read more
ARTICLE ABSTRACT: How to embed reflexivity in public participation in techno-science and to open it up to the agency of publics are key concerns in current debates. There is a risk that engagements become limited to "laboratory experiments," highly controlled and foreclosed by...Read more
In contested areas of environmental research and policy, all stakeholders are likely to claim that their position is scientifically grounded but disagree about the relevant scientific conclusions or the weight of the evidence. In this article, I draw on a year of participant observation and over...Read more
ARTICLE ABSTRACT: In the early 1970s, the idea of precaution "of heeding rather than ignoring scientific evidence of harm when there is uncertainty, and taking action that errs on the side of safety" was so appealing that the US Congress used it as the basis of the toxics provisions of the Clean...Read more
ARTICLE ABSTRACT: Bruno Latour once argued that science laboratories actively modify the wider society by displacing crucial actors outside the laboratory into the "field." This article turns this idea on its head by using the case of geothermal energy utilization to demonstrate that in many...Read more
ARTICLE ABSTRACT: Science literacy is frequently touted as a key to good citizenship. Based on a two-year ethnographic study examining science in the community, the authors suggest that when considering the contribution of scientific activity to the greater good, science must be seen as forming...Read more
The role of the individual scientist as a socialization agent (i.e., an actor who contributes to embedding technology into society) is increasingly emphasized in science policy. This article analyzes offshore wind scientists' narratives about science-technology-society relations and their role...Read more
ARTICLE ABSTRACT: Sociologists of risk tend to presume that populations have static perceptions of risk that can be correlated with their degree of technical expertise or their structural relation to society. Such commentators show little interest in human agency unless it is the agency of...Read more
This 2009 article by Yuko Fujigaki describes the development of Japanese STS from the 1980s up to the planning processes for the 2010 4S Meeting in Tokyo. The article also focuses on analyzing historical case studies (Minamata disease, itai-itai disease, the Monju nuclear power plant incidents)...Read more