4S Mission

Fostering interdisciplinary and engaged scholarship in social studies of science, technology, and medicine across the globe.

Latest 4S News

Editor(s), Open-Access Journal Engaging Science, Technology, and Society

Published On: Jan 17, 2025

Deadline: Mar 31, 2025

The Publications Committee of the Society for Social Studies of Science solicits nominations and proposals for Editor(s) to lead the 4S-sponsored diamond open access journal, Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. ESTS is a vibrant peer-reviewed venue for addressing how science and technology infuse the world in which we live.
The journal publishes peer-reviewed content in both long-form and short-form genres: original research articles, thematic collections, engagements, perspectives, an...

Nominate 4S Council positions

Published On: May 9, 2025

Deadline: May 16, 2025

As a 4S member you can nominate and self-nominate for upcoming 4S Council positions until May 16:
4S: https://forms.gle/rovFdXdRVKqVKGw58
6S: https://forms.gle/Nca8jZJkGsRoFx4a7
More here: https://4sonline.org/4s_elections_2025.php.

Call for Proposals for Special Issues: STHV

Published On: Mar 7, 2024

Deadline: Jun 21, 2024

The editorial group of Science, Technology, & Human Values announces the journal’s 2024 Call for Proposals for Special Issues. Interested scholars should submit a proposal by 21 June 2024. In August 2024, the editors of ST&HV will choose one Special Issue proposal to proceed. The editors may also select and invite other proposals to proceed as shorter Thematic Collections if suitable. Diversity of contributions from scholars internationally, and at different career stages, is encou...

4S Publications

Science, Technology, and Human Values

For more than forty years, Science, Technology, & Human Values has provided the forum for cutting-edge research and debate in the field of science and technology studies.

Bearly Recognizable: Facial Recognition and the Wild

Emily WandererDepartment of Anthropology, 6614University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
While big tech companies are growing more circumspect about the use of facial recognition for humans, interest in nonhuman facial recognition is surging. The identification...

Between Code and Culture: The Evolving Role of Conversation Designers and UX in AI Development

Elizabeth Rodwell1Department of Information Science Technology, 14743University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
Artificial intelligence (AI)-related technologies available to consumers have been rapidly advancing but without parallel insight into the social process of their design....

Machine's Eye View: Postmodern Data Science and the Politics of Ground Truth

Jathan SadowskiEmerging Technologies Research Lab, Faculty of Information Technology, 2541Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
This paper advances the critical analysis of machine learning by placing it in direct relation with actuarial science as a way to further draw out their shared epistemic...

Agriculture by Algorithm: Big Data, Digitalization, and Biotechnology Under Climate Change

Yıldı‌z Atasoy1Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 1763Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
Based on textual analysis of publicly available documents published by the Food and Agriculture Organization, Bayer, and its partner delivery start-ups, this paper provides...

Making the Global Local: The Case of Chinese Research and Innovation Evaluation Systems

Julia Kirch Kirkegaard, Alan Irwin, Xuan Li

Science, Technology, & Human Values, Ahead of Print.
Starting with China's increasingly prominent role in the global politics of science, this paper considers the case of Chinese policies for the evaluation of Research &...

Engaging Science, Technology and Society

Engaging Science, Technology, & Society is an online, open access publication of The Society for Social Studies of Science.

Transitioning ESTS

Published On: Mar 7 2025

Grant Otsuki, Clément Dréano, Noela Invernizzi, Ali Kenner, Angela Okune, Duygu Kaşdoğan, Sujatha Raman, Tim Schütz, Federico Vasen, Amanda Windle, Emily York

Contributions to this issue focus on a wide range of domains and problematics—environment, extractivism, air pollution, climate change, digitalization, automation, care, surveillance—that offer a thought-provoking commentary...

Volatile Atmosphere: A Tkaronto Archive

Published On: Mar 10 2025

Sophia Jaworski

This article delves into the history of petrochemical-derived gas emissions in Toronto, focusing on their emergence and regulation from the end of World War II and up to 1980. Drawing on archival materials, I trace local knowledge...

Origin Stories of the ‘Grants Uranium District’ in Northwestern New Mexico: Archives, Memoirs, and Exploratory Boreholes in the Production of Geological Regions

Published On: Mar 7 2025

Thomas De Pree

The “Grants uranium district” of northwestern New Mexico yielded more uranium ore than any other mining district in the United States during the Cold War Period (1947-1989). After the national market for uranium collapsed...

Farmers’ Creativity and Cultivated Senses: The Immediacy of Embodied Knowledge in Alternative Agriculture

Published On: Mar 7 2025

Dimas Dwi Laksmana

The Indonesian government has promoted several forms of alternative agriculture in response to the productivity orientation and top-down bureaucratic institutions in intensive agriculture. Implemented in the late 1980s, the Integrated...

4S Blog: Backchannels

Encountering the data lives of the dead

Catriona Brickel
May 23, 2025
Catriona Brickel considers the various ethical dilemmas encountered when studying digital memorials

The stuff of taxonomic nightmares: the frustrating volatility of color

Roos Hopman
May 22, 2025
Roos Hopman reflects on the slippery place of color within natural history

Mixtures: Research Stories on the Zika Virus – An Invitation to Read

Thais Valim, Isadora Valle and Mariana Petruceli
May 19, 2025
In this bilingual post (English and Brazilian Portuguese), Thais Valim, Isadora Valle and Mariana Petruceli present the content and launch of the “Mixtures: Research Stories on the Zika Virus” book, an invitation to read about scientific production on the emblematic Zika virus epidemic in Brazil, through STS lenses.

Locating STS in Southeast Asia: a Belgian migrant looking for a place of belonging

Auriane van der Vaeren
May 05, 2025
A Belgian, trained in STS at the University of Vienna, shares her experience of locating STS hubs in Southeast Asia after moving to Bangkok.

Backchannels content is contributed by our members to highlight news relevant to their work.

STS News

Items submitted by the community and emailed to members monthly.

New Book | Interrogating Development: The Mobilisation of Science, Technologies, and Technical Assistance in Postwar Mexico

May 22, 2025
This volume explores the diverse meanings and ways of implementing development programs and technical assistance projects, through several case studies grounded in Mexico but transcending its geography. Despite – or perhaps because of – claims of “revolutionary nationalism”, Mexico played a crucial international role during the decades following World War II, both by challenging and enacting developmentalist models, values, and projects that stressed national priorities, ...

New Book | Academic Times: Contesting the Chronopolitics of Research

May 22, 2025
This Open Access book explores the hidden politics of time (the 'chronopolitics') that profoundly shapes the contours of academic life and knowledge production in contemporary universities. Moving beyond familiar critiques of academic acceleration, Ulrike Felt explores the diversity of time generators and the resultant complex, multilayered timescapes that govern scholarly work and life. Arguing for a more mindful approach to research, Felt advocates for rethinking academia through the lens of t...

New Book | Reimagining AI For Environmental Justice and Creativity

May 22, 2025
This collection is designed to be a resource for a broad audience with various backgrounds, skills, and interests, including those who may not be familiar with the existing AI landscape. From educational and research contexts to policymaking and activism, we hope the ideas featured here will help us to reflect upon the challenges ahead when building, using and evaluating AI in different contexts. At the heart of these short essays are questions about the current state, and possible future of, cr...

Berggruen Prize Essay Competition

May 22, 2025
The Berggruen Prize Essay Competition, in the amount of $50,000 USD, is calling for essay submissions in English and Chinese on the theme of consciousness. It is given annually by the Berggruen Institute with the goal to stimulate new thinking and innovative concepts while embracing cross-cultural perspectives across fields, disciplines, and geographies. Inspired by the pivotal role essays have played in shaping thought and inquiry, we are inviting essays that follow in the tradition of renowned...