The need for an integrated social constructivist approach towards the study of science and technology is outlined. Within such a programme both scientific facts and technological artefacts are to be understood as social constructs. Literature on the sociology of science, the science-technology relationship, and technology studies is reviewed. The empirical programme of relativism within the sociology of scientific knowledge and a recent study of the social construction of technological artefacts are combined to produce the new approach. The concepts of `interpretative flexibility' and `closure mechanism', and the notion of `social group' are developed and illustrated by reference to a study of solar physics and a study of the development of the bicycle. The paper concludes by setting out some of the terrain to be explored in future studies.

No abstract

This article reviews recent work in socio-historical technology studies. Four problems, frequently mentioned in critical debates, are discussed—relativism, reflexivity, theory, and practice. The main body of the article is devoted to a discussion of the latter two problems. Requirements for a theory on socio-technical change are proposed, and one concrete example of a conceptual framework that meets these requirements is discussed. The second point of the article is to argue that present (science and) technology studies are now able to break away from a too academic, internalistic perspective and return to the politically relevant "Science, Technology & Society" issues that informed much of this work more than a decade ago. PrologueOn Monday 16 October 1989, Trevor Pinch and I were driving on Interstate 880 through Oakland, California. The world in which we were living was self-evident and without ambiguities (at least after we had managed to shift to the right lane and thus avoided being forced over the Bay Bridge into San Francisco). We hardly noticed the road while passing over its Nimitz section. We did not notice the pillars of the Cypress Structure, as the double-deck freeway was locally called; we did not notice the houses down by the freeway; nor were we particularly interested in its history. The next day, 17 October 1989 at 5:04 p.m., the earth trembled. I was thrown off my feet and onto the bed on a sixth floor hotel room in Berkeley.

No abstract

No abstract