Lecture

Controversy Analysis: Controversy Studies

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In course

HUM-428: Science, technology and environment I

The aim of the course is to acquire the concepts and methods of Science and Technology Studies in order to learn how to decode the interweaving of science and technology in society by applying these elements to the general issues of innovation. ...

Description

This lecture delves into the analysis of controversies in scientific groups, exploring how multiple theories can coexist due to factors like aesthetics and professional interests. It discusses the rivalries between social groups, interpretive flexibility, and the role of professional investments. The lecture also covers the taxonomy in anthropology, the interests driving actors in scientific controversies, and the closure mechanisms of controversies. It examines the relationship between controversies, social structures, and the stabilization of technologies, as well as the impact of cognitive interests and social mechanisms. Additionally, it explores the role of controversies in scientific and technical dynamics, the empirical study of sciences and techniques, and the societal relationships intertwined with controversies.

Instructor

Dominique Vinck

Official source

Related concepts (32)

Folk taxonomy

A folk taxonomy is a vernacular naming system, as distinct from scientific taxonomy. Folk biological classification is the way people traditionally describe and organize the world around them, typically making generous use of form taxa such as "shrubs", "bugs", "ducks", "fish", "algae", "vegetables", or of economic criteria such as "game animals", "pack animals", "weeds" and other like terms. Folk taxonomies are generated from social knowledge and are used in everyday speech.

Social structure

In the social sciences, social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals. Likewise, society is believed to be grouped into structurally related groups or sets of roles, with different functions, meanings, or purposes. Examples of social structure include family, religion, law, economy, and class. It contrasts with "social system", which refers to the parent structure in which these various structures are embedded.

Social norm

Social norms are shared standards of acceptable behavior by groups. Social norms can both be informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society, as well as be codified into rules and laws. Social normative influences or social norms, are deemed to be powerful drivers of human behavioural changes and well organized and incorporated by major theories which explain human behaviour. Institutions are composed of multiple norms.

Group cohesiveness

Group cohesiveness, also called group cohesion or social cohesion, arises when bonds link members of a social group to one another and to the group as a whole. Although cohesion is a multi-faceted process, it can be broken down into four main components: social relations, task relations, perceived unity, and emotions. Members of strongly cohesive groups are more inclined to participate readily and to stay with the group. From Neo-Latin cohaesio and French cohésion, in physics, cohesion means "the force that unites the molecules of a liquid or of a solid".

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. Among other things, a taxonomy can be used to organize and index knowledge (stored as documents, articles, videos, etc.), such as in the form of a library classification system, or a search engine taxonomy, so that users can more easily find the information they are searching for.

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