Working at the Edges of Institutions During their Transformations: A Response to Sharon Traweek

  • Sandra Harding

Abstract

In the 2020 Prague Virtual Conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), Sharon Traweek was awarded the society’s John D. Bernal Prize jointly with Langdon Winner. The Bernal Prize is awarded annually to individuals who have made distinguished contributions to the field of STS. Prize recipients include founders of the field of STS, along with outstanding scholars who have devoted their careers to the understanding of the social dimensions of science and technology. This essay is a commentary on Traweek’s work from the perspective of Sandra Harding with respect to their shared backdrop of the science wars, the value of standpoint theory and of Traweek’s ‘meshworks,’ and their work in different non-US/European STS contexts.

 

References

Ashman, Keith M. and Philip S. Baringer, eds. 2001. After the Science Wars: Science and the Study of Science. London: Routledge.

Gross, Paul R. and Norman Levitt. 1994. Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Harding, Sandra, ed. 1992. The ‘Racial’ Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

⸻. 1996. “Science is ‘Good to Think With.’” In Science Wars, edited by Andrew Ross. Durham: Duke University Press. 16–28.

⸻. ed. 2011. The Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies Reader. Durham: Duke University Press.

Kuhn, Thomas. 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ross, Andrew, ed. 1996. Science Wars. Durham: Duke University Press.

Sokal, Alan D. 1996. “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity.” Social Text 46–47, p. 216–252. (Simultaneously published in Ross, above).

Traweek, Sharon. 1988. Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Published
22 Dec 2021
Section
Engagements