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- Convenor:
-
Esha Shah
(Wageningen University and Research)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
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David Ludwig
- Discussants:
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Harro Maat
(Wageningen University)
Aneesh Aneesh (University of Oregon)
- Format:
- Combined Format Open Panel
Short Abstract:
This panel invites paper presentation and roundtable contributions on the perspectives from the global South that challenge, question, and help rethink Northern-centric theoretical and conceptual core of STS and its relationship with the global South.
Long Abstract:
In the 1980s and 1990s, STS was not uncommonly described as Europe/America centric discipline. Since the turn of millennium, the STS work carried out in developing and emerging economies have multiplied, and yet, the globalisation of STS is conducted as expansion of Euro-American-centric research approaches. The established theoretical and conceptual frameworks of STS have been historically developed primarily to suit to the making and doing of science and technology in western liberal democracies, so when these frameworks are transposed to explain histories or controversies of science and technology in the post-colonies, they do not always fit and create opaque picture of post-colonial societies being examined with the Northern-centric lens. Decolonization of academia from a global perspective implies major transformations of current inequalities in funding, academic positions, and decision making over quality, theory and data ownership, however, our focus for this panel is intellectual asymmetries.
We invite paper presentations on one of the following themes. How can theoretical and empirical contributions from the global South break universalizing ambitions and hegemony of the North-centric STS? How can STS loose its bearings in the North and regain them in the South by establishing dialogues with postcolonial studies, feminist studies, and development studies that are more grounded in the South? How can we incorporate the history of colonialism in examining the history of science and technology globally, more importantly, in understanding colonialism’s role in the making of science and technology in the global North?
We are more interested in decolonial perspectives from the global South that challenge, question, and help rethink established STS than merely case studies from the global South.
In addition to the paper presentations, this panel will also organise a roundtable. Please submit your contribution if you would like to address meta-questions about what STS was/is/can be from the decolonial perspectives.
Accepted contributions:
Session 1Amanda Mokoena (University of Amsterdam)
Short abstract:
Scholars from the Global South, particularly those marginalized by race, gender, and class, face difficulties in contributing to STS. As an intervention, the author advocates for the intentional incorporation of African Feminism(s) and decolonial feminist studies into STS to address these challenges
Long abstract:
The more I engage in Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholarship and meetings in Europe, the more apparent it has become that scholarship from the South is treated as anecdotal and material, stripping it of its epistemological significance and legitimacy as knowledge. My speculation is this is because there are preconceived notions of how, as Othered peoples, we come to know. Western anthropology was developed on the foundation of the exotic Other who taps into exotic spirits and ancestors through rituals and indigenous beliefs. For the European academic with positivist leanings, this is myth-making. It is great material for vignettes, but it could not possibly carry an entire paper let alone be accepted as credible theoretical and empirical contributions to global STS. Focusing on the politics of knowledge production and conferencing trends, I demonstrate how despite being multi- and interdisciplinary, in practise North-centric STS struggles to create room for scholars who theorise on the nexus of nature, humans, and more-than-humans in a way that breaks away from the hegemonic processes of knowledge production. In addition to location, these thinkers are also Othered through race, gender, and/or class and these categories are central to both their theorising processes and their subsequent ostracizing from the field of STS. By way of intervention, I grapple with the possibilities of a more intentional and aggressive incorporation of African Feminism(s), and decolonial feminist studies into STS.
Carolina Camacho Villa (University of Lincoln)
Short abstract:
Pluralism is a concept that contests the hegemonic global North narrative about the future role of technology in agriculture. The concept can maintain diversity in the future of farming and embed plural values of care, knowledge and worldviews in technology design and development.
Long abstract:
Pluralism is proposed as a concept that contests the hegemonic global North narrative about the future role of technology in agriculture. Cultural pluralism has been explored by global South scholars to facilitate the integration of indigenous and other excluded groups to the political and educational spaces. In particular, cultural pluralism has been used to challenge the contribution of technology to society. From a pluralistic perspective, technology is not viewed as something that separates the modern Western world (the progress) from pre-modern societies but as artefacts that reflect the diversity of ways in which we do things in different cultural contexts. We find pluralism as a valuable concept to contest the techno-centric narrative, which has dominated agriculture so far and is now shaping the future of agriculture towards emergent technologies such as robotisation. The concept could embrace the rich evidence that agrarian historians and STS scholars discussing past technological transformations have generated. Moreover, it can be a way to respond to the current concerns about the future impacts of emerging technologies. Pluralism in the narratives about the future of agriculture maintains diversity in agriculture's future pathways (even in which technologies such as robots are not included). The concept of technological pluralism is discussed further to explore alternative future roles of robots conceived in plural values of care, knowledge and worldviews. This concept could also help advance the design and development of agricultural robots through alternative technological pathways that integrate the diversity of cultural views, knowledge, and ethical values in agriculture worldwide.
Yiran Gao (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Short abstract:
Based on theoretical frameworks of the public sphere theories and science and technology studies, considering the practices of digital society in China, this research rethinks the global-north-born concepts of the public and the public opinion formed with digital technologies in the global south.
Long abstract:
Digitalization brings new possibilities to the formation of the public sphere, the new public, the new means to shape public discussions, and the new sites where public discussions have taken place. Thus, it is necessary to rethink Habermas’ famous discussions and understandings of the public sphere based on European bourgeois contexts.
Intersecting itself from the theoretical frameworks of the public sphere, science and technology studies, considering the novel cultural, political and economic dimensions of the digital society in China, this research revisits the concepts of the public and the public opinion formed with the development of digital technologies in order to theorize further the multiplicity of the public sphere in the new era.
More specifically, this research seeks to ask: how do the developments of digital technologies form a new public? How do the debates in the public sphere theories and STS frameworks help us understand the alternative concepts? And how does developing alternative conceptions based in the Global South challenge our conventional understandings of STS?
Roli Varma (University of New Mexico)
Short abstract:
We present the manifestations of caste within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) organizations in the United States and its influence on social and economic disparities and exclusion among Indians.
Long abstract:
Caste, deeply ingrained from the Indian subcontinent, continues to impact individuals' lives even after migration to the U.S. This presentation aims to explore the role of caste in shaping scientific and engineering practices, knowledge production, career trajectories, and interactions among Indians working in high-technology companies. By illuminating the perpetuation of social and economic disparities and exclusion within STEM settings, this presentation will contribute to the broader discourse on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. Moreover, it aims to develop a theoretical understanding of how the notion of DEI evolves with the migration of Indians to the U.S., emphasizing the crucial variable of caste. Additionally, the presentation will examine theories of intersectionality, postcolonialism, and the social construction of science by incorporating caste as a significant variable. While existing studies have predominantly focused on gender and race/ethnicity, nationality, and caste have often been overlooked. By including caste as a fundamental aspect, this research will enrich the understanding of the complexities in shaping STEM practices and knowledge production.
Windson Lin (University of Groningen)
Long abstract:
For the past decade, the discourse of “decolonizing STS” has increasingly entered the discipline of Science and Technology Studies. Contributing to this trend, the proposed study aims to provide a reflection and reevaluation of prominent analytic categories from STS. With a case study of the circulation of knowledge between the Global South and the Global North, the study intends to give a new account of Actor-network Theory and Latour’s Modern Constitution from a decolonial perspective.
The study introduces the case of neurasthenia/Shenjing Shuairuo, a medical phenomenon characterized by its movements between Chinese medicine and American psychiatry. The diagnostic term “Shenjing Shuairuo” (nervous weakness) emerged in Republican China when Chinese Medicine was undergoing major transformations under the existential threat of Western medicine. With the term, Chinese doctors conformed to the hegemony of Western science while securing the space for their indigenous medical practice. Conversely, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) re-introduced Shenjing Shuairuo as a Chinese cultural phenomenon into the DSM in the 1990s, to defend their discipline by responding to the criticism of ethnocentrism from medical anthropology.
The paradoxical nature of neurasthenia/Shenjing Shuairuo between scientism and culturalism can provide a new perspective for the Latourian Great Divides, which tends to underestimate the agency of non-Western actors, and Actor-network Theory, which often disregards the impact of coloniality. With a symmetrical analytic structure, the study investigates how coloniality/modernity shaped the epistemic asymmetries of knowledge translation in the middle space between the West and the non-West, as well as between Nature and Culture.
Ilaha Abasli (ISS)
Long abstract:
Shifting the focus from discourses to material-social interactions, this study will explore the engagement of communities (material workers, organizers, brokers) with electronics and plastics. This interaction, driven by necessity, continually evolves as waste and materials garner increased attention from international and local private entities, with their monetary worth rising within circular value chains. In Kenya's electronics and plastics sectors, material pickers and sorters play a pivotal role in preserving the value of materials. This research will give equal consideration to the concept of 'socio-materiality,' which recognizes the inherent entanglement and inseparability of both social and material components.
This research in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Lamu demonstrates that communities engaged in recycling, refurbishing, and repairing have different organizational, social, and political structures; some are politically driven with tighter social cohesion to challenge the current material landfill and ocean waste, mobilize local communities to pressure local governance and connect to the neighboring communities through the ocean, while others have merely profit making and socio-economic drives to recycle the material to support their livelihoods. How the diverse communities engage with materials, politics, and socially (formally and informally) with each other and the implications of this engagement for the larger picture of the Circular Economy in Kenya is mainly understudied. The research specifically concentrates on communities and workers, in order to analyze various aspects of their interactions, power dynamics, division of labor, incentives, and community cohesion in their experiences related to materiality activities such as recycling, refurbishing, and remanufacturing.
Camilo Castillo (University of Gothenburg)
Long abstract:
Due to the increasing research on agrifood systems vulnerabilities, a major area that is gaining attention from STS and social sciences researchers is the management of plant diseases. This is a pressing issue, since currently plant diseases have the potential of turning into epidemics which could affect crops and threaten the global access of people to food. However, there are persistent epistemological and ontological asymmetries in the technoscience interventions to mitigate the impact of plant diseases. The potato is a good exemplar of this situation, because currently both natural and social scientists have tried to anticipate and manage the impact of future diseases that could affect this key crop in the northern Andes in South America.
This paper proposes a decolonial approach to attend to the intellectual and practical asymmetries involved in the management and investigation of responses to potato plant diseases. Taking as departure point the concept of “infrastructure”, which is conventionally defined in STS research as the situated arrangements of people, knowledge and technologies that shape specific forms of action, I show what decolonization could mean for STS research of infrastructures and plant diseases management. For doing so, I draw on Latin American scholarship on ontology and pluriversal politics to challenge the stablished notion of infrastructure in STS. With this I argue about the potential of rethinking infrastructure not only as a concept, but also as a material and practical tool for pluriversal openings that could revitalize future decolonial projects in the diverse spaces where STS research participates.
Meghana Sharma (York University)
Long abstract:
At the core of a universalizing environmental theory lies the question of how one relates, both to oneself, and to one’s immediate environment: how have ethnocultural identities shaped as a consequence of the interactions between individuals and their extractive infrastructures? From an epistemological perspective, it is clear that the pathologization of the subaltern identity has obstructed the potentiality for the development of a self-deterministic one. Therefore, to predicate a Western environmental theory on the assumption that individuals in the not-West replicate the same modes of relationality to their environment as the West would extend the long-standing exploitative nature of science studies to contemporary ecological debates in the Global South.
This presentation will frame relational ethics as an emergent question in discussing how STS scholarship treats ecological crises. Does an awareness of relationality (and its divergences across cultures) arrest the possibility of a globalized environmental consciousness? What consequences does this hold for STS’ neo-orientalist approach to studying indigenous science? This presentation will provide disruptive starting points to these, and other questions, that trouble the directions STS is beginning to shape.