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Paper short abstract

I reflect on my role as an STS PhD in a project developing a digital sustainability platform for Swiss farmers. Tracing shifting meanings of “project success”, I show how translation work and productive epistemic tensions enabled STS to move from unexpected inclusion toward actual collaboration.

Paper long abstract

In this contribution, I reflect on my engagement as an STS PhD student in the development and assessment of a digital advisory and assessment platform for Swiss organic farmers. Here I trace the evolving meaning of “project success” during 3.5 years of the inter- and transdisciplinary project that brings together backgrounds in Organic Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, Sustainability Assessment & Metrics, Extension Services, Science Communication, User Experience Design, Information Technology, Agricultural Practice and STS.

I show how integrating STS questions and methods into applied projects requires substantial translation and explanatory work by reflecting on how the team’s perception of my contributions evolved: From initial puzzlement, to “nice to have”, to recognition of their practical value and impact. My case study also illustrates that while having an STS perspective on the team fostered reflections on the project’s aims and methods, many of the uncovered tensions could not be fully resolved when the project proposal had not been designed with space to engage with them in mind. In other words, the projectification of (applied) research creates structural challenges that demand critical attention, especially when thinking about the better integration of STS.

Finally, I show how project members were able to hold frictions and unresolved questions in productive tension, enabling collaboration that maintains epistemic diversity while advancing evolving project goals. This capacity to embrace tension and negotiation hints at a concrete pathway for STS engagement to move beyond symbolic inclusion toward genuine collaboration, offering lessons for applied environmental projects.