Helga Nowotny
Biographic Data
| ID | 207461 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helga Nowotny |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helga |
| FAMILY NAME | Nowotny |
| SIGNATURE | NOWOTNY H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Vienna |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3719-4227 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 62 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 870 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 56 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 6 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1973 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The Illusion of Control
The text explores the theme of controlling technology—specifically, the development and deployment of artificial intelligence and generative models like large language models. It reflects on the challenges of maintaining control in the face of technological advancements, drawing parallels with historical attempts to control industrialization. The narrative emphasizes the multifaceted nature of control, extending beyond technical functioning to en…
Eigenzeit. Revisited
Women in Public Life in Austria
This chapter examines some tentative answers to questions arising from data collected in Austria. Austrian public opinion, with a characteristic split between attitude and behavior, accepts the existence of working women and working mothers but envisages different stereotypes regarding working women and men. In the Austrian context highly educated men in top jobs tend also to be among the most conservative regarding female public participation. T…
A Manifesto for Social Progress
At this time when many have lost hope amidst conflicts, terrorism, environmental destruction, economic inequality and the breakdown of democracy, this beautifully written book outlines how to rethink and reform our key institutions - markets, corporations, welfare policies, democratic processes and transnational governance - to create better societies based on core principles of human dignity, sustainability, and justice. This new vision is based…
Questions to
Social Science Infrastructure
Engaging with the political imaginaries of science
The current economic and financial crisis is also a political crisis that requires a rethinking of public engagement with science. In the past, the dominant focus of science, technology and society (STS) has led to a blind spot: political understanding and engagement of policy-makers and politicians with science, which is an integral part of any public engagement. Arguably, it is bound to and emerges from what Ezrahi calls collective political im…
Re-Thinking Science
Selforganization
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Naked Genes
The molecular life sciences are making visible what was once invisible. Yet the more we learn about our own biology, the less we are able to fit this knowledge into an integrated whole. Life is divided into new sub-units and reassembled into new forms: from genes to clones, from embryonic stages to the building-blocks of synthetic biology. Extracted from their scientific and social contexts, these new entities become not only visible but indeed n…
Zeitlichkeit
Naked Genes
Dare to know, dare to tell, dare to play
In her concluding statement summarising the discussions and themes presented during the workshops, lectures and concerts of the Aboagora symposium, Helga Nowotny underlines the need for researchers to be courageous and creative as they rethink the Enlightenment heritage in their various fields of research. Researchers today are part of an enormous epochal transformation in science, technology and institution building, she claims. This is a world …
The Books Forum authors in conversation
Helga Nowotny
emeritus nowadays, is a grand lady in the field that was originally labelled sociology of knowledge, and gradually became better known as STS: science
On Rogers Hollingsworth and Karl H. Muller 'Transforming socio-economics with a new epistemology', Socio-Economic Review, 6 (2008), 395-426
Robert Boyer: The Quest for Theoretical Foundations of Socio-Economics: Epistemology, Methodology or Ontology? Ralph J. Greenspan: A Biological Perspective on Complex Networks for a New Epistemology Renate Mayntz: Networks and Self-Organization: Dissecting the Model of Complex Networks Helga Nowotny: Bargaining, Not Borrowing: On Problem Choice and Problem Space Didier Sornette: Interdisciplinarity in Socio-Economics, Mathematical Analysis and th…
Knowledge for Certainty
How Many Policy Rooms are There
In my response to Andrew Webster's examples I point to certain limitations, while fully supporting the thrust of his argument for a re-engagement of science and technology studies (STS) with policy making. When analyzing the policy implications of knowledge, the larger context must be considered. New criteria, like transparency, have arisen and the tendency for evidence-based policy making has become widespread. The managerial side of policy maki…
Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Innovation
The Public Nature of Science under Assault
Science has development from a self-evident public good to being highly valued in other contexts for different reasons: strengthening the economic competitiveness and, especially in high-tech fields, as a financial investment for future gains. This has been accompanied by a shift from public to private funding with intellectual property rights gaining importance. But in contemporary democracies citizens have also begun to voice their concerns abo…
The Increase of Complexity and its Reduction
Taking the lead from complexity theory and complex systems methodology, the article argues that we are engaged in a contradictory process when encountering, analysing and dealing with complexity. We face opposite tendencies that indicate an in-built dynamic between the increase of complexity and its reduction. The increase partly comes through evolution, defined as the transmission of information and partly from the desire for a human-built world…
À propos de sciences, techniques et société
du site ou, le cas échéant, des conditions générales de la licence souscrite par votre établissement
Democratising expertise and socially robust knowledge
This paper presents arguments for the inherent 'transgressiveness' of expertise. First, it must address issues that can never be reduced to the purely scientific and purely technical, and hence must link up with diverse practices, institutions and actors. Second, it addresses audiences that are never solely composed of fellow-experts, whose expectations and modes of understanding reflect the heterogeneous experience of mixed audiences. Recent dem…
Social Studies of Science and Technology
Re-Thinking Science
Introduction
Time and Social Theory
The paper first discusses fundamental issues raised for social theory by the concept of `social time' and investigates how the concept is delineated from other discipline-embedded ones. The second section reviews the concept of social time in the work of major social theorists, notably Mead, Elias, Giddens and Luhmann. The link or lack thereof to human agency is considered crucial. The third section examines briefly the numerous empirical contrib…
The Increase of Complexity and its Reduction
Taking the lead from complexity theory and complex systems methodology, the article argues that we are engaged in a contradictory process when encountering, analysing and dealing with complexity. We face opposite tendencies that indicate an in-built dynamic between the increase of complexity and its reduction. The increase partly comes through evolution, defined as the transmission of information and partly from the desire for a human-built world…
The place of people in our knowledge
The science system of Western civilization is facing irreversible transformations. These transformations will affect the relationship between the public image of science and the actual practice within the sciences. In a situation in which scientists are increasingly asked ‘what have you lately done for us’, the alleged purity and objectivity of the sciences have to be reconsidered and we have to rethink the place of people in the knowledge produc…
How Many Policy Rooms are There
In my response to Andrew Webster's examples I point to certain limitations, while fully supporting the thrust of his argument for a re-engagement of science and technology studies (STS) with policy making. When analyzing the policy implications of knowledge, the larger context must be considered. New criteria, like transparency, have arisen and the tendency for evidence-based policy making has become widespread. The managerial side of policy maki…
Transgressive Competence
Relying on a powerful collective narrative through which political, legal and social decision-making is guided in the name of science, the authority of scientific experts reaches beyond the boundaries of their certified knowledge base. Therefore, expertise constitutes and is constituted by transgressive competence. The author argues that (1) changes in the decision-making structure of liberal Western democracies and changes in the knowledge produ…
Time, the Modern and Postmodern Experience
Controversies in science
In der Wissenschaftssoziologie haben bisher Probleme der Konsensfindung vergleichsweise starke Beachtung erfahren, während selten danach gefragt wurde, warum wissenschaftliche Differenzen weiterhin bestehen. Eine Untersuchung wissenschaftlicher Kontroversen könnte zur Beantwortung dieser Frage beitragen. Kontroversen entstehen nicht nur, wenn kognitive Differenzen bestehen, sondern vor allem, wenn diese Differenzen unterschiedliche Auswirkungen h…
On the Feasibility of a Cognitive Approach to the Study of Science / Zur Möglichkeit eines kognitiven Ansatzes in der Wissenschaftssoziologie
In diesem Aufsatz werden drei neuere Ansätze in der Wissenschaftsoziologie vorgestellt, die Alternativen zu dem bisher dominanten institutionellen Ansatz darstellen. Obwohl die Ansätze sich in ihren methodologischen und epistemologischen Voraussetzungen, wie auch in ihrer Zielsetzung, voneinander unterscheiden, weisen sie dennoch Gemeinsamkeiten auf, die es erlauben, sie als kognitiven Ansatz auszuweisen. Die Betonung liegt auf kognitiven Prozess…
Striking Gold in the 1990s
The article retraces the social and institutional circumstances that in 1986 led two researchers at the IBM laboratory near Zurich, Müller and Bednorz, to discover high-temperature superconductivity. After confirmation of the unexpected breakthrough an unprecedented mobilization of research groups all over the world took place while simul taneously high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) turned into a subject of intense media interest. The autho…
The new production of knowledge
In this provocative and broad-ranging work, a distinguished team of authors argues that we are now seeing fundamental changes in the ways in which scientific, social and cultural knowledge is produced. They show how this trend marks a distinct shift towards a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices, and policies. Identifying a range of features associated with this new mode…
The Role of the Experts in Developing Public Policy
Information and opposition in Austrian nuclear energy policy
On the Feasibility of a Cognitive Approach to the Study of Science / Zur Möglichkeit eines kognitiven Ansatzes in der Wissenschaftssoziologie
In diesem Aufsatz werden drei neuere Ansätze in der Wissenschaftsoziologie vorgestellt, die Alternativen zu dem bisher dominanten institutionellen Ansatz darstellen. Obwohl die Ansätze sich in ihren methodologischen und epistemologischen Voraussetzungen, wie auch in ihrer Zielsetzung, voneinander unterscheiden, weisen sie dennoch Gemeinsamkeiten auf, die es erlauben, sie als kognitiven Ansatz auszuweisen. Die Betonung liegt auf kognitiven Prozess…
Zur gesellschaftlichen Irrelevanz der Sozialwissenschaften
Zu einer Zeit, in der die Wissenschaften sich höchsten Ansehens und einer entsprechenden Macht- und Privilegienfülle erfreuen, in der füglich von einer Verwissenschaftlichung nicht nur unseres Weltbildes, sondern weiter Bereiche öffentlichen Handelns gesprochen werden kann, mag es zunächst seltsam anmuten, die Frage nach der gesellschaftlichen Relevanz oder Irrelevanz wissenschaftlicher Ideen und Erkenntnisse und ihrer Umsetzung in die Praxis zu …
Controversies in science
In der Wissenschaftssoziologie haben bisher Probleme der Konsensfindung vergleichsweise starke Beachtung erfahren, während selten danach gefragt wurde, warum wissenschaftliche Differenzen weiterhin bestehen. Eine Untersuchung wissenschaftlicher Kontroversen könnte zur Beantwortung dieser Frage beitragen. Kontroversen entstehen nicht nur, wenn kognitive Differenzen bestehen, sondern vor allem, wenn diese Differenzen unterschiedliche Auswirkungen h…
Information and opposition in Austrian nuclear energy policy
Counter-Movements in the Sciences
The Role of the Experts in Developing Public Policy
Experts and Their Expertise
Experts in a Participatory Experiment
Nie von Zeit allein
Wie Männlich ist die Wissenschaft
Ausgehend vom Elias’schen Ansatz,Etablierte und Außenseiter in ihren wechselnden Abhängigkeiten gegenüberzustellen, zeige ich,vor welchen Problemen Frauen als Außenseiter in einer vom männlichen Establishment geprägten Wissenschaft stehen. Die Institution Wissenschaft bezeichne ich als männlich und nicht — wie sie selbst zu sein wähnt — als merito-kratisch und geschlechtsneutral, weil sie,ausgehend von ihren naturwissenschaftlichen Anfängen im 17…
Marienthal and After
The article traces the contributions of Austrian social science in the inter-war period, comparing it briefly with the time after 1945. It shows how the response to local development was nevertheless closely linked to global ones and how the shift from politically relevant research to policy relevance occurred
Hur manlig är vetenskapen
Med uppkomsten av naturvetenskapen på 1600-talet föddes ett nytt vetenskapsideal — att kontrollera naturen i stället för att betrakta den som människans bundsförvant. Kvinnan ansågs stå närmare naturen än mannenpga sin reproduktivafunktion och underkastades därför såväl kunskapsteoretisk som social dominans. Med sitt växande självmedvetande har kvinnorna reagerat alltmer kritiskt på detta. Vetenskapen som könsblind institution utmanas nu och vi s…
Science and Utopia
Über den Umgang mit Unsicherheit
Mit dem Blick auf die Beziehung von theoretischem Wissen und gesellschaftlicher Praxis versuchen wir das Handeln sozialer Akteure im historischen Prozeß als den Versuch zu verstehen, herausfordernde Verunsicherungen zu bewältigen und Sicherheiten zu schaffen, gesellschaftliche Entwicklung auf diese Weise zu stabilisieren bzw. auf eine bestimmte Ordnung hinzuführen. Die Rolle des Wissens ist in solchen Prozessen so vielfältig wie die Aspekte, die …
The Beginnings of Scientific Modernity
Much of the history of science is written in the genre of success stories. In the early days these used to centre on the lives and genius of Great Men; later followed the intricate unfolding of Progress and Reason. By now we have entered the strategic era: success is described and explained in terms of strategies and decisions taken by actors in a complex play by their ability to exploit, if not manipulate, the visible and invisible hierarchies o…
Selforganization
Selforganization — the Convergence of Ideas An Introduction
Laudatio for Gerald Holton, 1989 Bernal Prize Recipient
Striking Gold in the 1990s
The article retraces the social and institutional circumstances that in 1986 led two researchers at the IBM laboratory near Zurich, Müller and Bednorz, to discover high-temperature superconductivity. After confirmation of the unexpected breakthrough an unprecedented mobilization of research groups all over the world took place while simul taneously high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) turned into a subject of intense media interest. The autho…
Time and Social Theory
The paper first discusses fundamental issues raised for social theory by the concept of `social time' and investigates how the concept is delineated from other discipline-embedded ones. The second section reviews the concept of social time in the work of major social theorists, notably Mead, Elias, Giddens and Luhmann. The link or lack thereof to human agency is considered crucial. The third section examines briefly the numerous empirical contrib…
Socially distributed knowledge
By definition, science meets the public in a space which is public. This paper rests upon the assumption that this space has been considerably extended, and continues to differentiate. Imparting scientific knowledge is highly dynamic, and has led to a process of socially distributed knowledge through which an increasing number of heterogeneous sites in society are being created where knowledge is produced. Five public spaces are presented, rangin…
A Marginal Discipline in the Making
"This paper aims to trace the development of the main strands of sociological thought in Austria, to present characteristic research conducted by Austrian sociologists and to provide an answer to the question which European schools have influenced sociology in Austria and, if this is found to be the case, which Austrian ideas have possibly prevaded European sociology." (excerpt)
The unfinished agenda of modernization
Analyse des courants et des tendances actuelles dans la sociologie europeenne : modernisation, evolution du discours scientifique
Self-Organization
The new production of knowledge
In this provocative and broad-ranging work, a distinguished team of authors argues that we are now seeing fundamental changes in the ways in which scientific, social and cultural knowledge is produced. They show how this trend marks a distinct shift towards a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming established institutions, disciplines, practices, and policies. Identifying a range of features associated with this new mode…
Political science (34 works) · Sociology (32 works) · Philosophy (24 works) · Law (19 works) · Epistemology (17 works) · Social science (17 works) · Computer Science (12 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Economics (9 works) · Humanities (8 works)