Stephen Hilgartner
Biographic Data
| ID | 185428 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stephen Hilgartner |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stephen |
| FAMILY NAME | Hilgartner |
| SIGNATURE | HILGARTNER S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7791-0833 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1095 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 28 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1984 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Examining media coverage of ethical dimensions of advanced algorithmic technology
The rapid integration of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science into daily life raises ethical concerns and stimulates discussions among stakeholders responsible for their development. Given the media's role in shaping imaginaries of emerging technologies and their acceptance, this paper systematically analyzes media discourse on ethics in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science from 2015 to 2020. Our resu…
Beyond the cybernetic loop: “ Smart” Pain Technology in a Recursive Society
This article examines emerging “smart” pain technologies in the United States. New wearable and implantable devices aim to partly remove human decision-making from pain management, delegating it to more or less closed feedback loops that capture signals directly from the body, process them algorithmically, and administer electrical stimulation to modulate nerve response. This endeavor to create increasingly “closed loop” pain treatment reflects b…
What Time Should We Arrive at the Party? The Historical and the Contemporary in Studies of Science and Technology
Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study
Biotechnology
Science and Democracy: Making Knowledge and Making Power in the Biosciences and Beyond
Historical, philosophical and sociological studies of science have amply demonstrated that scientific change is not just about theory, but as much or even more about new epistemic objects and associated sensibilities. Change may be better understood if we analyze major and minor revolutions in science and the world as the result of chains of smaller changes in actual research practices, thinking and tinkering. Such small changes in research can b…
Constituting large-scale biology: Building a regime of governance in the early years of the Human Genome Project
Novel constitutions? New regimes of openness in synthetic biology
Selective flows of knowledge in technoscientific interaction: Information control in genome research
In recent years, the selective flow of knowledge has emerged as an important topic in historical and social studies of science. Related questions about the production of ignorance have also captured attention under the rubric of agnotology. This paper focuses on information control in interaction, examining how actors seek to control the flow of scientific knowledge as they interact with others, either in face-to-face encounters or in modes of co…
Introduction: The anticipatory state: making policy-relevant knowledge about the future
Anticipatory knowledge is a rich and multifaceted object of investigation by virtue of the epistemic difficulties associated with ensuring its reliability, the blend of descriptive and performative dimensions contained within it, and its complex and often ambiguous temporality. This paper draws attention to the particular importance of anticipatory knowledge within the context of the state, where actors employ this kind of knowledge for, among ot…
Making the Bioeconomy Measurable: Politics of an Emerging Anticipatory Machinery
Overflow and Containment in the Aftermath of Disaster
In reflecting on Hurricane Katrina, so soon after it struck the Gulf Coast,I want to consider what one might expect from the public inquiries andofficial investigations of the disaster. Prediction, whether of meteorologicalor social phenomena, is a risky business, but by now the field of scienceand technology studies (STS) has produced a substantial literature on theinvestigations and official inquiries that follow in the wake of notable dis-aste…
The Credibility of Science on Stage
Election 2000 and the Production of the Unknowable
As the 2000 US Presidential election demonstrated, many of the findings of science and technology studies (S&TS) about calibration, witnessing, credibility, expertise, and technological systems are relevant to the domain of electoral politics. But in addition to providing an occasion for congratulating ourselves on how much we have already learned, the episode surrounding the Florida vote also offers an opportunity to engage in a more critical se…
Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama
Behind the headlines of our time stands an unobtrusive army of science advisors. Panels of scientific, medical, and engineering experts evaluate the safety of the food we eat, the drugs we take, and the cars we drive. But despite the enormous influence of science advice, its authority is often problematic, and struggles over expert advice are thus a crucial aspect of contemporary politics. Science on Stage is a theoretically informed and empirica…
The Sokal Affair in Context
The failure to consider the Sokal affair in light of other, related episodes has contributed to a wholesale misreading of its significance. The episode has often been offered as evidence for the bankruptcy of a broad and diverse collection offields, variously referred to as cultural studies of science, sociology of science, history of science, and science and technology studies. However, when viewed in context, the Sokal affair illustrates pre ci…
Biomolecular Databases: New Communication Regimes for Biology
During the past two decades, computerized biomolecular databases have rapidly expanded and have been prominently integrated into laboratory work in biological sciences. This article offers an exploratory look at the potential significance of these databases as novel tools for scientific communication. The article develops the concept of a science communication regime— a sociotechnical system that constitutes a particular means of scientific commu…
Data Access, Ownership, and Control: Toward Empirical Studies of Access Practices
Issues surrounding data access, ownership, and control raise important issues for science policy. The new sociology of science has examined many features of scientific knowledge and practice, but has made only preliminary efforts to study data access. Building on ethnographic studies of scientific laboratories (and other constructivist work), this article suggests how the new sociology of science can study data access empirically. The article dev…
Health and Health Care in Developing Countries: Sociological Perspectives
Introduction Peter Conrad and Eugene B. Gallagher Part I: the Social Production of Disease 1. The Social Epidemiology of AIDS in Africa: Migrant Labor and Sexually Transmitted Disease Charles W. Hunt 2. Women and Work in Rural Taiwan: Building a Contextual Model Linking Employment and Health Rita S. Gallin Part II: Seeking Medical Care 3. Urgency and Utilization of Emergency Medical Services in Urban Indonesia: A Report and Reflection Peter Conra…
Bad Medicine: The Prescription Drug Industry in the Third World. Milton Silverman , Mia Lydecker , Philip R. Lee
The Journalism of Outrage: Investigative Reporting and Agenda Building in America. David L. Protess , Fay Lomax Cook , Jack C. Doppelt , James S. Ettema , Margaret T. Gordon , Donna R. Leff , Peter Mi…
Owning Scientific and Technical Information: Value and Ethical Issues ed. by Vivian Weil, John W. Snapper
TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 1129 The good points? The book summarizes major STI issues, and the rationales and goals of programs such as ERCs and Small Business Innovation Research. There is a nice, simple discussion of the recent (1960—85) evolution of federal STI thinking: from deterministic, supply-side “produce STI and industry will flourish” (an “appropri ability” strategy) to realization that you have to work actively to get the ri…
Owning Scientific and Technical Information: Value and Ethical Issues
Research Fraud, Misconduct, and the IRB
The Dominant View of Popularization: Conceptual Problems, Political Uses
The culturally-dominant view of the popularization of science rests on a two-stage model: first, scientists develop genuine knowledge; second, popularizers spread streamlined versions to the public. At best, popularization is seen as a low-status educational task of `appropriate simplification'. At worst, it is `pollution' — the distortion of science by outsiders. This paper shows that the dominant view suffers from conceptual problems, and great…
The Rise and Fall of Social Problems: A Public Arenas Model
This paper develops a model of the process through which social problems rise and fall. Treating public attention as a scarce resource, the model emphasizes competition and selection in the media and other arenas of public discourse. Linkages among public arenas produce feedback that drives the growth of social problems. Growth is constrained by the finite "carrying capacities" of public arenas, by competition, and by the need for sustained drama…
Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama
Behind the headlines of our time stands an unobtrusive army of science advisors. Panels of scientific, medical, and engineering experts evaluate the safety of the food we eat, the drugs we take, and the cars we drive. But despite the enormous influence of science advice, its authority is often problematic, and struggles over expert advice are thus a crucial aspect of contemporary politics. Science on Stage is a theoretically informed and empirica…
The Dominant View of Popularization: Conceptual Problems, Political Uses
The culturally-dominant view of the popularization of science rests on a two-stage model: first, scientists develop genuine knowledge; second, popularizers spread streamlined versions to the public. At best, popularization is seen as a low-status educational task of `appropriate simplification'. At worst, it is `pollution' — the distortion of science by outsiders. This paper shows that the dominant view suffers from conceptual problems, and great…
Overflow and Containment in the Aftermath of Disaster
In reflecting on Hurricane Katrina, so soon after it struck the Gulf Coast,I want to consider what one might expect from the public inquiries andofficial investigations of the disaster. Prediction, whether of meteorologicalor social phenomena, is a risky business, but by now the field of scienceand technology studies (STS) has produced a substantial literature on theinvestigations and official inquiries that follow in the wake of notable dis-aste…
Introduction: The anticipatory state: making policy-relevant knowledge about the future
Anticipatory knowledge is a rich and multifaceted object of investigation by virtue of the epistemic difficulties associated with ensuring its reliability, the blend of descriptive and performative dimensions contained within it, and its complex and often ambiguous temporality. This paper draws attention to the particular importance of anticipatory knowledge within the context of the state, where actors employ this kind of knowledge for, among ot…
Data Access, Ownership, and Control: Toward Empirical Studies of Access Practices
Issues surrounding data access, ownership, and control raise important issues for science policy. The new sociology of science has examined many features of scientific knowledge and practice, but has made only preliminary efforts to study data access. Building on ethnographic studies of scientific laboratories (and other constructivist work), this article suggests how the new sociology of science can study data access empirically. The article dev…
Biomolecular Databases: New Communication Regimes for Biology
During the past two decades, computerized biomolecular databases have rapidly expanded and have been prominently integrated into laboratory work in biological sciences. This article offers an exploratory look at the potential significance of these databases as novel tools for scientific communication. The article develops the concept of a science communication regime— a sociotechnical system that constitutes a particular means of scientific commu…
Selective flows of knowledge in technoscientific interaction: Information control in genome research
In recent years, the selective flow of knowledge has emerged as an important topic in historical and social studies of science. Related questions about the production of ignorance have also captured attention under the rubric of agnotology. This paper focuses on information control in interaction, examining how actors seek to control the flow of scientific knowledge as they interact with others, either in face-to-face encounters or in modes of co…
The Credibility of Science on Stage
The Sokal Affair in Context
The failure to consider the Sokal affair in light of other, related episodes has contributed to a wholesale misreading of its significance. The episode has often been offered as evidence for the bankruptcy of a broad and diverse collection offields, variously referred to as cultural studies of science, sociology of science, history of science, and science and technology studies. However, when viewed in context, the Sokal affair illustrates pre ci…
The Journalism of Outrage: Investigative Reporting and Agenda Building in America. David L. Protess , Fay Lomax Cook , Jack C. Doppelt , James S. Ettema , Margaret T. Gordon , Donna R. Leff , Peter Mi…
Election 2000 and the Production of the Unknowable
As the 2000 US Presidential election demonstrated, many of the findings of science and technology studies (S&TS) about calibration, witnessing, credibility, expertise, and technological systems are relevant to the domain of electoral politics. But in addition to providing an occasion for congratulating ourselves on how much we have already learned, the episode surrounding the Florida vote also offers an opportunity to engage in a more critical se…
Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology in America
Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology in America
The Rise and Fall of Social Problems: A Public Arenas Model
This paper develops a model of the process through which social problems rise and fall. Treating public attention as a scarce resource, the model emphasizes competition and selection in the media and other arenas of public discourse. Linkages among public arenas produce feedback that drives the growth of social problems. Growth is constrained by the finite "carrying capacities" of public arenas, by competition, and by the need for sustained drama…
Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 4
Research Fraud, Misconduct, and the IRB
The Dominant View of Popularization: Conceptual Problems, Political Uses
The culturally-dominant view of the popularization of science rests on a two-stage model: first, scientists develop genuine knowledge; second, popularizers spread streamlined versions to the public. At best, popularization is seen as a low-status educational task of `appropriate simplification'. At worst, it is `pollution' — the distortion of science by outsiders. This paper shows that the dominant view suffers from conceptual problems, and great…
Owning Scientific and Technical Information: Value and Ethical Issues ed. by Vivian Weil, John W. Snapper
TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 1129 The good points? The book summarizes major STI issues, and the rationales and goals of programs such as ERCs and Small Business Innovation Research. There is a nice, simple discussion of the recent (1960—85) evolution of federal STI thinking: from deterministic, supply-side “produce STI and industry will flourish” (an “appropri ability” strategy) to realization that you have to work actively to get the ri…
Owning Scientific and Technical Information: Value and Ethical Issues
The Journalism of Outrage: Investigative Reporting and Agenda Building in America. David L. Protess , Fay Lomax Cook , Jack C. Doppelt , James S. Ettema , Margaret T. Gordon , Donna R. Leff , Peter Mi…
Bad Medicine: The Prescription Drug Industry in the Third World. Milton Silverman , Mia Lydecker , Philip R. Lee
Data Access, Ownership, and Control: Toward Empirical Studies of Access Practices
Issues surrounding data access, ownership, and control raise important issues for science policy. The new sociology of science has examined many features of scientific knowledge and practice, but has made only preliminary efforts to study data access. Building on ethnographic studies of scientific laboratories (and other constructivist work), this article suggests how the new sociology of science can study data access empirically. The article dev…
Health and Health Care in Developing Countries: Sociological Perspectives
Introduction Peter Conrad and Eugene B. Gallagher Part I: the Social Production of Disease 1. The Social Epidemiology of AIDS in Africa: Migrant Labor and Sexually Transmitted Disease Charles W. Hunt 2. Women and Work in Rural Taiwan: Building a Contextual Model Linking Employment and Health Rita S. Gallin Part II: Seeking Medical Care 3. Urgency and Utilization of Emergency Medical Services in Urban Indonesia: A Report and Reflection Peter Conra…
Biomolecular Databases: New Communication Regimes for Biology
During the past two decades, computerized biomolecular databases have rapidly expanded and have been prominently integrated into laboratory work in biological sciences. This article offers an exploratory look at the potential significance of these databases as novel tools for scientific communication. The article develops the concept of a science communication regime— a sociotechnical system that constitutes a particular means of scientific commu…
The Sokal Affair in Context
The failure to consider the Sokal affair in light of other, related episodes has contributed to a wholesale misreading of its significance. The episode has often been offered as evidence for the bankruptcy of a broad and diverse collection offields, variously referred to as cultural studies of science, sociology of science, history of science, and science and technology studies. However, when viewed in context, the Sokal affair illustrates pre ci…
Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama
Behind the headlines of our time stands an unobtrusive army of science advisors. Panels of scientific, medical, and engineering experts evaluate the safety of the food we eat, the drugs we take, and the cars we drive. But despite the enormous influence of science advice, its authority is often problematic, and struggles over expert advice are thus a crucial aspect of contemporary politics. Science on Stage is a theoretically informed and empirica…
Election 2000 and the Production of the Unknowable
As the 2000 US Presidential election demonstrated, many of the findings of science and technology studies (S&TS) about calibration, witnessing, credibility, expertise, and technological systems are relevant to the domain of electoral politics. But in addition to providing an occasion for congratulating ourselves on how much we have already learned, the episode surrounding the Florida vote also offers an opportunity to engage in a more critical se…
The Credibility of Science on Stage
Making the Bioeconomy Measurable: Politics of an Emerging Anticipatory Machinery
Overflow and Containment in the Aftermath of Disaster
In reflecting on Hurricane Katrina, so soon after it struck the Gulf Coast,I want to consider what one might expect from the public inquiries andofficial investigations of the disaster. Prediction, whether of meteorologicalor social phenomena, is a risky business, but by now the field of scienceand technology studies (STS) has produced a substantial literature on theinvestigations and official inquiries that follow in the wake of notable dis-aste…
Introduction: The anticipatory state: making policy-relevant knowledge about the future
Anticipatory knowledge is a rich and multifaceted object of investigation by virtue of the epistemic difficulties associated with ensuring its reliability, the blend of descriptive and performative dimensions contained within it, and its complex and often ambiguous temporality. This paper draws attention to the particular importance of anticipatory knowledge within the context of the state, where actors employ this kind of knowledge for, among ot…
Novel constitutions? New regimes of openness in synthetic biology
Selective flows of knowledge in technoscientific interaction: Information control in genome research
In recent years, the selective flow of knowledge has emerged as an important topic in historical and social studies of science. Related questions about the production of ignorance have also captured attention under the rubric of agnotology. This paper focuses on information control in interaction, examining how actors seek to control the flow of scientific knowledge as they interact with others, either in face-to-face encounters or in modes of co…
Constituting large-scale biology: Building a regime of governance in the early years of the Human Genome Project
Biotechnology
Science and Democracy: Making Knowledge and Making Power in the Biosciences and Beyond
Historical, philosophical and sociological studies of science have amply demonstrated that scientific change is not just about theory, but as much or even more about new epistemic objects and associated sensibilities. Change may be better understood if we analyze major and minor revolutions in science and the world as the result of chains of smaller changes in actual research practices, thinking and tinkering. Such small changes in research can b…
Sociology (19 works) · Political science (17 works) · Computer Science (16 works) · Law (10 works) · Politics (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Engineering (6 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Social science (5 works)