Selling the sociotechnical sublime

Critical reflections on introducing STS to managers of a Chilean mining corporation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4447915
AutoresSebastián Ureta (0000-0003-3169-4992, Alberto Hurtado University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen1
Número1
Páginas138-152
Fecha de publicación2018-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaTapuya Latin American Science Technology and Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2572-9861 • E-ISSN: 2572-9861
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/25729861.2018.1485246
OpenAlexW2889092396
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas29

Since its very beginning, science and technology studies (STS) has focused on the complex dynamics involved in the transnational mobilization of scientific knowledge. Beyond their merits, until recently, such analyses have been devoid of reflexivity about the global travels of STS as such, and the differences its practitioners and concepts make at their point of destination. To begin filling this void, this paper uses the method of autoethnography to critically analyze one tiny episode on the movement of STS to Chile: two presentations made by the author to managers of a Chilean mining corporation. Focused on trying to obtain access to carry out fieldwork on the mine’s premises, in such presentations, STS was introduced in the form of a sociotechnical sublime, an enactment looking to generate in the audience a mixture of awe about the possibilities involved in STS-based analyses to increase the mine’s sustainability, and fear about the imminent risks of not adopting an STS-lens rapidly. Such a move ended up greatly instrumentalizing and depolitizing STS, opening urgent questions about the political ontology of researchers when making STS travel

Aesthetics · Autoethnography · Corporation · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Knowledge management · Ontology · Political science · Politics · Posthuman · Public relations · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Sociotechnical system · Sublime · Sustainability · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Computer Science · Engineering · Law · Polar Research and Ecology · Science Education and Perceptions