CONFERENCES
STS – Italia
Italian Society of Science and Technology Studies
2nd General Conference
Genoa (Italy), 2008, June 19-21
CAPTURING PROTEUS:
Technoscience and Knowledge Society in Europe
The second STS-Italia General Conference is named after Proteus, the Greek god able of a thousand metamorphoses, so to escape from those waiting for his prophecy.
Technoscience in contemporary society is like Proteus: it saturates the whole social reality, being at the same time invisible, undistinguishable, impossible to capture. Technoscientific products are not confined to laboratories anymore, but they enter our bodies, workplaces, the way we communicate and we inhabit our spare time.
Science and technology have become a unique device, deeply integrated into the economic system of production. All those elements – basic research, applied research, development, technological innovation – separately framed within a linear system of analyis, are now inextricably intertwined.
The suggestion is to look at the so called ‘knowledge society’ focusing on its technoscientific processes and devices, from the viewpoint of different disciplinary perspectives and aspects of the phenomenon.
Financial and organisational contribution to the conference has been asked so far to the following institutions: European Commission – Science in Society, Genoa City Administration, Liguria Region – Cultural programmes, University of Genoa, Festival of Science.
Programme
Thursday, 19 June 2008 – Aula Magna
Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione, Corso Podestà 2, Genova
11.00 Welcome:
Pino Boero, Head of the Faculty of Education, University of Genoa
Carlo Freccero, Assistant for culture to the Mayor of Genoa
Viviane Willis-Mazzichi, European Commission, “Science & Society”
Luca Guzzetti, STS-Italia
11.30 Plenary Session - Chair: Sveva Avveduto (CNR-Irpps)
Dominique Foray (Polytechnic School of Lausanne, Switzerland):
The Baumol’s Disease and the Nelson’s Cure: How Do Sectors of Production and Services Become ‘Knowledge-driven’
Andrea Bonaccorsi (University of Pisa, Italy):
European Science: Institutions vs. Policies
12.30 Debate
13.00 Lunch break
14.30 Parallel Sessions
1) Working in Technologically Dense Environments: The Techno-organizational Dimension of Knowledge Society (convenors: Attila Bruni, Manuela Perrotta – Trento University);
2) Uncertainty and Governance in Technoscience (convenor: Renata Brandimarte – Bari University and Basilicata University);
3) Gender, Technique and Technoscience (convenor: Michela Nacci – University of L’Aquila);
4) Sociotechnical Processes, Appropriation Techniques and Situated Knowledge (convenor: Giuseppina Pellegrino – Calabria University);
7) Information Infrastructures and Science Producers (convenors: Alessandro Mongili – Cagliari University; Ercole Giap Parini – Calabria University).
16.30 Coffee break
17.00 Plenary Session - Chair: Alessandro Dal Lago (University of Genoa)
Steven Epstein (University of California, San Diego, USA):
Biomedicine and the Politics of
Technoscience;
Lorenza Sebesta (University of Bologna, Campus of Buenos Aires):
International Relations and Technoscientific Societies;
Wiebe Bijker (University of Maastricht, Netherlands):
The Paradox of Scientific Authority - On the Role of Expertise in Technoscientific Societies.
18.30 Debate
Friday, 20 June 2008 - Aula Magna
Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione, Corso Podestà 2, Genova
9.00 Parallel Sessions
3) Gender, Technique and Technoscience (convenor: Michela Nacci - University of L’Aquila);
4) Sociotechnical Processes, Appropriation Techniques and Situated Knowledge (convenor: Giuseppina Pellegrino – Calabria University);
5) Technical Objects and Design: Forms of Innovation in Knowledge Society (convenors: Alvise Mattozzi – IUAV University of Venice; Paolo Volonté – Free University of Bozen);
6) The Role of Images in the Construction of Technoscientific Knowledge (convenor: Federico Neresini – University of Padua);
8) Learning Practices in Contemporary Sciences (convenors: Paolo Landri – CNR-IRPPS Naples; Assunta Viteritti – La Sapienza University of Rome).
11.00 Coffee break
11.30 Plenary Session - Chair: Giunio Luzzatto (University of Genoa)
Mario Biagioli (Harvard University, USA):
Priority, Originality, and Novelty:
How the New is Construed in Science, Patents, and Copyright
Paolo Fabbri (University of Venice IUAV, Italy):
The Semiotics of Technoscience
12.30 Debate
13.00 Lunch break
14.00 Parallel Sessions
1) Working in Technologically Dense Environments: The Techno-organizational Dimension of Knowledge Society (convenors: Attila Bruni, Manuela Perrotta – Trento University);
2) Uncertainty and Governance in Technoscience (convenor: Renata Brandimarte – Bari University and Basilicata University);
6) The Role of Images in the Construction of Technoscientific Knowledge (convenor: Federico Neresini – University of Padua);
7) Information Infrastructures and Science Producers (convenors: Alessandro Mongili – Cagliari University; Ercole Giap Parini – Calabria University);
8) Learning Practices in Contemporary Sciences (convenors: Paolo Landri – CNR-IRPPS Naples; Assunta Viteritti – La Sapienza University of Rome).
16.00 Coffee break
16.30 Plenary Session - Chair: Carlo Penco (University of Genoa)
Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent (University of Paris X, France):
Technoscience and Convergence: Reconfiguring the Map of Knowledge
Mariachiara Tallacchini (Università Cattolica, Italy):
Politics of Ethics and the Construction of the European Identity
17.30 Debate
18.00 Research Report
Piero Bassetti (Fondazione Giannino Bassetti):
Taking European Knowledge Society Seriously
18.30 STS-Italia General Assembly
21.00 Conference Dinner
Saturday, 21 June 2008 – Biblioteca Berio – Sala dei Chierici
Via del Seminario 16, Genova [map]
9.30 Welcome: Marta Vincenzi, Mayor of Genoa
Round Table - Knowledge Society and Democracy: The European Case - Chair: Manuela Arata (Festival della Scienza)
Massimiano Bucchi (University of Trento, Italy):
From deficit to dialogue, from dialogue to participation - and beyond?
Bruna De Marchi (ISIG Istituto di Sociologia
Internazionale di Gorizia, Italy):
Science and Participation: At the Origins of a New Rhetoric
John Krige (Georgia Tech, USA):
Science, Technology, and American
Soft Power
Dominique Pestre (EHESS, France):
Science, Society, and Politics
Peter Weingart (University of Bielefeld, Germany):
Reflections on the dilemma of innovation policy - democratic accountability vs. expert judgement
12.30 Debate & concluding remarks
[HERE THE PARALLEL SESSIONS PROGRAMME]
(Working languages are English in the Plenary sessions, English and Italian in the Parallel sessions, English and Italian with simultaneous translation in the Round Table)
