WORKSHOP: Science, Ethics, and Justice: Reconsiderations and New Directions.

San Francisco State University, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

The increasing complexity and dispersion of ethical issues in research on science, technology and society call for multi-disciplinary involvement in research design and conduct. Yet the epistemological assumptions, skills, and methods for tackling what are termed "ethical" issues vary across fields of scholarship (for example, sociology, philosophy, engineering, computer science, etc.). This workshop takes place on the heels of and extends the discussion of the U.S. Congress' interest to identify the contours of ethics training in science research via the America COMPETES Act of 2007. As a way of focusing the exchange, the workshop brings together science and technology studies scholars with training in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and other fields whose research approaches ethics in science and technology from the perspective of justice. The objectives of the workshop are: 1) To provide a space and dialogue for multi-disciplinary reflection on the relationships among science, knowledge, ethics, and justice. 2) To document shared and divergent approaches to ethics in science and justice with a focus on the meaning and practice of socially and/or politically engaged research. In order to create substantive dialogue across fields, the workshop will be oriented around the three themes situated at the intersection of science, ethics, and justice. These themes are environmental justice, medical science justice, and genomic justice. Workshop participants will explain and share their theoretical frameworks and research methodologies for tackling each topic, thereby promoting a better understanding of the similarities and differences in ethics research. Such an exchange will promote the creation of innovative, multi-disciplinary approaches to the study of ethics in science. The workshop will result in the production of an edited volume and a set of panels for presentation at the 2012 annual meeting of the Society for the Social Studies of Science. The workshop will offer a training opportunity by including graduate students as well as junior and senior scholars as participants.