Doctoral Dissertation Research: Translation Strategies for Mutual Symbiosis in STS-Engineering Collaborations

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

General Audience Summary The goal of this dissertation project will investigate how researchers in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) can work with other stakeholder groups to design and build technological artifacts. The core research question addresses how social scientists work collaboratively and productively with engineers, designers, business owners, and potential end users to produce usable technological artifacts. To address that question, the investigator will conduct a case study of the development and production of an open-source condom vending machine in Kumasi, Ghana. The investigator will use a mix of methods that includes critical making (activities that bridge the gap between critical thinking and physical making), interviews, design workshops, and collaborative documentation. The project has significant potential for making recommendations to designers, and to African health advocacy organizations. Technical Summary STS is moving from its prior status as a technology critic to a more engaged collaborative role. The most successful of these collaborations have been in the area of lay participation, and new extensions have offered emphasis on promoting the legitimacy of lay-citizen perspectives. Important as this approach has been, restricting the role of STS researcher to that of a facilitator who brings lay citizens together with professionals often results in a very narrow deployment of the wide array of possible STS analytic insights and concepts. More direct forms of engagement with varying sets of stakeholders have been developed that include up-streaming, mid-streaming, anticipatory governance, and critical making. Inspired by this new body of work, the project will seek to extend and enhance the collaborative framework in the context of a specific case study, the development of a condom vending machine in the West African nation of Ghana. The investigator will develop an experimental foundation that offers a two-way symbiosis between STS researchers and engineers that will be conducive to long-term, project-based engineering and design interventions.