Workshop: Exploring New Horizons in STS Research at the Intersection of Science, Technology, Law, and Governance

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides support for a joint German-US workshop that will explore the constitutional dimensions of science and technology in three domains: life sciences, information technology, and economics. The workshop participants will address a number of related questions. What roles do science and technology play in shaping, enacting and/or transforming existing constitutional orders? What implications do they have for changing our understanding of rights, responsibilities, citizenship, governance, and regulation? What can a deepened understanding of the constitutional dimensions of science and technology bring to the theory and practice of law and democratic governance in an increasingly technoscientific world? The workshop will bring together both junior and senior scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to foster transatlantic synergies and collaborations oriented to advancing research in Science and Technology Studies on the interplay of science, technology, law and governance. The conference will take place in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 2017 and will feature about 50 scholars and practitioners from STS and related disciplines. Graduate students and postdocs will be especially supported through dedicated sessions. Workshop outcomes will be made widely accessible via the web. The workshop will generate new teaching and research resources, and scholarly publications, likely in the form of a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal or an edited volume, as well widely disseminated, publicly accessible forms of writing. The workshop will also seek to foster new professional connections including those between scholars and policy practitioners. The conference will draw together recent thinking about the normative dimensions of technoscience and its relation to conventional ideas of constitutional order. In doing so, it will build upon recent work across a number of domains in STS and beyond, including bio-constitutionalism, ontology and governance, infrastructure politics, and critical legal studies. Drawing on scholarship and empirical examples from multiple domains, the workshop will explore cross-cutting themes under the rubric of "technoscientific constitutionalism." By drawing together scholars from Germany and the US, the workshop will invite research on salient forms of cultural variation that shape how emerging forms of science and technology are integrated into, perturb, or alter social and legal order in different constitutional regimes. By bringing together scholars from STS and other disciplines from both Germany and the U.S., the workshop will foster collaboration and pave the way for future research across geographical and disciplinary boundaries. A diverse group of junior and senior scholars will have structured opportunities to work together with more senior scholars, showcase their research and develop new intellectual and professional connections. This award is cofunded by the Office of International Science and Engineering.