Science and Technology in Society
SATIS
Science and Technology are embedded within society. Whilst social studies of science and technology have shown that they are shaped through social processes, at the same time as structuring those processes in particular ways, a key challenge remains to deepen our understanding of these inter-relations and fully explore their implications.
The focus of our research is to embed science and technology studies more deeply into societal processes and domains of social life. This requires revisiting theoretical and conceptual frameworks for researching science and technology, and supporting the development of research environments for studying science and technology across domains of production and use.
Based in the Department of Sociological Studies, our work is informed by a range of theoretical perspectives and emphasises the importance of undertaking theoretically informed empirical work.
The vast majority of our work is inter-disciplinary, ensuring that we collaborate with - rather than react to - the production of knowledge and artefacts. By bringing together the different imaginations and logics found in social science and science, we are interested in the productive capacity of contrasting worldviews and what this may mean for policy and practice.
Aim
To explore the inter-relations of science and technology with the dynamics of society.
Objectives
- To identify new areas of research and develop new theoretical and methodological frameworks to investigate these;
- To undertake empirical work on substantive topic areas, with and for academic and non-academic communities;
- To build a culture of scholarship and dialogue within the University of Sheffield and beyond;
- To promote and sustain collaboration between sociologists and science and engineering colleagues;
- To run seminars and workshops on selected themes and support new researchers in this area.
Key topic areas
e-government and citizenship
genetic testing and imaging technologies
water & society
e-research methods
synthetic biology
gendering science and technology
change and continuity in scientific communities
knowledge and cultures
ICT in everyday life
new media and the public sphere
Collaborating groups in University of Sheffield
Biological and Environmental Systems Group
PhD students
The research students in SATIS come from a diverse range of backgrounds and prior experiences. As part of SATIS, people can focus on their area of socio-technical interest whilst still studying in a mainstream sociology department, with all the opportunities this promotes. The internal, inter-disciplinary character of the Department also means that students can interact with other students and academics across social policy and social work fields.
Key additional strengths in the Department include childhood studies, masculinities, ethnicity, ageing, criminology, and medical sociology.
- Pinar Kaygan (gendering industrial design)
- Nikki Scheissel (socio-ecological histories of rivers) Joint with APS
- Peggy Haughton (power and expertise in environmental policy work) Joint with TRP
- Richard Newman (socio-technical resilience and flooding) Joint with Civil Engineering
- Kate Bulpin (developing scientific identities) White Rose Network in Science Education
- Joe Smeeton (evidence and power in family courts)
- Ghassan Al- Khatib (ICT in education: gender and socio-economic background)
- Lada Price (media environments in post-communist contexts) Joint with Journalism
SATIS-Lab
The lab space is for the use of students and researchers, to share ideas and be informed of group events. The aim of SATIS-lab is to support participants to become independent researchers in the field. The core activity is the fortnightly meeting, alternating between reading group and group presentations.
By participating, research students in particular can share experiences across different stages of their research/projects; develop further their reading, writing and presenting skills; and gain networking experience.