Student research and teaching
Postgraduate opportunities in Science and Technology Studies at Edinburgh
The field of science and technology studies (STS) has grown steadily since the 1960s. Its emergence was prompted in the first instance by concern to understand better how governments might increase the effectiveness by which new scientific and technological knowledge is translated into economic and industrial growth. This concern is, if anything, even more pressing in the 1990s. At the same time, there is growing popular concern about the 'misuse' of science and technology, and calls for greater public control, for example, over genetic engineering research or the storage of personal information, or for technology assessment to limit environmental degradation.
Social shaping research shows that we cannot take science and technology or their impact on society as 'given'. Instead, complex political, economic and other social forces together shape science and technology, and so govern our choices over them. The field of Science and Technology Studies encompasses a range of different disciplinary approaches and concerns, including the economics of technical change; the sociology of organisations, of science/scientific knowledge and of technology; the management of innovation; and science and technology policy.Edinburgh's postgraduate offerings in Science and Technology Studies reflect these broad approaches and concerns: indeed the breadth of disciplinary approaches distinguishes Edinburgh from other UK centres in the field. We run three programmes. These are described in detail below:
- MSc/Diploma in Science and Technology Studies
- Doctoral Programme of Social and Economic Research on Technology
- PhD opportunities in the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science & Medicine more
The teaching and supervision available at Edinburgh brings students into contact with people who have an established research record in both science studies and technology studies, as well as an established and lively community of other postgraduate students. This represents a very stimulating milieu in which to pursue advanced study on the subject.
Students of STS degrees have moved into a range of spheres in industry, education, government and the voluntary sector. Indeed, there is a real need, articulated by many employers, for people equipped to grapple with the pressing issues surrounding science and technology - as researchers, designers, policy makers, managers and users. This requires new combinations of knowledge, bridging technical fields and the social sciences - combinations which are rarely available at first degree level. Edinburgh's postgraduate programmes in STS help meet this educational need and, more generally, further awareness of the increasingly pervasive and dynamic role of science and technology in modern life. They provide a rare opportunity - for social scientists, scientists and engineers alike - to move into this exciting field.
MSc/Diploma in Science and Technology Studies
The programme lasts for one academic year for full-time students, who take six courses between October and April, then conduct independent supervised study culminating in the preparation of a dissertation in late September. The courses are normally drawn from the following:
* Social and Economic Perspectives on Technology (W Faulkner, R Williams, A Molina)
* Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (D Bloor)
* The Politics and Sociology of Science and Technology (M Kusch, R Williams, W Faulkner)
* The Social Shaping of Information and Communication Technologies (R Williams)
* Sociology of the Environment and Risk (D MacKenzie)
* Gender, Science and Technology (W Faulkner)
* Science in the Enlightenment (J Henry)
* The Management of R&D and Product Innovation (W Faulkner)
* The Management of Technology (J Fleck)
Doctoral Programme of Social and Economic Research on Technology
This programme has been running since 1989 and takes in 3 to 4 students a year from diverse backgrounds. Projects include research on the acquisition of technological capability in industrialising and transitional economies, telecommunications provision, management of strategic innovations, environmental sustainability, gender in computing, management information systems, hacking, multimedia, defence conversion, and space technology. Supervision is currently available for new projects on the social shaping of multimedia, on the knowledge flows and networks involved in innovation, on the sociology of software, and on gender studies of science and technology. Typically, students pursue research training in their first year (as well as developing the research proposal), drawing on the offerings of the Graduate School in Social Science and the substantive courses of the MSc in Science and Technology Studies.
PhDs: History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science and Medicine
Opportunities to conduct in the history, philosophy and sociology of science and medicine build on the expertise of staff in the Science Studies Unit, which was formed in 1966 and designated in 1987 as one of four major UK Centre of Excellence in its field. These disciplinary approaches to science and medicine are conducted mostly, though not exclusively, within a sociology of scientific knowledge perspective. Projects include historical studies of obstetrics and psychiatry, scientific naturalism and ideas of causation, problems of botanical classification, and the development of plant ecology, the development of high-energy physics and modern astronomy, controversies in biology, feminist epistemologies of science, and holistic biology and philosophy. New applicants are encouraged in all areas. Typically, students pursue research training in their first year (as well as developing the research proposal), drawing on the offerings of the Graduate School in Social Science and the substantive courses of the MSc in Science and Technology Studies.
more from the Science Studies Unit
Contact
Graduate Programmes in Science & Technology Studies Graduate School in Social Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, High School Yards Edinburgh EH1 1LZTel: +44/0-131-650-6962 Fax +44/0-131-650-2390
email: Sue.Grant@ed.ac.uk W.Faulkner@ed.ac.uk
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