Abstract

The article is dedicated to re-conceptualization of ideas, implied by the theories of technoscience. In particular, they imply our understanding of technologies as material artifacts and technics, which is not the only possible one. In the same time, the presence of social technologies and innovations, practices of social planning and engineering, humanitarian labs and applied socio-humanitarian knowledge can provide reasonable ground for changes in our ways of speaking about social and human sciences in techno-scientific discourse. The first part of the article presents an updated approach to the key ideas of technoscience theory. In the second part of the article the author develops the historical argumentation for this approach. The practical functions of social sciences are described as follows: professional training for specialists; social critics and applied research; production of ideological concepts; intellectual support for social engineering; enlightenment and formation of humanitarian culture. The author argues that there are close ties between social sciences and practices, and the impact of social knowledge on developing of modern technoculture is being specifically revealed in this context.