The process of technological change in obstetrics must be understood as contingent on the exigencies of the professional project, rather than in terms simply of improvement or dehumanization of care. Transformation in the procedures by which the female pelvis and the fetal head have been measured illustrate this point. The development of new measurement techniques was profoundly influenced by the shifting locus of obstetric care and by changing professional concerns, including the initial demarcation of a professional practice and subsequent debates (...) about preferred modes of intervention. (shrink)

What is the “conventional sense” of disability, and how do the questions addressed in this special issue of Science, Technology, & Human Values differ from those inspired by Donna Haraway and the cyborg? In industrialized societies, the medical profession has authority over the determination of who should count as disabled while “assistive technologies” enable specific kinds of subject positions. In this special issue of STHV, the focus of the essays as a whole is on the different enactments of disability, as (...) complexity that simultaneously implicates bodies, gender, sexuality, technology, and politics. The study of disability offers scope for refinement and further articulation of many issues of long-standing concern to science, technology, and society. In addition, we hope they will encourage further reflection on our field’s normative engagement. (shrink)

This article deals with the author’s experiences in studying cochlear implantation over a period of some years. While no overt controversy surrounded the device or the practices associated with it in the Netherlands when this work started, studying its introduction became complex. Following others, the research strategy that was evolved might be termed one of mediation and intervention. It entailed treating the views and aspirations of research subjects, clinical and lay, with equal regard. It entailed promotion of dialogue. For reasons (...) that are discussed in the article, the attempt was made to translate this dialogue to the political level. The challenge confronting the author was simultaneously methodological and political. (shrink)

Development of the cochlear implant, discussed in this article, depended vitally on deaf people being persuaded to undergo implantation. Media "reconstruction" of the device as the "bionic ear" was typically encouraged by implant pioneers. Unexpectedly, however, a "counter-rhetoric" based on a very different understanding of deafness emerged. With it, deaf people are slowly succeeding in gaining influence over the further deployment of the technology. The analysis suggests modifications to existing theoretical models of technological change in medicine.

This volume of the Sociology of the Sciences Yearbooks stems from our experience that collaborations between non-scientists and scientists, often initiated by scientists seeking greater social relevance for science, can be of major importance for cognitive development. It seemed to us that it would be useful to explore the conditions under which such collaborations affect scientific change and the nature of the processes involved. This book therefore focuses on a number of instances in which scientists and non-scientists were jointly involved (...) in the genera tion of scientific results at the "interface" of science and society. Despite the considerable variety of cases reported here, a number of questions are central. Under what conditions do such cooperative processes occur? What perceptions of social relevance and what sorts of col laborations with non-scientific groups are involved? How is this collaboration achieved, and through what forums? How can insights into its conditions and mechanisms stabilize such cooperations over a longer period of time? If they are stabilized, do they really affect science, or do they mainly function to shield the rest of the science system against external influences? These questions are pertinent both to intellectual problems in the sociology of science and to the practical concerns of modern science policies. The significance of relations between knowledge producers and knowledge consumers and interest in how these relations affect science and society have changed considerably in recent decades. (shrink)