Harvard STS Summer School

8/11/2014

A few weeks ago I attended the Harvard STS Summer School 2014, with Sheila Jasanoff, Ben Hurlbut, and a bunch of other incredible people. I had a wonderful time, learned a lot, and they took a brief video of me being pundit-y. Watch after the jump.

Michael Burnam-Fink from Harvard STS on Vimeo.

2 Comments

Beth Burnam

8/11/2014 11:53:53 am

You talk about 'gaps', I always talked about looking at the holes in the Swiss Cheese.... sounds like the same thing.... Like mother, like son!

Tito Carvalho

8/12/2014 06:10:33 pm

Michael, what a great opportunity! I wish that I was there with you all.

I haven't figured this out yet, but there is something about this idea that we are "looking for the gaps" that makes me uncomfortable. I mean, the first intervention of what became known in the U.S. as STS was the *strong* programme, no? --which was developed partly in response to a Mertonian "sociology of error" or "weak sociology of science". I don't mean to equate "gaps" with "errors", again, I haven't pinpointed exactly what makes me uncomfortable about this talk of "gaps", but I can't help but think that gaps are small places for STS-which came out of the strong programme-to reside. It seems like somewhat of a regress.

At the same time, I also cannot help but appreciate what you said about gaps being productive sites for research. This actually reminds me of what Goffman said about our sense of personal identity residing in the cracks. Again, these aren't complete arguments, just sketches of ideas sparked by your short video.

Harvard STS Summer School

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