European Studies on Society, Science and Technology

Innovation Systems, Social and Ecological Change

The objective of the specialisation on “Innovation Systems, Social and Ecological Change” is to stimulate a rethinking of sustainable development from the perspective of the globalising learning economy. These topics can be formulated within three interdependent themes:

1. Innovation Systems and Sustainable Development
2. Ecological Change – Experiences from Greening of Industry, Organic Farming and Energy Production
3. Green Innovation Policy, Public Participation, and Environmental Impact Assessment

Economics and Management of Innovation

This specialisation analyses the effects of public and private management on innovation performance and the effects of innovation within the economic process from different perspectives like economic theory, management, public policy, etc. It is a good option for those graduates who wish to focus their career and/or research on the field of innovation. The specialisation is aimed at graduates and engineers in any discipline. A basis in economics is are especially valued.

Science and Public Policy

One of the most striking developments of contemporary governance is its increasing engagement with the world of science. This specialisation deals with the science-policy interaction by combining insights and methods from science and technology studies with those of public policy analysis (political science, political sociology, institutional economics). This specialisation allows students to concentrate on case studies of specific interest to them but analysed using a mix of tools provided through lectures, seminar discussions, and assignments.

The Theory and Practice of Risk Society
This specialisation addresses the notion of the risk society in different areas of practice. It combines various theoretical, philosophical, and empirical approaches. The main idea is to focus on:

1. Broader perspectives within which a heightened understanding of technoscientific risks can be better developed (modernity, capitalism, gender issues).
2. Specific examples of technoscientific innovations which permeate through society and provoke social controversies. The main areas of concern are: medicine, ecology, food networks.

1. Philosophy and History of Science and Technology

This specialisation focuses on the history and philosophy of science and technology. It draws on a large group of specialists in ancient and modern philosophy, philosophy of knowledge, analytic and continental philosophy of science as well as various historians of science (senior and junior) including specialists in the history of science and technology in local contexts. The specialisation is especially appropriate for international students who want to work on topics related to the history of science and technology in the European periphery.

2. Science, Technology and Sustainability: North-South Comparison
The specialisation aims at providing an in-depth understanding of sustainability issues as they may be connected to specific technological and scientific artifacts and infrastructures. The emphasis will be placed on artifacts and technological-scientific networks of relevance to renewable and conventional energy, transportation, ICT, water management, infrastructures supporting natural conservation and biodiversity. Students will study and research how socio-technical changes interact with geopolitical variables, through a comparison of the experiences with technology and science in the European north and south.

3. Digital Technology in Society
This specialisation is designed for students interested in the study of emerging technologies and their enabling and disabling dimensions. It starts with a historical introduction to computing, automation, communication and related technologies, followed by an introduction to STS approaches of the study of ability and disability. Special attention is paid to the study of competing socio-technical orientations and socio-technical trade-offs, as they interact with the transformation of existing disabilities and abilities or the emergence of new ones.

4. Law, Science and Technology
This specialisation aims to show the interrelations and co-production of law with techno-sciences. Following the co-production idiom as developed by Sheila Jasan off the specialisation sheds light on the institutions and actors that shape and construct innovation laws, regulatory science and civic epistemologies. The emphasis will be on how national and transnational institutions that produce science and technology policy think and act. State and Governmental Departments, Parliamentary Committees, City Councils Committees as well as Law Courts will be studied as loci where science and technology interact with the law and where techno-scientific and legal cultures are informed and co-constructed.

Innovation Policy and Small States

This specialisation aims to deepen students’ knowledge of the role of the state in supporting and steering innovation processes and on how, in turn, technological innovation affects the functioning of the public sector. The specialisation focuses mostly on the theoretical and practical analyses of public sector innovation capabilities. Estonia offers a unique setting for studying these interrelations  as it is one of the most dynamic and digitalised countries in the world and a forerunner in building borderless digital societies and governments (see e-estonia.com, e-resident.gov.ee).

Watermanagement and water uses: public participation, stakeholders' involvement and the role of science

This specialisation presents water as a resource that crosses several boundaries: areas of knowledge (environmental engineering, hydrogeology, hydrology, sociology, governance and policy studies, developmental studies), different actors (users, policy makers, scientists), institutions (in different territorial levels), and cultural elements. The specialisation’s strength is a comparison of cases and an interdisciplinary approach based in STS and participation approaches and dialogic perspectives.

Ethical and Philosophical Stakes of the Sciences in Societies

In the last decades, the space occupied by science in our society has profoundly changed. The neutrality of science, epistemological and social, has been called into question. Integrated to research development, science is now sometimes considered as a simple element of a particular economic system. Such a position calls for a critical analysis. The complexity of the sciences and societies relations implies epistemological studies that aim to better specify the originality of science as a knowledge system. In addition, each particular technology interferes with social mechanisms according to modes that call for an ethical evaluation.

1. Science and Technology in Politics and Society

This specialisation focuses on the following three main topics:

• The Climate Society: Knowledge, Politics and Practices of Transformation
• The Good Economy: Values and Controversies in politics of the environment, politics of care and the life sciences
• Social Media, Digital STS, Market Research and The Public

2. Innovation and Global Challenges
Science and innovation are called upon to solve some of the most pressing problems of world today, such as economic development, climate change and global health. But why does economic growth differ so much in the first place? Can university-based research really solve health problems in developing countries? Why do current climate change solutions to such a high degree emphasize development of new technologies? The course will focus on four main topics:

• Differences in growth and dynamics
• System transition
• The role of public research organizations
• Management of innovation

1. Atmospheric Sciences in the Anthropocene
   The aim of the course is twofold: On the one hand, it will provide students with  elements of the history of the environmental sciences, and second, it will provide an  overview of the recent debates about climate engineering and possible alternatives.  The first part of the course will treat the emergence of environmental sciences and  environmentalism during the Cold War and examine the links between military research  and the environmental sciences. The main part will focus on the more recent debates  about climate change and trace the main actors and arguments for and against climate  engineering. It will subsequently treat questions, like: What are the alternatives to a  technological fix? How could adaptation to climate change work out? How could we  come up with new ways of knowing that encourage people to become more active in  dealing with climate change? 

2. Evolutionary approach to science and innovation policies

   Science and innovation policies are increasingly justified in economic terms: science turning into innovation would be a source of growth and employment. These arguments dominate both political and media discourse. However, these discourses are explicitly or implicitly based on a ‘Novlangue’ (‘Newspeak’, Fitoussi, 2020), impoverishing the language, the concepts and consequently the ways of thinking and designing these policies. This course proposes to develop critical analyses of these economic arguments by proposing at least one alternative socio-economic approach: the evolutionary and institutional approach. The course will cover all of these aspects: from design to the measurement of their impacts. Applying students should have some prior knowledge in economics.

Science and Environment in Society; Science and Environmental Communication

This specialisation combines insights and methods from STS with those from related fields of environmental analysis (sociology, policy studies). It deals with environmental challenges in close connection with fields like STS and science communication. It also looks specifically at the role of scientific expertise in the context of environmental policy making and how such expertise is communicated and perceived within society. The specialisation allows students to concentrate on case studies of specific interest to them using a mix of tools provided through lectures, seminar discussions, and assignments.