Selling the sociotechnical sublime: Critical reflections on introducing STS to managers of a Chilean mining corporation

Since its very beginning, science and technology studies (STS) has focused on the complex dynamics involved in the transnational mobilization of scientific knowledge. Beyond their merits, until recently, such analyses have been devoid of reflexivity about the global travels of STS as such, and the differences its practitioners and concepts make at their point of destination. To begin filling this void, this paper uses the method of autoethnography to critically analyze one tiny episode on the movement of STS to Chile: two presentations made by the author to managers of a Chilean mining corporation. Focused on trying to obtain access to carry out fieldwork on the mines premises, in such presentations, STS was introduced in the form of a sociotechnical sublime, an enactment looking to generate in the audience a mixture of awe about the possibilities involved in STS-based analyses to increase the mines sustainability, and fear about the imminent risks of not adopting an STS-lens rapidly. Such a move ended up greatly instrumentalizing and depolitizing STS, opening urgent questions about the political ontology of researchers when making STS travel.

Información de Publicación

Autores:

Sebastián Ureta

Institución: Universidad Alberto Hurtado
Facultad: Ciencias Sociales
Unidad: Sociología
Unidad:

Revista:

Tapuya Latin American Science Technology and Society

Año:

2018

Mes:

Diciembre

Número:

1

Páginas:

83-97

Url de Publicación:

https://doi.org/10.1080/25729861.2018.1485246.