摘要
盖瑞·唐尼(Gary Downeyis)教授是国际上享有盛誉的"科学的社会研究学会"的现任主席(4S;任期至2015),也是STS和工程研究领域的知名学者。本次访谈中,唐尼教授描述了他是如何领导4S学会唤起人们对超越"知识的创造、扩散与利用"这一线性模型之外的STS研究的。他曾是一名机械工程师,后作为文化人类学家从事核能和核废料处理研究。他描述了他如何发展他的"批判性参与"的概念和实践。自1960年代以来,美国工程师就形塑了工程是解决问题的这一主导性意象,唐尼对工程形塑(包括工程教育和培训)的批判性参与就始于对这一主导性意象的批判性分析。他质疑,为何在STS作为一个学术领域的崛起过程中,工程除了作为技术的同义词或对新型技术的异质建构这一隐喻外,仍然在很大程度上是不可见的?这种不可见性又是如何呈现的?他在教学中面临着以下至关重要的困难,即要把那些在工程形塑中被工程是解决问题这一主导意象所遮蔽的对象呈现为有形,并提出另一种作为协作性"问题定义和解决"(PDS)的替代性工程意象。现在他正在通过推动PDS意象和相关实践在工程形塑与工作的本地化领域内扩展,从而将STS知识和专长的"旅行"理论化。唐尼也解释了他如何与其他研究人员一道将"工程研究"建成为一个融合传统和非线性研究的跨学科领域,其关键步骤包括开创"工程研究国际网络"(INES),组织INES论坛,和成功将《工程研究:工程研究的国际网络杂志》(英文)杂志打造成一份SCI索引期刊。
As Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia tech, Professor Gary Downey is current President of the Society for Social Studies of Science(4S; 2013-2015), and a renowned scholar in the fields of STS and engineering studies. In this interview, Professor Downey describes how he is leading 4S initiatives to call attention to STS scholarship that goes beyond the linear model of knowledge creation, diffusion, and utilization, or what Downey calls "nonlinear STS." Having been trained initially as a mechanical engineer and cultural anthropologist studying controversies over nuclear power and nuclear waste disposal, he describes how he developed the concept and practice of "critical participation." His critical participation in engineering formation(engineering education and training) began with critical analysis of the "dominant image" of engineering problem solving as U.S. engineers have understood it since the 1960 s. Downey also questioned how and why engineering remained largely invisible in the emergence of STS as a scholarly field, except as a synonym for technology or as a metaphor for the heterogeneous construction of new technologies. Difficulties he encountered in teaching became crucial sites for making visible what the dominant image of engineering problem solving hid in engineering formation, and nominating an alternative image of engineering as collaborative problem definition and solution(PDS). He is now re-theorizing the "travel" of STS knowledge and expertise by helping the PDS image and associated practices scale up across localized arenas of engineering formation and work. Downey also explains how he joined with other researchers to establish and build Engineering Studies as an interdisciplinary field of research committed to both conventional and nonlinear scholarship. Key steps included founding the International Network for Engineering Studies(INES), organizing INES workshops, and creating the SCI journal Engineering Studies: Journal of the International Network for Engineering Studies.
基金
中科院自然科学史所重点培育方向"水利工程发展史"(Y250013015)