Method Matters in the Social Study of Technology: Investigating the Biographies of Artifacts and Practices
Method Matters in the Social Study of Technology: Investigating the Biographies of Artifacts and Practices
复制标题
DOI：
10.23987/sts.65532
复制
发表时间：
2019-09
影响因子：
1.2
通讯作者：
S. Hyysalo;N. Pollock;Robin Williams
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. Hyysalo;N. Pollock;Robin Williams
科学和技术研究对技术变革的理解与其主导的研究设计和方法论指导方针不符。例如，从技术研究的社会塑造中获得的一个关键见解是，新技术是在多个相互关联的环境中形成的，由许多不同的参与者群体在很长一段时间内形成。尽管如此，普通的研究设计并没有跟上这些概念上的进展，而是继续求助于密集的局部人种志研究或广泛的历史研究，这两者只能产生对它们所暗示的正在进行的过程的部分和有限的描述。然而，通过纵向和多地点研究模板来扩展当前的方法学和分析方法的兴趣越来越大，其中包括新兴的“文物和实践传记”(BOAP)框架。自1990年代启动以来，BOAP方法现在已经有了许多范例。本文概述了它的基本理论和原则，以及它的重要变化，并讨论了它对STS理解创新，特别是用户主导的创新的贡献。最后，我们认为，如果STS要继续提供对创新的洞察，这将需要对研究设计进行重新概念化，从简单的“快速拍摄”研究转向将“一系列调查”联系在一起。
Science and Technology Studies understandings of technological change are at odds with its own dominant research designs and methodological guidelines. A key insight from the social shaping of technology research, for instance, has been that new technologies are formed in multiple interlinked settings, by many different groups of actors over long periods of time. Nonetheless, common research designs have not kept pace with these conceptual advances, continuing instead to resort to either intensive localised ethnographic engagements or extensive historical studies, both of which can generate only partial and limited accounts of the processes they suggest are at playThere has, however, been increasing interest in extending current methodological and analytical approaches through longitudinal and multi-site research templates, which include the emerging ‘biographies of artifacts and practices’ (BOAP) framework. Since its onset in the 1990s, there are now numerous exemplifications of the BOAP approach. This paper outlines its basic rationale and principles, and its significant variations, and discusses its contribution to STS understandings of innovation, especially user-led innovation. We finish by arguing that if STS is to continue to provide insight around innovation this will require a reconceptualisation of research design, to move from simple ‘snap shot’ studies to the linking together of ‘a string of investigations’.