Technological Choices: American and European Experiences; Conference: Indiana University, Bloomington, April 12-14, 1990

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This three-day conference will explore the ethics, values and interests behind technology-in-the-making. Researchers from the United States and Western Europe will focus their attention on the cultural, political, economic and technical factors that shape choices to develop some scientific and technological possibilities but to ignore or suppress others. Presenters will provide case studies of particular scientific and technological developments, and encourage comparisons and contrasts of these changes in different national settings and technological sectors (manufacturing, information, military, domestic, reproductive, scientific). These comparisons should allow for informed reassessments to several models of scientific and technological choice: from "technological determinism," where the logic of technical efficiency and rationality are thought to guide choices that, once made and implemented, have diverse consequences for society, to the more voluntaristic "social constructivism," where ethical, political, organizational and economic factors are thought to be embedded in these choices. These theoretical issues are at the core of social studies of science and technology today, and this conference brings key contributors together in an American setting for the first time. A published volume of the proceedings will result. This project allows a highly qualified group of researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds in the United States and Europe to address theoretical issues in science and technology studies by considering cross-cultural cases of scientific and technological developments. The principal investigators and conference participants are well qualified; institutional support is very good. A volume of general interest to the field will result. The budget request is modest. Support is recommended.