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

这个为期三天的会议将探讨技术制造背后的伦理、价值观和兴趣。来自美国和西欧的研究人员将把注意力集中在文化、政治、经济和技术因素决定选择发展某些科学和技术的可能性，而忽视或压制其他可能性。讲者将提供具体科学和技术发展的个案研究，并鼓励对不同国家环境和技术部门（制造业、信息、军事、家庭、生殖、科学）的这些变化进行比较和对比。这些比较应允许对若干科学和技术选择模式作出知情的重新评估：从“技术决定论”（技术效率和理性的逻辑被认为指导选择，而这些选择一旦做出并实施，就会对社会产生各种各样的后果）到更自愿的“社会建构主义”（社会建构主义），伦理，政治，组织和经济因素被认为是嵌入在这些选择。这些理论问题是当今科学技术社会研究的核心，本次会议首次将主要贡献者聚集在美国。将出版一册诉讼记录。该项目允许来自美国和欧洲不同学科背景的高素质研究人员通过考虑来解决科学技术研究中的理论问题科技发展的跨文化案例。主要研究人员和与会人员均具备良好的资质；制度支持非常好。这将产生一本对该领域普遍感兴趣的书。预算要求是适度的。建议使用Support。

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.