Studies of Science, Technology & Sustainability: Building a Research Agenda

美国和全球向更可持续的方向转变，已成为21世纪的核心政策挑战之一。本次研讨会探讨了科学技术研究（STS）领域的研究如何帮助美国和全球努力实现更大的可持续性。这次研讨会是继哥伦比亚大学学者组织的、由美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）赞助的最近一次会议的目标之后举行的，并有助于进一步推进会议的目标。哥伦比亚会议强调了NSF和其他资助机构开始为可持续性研究领域制定雄心勃勃的议程的必要性。该研讨会的组织是为了发展可持续发展议程的一个重要和及时的部分：即科学、技术和社会之间动态关系的社会和人文研究。研讨会将于2008年初秋在美国国家科学基金会举行，包括为期两天的专题小组讨论、全体会议发言和公开讨论。研讨会内容多样，包括科技史、环境史、环境社会学、技术社会学、科学与知识社会研究、发展人类学、科学与技术政策、环境伦理与哲学、技术哲学等诸多领域的研究成果。这些领域已经对我们的可持续性和环境知识作出了重大贡献，并准备作出更大的贡献。该研讨会极大地推动了与可持续发展有关的STS。它的目的是：(1)评估和突出STS目前对理解可持续发展挑战和可能的解决方案的贡献；(2)制定未来STS研究重点的路线图，以增强该领域对实现可持续转型的贡献；(3)开始形成以可持续发展为导向的STS学者网络，在STS社区内指导和推动这一主题的研究；(4)开始确定将可持续发展的STS研究与可持续发展政策研究联系起来的战略，特别是在科技政策领域。

The transition of the US and the globe toward greater sustainability has emerged as one of the central policy challenges of the 21st century. This workshop examines how research in the field of science and technology studies (STS) can help contribute to US and global efforts to move toward greater sustainability. The workshop follows on and helps further advance the objectives of a recent meeting organized by scholars at Columbia University and sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The Columbia meeting highlighted the need for NSF and other funding agencies to begin to develop an ambitious agenda for the field of sustainability research. The workshop is organized to develop an important and timely piece of the sustainability agenda: namely, social and humanistic studies of the dynamic relationships among science, technology, and society. The workshop takes place at the National Science Foundation in early Fall 2008, consisting of two days of thematic panels, plenary speakers, and open discussions. The workshop is diverse, drawing on research on a wide range of subfields within STS and neighboring fields of scholarly inquiry, including history of technology, environmental history, environmental sociology, sociology of technology, social studies of science and knowledge, anthropology of development, science and technology policy, environmental ethics and philosophy, philosophy of technology, and many others. These fields have already contributed substantially to our knowledge of sustainability and the environment and are poised to contribute even more substantially. The workshop significantly advances STS as it relates to sustainability. It is designed: (1) to assess and highlight the current contributions of STS to understanding the sustainability challenge and possible solutions; (2) to develop a roadmap of future STS research priorities that would enhance the field's contributions to achieving a sustainability transition; (3) to begin to form a network of sustainability-oriented STS scholars that could guide and promote research on this topic within the STS community; and (4) to begin to identify strategies for connecting STS research on sustainability to research on sustainability policy, especially in the arena of science and technology policy.