SOCI 325: Sociology of Science

Agenda

Theme 4:
Science aligns
with power

  1. Administrative
  2. Final project description
  3. Course themes revisited
  4. Small-group discussions

Administrative

Notes

Getting questions answered

  • For general questions, please use the "Q and A" channel on Teams.
    (Don't be shy: other students will appreciate the information!)
  • For questions about a specific grade on a worksheet, please contact Ken, your TA
  • For any other questions that are private or only relevant to yourself (e.g. perusall grades, accommodations, etc.), please contact me via Teams chat.
    Email will work, too, but I'll usually be faster replying to Teams chat

Accessiblity

  • Course material, including PDFs of slides, should be accessible using a screen reader
  • Please bring up any accessibility issues you encounter!

Final project description

Detailed description:
https://soci325.netlify.app/pages/poster.html

Final project

Scientific poster sessions

Staple of scientific communication

  • Posters are often the first way that scientific findings are presented.

Distinct form of scholarly communication

  • Sessions are usually held at conferences, alongside more ‘prestigious’ oral presentations.
  • Poster sessions are mostly associated with the physical sciences, but they are becoming much more common in the social sciences and humanities.

Our poster session will be online

  • Virtual gallery of (anonymized) posters
A large conference hall full of aisles of scientifi posters. Many people are there, presenting and looking at the posters.

Poster session at the 111th American Society for Microbiology General Meeting, New Orleans, LA, USA.

Final project

Book cover, reads 'Collins and Pinch; The Golem; second edition' Book cover, reads 'Collins and Pinch; The Golem at Large; Waht you should know about Technology'

Topics from Collins and Pinch:

  • Pick one chapter/case from one of the two books
    (available online through the library)
  • The Golem focuses on seven cases from science
  • The Golem at Large focuses on seven cases from technology
  • Limited to 15 students per topic

The Golem
at McGill library

The Golem at Large
at McGill library

Final project

An image of a single poster on a wall at a scientific poster session.

Presenting your topic

  • Posters should use the ideas, theories, and themes from the class to analyze the case.
  • Projects should be more than just a report on what happened—make a case for a particular way of understanding the process and outcomes.
  • What about your case is social, and why does it matter?
  • Posters should be a simplified version of a research paper.

Final project

Poster content

  1. A headline (main point) related to your analysis.
  2. A short text summary explaining what the poster is showing (secondary point).
  3. An analysis of your topic, using at least two of the course themes.
  4. Graphic objects/pictures/ clip art/shapes that support
    the content and/or help your viewers understand how to read the poster.
  5. References to at least four of the class readings to support your analysis.
A grid of 42 black and white photos of ears. Text at the top reads 'Oreille droite - Lobe'

Poster example from a previous year

Final project: Peer assessment

A woman with an emphatic and forceful look on her face, with the caption 'Who allowed you to TAKE MY BREATH AWAY?

Assessment

  • Poster grade will be aggregated from evaluations of four peers plus TA.
  • Each student will assess four posters.

Rubric

  • Knowledge and presentation of the topic (20%)
  • Clarity and strength of argument (24%)
  • Engagement with course themes (24%)
  • Clarity of visual presentation (16%)
  • Appropriateness of references (16%)

Final project: Tasks

A close-up of a handwritten to-do list that has boxes for 'wake up' 'make coffee' 'drink cofee' and 'make more coffee'

Sign up for a topic (Before Oct 2)

Submit your topic (Due Oct 2)

  • Short (max 300 words) description of topic and your general approach

Peer feedback (Oct 30)

  • Discuss your poster with group in class and provide feedback to one another

Submit poster (Dec 2)

  • Upload PDF of your poster to Teams

Submit peer evaluation (Dec 6)

  • Submit your evaluation of the four assigned posters

Course themes

revisited

Course themes

Theme 1: Scientific outcomes are social

  • The discoveries, inventions, publications, and ideas produced by scientists are not outside of
    society.
  • Scientific discoveries are guided by social processes.
  • Scientific discoveries have social implications.
  • The meaning and implications of scientific ideas depends on social context.
Black and white photo of a mushroom cloud resulting from atomic bomb explosion

Mushroom cloud over Nagasaki resulting from atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. in 1945

Course themes

Theme 2: Scientific practice is social

  • Science is done by scientists in social settings.
  • Scientists live in diverse social contexts that influence their behavior, expectations, beliefs, ideals, …
  • Laboratories and other research institutions are themselves social settings.
  • Doing science involves interacting with other scientists, funding agencies, political entities, and non-scientists.
Four people in a scientific lab. One is looking through a microscope. The other three are smiling while looking at a paper document together.

Course themes

Theme 3: Science aligns with power

  • Science is not neutral.
  • Scientific questions, practices, and findings tend to align with prevailing power structures.
  • The veneer of objectivity in science can reinforce oppressive dynamics along racial, gender,
    economic, disability, and geographic lines.
A map of the world, with countries allegedly colored by 'IQ'. North Ameria and Europe are indicated with high IQ, while Africa, Central/South America, and the Middle East are idicated with low IQ. This is an example of racist science.

Map of "IQ estimates" from Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen (2006). (note that this representation has been thoroughly debunked)

Course themes

Theme 4: The history of science is a social history

  • The meaning of ‘science’ has changed over time, and those changes trace historical patterns.
  • The history of Western science is inextricable from the European enlightenment and European colonialism.
  • Contemporary science reflects our current historical moment.
Woodcut print of an apothocary in Renaissance garb examining a vial

Discussion

In person

Online

Find your group

  • Meet with your group members at tables or outside of the classroom. Find the Teams channel for your group.

Find your group

  • Find the Teams channel for your group, and organize there. Can start a video meeting, voice, or only text.

Small-group discussions:

  • Due this Friday, Sept 20
  • Choose one facilitator who will keep the discussion focused and make sure everyone is able to participate.
  • Choose one secretary who will take notes and summarize the group’s responses for submission.
  • Work directly on the document available in your group chat; there is no need to submit the document

Notes:

  • You do not need to reach consensus on the questions. Your write-up should mention the different points your group thought were relevant. One or two paragraphs worth of text per question should be sufficient.
    Please avoid bullet-point format.
  • You can discuss the questions in any order you like, and you do not need to respond to all of them (minimum 2). Read over them before you begin!
  • Refer directly to the text in your responses.

Next class

Scientific norms through a functionalist lens

Required reading

  • Merton (1942)
    The Normative Structure of Science

Image credit

A large conference hall full of aisles of scientifi posters. Many people are there, presenting and looking at the posters.

Photo by Steven Rose via Wikimedia

An image of a single poster on a wall at a scientific poster session.

Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash

A woman with an emphatic and forceful look on her face, with the caption 'Who allowed you to TAKE MY BREATH AWAY?

Still from Booksmart (2019)

A close-up of a handwritten to-do list that has boxes for 'wake up' 'make coffee' 'drink cofee' and 'make more coffee'

Photo by Thomas Bormans on Unsplash

Black and white photo of a mushroom cloud resulting from atomic bomb explosion

Photo via Wikimedia

Four people in a scientific lab. One is looking through a microscope. The other three are smiling while looking at a paper document together.

Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash

A map of the world, with countries allegedly colored by 'IQ'. North Ameria and Europe are indicated with high IQ, while Africa, Central/South America, and the Middle East are idicated with low IQ. This is an example of racist science.

Image via Wikimedia

Woodcut print of an apothocary in Renaissance garb examining a vial

Image via Wellcome Collection

e.g. cold fusion, challenger explosion, detection of gravitational waves The Golem: Edible knowledge: the chemical transfer of memory Two experiments that ‘proved’ the theory of relativity The sun in a test tube: the story of cold fusion The germs of dissent: Louis Pasteur and the origins of life A new window on the universe: the non-detection of gravitational radiation The sex life of the whiptail lizard Set the controls for the heart of the sun: the strange story of the missing solar neutrinos The Golem at Large: A clean kill?: the role of Patriot in the Gulf War The naked launch: assigning blame for the Challenger explosion Crash!: nuclear fuel flasks and anti-misting kerosene on trial The world according to Gold: disputes about the origins of oil Tidings of comfort and joy: Seven Wise Men and the science of economics The science of the lambs: Chernobyl and the Cumbrian sheepfarmers ACTing UP: AIDS cures and lay expertise limited to 15 students per topic

Benjamin (2019), Engineered Inequity: Are Robots Racist? - No way to understand the technology of AI without the social contexts of culture, politics, power, money, etc - A 'purely' technical or scientific explanation is incomplete

Goodyear (2016), The Stem-Cell Scandal - The _doing_ of science bears little resemblance to the uncomplicated ideal of a pure scientific method - Science is done by _people and organizations_ operating within _social institutions_ - Scientific practice is not immune to social forces

Gould (1981), Measuring Heads - If there is one big lesson from 150 years of sociology it is this: institutions and individual behavior inevitably reinforce existing power structures - We are all (yes, _you_) influenced by dominant norms and socialized preconceptions about the world - tools and methods can help, but not completely

Wolfe (2018), Freedom’s Laboratory (Introduction) - What we mean by 'science' (the practice, utility, significance, role, ...) is deeply situated in the current historical moment. - Wolfe: This goes beyond just "what are the important questions." Science is more entangeled with culture than that. - What science is _for_ (creating of useful tools? fulfilling basic curiousity about the universe? Generating expertise as a political resource?) depends on the time and place that is being done. - (like all institutions: govt, military, education, family, ...)