Call | 3rd Meeting of the Spanish Network of STS (esCTS)

“What if I don’t buy it?
Unmaking and remaking common worlds”

3rd Meeting of the Spanish Network of STS (esCTS)
19-21 June 2013 | Barcelona

We are in crisis, even though we are not pretty sure what that means, despite the sheer decadence, the rampant precariousness, and the growing conditions of exclusion we live by…

We are in crisis, but maybe we could do something about it, for crises are also fertile moments. However, we are not thinking here of cashing out profits or searching for new joint ventures, but of conceiving and acting us in meetings like this…

We are in crisis, and in order to know what is happening to us we are in need of collective trials. Trials to tackle, to name, to define ‘what’s going on.’ But also trials to outline alternatives –be they more or less clear, more or less beneficial-, or to simply find out frictions and interferences that could make us think and imagine other criteria of what could be done, other ways of doing…

We are in crisis, because some experts tell us so. But also because some others deny it, clarify it, redefine it and they go on and on and on. We are also in crisis because we don’t know which expert to believe and why. Oh, long gone are those days where we could find certainty in the people who know, and surrender to their wisdom in order to be governed by good kings, righteous generals and honest pirates…

We are in crisis, even though it is being said that this is more a swindle than a crisis, because one of the main sources of certainty we had is being made to go through a heavy crisis: the definition of the public sphere as it had been delineated up until now –that technoscientifically regulated part of the life in common hosted by the institutional forms of the social or welfare state- is falling apart…

We are in crisis, but despite the financial mayhem, the endless comment on state debt and international pressure, or the failure of the brick economy, maybe this is a deeper sort of crisis: a crisis of legitimacy of the variegated knowledge-production institutions as we have known them till today; of the stabilised formats for the circulation of knowledge (together with their legal articulation); of the role attributed to experts as neutral and technical consultants or specialists; of the master narratives of innovation, light against darkness, the perpetual search for ‘the new,’ and its uses to justify anything; or of the ubiquity of markets in their manifold forms (including science)…

We are in crisis, and we would like to know how that affects our modes of knowing and the design of our environments, because the movements and the reactions this produces are very interesting: without even noticing it we are being shown the ways of doing that remained hidden, the unquestioned frames of thought, and the supposedly stable sociomaterial tissue we dwelt by. That’s right, the crisis makes visible the materiality of the relational, cruelly exposing us to its frailty, but also offering us an opportunity to go back and reinvent skills, wisdoms and practices long ignored…

We are in crisis, yet this has not generated passivity or inaction but, on the contrary, a brutal proliferation of statements and reactions. Through growing collective agitation new proposals and actions seeking to revitalize the common world are gushing forth, be they proposals to transform expertise or to generate new activist and citizen responses creating new experimental objects, new methodologies and proposals of collective designs…

We are in crisis, but wait… What if I don’t buy it?

Take part!
If you are interested in STS (be it from the fields of history, anthropology, philosophy, sociology, or any other discipline), regardless of your academic position or degree.

How
There are different options

(1) Communication

Send your proposal (max. 250 words) before February 28th 2013
Language: It might be in any of the official languages of the Spanish state, English and Portuguese
Include contact data (name, email address, institution)

(2) Postgraduate workshop

If you are a postgraduate student and instead of a regular communication you would be interested in our postgraduate workshop, this workshop will be dedicated to discuss any aspect of your research process, be it a draft text, a research proposal or methodological and writing issues.

Send us your proposal on what you would like to work on. The proposal should fit the requirements of the regular communications.

(3) Other type of sessions

Send us your proposals and we will discuss them.

Inbox: es.cts.es@gmail.com

Communication acceptance will be notified by April 14th 2013

Spanish Network of STS (esCTS)
The esCTS is a not-for-profit, open and horizontal network of scholars and professionals, whose aim is to put in contact everyone working in the field of STS in the Spanish state. Thus enabling a space for participation, communication and reflection for tenure-track researchers, professionals, young scholars, and graduate students.

Travel grants
Depending on budget availability a limited number of travel grants will be offered to cover travel and allocation expenses. These grants will be offered to those of you whose communication has been accepted and who might have provable economic difficulties to attend the meeting. Selection criteria will be published once the acceptance process is concluded, only in case the number of applicants exceeds the number of grants available.