Vienna STS Talk

Context matters. This fundamental idea at the heart of Science and Technology Studies (STS) takes on particular significance when applied to how states and societies think about and govern security concerns in science and technology. So much of the literature outside of STS on these topics treats science and technology as objectively knowable, discrete entities that are either a force of their own on the national and international stage, or just pawns in the broader political games. In this talk, Sam outlines the mechanisms that states have been used to construct and govern security concerns in science and technology, the assumptions that those mechanisms rest on, some of the problems with them, and what some alternative mechanisms might look like. These governance mechanisms—from export controls to journal publication restrictions—touch on all areas of science and technology. By highlighting several technical areas, such as night vision systems and bioengineering gene drives, he will dive more deeply into the limits of our current abilities to govern security concerns, and how we might reconceptualize what should [not] count as a security concern, to the state and to society as a whole.