Science and Technology Studies at Mälardalen University

STS@MDU is an interdisciplinary special interest group of scholars, working at different departments of Mälardalen University and working at the intersections of Science and Technology Studies and other disciplines.

Science and Technology Studies (in short, STS) is a relatively new academic field. Its roots lie in the interwar period and continue into the start of the Cold War, when historians and sociologists of science, and scientists themselves, became interested in the relationship between scientific knowledge, technologies, and society. STS is a heterogeneous body of research that does not assume scientific and technological society as a given, but rather problematizes the relationships between its different aspects. It is characterized by critical thinking that is neither pro-science nor pro-technology, neither anti-science nor anti-technology.

STS@MDU is a forum for interdisciplinary collaborations grounded on an STS perspective and aimed at studying technoscientific phenomena and the multiple relationships with human beings, objects, technologies, animals, soil, nature, culture, and possible others. In particular, the group is interested in exploring issues concerning societal development, as well as wider theoretical questions about for example human-machine interaction, social categorization and artificial intelligence, and digitalization and human values. Other relevant areas in which stronger interactions between engineering and social sciences are crucial are in the field of sustainable transitions and urban transformations.

The special interest group is part of the national STS network and, at MDU, involves the four schools: the School of Business, Society and Engineering (EST); the School of Health, Care and Social Welfare (HVV); the School of Innovation, Design and Engineering (IDT), and the School of Education, Culture and Communication (UKK).

STS@MDU's position statement Pdf, 112.7 kB.