jueves, 29 de octubre de 2015

Macro Congress at Barcelona about STS!!


As we posted two post ago, next summer the major congress about Science and Technology Studies will be hold in Barcelona (Spain). The title in this ocassion is "Science and Technology by Other Means". For sure, from POBICS we will do our best in order to try to participate in this great event. 

Currently, submision for tracks is open. A track is more than just a communication: is the whole line where all kind of works will be received (Symposium, working papers, communications, documentals, images, etc). The website is just here: http://bit.ly/1NaISRS and information about tracks can be consulted here: http://bit.ly/1MvMFKZ.

In our webpage we will be posting more information as the date approaches. Meanwhile, you can check the basic in our "events" section (http://bit.ly/1DR6pj2).

The congress we will be operated in English preferably, so that anyone can access and participate (other languages can be utilised informally). Here the Congress' motto:

Science & technology by other means: Exploring collectives, spaces and futures.

"Some decades ago several STS scholars defended that science and technology could be considered as ‘politics by other means’. Many years have gone through, and STS researchers are increasingly turning their attention towards proposals and experiences where science and technology are increasingly performed ‘by other means’: in a variety of exploratory activities that include the articulation of collectives that do not fit with the traditional actors in science and technology, or in ways that problematize the established value systems involved in the production of knowledge and technologies –e.g. fostering the creation of open science, DIY design and commons-based p2p projects, citizen science and maker communities, feminist and environmentalist technoscience projects, and many other platforms seeking to create alternatives to public/private technoscientific arrangements-.
Emerging science and technology practices show how public and private actors are being re-assembled along routes that do not follow once established divides: science and technology are increasingly produced by private not-for-profit actors, such as CSOs, patient organizations and new citizens’ collectives, whilst traditional public institutions once entrusted with the mission of ‘producing’ science and technology for the common good, like universities and research centers, are being transformed into for-profit organizations subjected to productivity bonus, austerity measures and new public management accounting principles. These emerging and consolidating phenomena destabilise and re-signify existing public and private spaces, whilst generating new ones. In turn, new technoscientific communities and unexpected political mobilizations are ongoingly opening up, incessantly engendering other contested options, as well as forging routes to explore more democratic and hospitable futures in the times of care, housing, food, financial and environmental crisis.
The joint 2016 4S/EASST conference in Barcelona will be an opportunity to share reflections, ideas, findings and projects on a variety of aspects characterizing these alternative ways to do science and technology: (a) such as the fact that, for instance, all of these transformations usually take place in blurred everyday spaces and not in those enclosed established spaces for science and technology development, such as laboratories or industrial R&D departments; (b) or, in a similar way, the fact that research and innovation processes are increasingly organised in networked, horizontal assemblages where the traditional hierarchies in science are put into question and where science and technology are being co-produced by different actors in different, sometimes antagonistic, ways; (c) and, finally, the fact that traditional boundaries between the public and the private are no longer confined to state and for-profit actors, care practices taking a preeminent presence in most of these everyday situations."


Photo Credit: Jan Jernmark

sábado, 24 de octubre de 2015

Geoffroy de Lagasnerie summary: "Last Lesson Given by Foucault"

We are coming back and now we want to offer a little and brief summary about how was our meeting in order to discuss about the work about Foucault writen by this author. 

We discussed particularly about some key points:

-Differences between Liberalism - Neoliberalism
-Are we still in a "Homo Oeconomicus" rationalism?
-Was then, Foucault, a Neoliberal?


Foucault will say that there is a fundamental difference between liberalism and neoliberalism that Lagasnerie did not collect: labour. In Marxism theories, labour is a work force that you sell and other pays to you. Nonetheless, in Neoliberalism labour is not a work force: it is a truth with which the subject can understood itself.

Main differences Liberalism-Neoliberalism:
Laissez-faire, do not intervene.
Must intervene under the ground.
The homo economicus is a partner with whom you exchange.
Homo Oeconomicus is not a partner, is a businessman himself, he is his own capital, his own business.
Disciplinary Societies.
Control Societies.
Still believe in the totality and universality.
Charge against any principle of totality, backing the plurality.
It is still not as stressed the role of the experts (When the king is removed, we must to be governed by rules).
The role of experts is much more main in all fields.
Economics is a science of prices and resources.
Economics isa science of  rational decisions.



Economics is the space that offers a better veridiction ground. Neoliberalism is adjusted to control societies, it is the place par excellence of government, the structure is always in economic terms. This may not fit with the idea of Deleuze, because he does not see a predominance of one type of place. 

What would today replaced the entrerprise-form, the entrepreneur of itself? Is there a new diagram where the pre-eminence would not be economic, but biological, for instance? How would it be? 



Photo Credit: Karl-Ludwig Poggemann

sábado, 17 de octubre de 2015

New seminary: Geoffroy de Lagasnerie "The Last Lesson Given by Foucault"

As we are announcing along this week, next friday we will hold our first "big seminary" to the 2015-2016 course, and in this opportunity we have chosen this book in order to "close" the Foucault cycle started last year with the Deleuze course about Foucault.

This year, we want to read and to discuss about two main lines after read this book: classics authors from Social Studies of Science and Technology (Latour, Stengers, Woolgar...), and a review about the Michel Serres' work (Le Contrat Naturel, Atlas, Variations sur le Corps).

Having said this, Lagasnerie book is an important chance to understand some other interpretations about Foucault work (different to the deleuzian view, for instance), and also is a good opportunity to link it to current events and ideas we are working. 

In this vein, we think we can learn so much (regardless of whether we agree or not with Lagasnerie) about liberalism using the terms and vocabulary given by Foucault. Undoubtely, it would be an interesting option to add some question to our paper about State of Exception and Capitalism, but to future papers we can discuss it with our current vision and enrich the last one with new ideas. 

Next weekend we will publish the report about this seminary. As always, you are invited and you can tell it to anyone interested in our topics. Meeting we will in the Martín Baro's room, at Social Psychology Department on the Autonomous University of Barcelona (10-23, at 11:00 am). 

Next post we will be about the next EASST Conference which will take place at Barcelona in August-September 2016. POBICS we will participate as organizator and also as a "track" about biorisk and biosurveillance. 

Please,  share this and we would be very happy!


Photo Credit: Thierry Ehrman

lunes, 12 de octubre de 2015

A little piece of our work & ideas: Current inquiries by Marco Maureira

Today's post will be one video that Marco sent this week from Basque Country (where he is living currently) talking about our ideas and our work. Thus, we want to show how we work, what are our research inquiries, and definitely, a little piece of "our within". We hope you enjoy it:



That's all for now. We will very happy if you share our blog or comment with your buddies what are we doing. Check also our webpage: http://pobics.wix.com/pobics



Video Credit: Marco Maureira, member of our research staff.

miércoles, 7 de octubre de 2015

Francisco Tirado's Seminary at CEHIC - UAB: POBICS, Pandemics, Scenarios, Early Warning-Systems and Images. Part II

After publicate the first part of our POBICS presentation at CEHIC-UAB, here we leave the second part about it. We have delayed in the publication due to the big data amount to updload, so we apologize for any inconvenience:

(Do not forget to turn up the volume)



Third part:



Forth part:




If you like our presentation, share it and leave a comment in order to know you and to discuss our works, you are welcome!

On the other hand, we want to invite you to our next seminary, this Tuesday 10-13 at 12:00 in the Ana Garay's room (Social Psychology Department, UAB), to discuss about Walter Benjamin.



Video Credit: POBICS Staff.

lunes, 5 de octubre de 2015

Francisco Tirado's Seminary at CEHIC - UAB: POBICS, Pandemics, Scenarios, Early Warning-Systems and Images

As we were announcing this weekend, here is the recording about our seminary at the CEHIC, presenting our research group, our inquiries, and our research. There are two parts, and in the next post, we will publish the public questions made by the assistants:

(Note: video is in Spanish and probably you must turn up the volume).


Part I:



Part II:


 

Video Credit: POBICS Staff.