Technoscience Studies (BTH)

This is an archive for the former research division of Technoscience Studies, Technology and Aesthetics (DITE) at the Faculty of Computing at Blekinge Institute of Technology.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO TECHNOSCIENCE STUDIES AT BTH

Decision on the closure of the PhD program TechnoScience Studies, 22 October 2015
D119/15 (Dean's decision)
Reasons for closure
”The goal is to develop a complete research and educational environment in the field of media technology, where current research in TechnoScience Studies can be integrated. Due to this, the PhD program of TechnoScience Studies is discontinued.”

(Still, in 2023 no research unit in Media Technology exists.)

Recruitment of 2 full professors
Vacancy announcement 2015 11 24
Professor in media technology with a focus on design in digital media at BTH
/ Design in digital media refers to shaping (gestaltung) and reality-producing processes where digital, physical and social materials are combined into desirable wholeness.

Professor in media technology with a focus on digital infrastructure
/ Digital infrastructure consists of techniques, frameworks and methods enabling or limiting design work in various media technology expressions.

Full support in the entire recruitment process was given by the responsible dean and the vice-chancellor of BTH. Everything was ready to fill the 2 professor chairs with evaluated applicants with scientific competence for the call including feminist technoscience and for the vice-chancellor to sign.

In December 2016, the vice-chancellor of BTH suddenly stopped the appointment of the two professorships. The head of the department resigned.

The department was then 'led' by an acting head of the department, who also functioned as the newly appointed campus rector. Big question marks appeared about what would happen to academic education.

Campus issue and the vice-chancellor of BTH quits early
At the beginning of May 2017, the vice-chancellor proposed to the university board of BTH to decide to close the Karlshamn campus with the full support of the campus rector, who was appointed for 6 months to strengthen the development of the BTH campus in Karlshamn.

At the end of May 2017, the vice-chancellor of BTH was forced to back down and the BTH campus in Karlshamn was to be kept.

The acting head of the department as well campus rector, decided to take a leave of absence to go to the United States. A new acting head of the department was appointed.

On June 16, 2017, the vice-chancellor announced that he intended to quit, and asked the university board to start recruiting a new vice-chancellor.

Background

The activities at ToS began in 1998 in the then Department of Computer Science and Economics with earmarked funds appropriated by the Parliament through the research bill 1996/97:5. A professor chair in ICT and gender research was filled the 1st July 1999. ToS is a new field of technology and engineering and is highly innovative in terms of development of gender research within technoscience, media technology, methodology for ICT related research and innovation system and cluster development.

In addition to research, undergraduate and graduate education the activities embrace work with knowledge networks, campus development, external engagements, internal work at BTH and research collaboration.

ToS is fully integrated into the profile of BTH in terms of both applied IT and interactions in triple helix constellations.

Theoretical stance

One of the aims of Technoscience Studies is to develop complex knowledges about ICT including media technologies as reality-producing technologies as well as of the transformations that follow in its wake. ToS is including perspectives of gender research developed within technoscience.

This presupposes participation in the appurtenant processes of transformation and knowledge production. Seeing ICT as reality-producing technologies rest on the idea that all of us, researchers in the field included, are enmeshed in development processes. No innocent positions exist.

ICT intervenes in and co-creates people's everyday lives. On the other hand, ICT is developed and interpreted and practiced by people. This aim of Technoscience Studies is thus to create theoretical bases as well as practises for developmental processes in ICT-related fields as well as in the context of innovation systems.

The latter has increased in importance for ToS with a strong and upcoming research profile in innovation system and development including a number of international partners. Within international gender research with strong links to the dominant technological fields of our age information and communication technology, biotechnology and material technology there is a widespread understanding of the production of knowledge and technology as processes that take place in distributed systems.

In these days and age knowledge is generated in the overlapping borderland of universities, companies and other regional, national and international entities. These processes are not least apparent in our region Blekinge and affect the way in which BTH carries out R&D work.

The term technoscience connotes this understanding of the production of knowledge, technology and reality. The way in which technoscience is defined by internationally leading researchers such as Donna Haraway raises questions about boundaries and transgression of the boundaries between science, technology, politics and society, and between humans and nonhumans as in the processes of hybridisation between people and machines (cyborg theories).

The PhD program of ToS has belonged to the faculty of technology at BTH during 17 years.

Along with research activities based on the individual research projects, ToS also has a joint research programme organised as division seminars and courses in order to develop epistemological competence for theoretical and methodological work. Prospective doctoral students also participate in this research programme.