Author Archives: Jose A. Cañada

STS Helsinki Seminar – Heta Tarkkala, 27.05, 14:15

We are happy to continue our seminar series in 2021 with a talk by Heta Tarkkala:

27 May, 14:15–15:45 (EEST)

Heta Tarkkala, PhD
Postdoctoral researcher – University of Helsinki

Website: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/heta-tarkkala

Visual arts in the presentation of research results in qualitative social science – reflections on collaboration with an illustrator

In a collaborative project “Faces of Masking” we have the aim to  explore alternative formats of presenting scientific results by using visual arts. As an empirical case, we pay attention to one of the most striking visual features of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic – the facemasks. As visual symbols for the pandemic, masks have also come to play a part in many public discussions. We have decided to explore these ‘mask stories’ published in newspapers and social media.

Our approach to the re-structuring of our social world during the pandemic is a combination of social scientific research and professional illustration. This means we have explored alternative forms of gaining and presenting scientific results by using visual arts. And we have collaborated with the artist already during the analytical process. As a result of this, sketches and illustrations, questions and clarifications have been generated as the analysis has moved forward.

In this presentation I will discuss first, the collaboration with visual artist as well as the input of this collaboration for the analytical process. Second, I will address different illustrations, figures and visualisations in the reporting of scientific research results more generally. This is done in order to think about the visualised scientific results and representations, and their tradition, role, and potential more generally, and to contextualise our own empirical case.

Short bio

Heta Tarkkala is a post doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, where she also defended her thesis in 2019. She is currently working in a project called Datalit, which is an interdisciplinary collaboration between social science, law, and computer science that develops understandable and trustworthy practices for utilizing Finnish health, social, and welfare data.

Heta’s background is in sociology and science and technology studies, and in her work she has concentrated on the issues related to knowledge production in biomedicine, biobanks, utilization of health data as well as the becoming of data driven society. She is also collaborating with researchers Annerose Böhrer, Marie-Kristin Döbler and visual artist Susi Vetter from Germany in a mini-project “Faces of masking” that aims to explore alternative forms of presenting social scientific research results in collaboration with visual artist. It is this project today’s presentation is based on.

Join the seminar via Zoom:

Jose Canada is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: STS Helsinki Seminar – Heta Tarkkala
Time: May 27, 2021 02:00 PM Helsinki

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STS Helsinki Seminar – Mikko Ojanen

We are happy to continue our seminar series in 2021 with a talk by Mikko Ojanen:

29 April, 14:15–15:45 (EEST)

Mikko Ojanen, PhD
Part-time teacher – University of Helsinki Music Research Laboratory, UHMRL
Information specialist – Data Support, Helsinki University Library
Audio engineer, musician, record producer – KrunaUG

Website: https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/mikko-ojanen

Engaging with electronic music technology in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s

The 1960s was a time of intensive interplay between music technological utopia and the contemporary reality. The decade marked a significant turning point in electronic musical instrument design. Both the transistor-based integrated circuits and their digital logic applications in sound synthesis, processing and sequencing methods strongly challenged the prior designs. The development occurred widely in the international contexts – as well as at grass-roots level in local scenes. In Finland, the music technological rupture inspired Mr. Erkki Kurenniemi, one of the pioneers of electronic musical instrument design, to seek new means to implement the novel technology in his strive for utopia. For Kurenniemi, the electronic musical instrument of the future was a tool for realizing automated and algorithmic musical processes.

In this case study on Kurenniemi’s designs, I focus on the users of his electronic musical instruments. Amidst Kurenniemi’s ten unique instruments, my research material consists of approximately 100 musical works realized with Kurenniemi’s instruments by twelve Finnish and Swedish composers and artists, who also collaborated with Kurenniemi. My analysis strengthens the notion that instrument design processes are deeply socially constructed and the implementation of new technology is significantly dependent on the users’ willingness to engage with equipment at hand. The willingness to engage with the technological solutions, on the other hand, is affected by the users’ background.

Here, I identified three points of departures for the artistic work of the users of Kurenniemi’s instruments. Their points of departure were based on 1) fully technologically oriented processes, where technological solution even played the most significant role, on 2) listening-based creative processes employed in real-time interaction with the technology, or on 3) their initial ideas for a work, which then were realized with  the current technological solution. Composers and artists either accepted Kurenniemi’s designs as is, or rejected them altogether. They rarely modified his designs, and the user experiences did not feed back to his design process leaving the instruments in the prototype phase.

Short bio

Mikko Ojanen, PhD, studies music technology – especially the history of electroacoustic music in Finland in the 1960s and 1970s at the University of Helsinki. He works as a part-time lecturer at the university’s Electronic Music Studio and as an information specialist in the Helsinki University Library Data Support. Ojanen also performs frequently as a musician, sound technician and music producer in several electronic, experimental and popular music projects and groups.

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STS Helsinki Seminar – Sampsa Hyysalo, 18.03, 14:15

We are happy to continue our seminar series in in 2021 with a talk by Sampsa Hyysalo:

18 March, 14:15–15:45 (EET)

Sampsa Hyysalo, Professor of Co-Design, Aalto University, School of Art, Design and Architecture

Website: https://people.aalto.fi/sampsa.hyysalo

Method matters in the social study of technology
Investigating the biographies of artifacts and practices.

Science and Technology Studies understandings of technological change are at odds with its own dominant research designs and methodological guidelines. A key insight from social shaping of technology research, for instance, has been that new technologies are formed in multiple, particular (albeit interlinked) settings, by many different groups of actors over long periods of time. Nonetheless, common research designs have not kept pace with these conceptual advances, continuing instead to resort to either intensive localised ethnographic engagements or broad stroke historical studies, unable to address both the intricacy and extent of the process in tandem. There has consequently been increasing interest in extending current methodological and analytical approaches through longitudinal and multi-site research templates. We discuss this fundamentally methodological critique and its implications through one of these approaches: the ‘biographies of artifacts and practices’ (BOAP) framework, which by now offers a twenty years body of studies to reflect upon methodological choices in different sociomaterial settings. This paper outlines the basic principles of BOAP and its significant variations, and discusses its contribution to STS understandings of innovation, especially user roles in innovation. We finish by arguing that if STS is to continue to provide insight around innovation this will require a reconceptualisation of research design, to move from simple ‘snap shot’ studies to the linking together of a string of studies.

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Topic: STS Helsinki seminar series

Time: Mar 18, 2021 02:15 PM Helsinki

 

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STS Helsinki Seminar – Małgorzata Rajtar, 21.01, 16:15

We are happy to continue our seminar series in in 2021 with a talk by Małgorzata Rajtar:

21 January, 16:15–17:45 (EET)

Małgorzata Rajtar, Prof. IFiS/Associate Professor, Institute of Philosophy & Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences/Rare Disease Social Research Center

Website: http://rdsrc.ifispan.pl/en/researcher/malgorzata-rajtar-2/

Health Passports and Vulnerability
The Case of Rare Diseases

Rare diseases have held a special status within health policy of the European Union (EU) since 2000. According to key EU legal documents on this issue, patients who suffer from a rare disease are entitled to the same good quality care as others. Due to the “low prevalence” of each rare disease and simultaneously the large total number of patients affected by them – between 27 and 36 million people in the EU – individuals who belong to this group are regarded as particularly vulnerable.

Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork and insights from two sets of scholarship: (1) bioethical and health policy scholarship on vulnerability, and (2) social science literature on materialities, in this presentation I analyze health policy instruments that are tailored to rare diseases. Specifically, I will focus on so called healthcare passports and alert cards that are aimed at facilitating access to treatment for patients with a rare disease. As rare disease materialities draw biomedical attention to conditions patients live with, these documents may fuel paternalistic and biomedically-biased practices and impinge on patient privacy.

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Topic: STS Helsinki Seminar – Małgorzata Rajtar
Time: Jan 21, 2021 04:15 PM Helsinki

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Local get-together EASST/4S Meeting 2020 in Helsinki

Dear all,

If you are a Finland-based researcher (or happen to be around during the time of the conference) attending the EASST/4S annual meeting between the 18th and the 21st of August, please keep reading. If you are not, remember that they offer a more economic “Non-presenter” registration that gives access to all the panels and sessions of the conference.

STS Helsinki and the Finnish Society for Science and Technology Studies organise the local F2F EASST/4S meeting get-together on Friday, 21st of August from 18 onwards, after Suplenary 1 “Locating matters”, which will take place via Zoom. For those in Helsinki (or visiting), the plan is to meet after the session in Kaisla (Vilhonkatu 4) to share some drinks and reflections on the conference. Participants in other Finnish cities are encouraged to organise parallel meetings!

Since organising a viewing session for the plenary seems unfeasible given the circumstances, some people (those who feel comfortable with it) might want to organise smaller groups to watch the plenary with some company. If you want to find others or help with the coordination of the get-together, please join our WhatsApp chat group.

Please be aware that the actual happening of the get-together depends, of course, on the recommendations and regulations of the Finnish government regarding the pandemic. We hope to get the chance of making the now virtual EASST/4S meeting a bit less virtual!

Best,

The coordinating team

Heta Tarkkala, Jose A. Cañada, and Minna Saariketo

Call for papers: “Science, technology and society” – working group at the Annual conference of the Westermarck Society, 2019

Our yearly working group at the Annual conference of the Westermarck Society (AKA Sosiologipäivät) is back. In 2019, the conference will be held under the theme “Various Faces of Inequalities” at the University of Turku, on 15-16.3.2018. The keynote speakers are: Göran Therborn (University of Cambridge), Melinda Mills (University of Oxford & Nuffield College), Giselinde Kuipers (University of Amsterdam), and Minna van Gerven (University of Twente). Find the abstract and the contact of the coordinators below. Abstract proposals should be sent to the coordinators by the 31st of January, 2019.

9. Science, technology and society

Science and Technology Studies (STS) is an interdisciplinary field of study that examines the interaction between society, science, and technology. STS pays attention to how different fields, such as law, politics, and everyday life, become intertwined with science and technology. This is relevant when thinking about heatedly debated topics as diverse as climate change, the role of experts, medicine, genetics, gender, robotics or organic food. The field calls for a deeper understanding of the development, processes, practices and outcomes of such social phenomena. STS explores the mechanisms behind knowledge claims and ontological assumptions that guide our everyday. Or, how a prominent STS scholar, Steve Woolgar, has said: look at how the world defined by science and technology “could be otherwise”.

STS-Helsinki calls for theoretical, methodological and empirical papers on current research in social studies of science. Papers both in Finnish and English are welcome. The aim of this working group is to offer a forum to discuss the practices that contribute to the shaping of technoscientific objects and subjects. How is scientific knowledge established and negotiated, and how historical processes contribute to the development of certain technologies? We also welcome papers discussing the specific topic of circulations. This working group is defined as a meeting point for both Finnish and international scholars to share and discuss their work with others studying science, technology and society.

Coordinators:

Aaro Tupasela, University of Helsinki. Email: aaro.tupasela (at) helsinki.fi

Mikko Jauho, University of Helsinki. Email: mikko.jauho (at) helsinki.fi

New book: ‘Craft in Biomedical Research: The iPS Cell Technology and the Future of Stem Cell Science’ by Mianna Meskus

The STS Helsinki blog is happy to present and promote the recent publication of the book of one of our members, Associate Professor Mianna Meskus.

The book, titled ‘Craft in Biomedical Research: The iPS Cell Technology and the Future of Stem Cell Science’, tells us about the political and economic expectations placed upon stem cell research by exploring how iPS cell technology has made it possible to turn human skin and blood cells into pluripotent stem cells. These biotechnological advancements provide with unprecedented opportunities to study the pathophysiology of diseases, understand human developmental biology and generate new forms of therapy. Mianna Meskus approaches the topic by discussing non-human agency, the embodied and affective basis of knowledge production, and the material politics of science, developing the idea of an instrumentality-care continuum as a fundamental dynamic of biomedical craft. These three approaches serve as the main tools to discuss the form in which biology becomes technology by providing new perspectives to the commercialization and industrial-scale appropriation of human biology and, as a result, to the future of ethical biomedical research.

The book comes endorsed by Professor Charis Thompson, from the University of California at Berkeley, and Associate Professor Melinda Cooper, from the University of Sidney. About the book, Professor Thompson has highlighted the “extensive fieldwork” behind the book and that it “shows that as stem cells are becoming a highly versatile biological research tool, working with them continues to require demanding embodied skills and judgment, and dense political and affective engagement”. Associate Professor Melinda Cooper emphasises the central position of the notion of “‘craftwork’ at the heart of the laboratory” and the unpredictability of “the pathway from the lab to the clinic to the market” that only “high artisanal craftwork” can bridge.

The book is published by Palgrave Macmillan and can be bought and accessed by clicking here.

Open Position: Postdoctoral Researcher on Social Study of Microbes

University of Helsinki is looking to hire a POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER ON SOCIAL STUDY OF MICROBES for a three-year fixed term period from 3 September 2018 onwards (or as agreed).

Project

The postdoctoral researcher will be positioned in Sociology at University of Helsinki in a Finnish Academy funded research group studying Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in West Africa. The group is part of an interdisciplinary consortium of clinical researchers, microbiologists and sociologists studying the spread of AMR genes in the region that has extensive gaps in data regarding AMR. AMR has increased rapidly, especially in low income countries which lack controlled antibiotic policy, and have poor infrastructures enabling the flow of AMR genes between the environment, animals and humans. The study joins environmental, microbiological, sociological, and medical expertise to explore the evolving and transfer of AMR genes between water, soil, animals, food, and humans (“One Health approach”).

Available position

The sociological group wishes to recruit an enthusiastic postdoctoral researcher who is interested in developing social scientific research on microbes. The position will be in an exciting new group that is exploring the emerging field where microbes are given increasing attention through the study of microbiota, gut wellbeing, microbes’ role for mental health, etc. The postdoctoral position gives the right candidate an opportunity to explore microbes in the context of development: how are infrastructures, understandings of bacteria, social practices, antimicrobial resistance, and ecologies connected?

The ideal candidate will have a good understanding of medical anthropology, science and technology studies, and global health, and ideally have past experience of ethnographic work in relevant sub-fields such as, but not limited to, social study of international collaboration, emerging technologies in low income countries, pharmaceuticals, non-human subjects, or indeed, microbes.

The position entails ethnographic fieldwork in West Africa (in Burkina Faso, Mali and/or Benin) that is expected to last between six months to a year and to study people’s understandings of microbes, how antibiotics are used, and how people ‘live with microbes’ in these contexts. During the third year, the project will develop participatory videos (PV) through a participatory research process with the help of a PV team that the candidate can be part of making.

Candidate

The appointee must hold a doctoral degree in a relevant field of social sciences (sociology, science and technology studies, anthropology, development studies, gender studies, geography etc). Period following the completion of doctoral degree must not exceed five years, excluding family leave and equivalent periods of absence.

Moreover, the candidate is expected to have the ability to conduct independent ethnographic research. The candidate is expected to develop her/his own research on the topic and contribute to the joint research agenda.

Please see the full job description here https://www.helsinki.fi/en/open-positions/postdoctoral-reseacher-on-social-study-of-microbes

If you have any questions, please contact: salla.sariola@utu.fi

Sosiologipäivät 2018 työryhmän raportti

STS Helsinki piti viime vuoden tapaan työryhmän Sosiologipäivillä, jotka tänä vuonna järjestettiin Itä-Suomen yliopiston Joensuun kampuksella. Oheinen yhteenveto raportoi työryhmien ohjelman ja kertaa lyhyesti esitysten sisällön.

Työryhmä: Science, technology and society

Järjestäjät: Heta Tarkkala (ISY), Vera Raivola (ISY) & Karoliina Snell (HY)

Tieteen- ja teknologiantutkimuksen työryhmässä pidettiin yhteensä kymmenen esitystä torstain ja perjantain aikana. Työryhmän esitykset jakaantuivat sosiologiaa tieteenalana käsitteleviin aiheisiin ja toisaalta tiedettä, pääosin lääketiedettä, sen edellytysten järjestämistä, siihen kytkeytyviä käsitteitä ja käytäntöjä eri suunnista lähestyviin esityksiin. Jose Canada (HY) piti esityksen pian valmistuvaan väitöstutkimukseensa liittyen. Tutkimus tarkastelee, miten globaaleista terveysuhista ensinnäkin tulee uhkia ja toiseksi hallinnan ja strategioiden kohteita identifikaatio- ja kategorisointiprosesseissa, joihin kiinnittyy sekä inhimillisiä että ei-inhimillisiä toimijoita. Josen jälkeen Salla Sariola (TY) ja Elina Oinas (HY) jatkoivat esityksessään keskustelua inhimillisten ja ei-inhimillisten toimijoiden yhteiselosta meneillään olevassa rokotetutkimuksessa Beninissä. Ripulia ja tätä kautta antibioottiresistenssiä ehkäisevään rokotetutkimukseen osallistuvat suomalaisturistit konkreettisesti elävät erilaisin tavoin suhteessa ympäristöönsä, sen mikrobeihin ja bakteereihin. Seuraavana oli Venla Oikkosen (HY) esitys rokotteisiin liittyvästä narkolepsiasta. Se, mikä ja millainen asia rokotteisiin liittyvä narkolepsia on, määrittyy eri tavoin esimerkiksi tilastoissa, tieteen kentällä ja mediassa. Torstain session jälkipuolisko oli varattu sosiologiaa tieteenalana tutkiville aiheille. Mikko Hyyryläinen (HY) kysyi esityksessään, millaista sosiologiaa kognitiivinen sosiologia on ja mitä se voisi olla? Johanna Hokka (TaY) jatkoi keskustelua sosiologian tieteenharjoittamisesta esittelemällä tutkimustaan alan professoreiden diskursseista näiden neuvotellessa suhdettaan huippututkimukseen ja sen mittareiden legitimiteettiin.

Perjantain avasi Vera Raviola (ISY), joka pohti, miten biopankkiosallistuminen uuteen Veripalvelun biopankkiin jäsentyy sen tapahtuessa osana aiemmin tuttua verenluovutusta ja roolia verenluovuttajana. Tästä jatkoi Annerose Böhrer (FAU) esittelemällä, kuinka hän hyödynsi metafora-analyysia tutkimuksessaan elinluovutuskeskustelusta Saksassa.  Tärkeään rooliin nousi elinsiirtokortti niin konkreettisena esineenä kuin ajattelun välineenä. Mikko Jauho (HY) pohti esityksessään, miten rasva ja kolesteroli figuroivat riskiobjekteina sydän-ja verisuonitautien syy- ja seuraussuhteissa. Kyse ei ole vain pahoista rasvoista. Riikka Homasen (HY) esitys käsitteli heteronormatiivisen perhekäsityksen sekä valkoisuuden suojaamiseen liittyvien oletusten vaikutusta lesboparien sekä sinkkunaisten hedelmöityshoidoissa, vaikka lisääntymisteknologiat samalla jatkuvasti kyseenalaistavat perhemuotoihin liittyvät normit. Työryhmän viimeisessä esityksessä Karoliina Snell (HY) ja Heta Tarkkala (ISY) käsittelivät Pohjoismaisia, sekä kansallisia että yhteisiä strategioita terveysdatan hyödyntämisen edistämiseksi. Pohjoismainen väestötieto on identifioitu ainutlaatuiseksi ”kultakaivokseksi” ja esityksessä kysyttiinkin, mitä kaikkea tämä kulta oikeastaan on ja mitä sitä kaivamalla saadaan aikaan.

Sociology Days 2018 Working Group Report

As we have previously mentioned in this blog, the STS Helsinki group organized for the second consecutive year a working group in the annual conference Sociology Days, which this year took place in the University of Eastern Finland, in the Joensuu campus. We are happy to bring you the report of our two sessions with a small summary of all of our very interesting presentations. Looking forward to organizing it again next year!

Working group: Science, technology and society

Organizers: Heta Tarkkala (University of Eastern Finland), Vera Raivola (University of Eastern Finland) and Karoliina Snell (University of Helsinki)

The working group ’Science, technology and society’ had in total ten presentations during two sessions organized on Thursday, 15th and Friday, 16th of March. The presentations discussed a variety of topics related to sociology related topics and other disciplines, mostly to medical science. First, Jose Cañada (University of Helsinki) had a presentation about his doctoral dissertation. The study focuses on how global health threats are conceptualized and how, for the sake of governance strategies, there are identification and categorization processes, which are connected to human and nonhuman actors. Salla Sariola (University of Turku) and Elina Oinas (University of Helsinki) continued the conversation about human and nonhuman actors from cooperative initiatives connected to vaccination research in Benin. Vaccines help to prevent diarrhea and antibiotic resistance. Finnish tourists experience their relation with the environment, microbes and bacteria in very concrete and different ways. Next presentation, by Venla Oikkonen (University of Helsinki), discussed the connection between Influenza vaccines and narcolepsy. What and how that connection is articulated differs in, for example, statistics, science or the media. The second half of the Thursday session was reserved to discussions related to the study of sociology as a discipline. Mikko Hyyryläinen (University of Helsinki) discussed the building of cognitive sociology as a sub-field of study inside sociology. More concretely, he discussed what the field is at the moment and what it could yet become. In the last presentation of the first day, Johanna Hokka (University of Tampere) continued the conversation about the scientific practice of sociology by discussing professor discourses on high quality research and measurements of legitimacy.

Friday opened with Vera Raivola (University of Eastern Finland), who pondered how participation in the new biobank of the Finnish blood services (Veripalvelu) is understood as part of the wider practice of blood donation and the role of blood donors. Annerose Böhrer (Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen Nürnberg) continued by presenting how she utilized metaphor analysis in her research on organ donation in Germany. One of the most important points was the role of the organ donor card, which worked as a material and discursive object. Mikko Jauho (University of Helsinki) discussed in his presentation how fat and cholesterol figured as a double risk object in the cardiovascular arena. The presentation of Riikka Homanen (University of Helsinki) discussed heteronormativity in relation to understandings of family. The presentation discussed this in the context of reproductive care sought by lesbian couples and single women. Karoliina Snell (University of Helsinki) and Heta Tarkkala (University of Eastern Finland) gave the last presentation of the working group. It discussed Nordic and national collaboration strategies for the exploitation and development of health data. Nordic populations are identified as a ‘gold mine’ and the presentation wondered what this gold actually is and what we can get from digging it.