Events

A view from Science and Technology Studies

22 September 2023, 13.15-14.45 CET
Hybrid: IRI THESys, Rudower Chaussee 12B, 12489 Berlin, and on Zoom

The presentation will engage a set of interrelated issues pertaining to 'situated hydrological modelling' from the point of view of (what can be called) performative and ontological science and technology studies (STS) and with research in Cambodia as a point of departure. A consideration of models as speculative instruments derived from the philosophy of models and STS creates a perspective on modeling as a form of making knowledge that is distributed and situated among other forms in an ecology of knowledges. In this context, to speak of modeling in terms of earthly sciences is both descriptive and aspirational. It describes involvement with earthly domains—of earth, wind, water—in ways that can very seriously affect peoples' lives. At the same time, it names the aspiration to bring cultures of modeling down to earth (as Bruno Latour said) through situated, collective learning with those affected by what is modeled.

With Casper Bruun Jensen (Chulalongkorn University), moderated by Jean Phillippe Venot (IRD and University of Montpellier)