[Galileo] Call for Abstracts: 4S sessions of the Asia-Pacific STS Network 25-29 August 2010

[Richard Hindmarsh]

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS 

ASIA-PACIFIC SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY NETWORK (APSTSN) SESSIONS, 
4S 2010 ANNUAL MEETING, UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO, 25-29 AUGUST 

We invite you to submit an abstract (no longer than 500 words) for one of 
the three sessions the Asia-Pacific Science, Technology and Society 
Network (APSTSN) is submitting to the 4S conference “STS in Global 
Contexts” that we are submitting as an informal panel. The three sessions 
are informed by a common theme: 

·       Engaging publics/engaging technoscience in the Asia-Pacific region 
I: environmental sustainability transitions 
Chairs: Richard Hindmarsh (Griffith University, Australia) and Wen-ling 
Tu, Shih-Hsin University, Taiwan)
·       Engaging publics/engaging technoscience in the Asia-Pacific region 
II: Indigenous knowledge 
Nominal Chair: Jessica Hutchings (New Zealand Council of Educational 
Research)
·       Engaging publics/engaging technoscience in the Asia-Pacific region 
III: techno-life sciences 
Chairs: Tomiko Yamaguchi (International Christian University, Tokyo) and 
Karen Cronin (Environmental Science and Research, New Zealand)

These themes align to the four most popular themes at the recent 
successful APSTSN inaugural conference in Brisbane: governance and 
citizenship, environment, Indigenous and techno-life sciences (see: 
http://www.griffith.edu.au/apsts2009).

The blurb for the three sessions is below: typically each 4S 1.5 hour 
session is one and a half hours long comprising 4 papers (15 minute 
presentation each) followed by a 30 minute discussion.

Abstract Submission

Abstracts should be 500 words or less and include your institutional 
affiliation/s and (electronic) addresses, and cohere to the common theme 
(detail below) and one of the 3 topics above. 

Your abstract should be submitted to Richard Hindmarsh (
r.hindmarsh at griffith.edu.au) as the first point of contact by the 22 
January 2010 so that we can select the most appropriate abstracts that 
offer the best coherency and cultural diversity for each session, so that 
we can detect  differences and similarities across the states in the 
Asia-Pacific region: a central thrust of the APSTSN. If it is the case 
that we receive enough abstracts for extra sessions in each topic we will 
approach the 4S organisers for extra sessions, otherwise we will encourage 
the ones not selected for the APSTSN sessions to be submitted as papers 
for open sessions.

Invite for chair/s of Indigenous session

With Jessica Hutchings volunteering to be the nominal chair out of 
interest and also in order to get things underway (thanks Jessica), we 
also invite 1-2 Indigenous chairs for the Indigenous Knowledges session. 
Please advise if you are willing to fill this position 

(NB participants at 4S conferences can only fulfil 2 roles at the 
conference, eg a session chair and a presenter but not 2 papers). Please 
note there is also a workshop format if the Indigenous chairs want to 
choose this option in preference to papers (see: 
http://www.4sonline.org/meeting.htm)


Summary of APSTSN sessions

Theme: Engaging publics/engaging technoscience in the Asia-Pacific region 

Summary
Emergent technosciences governance requires the development of new 
practices, different institutional arrangements, new networks and forms of 
public participation, and novel management of risk and innovative 
communication about technoscientific innovation. This session will explore 
strategies for engaging publics in technosciences innovation and 
governance and the understandings that inform those strategies in the 
Asia-Pacific region (that is, countries of Australasia, East Asia, SE Asia 
and Oceania). 

The three APSTSN sessions address the themes of environmental 
sustainability transitions (session I), indigenous knowledges (session 
II), and techno-life sciences (session III). Papers that provide critical 
analysis of engagement strategies across technical/non-technical 
boundaries and the way these boundaries are confounded and reworked in 
particular contexts are particularly encouraged. In that analysis, the 
papers should also reflect on the limitations of, or constraints to, 
inclusive participatory approaches, reasons behind it, and on how public 
engagement in decision-making might be enhanced in/for the future. Central 
questions informing the session include: What are the particular 
challenges that we face in the Asia-Pacific region? What changing or new 
practices of technoscience governance are emerging and how effective might 
they be? What is the role of government and/or the role of civil society 
in technoscience governance? Do current developments suggest ‘public talk’ 
or a genuine move towards a paradigm shift in governance, and what are the 
implications of either? What trajectories of participatory governance 
might contribute to better civic involvement in policy steering and result 
in better policy outcomes?

Rationale
Unique and complex technoscientific issues have created formidable social 
challenges for the future. For all their promise, technoscience 
innovations are immersed in controversy, public distrust, complexity, and 
scientific and social uncertainty, for example, GM crops, nanotechnology, 
hard water management approaches, wind energy, stem-cell research, 
neurosciences, cloning, tissue engineering, and so forth. The speed at 
which new developments demand attention is accelerating. These sessions 
address these important issues and social controversies for 
technoscientific governance which is an important area now being widely 
addressed by STS scholars, and aligns especially to the following key 
themes of the 4S conference: public engagement/social movement and 
science, technology, and public policy. 


Contribution to STS
These sessions contribute to a key STS issue: technosciences and their 
governance at a pivotal time when the ground rules that connect citizens 
to the state are up for revision and reformulation, and when experiments 
with technoscience/society dialogue are available for critical analysis. 
In addition, the session highlights the Asia-Pacific region as a new focus 
of inquiry that departs from the usual focus on the US and Europe. The 
Asia-Pacific is an emergent and important area in world politics, trade, 
and technoscience development and because of its diverse cultures 
(non-indigenous/indigenous) and socio-political contexts offers a valuable 
‘point of difference’ (or ‘politics of differences’) for discussion on and 
insights in a contested localising-globalising world where technosciences 
are convergent.



Finally, we will be having an APSTSN business session near the end of the 
meeting and a separate conference dinner to that of 4S which will be 
self-funded at the selected restaurant on the night. We look forward to 
your participation.

Best
Tomiko Yamaguchi (APSTS Network Co-convenor and event organiser) 
Richard Hindmarsh (APSTS Network Convenor) 

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