[Air-L] CfA: PhD Summer School, San Sebastian, Spain (28.07. - 01.08.2014)

[Judith Simon]

The Post-Graduate Program in Philosophy, Science and Values (University 
of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, and National Autonomous University of 
Mexico, UNAM) and the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems 
Analysis (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) invite PhD students to 
apply for the interdisciplinary and international Summer School:

*The Regulative Capacity of Knowledge Objects: Opening the Black Box of 
Knowledge Governance*

Think of Climate Change, Wikileaks, nanotechnology, Responsible 
Innovation, neural implants, Linux, GMOs or the German Energy 
Transition. But when we think about it, do they actually exist? And if 
they do what should they be like in the future? What exactly are they? 
Are they symbols, technical artifacts, discourses, constellations of 
actors, scientific disputes? Are they political issues, societal 
problems, human-nonhuman-hybrids, modifiers of existence, problems for 
governance and regulation? In a way, they are all of these things and 
less -- and probably more.

They are what this Summer School refers to as "knowledge objects". These 
objects are peculiar, blurry, constantly unfolding and transforming 
entities that increasingly challenge contemporary societies and sciences 
and our understanding of knowledge. The knowledge in knowledge objects 
is always plural: scientific, public, mundane, interdisciplinary, 
speculative, uncertain. It is heterogeneously produced about, with, 
through or in them and contributes to their identification, contestation 
and transformation.
Yet, knowledge objects are also enablers of such knowledge productions 
and the societal controversies that go along with them. This intricate 
entanglement of knowledge objects and society poses various normative 
and regulative questions -- which are part of these objects and due to 
them the problems societies face. This entanglement could be viewed as a 
fundamental challenge for knowledge governance. To address these complex 
challenges to societies and sciences, the Summer School aims to bring 
together two strands of science and technology studies (STS) which so 
far haven't combined: the focus on "knowledge objects" and the 
perspective of "knowledge governance".

The starting point of this summer school is the assumption that 
knowledge objects are subject and object of knowledge governance. They 
create the need for and they enable various forms of knowledge 
governance. In a way, this synchrony is a black box of knowledge 
governance. The Summer School proposes that this "governance black box" 
can be opened by focusing on an extended concept of knowledge objects 
and by analyzing their governance dimensions.

*Keynotes by:*
*David Guston*, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Arizona State 
University, US
*Graham Harman*, PhD, Professor of Philosophy, American University, 
Cairo, Egypt
*Karin Knorr-Cetina*, PhD, Professor emeritus of Sociology, University 
of Constance, Germany, and George
*Wells Beadle* Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago, US
*Noortje Marres*, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Goldsmiths University of London, UK

Applications are due by 28th March 2014.

*Find out all the details at: 
http://www.itas.kit.edu/english/events_2014_summerschool.php 
<http://www.itas.kit.edu/english/events_2014_summerschool.php>*
-- 
Judith Simon
Department of Philosophy <http://philosophie.univie.ac.at/> - University 
of Vienna (PI: Epistemic Trust in Socio-Technical Epistemic Systems 
<http://www.fwf.ac.at/en/abstracts/abstract.asp?L=E&PROJ=P23770>)
ITAS - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology 
<http://www.itas.kit.edu/english/index.php> (Senior Researcher)
Institut Jean Nicod 
<http://www.institutnicod.org/notices.php?user=Simon> - Ecole normale 
supérieure - Paris (Associate Post-doctoral fellow)