Community and Identity in Contemporary Technosciences

Reinvigorates the concept of scientific community

Delineates ongoing changes across a range of epistemic cultures

Elaborates on social, cultural and political aspects of contemporary technoscience

Traces historical influences on technoscience, including in the European context

Provides new thinking on scientific identity formation

Karen Kastenhofer holds a PhD in biology and has been working in the field of social studies of science for two decades. She specializes in the reconstruction of epistemic cultures, the convergence of science and technology within the newly emerging technosciences and socio-political ramifications thereof. For the past ten years she has been tracing the emergence of systems biology as a potentially new epistemic culture and community in various national contexts. She is currently based at the Austrian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Technology Assessment and teaches at the University of Vienna.

Susan Molyneux-Hodgson FRSA is a Professor of Sociology at University of Exeter and currently the Associate Dean for Research. She has been working in the field of social studies of science for over twenty years and specialises in the sociological analysis of scientific knowledge production, science-society relations and interdisciplinary research. For the past ten years she has been tracing the emergence of synthetic biology as a potentially new field of scientific practice. She has begun to study the work of nuclear-oriented research communities, such as materials science and radioecology. Her research projects have been supported by multiple UK Research Councils, the EU and by industry.