Description
Since the ‘affective turn’ in social and cultural studies, affects, emotions, and feelings have equally gained dominance in Science & Technology Studies (STS). Some STS scholars argue that emotions underlie commitments to research, such as the ‘joy of verification’ or the peak experience of ‘flow’. Others attribute commitment to affective relationships among colleagues, between scientists and their instruments or subjects. To interpret these relations scholars pay attention to bodily expressions. They turn their gaze inward to understand their positioning in the socio-affective fabric of a site or topic. More recently, attempts have been made to not only unpack the affective dimension of data generation, but also of data analysis and writing to identify the role of affects in knowledge production.Approaches to capture the fleeting nature of emotive moments in research face similar difficulties:– How do we develop a language and theory to analyse affects, emotions, and feelings? How do we distinguish between these concepts in an analytically meaningful way?- How do we deal with affective experiences methodologically? How does attending to affects change how we relate to our study subjects?- How do affects travel between people, contexts, and times?- What are the ethics and politics of mobilising affects when doing and writing STS? What does (non-)emotive writing foreground and hide?We invite STS scholars to discuss how affects, emotions, and feelings are entangled with data, analysis, and narrative. We aim for an exchange that contributes to ongoing discussions on the methodological and analytical relevance of affects in STS.| Period | 20 Aug 2020 |
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| Event title | EASST/4S 2020 Conference: Located and Timing Matters: Significance and agency of STS in emerging worlds |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Prague, Czech Republic |