Science, Technology and Society Studies (STS) is an interdisciplinary research field concerned with how science and technology shapes and affects society and vice versa. The field has existed for roughly 50 years and emphasizes empirical studies of science and technology as practices. This means that knowledge and technology is seen as products of heterogeneous, situated, contingent and ‘messy’ processes in which social actors, materiality, other technologies, concepts and theories take part. The field of STS draws on extensive resources such as constructivism, post structuralism, process philosophy, social anthropology, critical theory, actor network theory, feminist studies, ethnography, work place studies, phenomenology and others.

At the centre, STS forms a methodological and conceptual resource for studying the role of technology and especially IT in a range of everyday and work life settings. STS helps us attend to the more or less visible and trivial aspects of the interaction between human actors and technologies. Our research often focuses on how humans and technologies forms - or attempts to form – functioning assemblages capable of action. The meticulous and tedious work of making something work is one of our central concerns.

The STS centre was established in 2000 and has over the years hosted a range of substantial national and international conferences, seminars and guests.

On behalf of the centre, the steering committee: