Centre for Science, Technology, and Society Studies

The Centre for Science, Technology, and Society Studies is an interdisciplinary research unit dedicated to salient issues at the intersection of the history, theory, and methodology of science. Among the fields that contribute to the formation of the Centre’s research agenda are philosophy, sociology, ethics, media studies, and linguistics. Through integrated initiatives, the Centre has developed a special focus on both national and international contexts of the processes of knowledge production, evaluation, and application. From various disciplinary standpoints, the researchers at the Centre seek to understand how science operates by analysing both intellectual developments and institutional settings in a broad context of particular knowledge regimes.

Among the research projects currently conducted by the members of the Centre are studies on the transformation of higher education systems, academic temporality, literary technologies of science, the foundations of mathematics, the social impact of research infrastructures, digital humanities, or type theories and their applications to natural language.

The Centre was founded in 1968 as the Centre for the Theory and Methodology of Science. Under the leadership of Prof. Ladislav Tondl, the Centre took up a significant role in shaping the area of science and technology, especially through its activities within the International Council for Science Policy Studies. Due to political reasons, the Centre was discontinued in 1970. It has been fully renewed in 1993 under its current name. In the 1990s, the Centre analysed transformation processes at the national level (with the outcome published as Transformation of Science and Research in the Czech Republic, Filosofia, Prague 1998. Since 2000, the Centre has participated in many international projects such as Recognizing Central and Eastern European Centres of RTD: Perspectives for the European Research Area, Strategic Evaluation on Innovation and the Knowledge Based Economy in Relation to the Structural and Cohesion Funds. Members of the Centre also took part in a number of projects funded by the EU: ProAct, MASIS, PLACES, NANOPINION, ResAGorA, ResInfra@DR.

Since 1969 the Centre has also published a peer-reviewed academic journal Theory of Science dedicated to the inquiry into the philosophical and methodological principles of scientific knowledge.

Selected publications from 2015–2019

2019

Crippa, Davide. The Impossibility of Squaring the Circle in the 17th Century: A Debate among Gregory, Huygens and Leibniz. Cham: Birkhäuser, 2019. 184 s. Frontiers in the history of science. ISBN 978-3-030-01637-1

Balon, Jan (ed.), John Holmwood. Sociologie, veřejnost, politika. Praha: Filosofia, 2019. ISBN 978-80-7007-577-7

Vostal, Filip, Libor Benda, Tereza Virtová. Against Reductionism: On the Complexity of Scientific Temporality. Time & Society. Roč. 28, č. 2 (2019), s. 783-803. ISSN 0961-463X

2018

Holmwood, John – Balon, Jan. Monstrous Markets – Neo-Liberalism, Populism and the Demise of Public University. In: Science and the politics of openness: here be monsters. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018, s. 303–321.

Holmwood, John. Race and the Neoliberal University: Lessons from the Public University. In: Gurminder K. Bhambra – Dalia Gebrial – Kerem Nisancioglu (eds.), Decolonizing the University? Pluto Press, 2018, s. 37–53.

Benda, Libor. Re-thinking the university project: Academia’s auto-immune disease and the prospect of a cure. Revue européenne des sciences sociales. Roč. 56, č. 2 (2018), s. 261–274.

Machleidt, Petr – Mráček, Karel. Die Stadt als Raum für die Begegnung des Internets der Menschen (IoP) und des Internets der Dinge (IoT): Implementierungserfahrungen mit „smart cities“ in der Tschechischen Republik. Von der Agorá zur Cyberworld: soziale und kulturelle, digitale und nicht-digitale Dimensionen des öffentlichen Raumes. Berlin: Trafo, 2018, s. 239–250.

2017

Vostal, Filip. Slowing down modernity: A critique. Time & Society, publikováno online 9. dubna 2017, https://doi.org/10.1177/0961463X17702163.

Teorie vědy / Theory of Science, 2017, roč. 39, č. 1, s. 1–138. Tematické číslo (Literární technologie vědy, ed. J. Balon) Teorie vědy s příspěvky pracovníků Kabinetu pro studium vědy, techniky a společnosti.

Teorie vědy / Theory of Science, 2016 (vyšlo 2017), roč. 38, č. 3, s. 263–386. Tematické číslo (Transformation, Degradation, Disappearance of Scientific Objects, ed. O. Clain, J. Maršálek) Teorie vědy s příspěvky významných zahraničních badatelů (např. Hans-Jörg Rheinberger).

Hladík, Radim. Zdrojový kód jako literární technologie? O vytváření faktů v digitálním výzkumu. Teorie vědy / Theory of Science, 2017, roč. 39, č. 1, s. 31–56

Crippa, Davide. Leibniz and the impossibility of squaring the circle. In Pisano, R. – Fichant, M. – Busso‑ tti, P. –Oliveira, A. R. E. (eds.), The Dialogue between Sciences, Philosophy and Engineering. New Historical and Epistemological Insights. Homage to Gottfried W. Leibniz 1646–1716. London: College Publications, s. 93–120.

Vostal, Filip. – Stöckelová, T. Academic stratospheres-cum-underworlds: when highs and lows of publication cultures meet. Aslib Journal of Information Management, 2017, roč. 69, č. 5, s. 516–528, https://doi. org/10.1108/AJIM-01-2017-0013.

2016

Vostal, Filip. Accelerating Academia: the Changing Structure of Academic Time. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 242 s. Palgrave studies in science, knowledge and policy.

Nielsen, M. V., Tauginienė, L., Filáček, A., Mačiukaitė- -Žvinienė, S., Revuelta, G. RRI at European Universities. In: Lindner, R., Kuhlmann, S., Randles, S., Bedsted, B., Gorgoni, G., Griessler, E., Loconto, A., Mejlgaard N. (eds.). Navigating Towards Shared Responsibility in Research and Innovation. Karlsruhe: Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, 2016, s. 119–124.

Drozenová, Wendy. Evolution und Spezifika von Wirtschaftsethik in der Tschechischen Republik und in Slowakischen Republik. In Krylov, A. N. (ed.). Handbuch zur Europäischen Wirtschaftsethik: business ethics: expectations of society and the social sensitisation of business. Berlin: Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2016, s. 467–479.

2015

Vostal, F., Speed kills, speed thrills. Constraining and enabling accelerations in academic work-life. Globalisation, Societies and Education. 2015, roč. 13, č. 3, s. 295–314. ISSN 1476-7724.

Vostal, F., Academic life in the fast lane: the experience of time and speed in British academia. Time & Society, 24 (1), s. 71–95, DOI:10.1177/0961463X13517537.