Document Type : Research

Authors

• Leila Namdarian ¹
• Alireza Seghatol Eslami ²

¹ Assistant Professor in Information Politics, Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IranDoc), Tehran, Iran

² Assistant Professor of Ethics and Laws in Information, Iranian Research Institute for Information Science and Technology (IranDoc), Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to critically evaluate the book titled “Social Studies of Technology: Theoretical and Interdisciplinary Reflection” by Reza Samim. Science and Technology Studies is an interdisciplinary field that has been ignored in the Iranian scientific context and has not received much attention by scientists and researchers. The publication of this book has helped to enrich the scientific literature of this field in the country. Another advantage of this book is to provide some of the local and cultural considerations in the area of science and technology studies. The content evaluation of the book shows that since the book editor had not had a clear picture of the questions in this field of study, he was not very successful in organizing the articles in both theoretical and interdisciplinary reflections. The presentation of the theoretical and interdisciplinary topics in most papers is mainly focused on the sociological perspective of technology and, therefore, its viewpoint seems to be closer to the traditional and conventional view in which the relationship between science and technology and society than to new approach named Science and Technology Studies. Also, categorizing the book's articles into two sections of theoretical and interdisciplinary reflections is not very meaningful considering interdisciplinary field of study, and perhaps a justified distinction should be made between the two sections of theoretical reflections and appropriate case studies.

Keywords

• Social Constructivism
• Social Construction of Technology
• Sociology of Science and Technology
• Philosophy of Technology
• Actor-Network Theory

Main Subjects

• Methodology