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Top2. Theoretical Framework
STS is a contested acronym: some understand it as ‘science and technology studies’, while others see it as ‘science, technology and society’ (studies) or ‘social studies of science and technology’. For this paper STS stands for Science, Technology and Society, emphasizing the societal aspects of scientific and technological development. Concerns about S&T were born of World War II, when people recognized the complex and problematic, and sometimes undesirable, relationships between power and science. STS emerged clearly in the late 1960s as a social movement, besides other social upheavals that appeared then (e.g. environmental and feminist groups). Because of its origins, STS studies have often been critical of S&T developments and often try to propose ways to control S&T. Later on, in the 1980s, STS was reinvented and turned into an academic field, focused mainly on knowledge creation, rather than policy and control issues.
Some authors (Spiegel-Rosing, 1977; Teich, 2001) argue there is a divide between STS studies and policy-making. Others (Williams & Edge, 1996) affirm that some streams of STS studies (e.g. especially social shaping of technology) have been concerned with technology policy. It can be argued that these academic communities are quite differentiated, with very little overlap. This does not mean that STS scholars have not influenced policy-making, as it is not their main concern, while STP researchers do seek to affect policy directly.