How to rebuild a STS for Development research agenda that hacks the double peripherality

ARTOPOULOS, ALEJANDRO; LAWLER, DIEGO

Honolulu

Congreso; Society for Social Studies of Science. 4S2023 SEA, SKY, AND LAND: ENGAGING IN SOLIDARITY IN ENDANGERED ECOLOGIES . Honolulu; 2023

Society of Social Studies of Science

In the attempts to De-Center Science and Technology Studies, Postcolonial STS emerged as a salient perspective that represented an important advance in the discussion of the “failures” of the hegemonic paradigm in STS and its consequences in relation to non- hegemonic contexts (Kreimer 2022). Post-colonial approaches, on the “peripheral techno-science” as an object for STS scholars and, are strong in Asia, followed by Africa and the Middle East, but in Latin America, there are only few efforts carried out by a scant number of authors. As a substantial part of STS peripheral problems are relatively ignored in mainstream STS, the so-called peripherality of the objects of study, those who decided to study these topics also occupy, within the field itself, a relatively subaltern position, a second peripherality of researchers. We note that after a period of "post-industrial development" the agendas of the global south are incorporating environmental and gender challenges that for a long time were only a concern in the centers (Khandekar et al. 2017). We consider whether these changes can move towards convergence in which the centers incorporate the inequality issues of the periphery. In this work, we will attempt to reflect on if it is possible to overcome the double peripherality rebuilding a STS for Development agenda based on the convergence between energy transition and digital transformation transition (Artopoulos 2022).