Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/STS

The following discussion is an archived proposal of the WikiProject below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the project's talk page (if created) or the WikiProject Council). No further edits should be made to this page.

The proposed WikiProject was not created. Ok conversation seems to have died out here. There was some interest in starting a project, then a task force under WP:TECHNOLOGY, but momentum seems to have waned. Feel free to re-open this proposal anytime. Ajpolino (talk) 20:57, 6 December 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Description

Science and Technology Studies (STS) (Also called Science, Technology, and Society) is an interdisciplinary academic field of social sciences and the humanities that studies science, technology, and the social systems that surround them from historical, anthropological, sociological, and philosophical perspectives (among other approaches). It's been an established field for several years with multiple university departments, scholars, academic societies, and journals.

Scope and important/sample pages

WikiProject STS currently would seem to have a scope of over 1,000 articles, given the number of articles which link to the main page. Many of the core articles are currently under-developed and have multiple issues, including a lack of inline citations and reliance on "further reading" sections. A selection of articles on the project that exist right now would be:

Fields of inquiry

Science and Technology Studies
History and Philosophy of Science - a related field, sometimes considered distinct and sometimes coincident with STS.
History of technology
Science Studies
Engineering studies
Economics of science
&c.

Concepts/Theory

Key Scholars

Main Category: Category:Science_and_technology_studies_scholars

Info Box & Portal

It'd be great to create an STS infobox, or at least a "part of a series on ..." box. STS's presence on Wikipedia would also benefit from an STS portal.

STS template

We'd also take over the editing of our template:

Relation to Existing WikiProjects

The proposed project would be distinct from WikiProject History of Science, which has mostly been covering STS-related topics for a while. While many STS scholars and articles fall within the scope of that project, there are many scholars who are not historians, and might be better served by a project which focuses on STS topics. It would probably be best if the potential WikiProject STS and the established WikiProject HoS were considered sister projects, with HoS being the elder sister with experience and expertise. Ideally, the proposed project could attract new editors to HoS and help with HoS's goals.

We'd also be relevant to Wikipedia:WikiProject Science and Wikipedia:WikiProject Technology though it's unclear what exactly our relationship to them would be. Generally, STS scholars could help provide contextual sections on existing Science and Technology articles, though that is already mostly covered within the scope of those projects. Where we could really be helpful is by providing additional information and analysis of particular sciences and technologies from STS scholars.

List of WikiProjects currently on the talk pages of those articles: Please invite these and any other similar groups to join the discussion about this proposal. See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Council/Directory to find similar WikiProjects.

Wikipedia:WikiProject History of Science (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Science (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Sociology (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Technology (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Human–Computer Interaction (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

Support

Also, specify whether or not you would join the project.

Mathmitch7 (talk) 03:08, 16 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
(would join) Bondegezou (talk) 10:49, 16 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Would probably join. Zazpot (talk) 22:29, 23 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Would join --DiasporaCryptid (talk) 18:21, 12 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Would join Qzekrom 💬 ^they_them 06:41, 9 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Would join --Ingmar.lippert (talk) 14:24, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

Comment: Seems excessively specific. In what way are WP:WikiProject Technology and the various science wikiprojects failing? We don't need a wikiproject devoted to every synchretic thing someone somewhere teaches a class in. There are innumerable intersections of various fields, and we still cover them under broader-topic wikiprojects that pool sufficient editors to (we hope) actually get anything done. This sounds like a joint taskforce/workgroup of WP:TECH and WP:WikiProject Science. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ >^ʌⱷ҅_ᴥⱷ^ʌ< 03:43, 16 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Check out the updates I've made to the page since opening it and tell me if this is still your opinion Mathmitch7 (talk) 03:56, 16 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Science and technology studies is not the intersection of science and technology, nor is it a syncretic thing. STS is a branch of social science: the existing WikiProject it best fits under is Wikipedia:WikiProject Sociology. (Mathmitch7 has alerted that WikiProject to this proposal.) Bondegezou (talk) 14:51, 16 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'll buy that, though it should also probably be listed as a "child" of some other projects like tech and science and history of science. Anyway, if even the broader and more well-established philosophy of science field doesn't have a separate project (subsumed under the history of science project), this doesn't need one either. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼 04:28, 10 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I do not agree with STS falling under sociology at all. The reason is that STS is precisely not a disciplinary subfield but a highly interdisciplinary field, as much drawing on and enricjhing sociology, cultural anthropology as philosophy and history (to name a few). STS is better understood as a 'studies' field, similar to Gender Studies. Ingmar.lippert (talk) 14:31, 2 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: I'm generally supportive of this initiative, especially if there is critical mass of interest to launch and sustain it. Perhaps a good place to start and demonstrate that interest is with a dedicated effort to improve the main page, which needs quite a bit of work, in my opinion. I'm not sure there's a need to "take over" the STS navbox; if there are suggestions for improving it, please post on that article's talk page. Thanks, DA Sonnenfeld (talk) 11:58, 18 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: Given the general lack of interest, I'm thinking that it might make more sense to organize this as a taskforce instead, under WP:HISTSCI probably (as they're currently the closest project), potentially jointly under other projects (especially WP:Sociology. What do folks think? - - mathmitch7 ^{(talk/contribs)} 19:12, 9 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]
- Support task force I've been interested in forming a tech ethics task force myself; it would be under WP:TECH instead, though. I think these ideas are similar enough to be one group. Qzekrom 💬 ^they_them 06:37, 9 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the project's talk page (if created) or at the WikiProject Council). No further edits should be made to this page.

v t e Science and technology studies
Economics	Economics of science Economics of scientific knowledge
History	History and philosophy of science History of science and technology History of technology
Philosophy	Anthropocene Antipositivism Empiricism Fuzzy logic Neo-Luddism Philosophy of science Philosophy of social science Philosophy of technology Positivism Postpositivism Religion and science Scientism Social constructivism Social epistemology Transhumanism
Sociology	Actor–network theory Social construction of technology shaping of technology Sociology of knowledge scientific Sociology of scientific ignorance Sociology of the history of science Sociotechnology Strong programme
Science studies	Antiscience Bibliometrics Boundary-work Consilience Criticism of science Demarcation problem Double hermeneutic Logology Mapping controversies Metascience Paradigm shift black swan events Pseudoscience Psychology of science Science citizen communication education normal Neo-colonial post-normal rhetoric wars Scientific community consensus controversy dissent enterprise literacy method misconduct priority skepticism Scientocracy Scientometrics Team science Traditional knowledge ecological Unity of science Women in science STEM
Technology studies	Co-production Cyborg anthropology Design studies Dematerialization Digital anthropology Digital media use and mental health Early adopter Engineering studies Financial technology Hype cycle Innovation diffusion disruptive linear model system user Leapfrogging Normalization process theory Media studies Reverse salient Skunkworks project Sociotechnical system Technical change Technocracy Technoscience feminist Technological change convergence determinism revolution transitions Technology and society criticism of dynamics theories of transfer Women in engineering
Policy	Academic freedom Digital divide Evidence-based policy Factor 10 Funding of science Horizon scanning Politicization of science Regulation of science Research ethics Right to science Science policy history of science of Technology assessment Technology policy Transition management
Portals Science History of science Technology Category Associations Journals Scholars