Institution: Centre for Technology and Society (STS)

Telephone: + 47-73-591788

Telefax: + 47-73-591327

Electronic mail: knuts@alfa.avh.unit.no

Overview of STS education programme

In collaboration with Department of History ("history track") and Department of Sociology ("sociology track"), STS provides a 2-3 year extended masters program, leading to the degrees of cand. philol. (history) and cand. polit. (sociology), and a 3 year Ph. D. programme, leading to the degrees of dr. art. (history) and dr. polit. (sociology). The education programme is presently under review.

Numbers: 5-8 candidatus-students, 5-8 doctoral candidates.
 
 

Research activities

The research activities of the Centre covers different subfields within science and technology studies, with emphasis on the latter. We do research on modern history of technology, knowledge transfer, technology policy, innovation, technology and gender, technology and everyday life, energy and environment, medical innovations, computing and computer science, and the engineering professions. A common theme in many of the projects is how research policy, innovation and engineering are constructed so-to-speak from below, through the efforts of scientists and engineers. While this approach gives a much better understanding of the detailed "mechanics" of innovation and development of technology than the more common "top-bottom" approaches, the analysis has to be very sensitive to include institutional aspects that are not immediately accessible from an action perspective.

A long term goal of the collective research effort is to be able to describe the dynamics of the engineering dimension of Norwegian society: How is technology developed, diffused and used, and how does it interact with politics and culture? Is it meaningful to speak about a Norwegian technology, in contrast to a British, a German, or an American technology?

An important research agenda at STS is the analysis of how technology is culturally integrated or domesticated. A study of the role of the motor car in the development of modern Norwegian society is one of the efforts in this field. Here the emphasis is partly on the political staging of the present-day car-based social system, and partly on the cultural processes taking place through the integration of the car in the every day life activities of Norwegians. Since Norway has no car industry of her own, the project studies the adaption and adoption of an imported artefact. This results in efforts to understand how modern life in Norway has been constructed with widespread car-use as a necessary precondition. The projects studies both the macro-political developments leading to the hegemony of car-based transportation, and the micro-cultural changes where new social arrangements are produced through the diffusion of car ownership, e.g. new patterns of housing, new leasure patterns, etc.

Similarly, we also study domestication of information technology in everyday life. While designers have their preconceptions about the use of a particular artefact, their efforts and abilities to diffuse these preceptions are limited. Advertizing plays a role in this which is not yet fully understood and apreciated. Nevertheless, a pattern of use is often the outcome of creative efforts on the part of the users. The projects aims at an increased understanding of the nature of these creative efforts and their diffusion.

We are also engaged in several studies of environmental issues with particular emphasis on the technological dimensions. One of the prosjects is concerned with the conceptualization of technology in the environmental movement and the impact of the movement upon industrial technology. Other projects in this area focusess on issues like the energy consumption of Norwegian households, the role of sanitary engineering in diffusing energy-saving technologies, and on conceptions of nature in the engineering curriculum. In addition, we think it is very important to study how technology is regulated and the kind of institutions that Norwegian society has constructed to control technology.

A final agenda important at STS is technology and gender. We are working to improve the empirical understanding of how technology and gender are reciprocally constructed, in areas like R&D, consumer technologies, and hackers.
 
 

List of STS staff and their areas of expertise

Margrethe Aune, cand. polit. (sociology).

Current research: The ecology of energy consumption in Norwegian households, Domestication of personal computers in everyday life

Jarle Brosveet, cand. polit. (information science)

Current research: Computers in Norwegian muncipalities, Social learning in multimedia, Multimedia and users

Anne Kristine Børresen, cand. philol. (history)

Current research: Mo i Rana: A Norwegian "steel village", culture of scientific institutions

Thomas Dahl, MS (civil engineering), PhD (innovation and technology policy)

Current research: Industrial development of technology and the environmental movement, Conceptions of nature in the engineering curriculum

Heidi Gjøen, cand. polit. (sociology)

Current research: Norwegian energy policy, use of natural gas, expertise

Marit Hubak, cand. polit. (sociology).

Current research: Conception of energy and environment among sanitary engineers, technology and advertising, New energy technologies

Mikael Hård, MA (history), PhD (history of science and ideas)

Current research: Design in mechanical engineering, Technology debates in the interwar period

Lise Kvande, cand. philol. (history)

Current research: Ultrasound in pregnancy

Stig Kvaal, cand. philol. (history

Current research: History of the Royal Norwegian Council for Industrial Research

Nora Levold, cand. polit. (sociology).

Current research: Engineers and engineering w

Pål Næsje, cand. polit. (sociology)

Current research: Energy policy, development of heat pumps in Norway

Hans Skoie, cand. real. (science policy)

Current research: Norwegian science policy

Ann Rudinow Sætnan, mag. art. (sociology).

Current research: Innovations in medical technology, Ultrasound in pregnancy

Knut H. Sørensen, MS (physics, production management), PhD (organization and working life).

Current research: The organization of technological R&D, Gender and R&D, Consumer technology, Engineers and engineering work.

Øyvind Thomassen, cand. philol. (history)

Current research: Institutional management of risk and safety, Physical and economical planning in post-war Norway

Per Østby, cand. philol. (history)

Current research: The car and modern Norway
 
 

External resource persons

STS staff collaborates with several other research groups in Trondheim. Most of the staff are on "soft money". Important resource persons related to the centre are:

Håkon With Andersen, MS (electronical engineering), PhD (history).

Current research: The history of the Norwegian electronics industry, Alternatives to mass production, Mo i Rana: A Norwegian "steel village"

Anne-Jorunn Berg, cand. polit. (sociology).

Current research: Technology, gender and everyday life

Trond Buland, cand. polit. (sociology).

Current research: Norwegian technology policy, cultural aspects of information technology

Morten Hatling, cand. polit. (sociology).

Current research: The Norwegian management information systems community, The Norwegian Biotechnology Programme

Tove Håpnes, cand. polit. (sociology).

Current research: Consumer technology, Women in higher computer education

Gudmund Stang, cand. philol. (history)

Current research: Engineers and technology in Latin Amerika

Jon Sørgaard, cand. polit. (sociology).

Current research: Norwegian car culture
 
 

Graduate and post-graduate courses

The course program at STS is presently being evaluated and will probably change during the years to come. Generally, it should be acknowledged that both graduate and post-graduate students are supposed to do a lot of independent reading of history and sociology of technology, according to the advice of their supervisors. Students coming to STS in Trondheim are presently advised that they should opt either for supervision in relation to thesis work and/or doing a tutorial with one of the professors at STS.

Forskningsseminar i teknologi og samfunn (Research seminar in technology and society

This weekly seminar is the main offering to graduate and post-graduate students at STS. It is partly an arena to present and discuss ongoing research, partly to present recent developments in the STS field more generally. It is supplemented by workshops on themes related to ongoing Ph.D. projects.
 
 

Significant dates

The academic year begins at September 1th, and the first semester runs till the middle of December. The second semester begins around January 12th and ends around June 10th.
 
 

Local situation

Centre for technology and society is a part of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim which a full-blown university with some 17 000 student. The Centre is presently located with the School of social sciences and the School of humanities at Dragvoll, 20 minutes with bus from down-town Trondheim.

Student housing may be available through the local student service at around NOK 2000. Montly expences (including housing) is estimated at NOK 5500.

A one month intensive course in Norwegian is available in August each academic year.