WTMC Annual Meeting 11 December 2020 (online)
You will not be surprised: The Covid-19 restrictions have urged us to arrange the 2020 Annual Meeting of WTMC in a different format than normal. We will convene online (via Zoom), and the programme will be shorter and more condensed than in previous years. Socializing with colleagues and friends at a “borrel” will not be possible, unfortunately. A fortiori, join us and keep our network alive!
Please login at 12:45. At 13:00 we will start, as usual, with an update about WTMC policy issues, in particular about our current efforts to cope with the Covid-19 situation and to rearrange the WTMC training programme in 2020 and beyond.
The guiding theme of this Annual meeting is STS and Method. The WTMC training programme claims to provide an overview and introduction in the key methods and methodologies of STS research. As a matter of fact, method and methodology have been a grounding concern in STS communities – think of the related section in the 2017 Handbook of STS and John Law’s opening chapter “which has the potential to become a classic as an introduction to STS as method” (Felt et al. 2017, 19), a method that facilitates a reflexive use of varieties of methods in STS research.
A panel of colleagues will reflect on and discuss questions like: Is STS research in need of explicit “methods”? Is STS research without explicit methodology at risk to lo lose legitimacy in wider academic and public environments? Does STS research practice represent a method in its own right, and how would it differ from other methods? What are strengths and weaknesses of currently used methods in STS? Are there new methodological options for STS research, and which are promising or problematic?
Participants in our training programme have repeatedly stressed that they feel a need for WTMC to be more explicit about method and methodologies in STS. Therefore we are pleased that as a third part of this Annual Meeting a panel of WTMC PhD researchers will discuss the “Crossing/pushing boundaries of methodology” in STS.
As always, you are all welcome – PhD members, retired members and everyone interested (also if not a member of WTMC).
Book your place and receive the meeting link HERE (obligatory). Please register by 30 November!
