Home 9 Quaranta Lectures 9 Seminar 2026 – Bijker, Sànchez de Madariaga

Interpreting a changing science and technology landscape: the contribution of STS and feminist approaches

SEMINAR – 2026, June 16, 15:00-16:30 CEST – In honour of Giancarlo Quaranta

SPEAKERS

Wiebe Bijker is professor emeritus at Maastricht University in The Netherlands and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. With Trevor Pinch, he developed the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) approach. Much of his recent work is related to the role of science and technology in development, Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), and science and technology for democracy, diversity and inclusion. Bijker had been President of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) and Director of the Netherlands STS Graduate School (WTMC). He is founding co-editor of the monograph series ‘Inside Technology’ at MIT Press (now with Rebecca Slayton and Edward Jones-Imhotep). He received the Bernal Award from 4S and the Leonardo da Vinci medal from the Society for the History of Technology. Most of his current activities are in science-advisory roles (especially for the Dutch Research Council and the Dutch government). More details on Weibe Bijker

Inés Sánchez de Madariaga is UNESCO Chair on Gender in STI and Professor of Urban Planning at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She has been Visiting Scholar at Harvard University GSD, MIT, UCLA, the Bauhaus, LSE, and Columbia University. She has been a Fulbright and a Real Colegio Complutense-UPM Fellow. She is a leading international expert on gender in transportation, urban planning and architecture with extensive experience spanning public office, policy, practice, and research with 30 years of experience. Author of over 100 articles in professional journals and a dozen books, including: Fair Shared Cities, 2013, and Engendering Cities, Routledge 2020. She is Chair of the Advisory Group on Gender Issues to the Executive Director of UN-Habitat. In 2021 she received the Matilde Ucelay Award in recognition for her professional trajectory to promote gender equality in the built environment, granted by the Spanish Government.

Since the 1970s, Science and Technology Studies (STS) and feminist approaches, in the wake of major advances in the social sciences and humanities, have made significant contributions to understanding research and innovation as socially embedded processes. They have shed light on how scientific knowledge is produced, how research institutions operate, and how scientific facts emerge through complex interactions among social actors, institutions, and technologies. Building on this analytical foundation, these perspectives have, despite tensions, backlashes, and resistance, progressively advanced new normative and political agendas. They promote participation, inclusion, epistemic justice, responsibility, openness, gender equality, and the co-production of knowledge as key principles for reshaping science and technology.

In parallel, however, broader developments have been reconfiguring the landscape of science and technology. The increasing dominance of neoliberal models of research governance, stronger political steering of research agendas, the growing weight of private funding, and the consolidation of a global research market are prioritising competition, productivity, and market-oriented outcomes, often at the expense of reflexivity, responsibility, and inclusiveness. At the societal level, rising anti-scientific attitudes and a broader distrust in science, together with the spread of anti-diversity discourses, are challenging both the legitimacy of scientific expertise and commitments to inclusive research. These dynamics create a complex and sometimes adverse environment for STS and feminist perspectives.

This webinar aims to explore both the achievements and the ongoing relevance of these approaches, as well as the trends that increasingly constrain or challenge them. It will address how these perspectives can continue to contribute to more just, democratic, and reflexive sociotechnical systems under increasingly challenging conditions.

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