Social Responsibility
Darrin Durant
The University of Melbourne
Matthew Kearnes
University of New South Wales
Some hold to the aspiration that one of the key roles for STS is to guide the radical scientist and participate in social movement critique that might challenge pernicious technoscientific developments and direct science toward social welfare ends. In the 1970’s and in to the mid 1980’s there was a flourishing application of such aspirations in the form of various radical science associations in Australia, New Zealand, UK, America and elsewhere. Focusing on the Antipodean tradition in Australia and New Zealand – the (Australian) Society for Social Responsibility in Science (SSRS), and New Zealand Association of Scientists (NZAS) – we discuss what form the notions of responsibility and public interest science took in these movements, along with how they organized, published, and defined the ends of inquiry. We then address the question of what happened to this tradition? We make some speculations, about possible shifts from a focus on practice to a focus on discursive relations, from a critique of capital to a documenting of capitals ways, from egalitarian alignment with citizens to a professional engagement with research subjects, and from a hope to responsibly lead to a need to continually publish. But like we see in that 1970’s tradition, we will seek to engage our audience directly in thinking through what happened, why it happened, and what might be next.
Darrin Durant is a Senior Lecturer in STS at the University of Melbourne. Dr Durant’s research focuses on the problem of integrating expert and citizen input into deliberation and governance, and on energy politics (including nuclear waste disposal and nuclear power, climate change politics, and environmental governance). Recent works include the book Experts and the Will of the People (2020), a series of book chapters on post-truth (2021), experts within democracies (2021), how not to ignore experts (2019), and the undead linear model of expertise (2016), and journal articles on Amazon ring systems, democracy and autocracy, nuclear power, recycling, and disinformation. Dr Durant is a PI on a SSHRC funded disinformation and democracy project.
Matthew Kearnes is a Professor in the Environmental Humanities programme and Geographical Studies programme at the University of New South Wales. Professor Kearnes’ research focuses on the social constitution of processes of technological and environmental change, and on novel means for promoting diverse forms of public participation (including climate change, bio-nanotechnology, geoengineering and contemporary water treatment and supply). Recent works include the edited collections Thinking with Soils (2020) and Remaking Participation (2016), and book chapters and articles on soils and agriculture, climate modification, datafication and social aspects of medical treatment, relational risk, and slow emergencies. Professor Kearnes is a CI on several ARC projects (bio-nano science, drug policy, and biosolids resources).