Socio-technical controversies in transition : research methodologies

Economic imbalances, ecological crises and all the major contemporary issues are presented as intertwined politics and science, morality and technology. In this context of increasing hybridisation, participation in public life is becoming more and more problematic. The aim of controversy mapping, as a method initiated by Bruno Latour, is to contribute to the development of tools to explore and visualise the complexity of public debates. The students are led to understand the articulation between science and society, to observe it through the concrete case of a controversy related to mobility, and to give back the analysis to the public. The course also presents the theoretical foundations of the method of mapping socio-technical controversies (sociology of science and technology, human/non-human actors), the methodology of documentary research, problematisation and reflexive graphic tools such as conceptual maps. At the end of the course, students are able to identify, document and map an ongoing socio-technical controversy, on a targeted topic in the field of energy, involving a diversity of actors and for which various sources of information are available. This competence is based on a series of sub-competences that will be addressed and worked on during the course. In particular, the course offers basic notions of critical analysis, interview and questionnaire surveys and group work dynamics.

8 hours of lectures

4 hours of seminar

3 hours of exercises and 21 hours of tutorials

Contacts

Claire.Pelgrims@ulb.be

Campus

Flagey

Méthode(s) d'évaluation

• Autre
• Rapport écrit

Autre

Rapport écrit

Langue(s) d'évaluation

• anglais