STS Circle Lecture

Stephen Hilgartner (Cornell University, STS)
Dis·en·closing Science

Abstract: This paper argues that debate about openness in science and technology is too wedded to simplistic oppositions between open and closed, public and private, or enclosure or disclosure, often paying inadequate attention to the specific practices and regimes through which various forms of control over knowledge are constituted. The neologism disenclosure is employed to capture the dynamic and often dialectical process through which various forms of control over knowledge are effected. My goal is to facilitate analysis of two coupled and in some ways reciprocal questions: (1) through what practices do actors attempt to control the distribution of knowledge, shaping who gets access to what knowledge, when, and under what terms and conditions? and (2) how do actors work to distribute control over knowledge, shaping the allocation of entitlements and burdens regarding access to, use of, management of, and liability for knowledge. The paper explores these themes through an analysis of specific examples from genomics and synthetic biology.

Biography: Stephen Hilgartner is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Science & Technology Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. His research examines the social dimensions and politics of contemporary and emerging science and technology, especially in the biosciences. Hilgartner is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His book Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama won the Carson Prize from the Society for Social Studies of Science. Recent publications include “Intellectual Property and the Politics of Emerging Technology” (Chicago-Kent Law Review, 2010), “Staging High-Visibility Science: Media Orientation in Genome Research,” (Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook, 2011), and “Selective Flows of Knowledge in Technoscientific Interaction” (British Journal for History of Science, in press).