Science, Expertise and other Modes of Knowledge: Trends, Patterns, and Prospects

The short history of the SARS-COV-2 virus has impressively displayed how scientific knowledge simultaneously co-constructs political and social worlds and, in turn, is shaped by these spheres. The virus overhauled our daily lives all over the globe and brought unprecedented challenges to conventional modes of governance and established regimes of scientific expertise.From an STS perspective, these challenges may not appear to be entirely novel in nature. However, in these times of crisis discourse on topics such as, for example, climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and energy supply, STS studies are attaining new societal relevance. STS approaches and concepts offer relevant analytical frameworks to analyse current trends, to unpack the social imprints of scientific knowledge production and to develop new options for action. At the same time, recent STS debates on the Covid-19 crisis have also displayed the limits of existing STS theories and concepts. Scholars have pointed to the need to develop new approaches that rethink, reflect, reshape, rehabilitate the place of knowledge in policy and society to imagine and pursue more sustainable futures.Against this background, the conference aims to address the questions of how diverse knowledge regimes shape social identity, political citizenship, and cultural heritage. How are knowledge claims fashioned, represented and questioned? What kind of features and mechanisms influence their success or defeat? How do current societal transformations influence different knowledge claims and their residues of non-knowledge, such as subjugated, lay, or amodern forms of knowledge? In short, we are particularly interested in the ways in which such modes of producing knowledge claims essentially shape our views and our relationship with the world around us.The STS-CH conference aims to bring together Swiss and international scholars from all career levels around current issues in science, policy and society. We are interested in exchanging research on the broad spectrum of STS topics and therefore welcome contributions by researchers working across various disciplines, research fields and communities of practice.