2018 Volume 15 Pages 13-26
In Science-Technology-Society STS deals with the relationship between the science and technology, and society. This relationship does not restricted to the external, but mutually internal ones. In other words, STS is a critical meta-study of science and technology by means of method of social sciences.
The analysis is developed with utilization of the frameworks of traditional social theory: capital, nation state, civil society (＝public sphere), and community.
In these frameworks, continued remarkable changes are found, especially in the first half of the 20th century, so-called the era of total war system in advanced countries.
STS, is a newly established discipline in 1970s in the United States and Europe, It began as a branch of sociological study of scientific community. In the post-Cold War era, the discipline transformed into a critical study of science and technology, which had been promoted by Government with big military spending.
Privatization, entrepreneurship, and local community were the important key-words. Main actors were government and market. Other important actors, public sphere and community, were rather neglected, especially in Japan. Critical feature of STS should be recovered by taking into account the neglected actors.
