Memo+12-Three+Journals

** Journal Title A: Science, Technology and Human Values **
Technical Details: Article Manuscripts of no longer than 8,000 words, including endnotes and references, are accepted by STHV. Manuscripts must follow the Chicago style and should include an Abstract as well as up to five keywords. Author names and addresses should only appear on a removable cover page to facilitate double-blind review. If the manuscript includes complex figures or tables, please be prepared to send an additional print copy. Please submit manuscripts electronically at [|__http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sthv__] as an MS Word file. What counts as an argument: -I keep skimming through articles that might be relevant to what I'm interested in and many of them seem to recapitulate some sort of argument made by one of the big dogs in STS with supporting empirical research. -The difference to the above is when the articles are more theoretically aligned and work through technoscience and democracy and the role of expertise. In these moments the article tend to develop some new alternative to both existing policies through melding different concepts and theories. I'm including one reprentative article in the group of 5 below.

There was one article that was interesting in that it looked at the work on public participation and found it wanting. The author, Matthew Harvey, argues that assuming that the individuals that come into venues of public participation are simply reporting their values and norms without influence from the venue itself ignores a great deal. In particular he argues that the construction of the venue and methods of communication can act as suppression measures for more constructive discourse. He does a discourse analysis of a particular experience in the UK to draw out how people have been influenced by different characteristics of the discursive environment. I'm including the piece below, it is in early access form as it hasn't been published in paper yet.

How arguments are supported, empirical and/or theoretical expectation: The journal focuses on empirical work unless the intention is to work on the practice of STS scholarship or some other reflexivity endeavor.

Description of article 1: Science, Technology & Human Values, Vol. 33, No. 6, 754-777 (2008) Agroecology as Participatory Science: Emerging Alternatives to Technology Transfer Extension Practice Keith Douglass Warner Abstract: The discourses of agricultural extension reveal how actors represent their scientific activities and goals. The "transfer of technology" discourse developed with the professional U.S. extension service, reproducing its expert/lay power relations. Agroecology is emerging as a systems approach to preventing agricultural pollution. Its theoreticians argue that agroecology cannot be transferred like technology but must be extended through networks of participatory social learning. In California, hundreds of actors and dozens of institutions have cocreated agroecological partnerships using this alternative extension model. They have developed three alternative extension discourses to represent and explain their activities. Bruno Latour's "circulatory system of science" model provides a superior theoretical framework for interpreting the participation and discourses of diverse actors in this extension practice. --I read this a bit ago and there seem to be two strands to the article. The first is to bring some of the sociology of agriculture extension services, these are the individuals that coordinate between research institutions and chemikons and farmers, into STS. The second objective was to outline the characteristic discursive environments that develop from different types of extension activities. On the one hand the author spends time in a traditional situation where a small group of male farmers meet up with a representative of a university or company to go over a particular problem or product. The second type is the alternative extension model where whole communities develop in participation and request experts to come and work through the problems each have encountered together.

Description of article 2: Andy Stirling "Opening up" and "Closing down": Power, Participation and Pluralism in the Social Appraisal of Technology STHV 2008, 33, p. 262 --This article should stand as a primary example of how not to get a point across. First of all, I like the basic story of what Stirling is working on. Basically, he is musing about participatory forms of technological governance and if the emphasis on shutting down potential pathways of technology has lost out on the social appraisal of technology. In other words, if the participatory members are setup to decide on where the technology should go next there is less room for breaking open the technology and finding out what might continue on regardless of the pathways finally selected. That's about it and yet the language used seems to be situated in a cumbersome philosophical mode that makes the reader want to skip to the conclusion to make sure that the story they think they are reading does in fact have some sort of finale.

List of 5 articles of similarity: Michael S. Carolan. Democratizing Knowledge: Sustainable and Conventional Agricultural Field Days as Divergent Democratic Forms. Science, Technology & Human Values 2008 33: 508-528

Eun-Sung Kim. Chemical Sunset: Technological Inflexibility and Designing an Intelligent Precautionary "Polluter Pays" Principle. Science, Technology & Human Values 2008 33: 459-479

Frank W. Geels. Transformations of Large Technical Systems: A Multilevel Analysis of the Dutch Highway System (1950-2000). Science, Technology & Human Values 2007 32: 123-149

Kathryn Henderson. Ethics, Culture, and Structure in the Negotiation of Straw Bale Building Codes. Science, Technology & Human Values 2006 31: 261-288

Peter-Paul Verbeek. Materializing Morality: Design Ethics and Technological Mediation. Science, Technology & Human Values 2006 31: 361-380

** Journal Title B: **
Critical Sociology

What counts as an argument: --The journal article description posted on their site is thematic but also gives a hint about what must be located in each article: //**Critical Sociology** is an international peer reviewed journal that publishes the highest quality original research. For over three decades **Critical Sociology** has been a leading voice of sociological analysis from a political economy perspective. This journal is a must for sociologists and anyone else seeking to understand the most pressing issues of the day as they are informed by race, class and gender.// //Originally published as the// //Insurgent Sociologist, formed as a result of the social action of the 1960s "Sociology Liberation Movement" which erupted at the 1969 meetings of the American Sociological Association, **Critical Sociology** has been committed to publishing scholarship from a Marxist, post-Marxist, Feminist, and other critical perspectives. Its current editorial mission is to encourage scholarship that seeks to understand contemporary Capitalist society.//

How arguments are supported, empirical and/or theoretical expectation: Most of the articles are theoretical in nature with a smattering of light empirical work to augment some sort of theoretical stance. I'll include on of each...

Description of article 1: Linda Markowitz. Can Strategic Investing Transform the Corporation?. Crit Sociol 2008; 34; 681 --While the article does not state the limitations of the story they are telling, it does limit the range of their critique on socially responsible investing. In the context of multinational corporations (not small/developing businesses) (that are the top 10 choices for socially responsible investment) actions can individual investors (not large hedge funds or other entities) have any impact on MNCs? Markowitz argues that because the market is setup for the short term gain of shareholders investments in the long term that might shape a corporation to be more socially responsible are ineffective. This article has a foot in both my democratic theory interests and shaping of industry by outside forces.

Description of article 2: Corolan, Michael. The bright and blind spots of scientific knowledge: Why Objective knowledge is not enough to resolve environmental controversy. Critical Sociology 2008, 34, p725 --You should be thinking "what they are just talking about this in this journal now" and yes it is true. Considering the description as sociology on the fringe you would think that STS had invaded this journal more, but it seems that our colleagues on only just getting into this community. I'd describe the article but it is simply a shorthand for the work on scientific conflict that we've been reading about. I just wanted to include it as this journal would seem to be a good place for some of our work.

List of 5 articles of similarity: Jayati Lal On the Domestication of American Public Sociology: A Postcolonial Feminist Perspective

Crit Sociol 2008 34: 169-191

Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee Corporate Social Responsibility: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Crit Sociol 2008 34: 51-79

Philip Luck Sociology as a Practice in Humanity: Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Social Responsibility 1

Crit Sociol 2007 33: 937-955

Jean-Pierre Reed and Lorraine Bayard de Volo. Introduction: Cultural Practices in the Making of Oppositional Politics. Crit Sociol 2007; 33; 619

Andrew M. McKinnon Review Essay: For an `Energetic' Sociology, or, Why Coal, Gas, and Electricity Should Matter for Sociological Theory

Crit Sociol 2007 33: 345-356

** Journal Title C: American Quarterly **
What counts as an argument: This journal describes itself as a forum for interdisciplinary researchers interested in American Studies. As such the arguments range from the true origins of a particular phenomenon to critiques on the historical expansion of U.S. expansion of territory and culture. The journal is heavily thematic so publication depends in part on what others are submitting.

How arguments are supported, empirical and/or theoretical expectation: Mostly empirical and historical, actually heavily historical.

Strategic: 1. It's got a great presence. 2. I have a historical option in my topic with three different timeframes of relevance to visit, however my historical analysis skills are not up to the standards of what is present in the journal 3) however my empirical work will be better so maybe I can tip the scales in my favor.

Description of article 1: Descrption of article 2: List of 5 articles of similarity:

Volume 60, Number 4, December 2008
E-ISSN: 1080-6490 Print ISSN: 0003-0678 DOI: 10.1353/aq.0.0047 The Anti-Chain Store Movement and the Politics of Consumption[|Daniel Scroop]