[SIGCIS-Members] CFP for 4S, Tokyo, Aug 25-29

[Thomas Haigh]

Hello SIGCIS members,

Below is the call for papers for the 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science) conference. We’ve organized SIGCIS panels for three of the past four meetings of 4S and it would be fun to go back to Tokyo. Tokyo is not as expensive as people with vague recollections of the 1980s bubble tend to assume. Hotels are good value vs. New York or London (Expedia currently shows decent seeming options for not much more than $100 a night) and there’s always excellent fast food at affordable prices. Though with the recent collapse of the dollar vs. the yen it’s still not exactly cheap. It’s also perfectly possible to get around with only English – the Subway is bilingual, hotel staff know some English, and there’s a lot of plastic food in the restaurants to point at. The conference falls within the summer break for the US and Europe, so you could combine the trip with some sightseeing in the region.

On the other hand I’ll be spending much of the summer in Europe, and it would be nice to have some time just to write and relax. However I can still act as a clearing house of possible panel ideas even if I do not attend myself. 

In case you haven’t been before, 4S is diverse, chaotic, youthful, has a high acceptance rate, welcomes historical work but is not primarily historical, and usually gives only 12-15 minutes to speak. Review based on a short abstract, and no proceedings. There's usually a good body of IT related work, though biomedical topics are increasingly dominant. It doesn’t hurt to reference the theme (this time “global contexts”), but it’s not usually required. The global contexts theme might work particularly well for members of the SOFT-EU project.

Best wishes,

Tom Haigh
www.tomandmaria.com/tom 



From: webmaster at 4sonline.org [mailto:webmaster at 4sonline.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 11:34 AM
To: thaigh at computer.org
Subject: Call for Papers – Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science


Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)
August 25 – 29, 2010 | Tokyo 

Held jointly with Japanese Society for Science and Technology Studies 
Call for Papers: "STS in Global Contexts"
Deadline for Submissions of Paper Abstracts and Session Proposals is February 15, 2010.

The 2010 4S conference will be held with JSSTS (Japanese Society for Science and Technology Studies). This is the first 4S annual meeting in Asia. 4S members will have a chance to experience, interact with, and understand the cultural diversity of Asia. Furthermore, holding 4S in Asia opens the door to questions relating to universalities and cultural differences in STS concepts. This meeting will provide a good opportunity for reconsidering STS in global contexts as well as strengthening STS network worldwide.
Submit paper and session proposals now. (http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/ssss/4s10)
We are using the same submission site as last year. If you submitted or were included in a proposal last year, you already have a user ID.

Guidelines
Given the growing size of the 4S conferences and the desire to be as inclusive as possible, the program committee will need to make full use of the available time slots. Therefore, individuals may be listed for a paper presentation and one other role (such as session chair or discussant but not a second paper) for a maximum of two appearances.
Paper abstracts may be submitted individually or by a session organizer. Submissions are in the form of abstracts of 500 words or less, and must include a summary of the paper's main arguments and methodology, as well as a brief statement on the contribution to the STS literature. Please choose the most suitable categories for your paper:

A) Environmental Studies
B) Biomedicine
C) Food
D) Information and Communication Technology
E) Energy / Nuclear Power
F) Engineering
G) Gender Studies
H) Economics / Market Studies
I) Public Engagement / Social Movement
J) Science Communication
K) Science, Technology, and Public Policy
L) Theory and Method
M) Others 

Session proposals should be limited to 500 words total, and should contain a summary and rationale for the session, as well as a brief discussion of its contribution to STS. Session proposals should list names of all session organizers and panelists, including institutional affiliations and (electronic) addresses. Session proposals should be based on the assumption of one-and-half hour time slots with fifteen minutes per presentation. A typical session may have four papers, one discussant, and open discussion slot. You must have a minimum of three complete paper abstracts in order to submit a session proposal. The program committee may need to assign additional papers to proposed sessions. Session proposals must also indicate a subject category.

Proposals for double and triple sessions on a single topic may receive a request to consolidate the topic into one panel or to break the multiple sessions into different topics. The meeting welcomes papers, sessions and events that are innovative in their delivery, organization, range of topics, type of public and which bring new resources to the STS community to explore these new relations and themes.

Yuko Fujigaki, Porgram Chair
sec4S2010 at hps.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Meeting home page: http://4sonline.org/meeting


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