“We look with our own eyes, we see with the eyes of a collective body” – With these words the physician/biologist turned philosopher of science, Ludwik Fleck, pointedly summarized the relation between the individual mind and a related thought collective some 70 years ago. This very relation has ever since been an inspiring starting point to reflect upon the conditions of doing and being in science, from the coining of the concepts of scientific community and epistemic cultures to the analyses of academic socialisation processes and the emergence of new specialties. But not only did our theoretical conceptions evolve, so did the empirical situation within the scientific world, a change hinted at by some scholars with the new label of ‘technoscience’.

While there is up to now plenty of empirical evidence for new socio-epistemic phenomena in technoscience (including analyses of the synthetic biology iGEM competition, DIY or citizen science) and historical analyses of the changing nature of (techno)science have been put forward (see for instance Pickstone 2001, Ways of Knowing, or Shapin 2008, The Scientific Life), the question of whether and how contemporary scientific communities and identities are subject to more funda-mental changes, reframing their very roles and character, is largely underexplored.

This workshop addresses the thesis that it is not only that communities and identities change over time; we also observe second order changes in the organisation and relevance of community and identity. Presently, the institutional importance of disciplinary categories and their affiliation to specific faculties seems to fade along with a Humboldtian ideal of closely connecting research (as the realm of specialities) to teaching (as the realm of disciplines) in the European context; inter-nationally, scientific identities have become far more flexible, reactive, if not provisional, with an ever increasing influence of new funding regimes replacing an era of grown local structures, traditions and hierarchies. Individual identities and collective structures co-evolve in sometimes fast and unforeseen ways; at other occasions they serve as levers for attempts at meticulously planning and socially engineering technoscience.

With these shifts in the (techno)scientific sphere, our scholarly conceptions of scientific identity and community refer to an empirical situation that has changed fundamentally during the past decades – that is, since their initial formulation and discussion within science and technology studies. An empirically grounded re-evaluation of how doing and being in (techno)science is shaped by specific forms of community and identity and how specific modes of being and being together in techno-science co-emerge, targeting at a re-discussion of their theoretical conception, seems timely.

The workshop focuses on phenomena of stability and/or change, homogeneity and/or diversity in the contemporary technosciences’ community and identity constellations, including:
- Socialisation and enculturation: how are (techno)scientists' identities and communities formed and performed in potentially new ways (e.g. iGEM competitions adding to or even replacing the enculturating role of university curricula; the academic persona being replaced by an engineering identity)? What (new) roles do these (new) identities and collectives play?
- Differentiation and boundary work: how are contemporary (techno)scientific communities structured and performed (e.g. are new transdisciplinary research fields, collaborative research projects and clusters of excellence adding to or replacing sub-disciplinary, disciplinary and supra-disciplinary structures)? Are individual identities tied to one or many collectives?
- Governance regime: What role do (provisional) identities, (global) communities, (local) institutional structures, (national) funding programmes and the prevailing transnational innovation discourse play in the (de)stabilisation of contemporary (techno)sciences (e.g. have hypes replaced the role of more traditional phenomena in pre-defining techno-scientific problems)?

We welcome empirical analyses that engage different theoretical conceptualisations of scientific community and/or identity. Invited contributions address and discuss (trans)disciplinary, provisional, patchworked, networked and (trans)national identity and community within con-temporary technosciences. In the concluding discussion, findings are compared and the thesis whether we have to conceive of scientific identity and community in a fundamentally new way is re-addressed. By analysing the formation, performance and transformation of technoscientific identities and communities, we aim at deepening the understanding of change, stability and difference related to newly emerging (techno)sciences.

Abstracts of up to 500 words, containing author(s), title, general argument and an outline of the empirical case should be sent to kkast@oeaw.ac.at by September 16th, 2016.

Notification of acceptance will be sent to you by September 30th, and abstracts will be circulated. Full paper drafts are welcome until January, 31st.

The workshop will take place February 16 – 18, 2017, in Vienna, Austria, starting with an invited key note lecture by Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, University of Sheffield.

The organisation of a joint volume (special journal issue or edited volume) based on contributions and discussions throughout the workshop is planned. We aim at combining thematic contributions from early career, junior and senior researchers.

Accommodation costs in Vienna are covered for all invited non-local participants. Travel costs will have to be covered by participants. There is no additional fee for participating in the workshop.