The Joint 4S & EASST Conference: Paris, August 25-28, 2004.

The 4S President, Bruno Latour, and the Centre de Sociologie de I'Innovation at the Ecole Des Mines de Paris hosted the biennial meeting of scholars interested in science & technology studies (STS). The theme of the joint European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the US-based Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) was 'Public Proofs--Science, Technology and Democracy'.

The link to democracy was reinforced by the timing of the conference as it happened to coincide with the sixtieth celebrations of the liberation of Paris. The conference venue, next to the Jardin du Luxembourg, provided ample opportunity to view the selection of photo posters illustrating the liberation, participation (by some) in the evening Bal de al Liberation (to war-time music and in war-time dress) and a daily reminder of what caused the many holes in the facades of the Ecole Des Mines and surrounding buildings.

The 1176 attendees, all very visible in the streets and cafes of St. Germain with their bright orange conference bags, represented 45 countries but the majority were from Western Europe. While this might not seem a huge conference, the number of participants was almost double the number at the conference two years ago, presumably reflecting the great surge in interest in science and society issues around the world.

The Presidential lecture, held in the Senat Palais du Luxembourg, was in fact a panel, chaired by Bruno Latour, of six STS luminaries addressing the topic of 'Public Proofs--an Historical Interpretation' from some very different perspectives. The highlight was the highly entertaining and visual historical tour of medical 'demonstrations', given by Simon Schaffer, a Cambridge history of science professor.

A total of 1036 papers were presented in 189 sessions, which once again meant difficult choices had to be made between which of the 28 streams to attend! The papers were grouped (colour coded) into eight streams: expertise, governance and public debate; science and scientific practices; information and communication technologies; health care practices; research and innovation; technologies, markets and society; biomedical sciences and scientific practices; and environment, energy and natural boundaries.

It is always difficult to select 'bests' from a conference when a participant can only attend a small fraction of what is on offer, but a few stood out. Three linked sessions entitled 'Experimentalising Society, Socialising Experiments', contained 12 presentations building on a 1994 paper by Krohn and Weyeri (1) looking at how society is used as a 'laboratory' in which technologies are tested. The 'Science, Policy and Expertise: From Outside to Inside' session, organised by Harry Collins and Rob Evans, dealt with notions of expertise and the 'folk-wisdom' of how technical problems are understood by non-experts. A similar presentation by Alan Irwin and colleagues on the 'Discourses of Ignorance' outlined a study that surfaced four ways in which an immigrant community (in the UK) responded to scientific unknowns as: 'don't know, but must be bad'; 'don't know, don't want to know'; 'don't know, not an expert'; and 'don't know, no-one has let me know and they wouldn't be interested [in my view] anyway'. And there were many other excellent individual papers.

Apart from an informal garden party during the registration afternoon, the main social function was the conference dinner, held on huge river barges. Dinner was served, prizes awarded and speeches made (but not heard very well) as the boats drifted at a leisurely pace past the stunning nighttime sites and lights of Paris. Bruno Latour's promise, made at the Atlanta 4S conference in 2003, that the food and wine would be far better in Paris, was certainly kept.

The location of the next joint EASST/4S conference, scheduled for 2006, has not yet been announced (keep an eye on www.easst.net) but there is also the annual 4S conference in between which is to held in Pasadena, 20-22 October, 2005 (see http://www.4sonline.org/). Those that are interested in STS might also like to know that EASST regulars, Alan Irwin, Brian Wynne and Rob Evans are to be keynote speakers at a New Zealand conference 'Talking Biotechnology: Reflecting on Science & Society', to be held from 29 November to 2 December 2005. See www.vuw.ac.nz/talking-biotechnology for more information.

Endnote

(1) Krohn, W & Weyer, J. (1994) Society as a Laboratory: the Social Risks of Experimental Research, Science & Public Policy 21(3): 173-183.

SALLY DAVENPORT, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand