Los retos de la interdisciplinariedad

The interactions between science, technology and society represent a challenging field of research. They are complex and far-reaching, and are in continuous motion, causing transformations and mutating themselves in the process. Getting a glimpse of how they work has never been easy, but the more these challenges progress, the more compelling it is to try to understand them in their full breadth and depth. Achieving an overview and orientation regarding these interactions is urgently needed, but one that is greatly hampered by the dualism of the sciences. With the CTS studies an interdisciplinary field has been created that tries to respond to these challenges. Thus, this book focuses attention on the question of the prevailing conditions and the necessary circumstances in which cultural studies and socio-scientific findings can effectively and constructively influence processes of social development. In order to pay attention to hitherto neglected dimensions of material culture and ecological environment, as well as technology, preference is given to a broad anthropological understanding. However, this approach should not remain merely descriptive, but should be capable, more than ever, of addressing questions about the formability of solution-oriented human practice. This requires a social theory that is capable of participating in an interdisciplinary way in an integrative treatment of modern society. But that, at the same time, is capable of developing a critical perspective that points beyond the horizon of what exists.