First STS Euregio PhD Day

In this presentation I will investigate how STS may relate to three prominent global shifts. The first shift is geopolitical. The rearrangement of global powers questions Western perspectives as legitimate starting points for knowledge claims. What is the implication of the rising importance of non-Western perspectives, including the Global South? The second shift is institutional: the erosion of the privilege of science. The position of experts is changing, and their credibility is increasingly under threat with the rise of populism and post-truth assertiveness. How does this affect STS experts? The third shift is epistemological: the climate crisis and the concomitant loss of biodiversity changes the background of knowledge claims. The ‘normal’ background is no longer to be taken for granted; ecologies are on the run and have become protagonists themselves. What does this imply for the STS heuristic ‘it could have been otherwise’?

The present is characterised by the emergence of a new multi-polar world order. This is accompanied by a plethora of upheavals. This is quite obvious in the development of new security architectures, but it is equally apparent in the question of whether the rule-based order has a future, or in the question of the development of infrastructures that are less prone to error in hybrid warfare. Science has always played a prominent role in such times, because in many areas, science can only succeed if there is worldwide cooperation. Science diplomacy represents an important approach to cooperation between nations despite the official non-cooperation. Science diplomacy, like other approaches of epistemic cooperation, will become increasingly important. At the same time, however, it is unclear whether and how this can succeed. This is because the forms of performing science in the respective countries differ considerably.

This presentation is based on two initial ideas. Firstly, that these different forms of scientificity can be described as varieties of science. And secondly, that cross-border regions represent a revealing socio-epistemic laboratory for identifying such varieties, as well as for exploring possibilities for how epistemic cooperation can succeed in the face of varieties of science. Against this background, the presentation takes three steps, each of which brings together conceptual and empirical findings. First, the concept of varieties of science is developed with a view to Ulrich Beck's sociology of cosmopolitisation. Thereafter, the significance of cross-border regions as exploring ground for varieties of science is emphasised and, finally, this will be exemplified by the EUREGIO-STS endeavor taking place between Liège, Maastricht and Aachen.