Expertise

Science and technology studies.
Governance and accountability relations.
Mundane objects and ordinary technologies.
The use of neurosciences in business and management. Provocation and intervention. Visualisation and evidence. Social theory. 

Overview

Steve Woolgar is Professor of Marketing and Head of the the Science and Technology Studies research group with the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He is also Head of the Science and Technology Studies Academic Area in the School.

Before moving to Oxford in 2000, he was Professor of Sociology, Head of the Department of Human Sciences and Director of CRICT (Centre for Research into Innovation, Culture and Technology) at Brunel University. He took his BA (First Class Honours), MA and PhD from Emmanuel College, Cambridge University. He has since held Visiting Appointments at McGill University (Sociology '79-81), MIT (Program in Science Technology and Society, '83-84), Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines, Paris (Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation, '88-89) and UC San Diego (Sociology, '95-96). He is the winner of a Fulbright Scholarship, a Fulbright Senior Scholarship, and an ESRC Senior Research Fellowship. From 1997-2002 he was Director of the ESRC Programme Virtual Society? - the social science of electronic technologies a £3½ m venture comprising 22 research projects throughout the UK. In 2008 he was named winner of the J. D. Bernal Prize.

Steve has published widely in science and technology studies, social problems and social theory. His work has been translated into Chinese, Dutch, French, Greek, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.

He has served on various European and UK government advisory bodies, including Foresight Panels and Ministerial Advisory Groups; as an advisor to the Research Councils of Denmark, Netherlands and Norway; and as Fellow of the Sunningdale Institute, the UK Cabinet Office think tank on Public Service Management. He has also been an advisor to the Research Councils of Denmark, Netherlands and Norway. He was a member of the HEFCE RAE Sociology Panel (1996 and 2001). He is a member of Council of Which? (the Consumer’s Association), and a Trustee of Auditory Verbal UK, the charity which enables speech and language in hearing impaired children.

Research interests

Social studies of science and technology.
Social implications of electronic technologies.
Technologies of representation and (especially visual) evidence.
Governance and accountability relations.
Mundane technologies.
Social theory.

Books:

Woolgar, S.,  Coopmans, C. and Neyland, D. (eds) Does STS Mean Business? Special issue of Organization 16 (1)(2009)

Woolgar, S. & Latour, B., Laboratory Life (Chinese translation by Zhang Beisheng and Diao Xiaojing, Beijing: Dongfang Press (Beijing, 2006)

Epistimi: i idea kath eafti (Greek translation of Science: The Very Idea with new foreword, Athens: Katoptro, 2003)

Woolgar, S. (ed.), Virtual Society? Technology, Cyberbole, Reality, Oxford University Press, 2002.

Grint, K. & Woolgar, S., The Machine at Work: Technology, Work and Society, Polity Press, 1997.

Lynch, M. & Woolgar, S., Representation in Scientific Practice, MIT Press, 1990.

Fuller, S., de Mey, M., Shinn, T., & Woolgar, S., The Cognitive Turn: Sociological and Psychological Perspectives on Science, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989.

Woolgar, S., Knowledge and Reflexivity: New Frontiers in the Sociology of Knowledge, Sage, 1988.

Woolgar, S., Science: The Very Idea, Routledge, 1988.

Latour, B. & Woolgar, S., Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts, Sage, 1979.

Book chapters:

Woolgar, S. & Coopmans, C., ‘Virtual witnessing in a virtual age: a prospectus for social studies of eScience’ in C.Hine (ed) New Infrastructures for Knowledge Production: understanding e-Science (London: Idea Group Press, 2006) 1-25

Woolgar, S., ‘Ontological disobedience  - definitely! {maybe}’ in Stephen P. Turner and Alan Sica (eds) A Disobedient Generation (University of Chicago Press, 2005) 309-324.

Woolgar, S., ‘Technology and Society: an overview’ in Sal Restivo (ed) Science, Technology and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Woolgar, S., ‘Perspectives on Technology and Society’ in Sal Restivo (ed) Science, Technology and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Woolgar, S., ‘Technological Systems: computers’ in Sal Restivo (ed) Science, Technology and Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Woolgar, S., ‘Mobile back to front: uncertainty and danger in the theory-technology relationship’ in R.Ling and P.E.Pedersen (eds) Mobile Communications: re-negotiation of the social sphere (Springer-Verlag, London, 2005) 23-43.

Woolgar, S., ‘Some remarks about positionism’ in J.B.Davis (ed) Recent Developments in Economic Methodology (London: Edward Elgar, 2005).

Woolgar, S., ‘Configuring the user’ (Italian translation) in Paolo Fabbri and Gianfranco Marrone (eds) Il Senso degli Oggetti Tecnici (Technical Objects and Meaning) (Rome: Segnature, for Meltemi Editore, 2005).

Woolgar, S., ‘Reflexive Internet? - the British experience of new electronic technologies’ 125-142 in Manuel Castells (ed) The Network Society: a cross cultural perspective (Edward Elgar, 2004).
Also published in Spanish in Manuel Castells (ed) La sociedad red: una perspectiva intercultural (Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2005).

Woolgar, S. & Pawluch, D., ‘Ontological gerrymandering: the anatomy of social problems explanations’ 45-61 in A. Kathryn Stout, Richard A. Dello Buono and William J. Chambliss (eds) Social Problems, Law, and Society (Rowman and Littlefield, 2004).

Woolgar, S. & Pawluch, D., ‘Ontological gerrymandering: the anatomy of social problems explanations’ in M.Lynch and W.Sharrock (eds) Harold Garfinkel (London: Sage Masters of Social Thought, 2003).

Woolgar, S., ‘Five rules of virtuality’ in  Steve Woolgar (ed) Virtual Society? – technology, cyberbole, reality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) 1-22.

Woolgar, S., 'Analytic scepticism', in: Dutton, W.H. (Ed.), Society on the line : information politics in the digital age, Oxford University Press, 1999.

Woolgar, S., 'De toekomst van privacy', in: Schoenmaker, M., van den Starre, G., & Baten, I. (Ed.), Privacy Geregistreerd: visies op de maatschappelijke betekenis van privacy, Rathenau, 1998.

Woolgar, S., 'Science and technology studies and the renewal of social theory', in: Turner, S.P. (Ed.), Social Theory and Sociology: the classics and beyond, Blackwells, 1997.

Woolgar, S., 'Psychology, qualitative methods and the ideas of science', in: Richardson, J. (Ed.), Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods for Psychology and the Social Sciences, British Psychological Society, 1996.

Woolgar, S., 'Technologies as cultural artefacts', in: Dutton, W. (Ed.), Information and Communication Technologies - Visions and Realities, Oxford University Press, 1996.

Cooper, G. & Woolgar, S., 'The research process: context, autonomy and audience', in: Busfield, J. & Lyon, S. (Ed.), Methodological Imaginations, Macmillan, 1996.

Cooper, G., Hine, C., Rachel, J., & Woolgar, S., 'Ethnography and HCI', in: Thomas, P.J. (Ed.), The Social and Interactional Dimensions of Human-Computer Interfaces, Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Journal articles:

Woolgar, S., Coopmans, C. and Neyland, D. ‘Does STS mean Business?’ Organization 16 (1)(2009) 5-30
 
Woolgar, S. ‘Marketing ideas’ Economy and Society 33 (4) (November, 2004) 448-462.

Woolgar, S. ‘What happened to provocation in Science and Technology Studies?’ History and Technology 20 (4) (December, 2004) 339-349.

Woolgar, S. ‘Un nouveau regard sur la société virtuelle’ Annals de Telecommunications 57 (3/4) (2002) 159-179.

Woolgar, S. ‘After Word: on some dynamics of duality interrogation’ Theory, Culture and Society 19 (5/6) (2002) 261-270.

Neyland, D., & Woolgar, S., 'Accountability in Action? The case of a database purchasing decision', British Journal of Sociology, Vol.53:2, 2002, pp.259-274.

Woolgar, S., 'Do artefacts have ambivalence? - Moses' bridges, Winner's bridges and other urban legends', Social Studies of Science, Vol.29:3, 1999, pp.433-449.

Woolgar, S., 'A new theory of innovation?', Prometheus, Vol.16:4, 1998, pp.441-453.

Woolgar, S., VauxPaula Gomes, J., Ezingeard, J.-N., & Grieve, R., 'Abilities and Competences required, particularly by small firms, to identify and acquire new technology', Technovation, Vol.18:8-9, 1998, pp.575-584.

Woolgar, S., 'Promoting SMEs exploitation of University research', Industry and Higher Education, Vol.11, 1997, pp.21-27.

Woolgar, S., 'A further decisive refutation of the assumption that political action depends on the truth: a response to Rosalind Gill', Science, Technology and Human Values, Vol.21:3, 1996, pp.354-357.

Low, J., Johnson, J., Hall, P., Hovenden, F., Rachel, J., Robinson , H., & Woolgar, S., 'Read this and change the way you feel about software engineering', Information and Software Technology, Vol.38:2, 1996, pp.77-87.

Woolgar, S., 'The discursive structure of the social-technical divide: the example of information systems development', Sociological Review, Vol.43:2, 1995, pp.251-273.

Useful links:

Institute for Science, Innovation and Society

Science and Technology Studies (STS) research group

Green Templeton College

Virtual Society website

Past STS events

From scale to scalography- July 2009

A turn to Ontology in STS? - June 2008

Does STS mean business? - 2007