Scholarly Works, Science, Technology, and Society

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Research articles, presentations, and other scholarship

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Every American an Innovator: How Innovation Became a Way of Life
Wisnioski, Matthew (MIT Press, 2025)
For half a century, innovation served as a universal good in an age of fracture. That consensus is cracking. While the imperative to innovate for a better future continues to fuel systemic change around the world, critics now assail innovation culture as an engine of inequality or accuse its do-gooders of woke groupthink. What happened? Drawing on a decade of research, Every American an Innovator by Matthew Wisnioski investigates how innovation—a once obscure academic term—became ingrained in our institutions, our education, and our beliefs about ourselves. Wisnioski argues that innovation culture did not spring from the digital revolution, nor can it be boiled down to heroic entrepreneurs or villainous capitalists. Instead, he reveals the central role of a new class of experts in spreading toolkits and mindsets from the cornfields of 1940s Iowa to Silicon Valley tech giants today. This group of engineers, philosophers, bureaucrats, and business leaders posited that “innovators” were society’s most important change agents and remade the nation in their image. The innovation culture they built transcended partisan divisions and made strange bedfellows. Wisnioski shows how Kennedy-era policymakers inspired President Nixon’s dream of a Nobel Prize for innovators, how anti-military professors built the first university incubators for entrepreneurs, how radical feminists became millionaire consultants, how demands for a rust belt manufacturing renaissance inspired theories of a global creative class, how programs that encouraged girls and minority children to pursue innovative lives changed the nature of childhood play, and why the innovation consensus is now in dispute.
Researching Back Internet Governance: Towards a Critical Internet Governance?
Rosa, Fernanda R. (2025-04-15)
Rendering History: The Women of ACM-W [Book review]
Abbate, Janet E. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025-10)
A book review of Rendering History: The Women of ACM-W. Edited by Gloria Childress Townsend. New York: ACM Books, 2024. Pp. 455.
Walking and Talking, Rocking and Rolling: Moral Visibility in Contexts of Technology Development
Shew, Ashley; van Grunsven, Janna (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024-06-01)
Many technologies that are purportedly developed to improve the lives of disabled people reflect an ableist ideology that devalues rather than supports disabled bodyminds. In this paper we attribute this tendency to a neurotypical form of perception that obscures disabled people’s moral visibility, understood as their visibility as richly expressive and interaction-worthy sensemaking individuals. Relying heavily on examples drawn from scholarship on and community with augmentative and alternative communication technology (AAC tech)—that is, communication technology designed for and used by nonspeaking people—we take the expressive bodies and voices of disabled people as well as technology’s role in forming expressivity and voice as important loci for redressing neurotypical ableist perceptions widely embedded in practices of engineering and science. Through our AAC tech discussion, we map different modes and degrees of moral (in)visibility, offering this mapping as an analytic resource for technologists committed to anti-ableist technology. Additionally, we also trace how technologies can be used and tinkered with in ways that can open up more (neuro)expansive, diversity-embracing ways of perceiving disabled lives. Ultimately, our account aims to motivate technologists to embrace such an expansive approach. We conclude by tentatively indicating some ways in which this approach can be operationalized in engineering and science practices.
A Call for Integrated Approaches in Digital Technology Design for Aging and Disability
Barton, Hanna J.; Valdez, Rupa S.; Shew, Ashley; Swenor, Bonnielin K.; Jolliff, Anna; Claypool, Henry; Czaja, Sara J.; Werner, Nicole E. (Oxford University Press, 2025-06)
The fields of aging and disability often proceed as 2 distinct lines of inquiry and action in terms of digital technology design. Guidelines and standards in both spaces (e.g., web content accessibility guidelines) have had suboptimal impact due to limited comprehensiveness enforcement mechanisms. Standards also rarely account for variations within the disability and aging communities and the structural power of ageism and ableism. These concerns proliferate in the context of contemporary technology discourse (e.g., data privacy, generative artificial intelligence). There is an opportunity to bridge both fields given that aging and disability can lead to distinct but overlapping experiences and technological needs and because of the multiple ways aging and disability may be simultaneously experienced. Joint efforts are essential to building the political power necessary to address current limitations and associated harms and to mitigate the risk of exacerbation associated with increasing technological pervasiveness and complexity. Joint efforts can also catalyze a paradigm shift from designing to address "deficits"to designs that are responsive to assets and the context of older adults' and disabled persons' full personhood. This paper reviews best practices for digital technology design across aging and disability fields and presents pathways forward toward comprehensive, enforceable standards.
Unveiling and Engaging with the Humans of Networking Research
Ahmed, Nova; Gazda, Laura; Greenlee, Eric; Hagemann, Shelby; Heimerl, Kurtis; Jang, Esther; Rosa, Fernanda R.; Salamatian, Loqman; Young, Jason (ACM, 2025-11-17)
Networking research often abstracts away the people who build, operate, and experience the Internet. Yet, human decisions shape what gets measured, which problems are prioritized, and how solutions are deployed. This paper argues that such human influence is foundational and deserves methodological attention. To do so, we discuss three well-known qualitative methods and approaches: participatory action research, ethnographic methods, and positionality as concrete ways of engaging with the social and operational realities that underlie technical systems. These approaches formalize processes that are commonly implicit in networking research, help surface questions that cannot be answered with traces alone, and make space for voices often left out of the research pipeline or are inadvertently concealed due to the lack of formal procedures to include them in our research methods. Ultimately, we argue for a broader understanding of legitimate, and sometimes informal, contributions to networking research—one that better reflects the human element of how the Internet is structured and is experienced.
Triple Helix Relations in Local and International Scientific Collaborations: A Case Study of Thailand, the US and China
Petri, Bunyakiat; Breslau, Daniel (Phcog Net, 2024-12-01)
Scientific collaboration is a driver of innovation and sustainable development, with countries globally, including those in the ASEAN region, leveraging collaborative efforts to enhance their scientific capacities. The changing structure and dynamics of the research and innovation ecosystem, shaped by collaborative efforts within and beyond their borders, have created a research gap. There is a scarcity of studies that comprehensively examine the innovation ecosystem in these nations. This article delves into the intricate dynamics of Triple Helix Relations among local sectors, universities, government entities and industries within the collaborative landscapes of Thailand, the United States and China. Using the data from 2006 to 2022, the study employs Shannon's mutual information, refined by Loet Leydesdorff, to analyze co-authored publications across the fields. We distinguish collaborations by the nationality of collaborative partners (Thai-China vs. Thai-U.S. collaboration) and by subject area (engineering, medicine and agricultural and biological sciences). The findings support the notion that international collaborations contribute to stronger Triple Helix relationships in specific ways within local settings. When Thailand partners with the United States, we observed weaker trilateral relationships but stronger bilateral ties between the Thai government and universities, particularly in the field of Medicine. Conversely, collaborations with China revealed stronger Triple Helix relations, as Thai industry became more involved in research collaborations, notably in agricultural and biological sciences and engineering. The analysis highlights the nuanced influence of international research collaboration on Thailand's national science and innovation system. These findings lay the groundwork for further investigation into the factors shaping these observed patterns.
Ingeniería de Sistemas y Computación, 1968-2010 los pequeños números que hemos visto cambiar
Prieto-Nanez, Fabian (2015)
Book review: História da informática na América Latina, and Por uma história da informática no Brasil
Prieto-Nanez, Fabian (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2025)
A review of two books: História da informática na América Latina: Reflexões e experiências (Argentina, Brasil e Chile), Edited by Marcelo Vianna, Lucas de Almeida Pereira, and Colette Perold. Jundiaí: Paco Editorial, 2021. Pp. 340. Por uma história da informática no Brasil: Os precursores das tecnologias computacionais (1958–1972), by Marcelo Vianna and Lucas de Almeida Pereira. Jundiaí: Paco Editorial, 2021. Pp. 316.
Researching gender in the history of the Internet and the Web. A roundtable at the SHOT 2023 conference
Abbate, Janet E.; Adair, Cassius; Dame-Griff, Avery; Edwards, Autumn; Fortunati, Leopoldina; Larsen, Deena; Nooney, Laine; Schafer, Valerie (Taylor & Francis, 2025-04-03)
The co-editors of this special issue—Janet Abbate, Autumn Edwards, Leopoldina Fortunati, along with Valérie Schafer, a co-editor of the journal—launched an open call for organizing a roundtable during the SHOT 2023 conference, in which they invited scholars to delve deeper into the multifaceted sources, approaches, and methodologies related to Gender in the history of the Internet and the Web. This edited transcription of the roundtable presents historically situated examples of the sociological, cultural, and political aspects of the relationship between gender and the Internet. It endeavors to illuminate the shaping of this history, examining the construction of gender in the online sphere. The participants pose inquiries about addressing knowledge gaps in this history, exploring methods to trace gendered trajectories and controversies, leveraging oral histories, navigating silences and invisibility, and broadening the dissemination of findings to audiences beyond those already engaged. Beginning with Laine Nooney’s exploration of the videogames industry before connected and networked practices, the discussion progresses to Avery Dame-Griff and Cassius Adair, who both tackle the challenges of reconstructing and narrating the history of transgender people and their digital communication dynamics. These themes are also developed in Laine Nooney’s article “A Pedestal, A Table, A Love Letter: Archaeologies of Gender and Video Game History” (2013), significantly contributing to the evolving dialogue on gender and video games, and Avery Dame-Griff’s recent book, The Two Revolutions: A History of the Transgender Internet (2023). Lastly, Deena Larsen provides insights into present and future challenges concerning gender asymmetries and imbalances in Wikipedia, along with their implications for the development of artificial intelligence.
Introduction: (re)writing gender in Internet histories
Fortunati, Leopoldina; Edwards, Autumn; Abbate, Janet E. (Taylor & Francis, 2025-04-03)
This special issue aims to illuminate women’s contributions throughout history by using gender as a critical lens in internet historiography and challenging the dominance of male-centered narratives. In the introduction, we contextualize the socio-cultural moment in which this issue was conceived and outline its dual focus. First, we reconstruct women’s contributions to the history of the Internet. Second, we examine gender identity and the role of LGBTQ+ communities within this history. Our approach is guided by two perspectives: understanding gender identity as a site of political mobilization and situating the Internet within the broader digital world. We also advocate for future directions that emphasize decolonizing and expanding Internet historiography.
Applied Science as a Political Construction: Contested Meanings at NSF
Abbate, Janet E. (2017-11-09)
Applied science is a ubiquitous term in fields ranging from history of science to innovation studies to science policy, yet its meaning remains elusive. While some historians suggest that its definition was stabilized in the early 20th century as part of the “linear model” of science, examples from the history of the US National Science Foundation show its meaning continued to be contested through the latter half of the 20th century. I argue that the term’s fluidity stems from its inherently political nature: the meaning of applied science changes to fit contemporary agendas. This essay identifies five criteria that have provided historical actors with a flexible set of discursive resources for constructing policy-relevant definitions of pure and applied science. This set of criteria provides historians with a way to systematically compare changing and competing definitions, and it exposes logical inconsistencies that point to applied science as a persuasive, rather than simply descriptive, term. I provide two case studies that illustrate how this works in practice: in the late 1960s NSF redefined applied science as “science that solves social problems,” while in the 1980s it promoted a meaning of “basic science that enhances economic competitiveness.” These redefinitions responded to contemporary political concerns, but far from being merely rhetorical, they shaped specific NSF programs and the types of science that were supported.
Infraestructuras de conexión y gobernanza de internet: digitalización, códigos y desigualdades desde el Sur global
Rosa, Fernanda R.; Portugal, Mario; Gomez Baeza, Francisca; Pareja, Roberto (2024-06-03)
La siguiente entrevista fue realizada por los tres coeditores del presente número, con el objetivo de conocer más a fondo a Fernanda Rosa, las motivaciones que inspiran su trabajo intelectual y su visión respecto de la digitalización en Nuestramérica y las implicancias que esto tiene para la vida de sus habitantes. El trabajo de Fernanda Rosa constituye un puente entre las discusiones técnicas sobre la infraestructura de interconexión del internet y justicia social para discutir sobre diseño y gobernanza del internet desde una posicionalidad del Sur global. Utilizado un método de su autoría definido como etnografía del código, una perspectiva transdisciplinar basada en los estudios de ciencia y tecnología, estudios feministas y decoloniales, su trabajo describe la infraestructura de circulación de información en internet, con una aproximación desde la justicia y políticas públicas. Sitúa al lector en el contexto indígena y Latinoamericano para problematizar las desigualdades en el acceso a la infraestructura del internet y en la circulación de datos digitales en el sur global.
Citation Politics: The Gender Gap in Internet Governance
Rosa, Fernanda R.; Anastácio, Kimberly; de Jesus, Maria Vitória; Veras, Hemanuel Jhosé A. (Elsevier, 2024-06-01)
This article proposes an informed debate on the politics of citation in internet governance (IG), focusing on gender. To this end, we use the Bibliographic Reference Index (BRI) to examine the prominence of female and male names in the IG references. The BRI is based on an action research process (“pesquisa-ação”), in which authors fill out information about their citation practices. The aim is to promote self-reflection on authors’ selection of references whilst collecting bibliographic data. We applied the BRI to 1113 citations from 35 papers published in the Proceedings of the Brazilian Internet Governance Research Network (REDE) throughout 2017–2021. Results show that male-gendered names were cited more than double the number of times of female-gendered names (47% vs. 20%). To situate these results vis-à-vis global IG, we analyze the gender gap in the curriculum of IG schools and courses, by applying the index to an Internet Governance Forum compilation of 22 IG syllabi and course programs, comprising 96 references and the names of 217 IG experts worldwide. Results show that female names authored only 19% of the syllabi readings and materials featured vs. 29% by men. Also, the gender rate among experts is 63% vs. 37% in favor of men. Based on the structural gender inequalities that we have found in global and local IG contexts, we recommend interventions to increase the conscious engagement with bibliography and syllabus preparation on two fronts: 1) we recommend the application of the BRI to IG syllabi and course programs to monitor and reduce the gender gap; and 2) we provide a citation diversity statement that IG scholars can add to their publications in order to promote self-reflection about their knowledge production and add transparency to the politics of citation in IG.
(Re)Writing Gender in Internet Histories: Introduction to special issue on Gender in Internet and Web History
Fortunati, Leopoldina; Edwards, Autumn; Abbate, Janet E. (Taylor & Francis, 2025)
This special issue aims to illuminate women's contributions throughout history by using gender as a critical lens in internet historiography and challenging the dominance of male-centered narratives. In the introduction, we contextualize the socio-cultural moment in which this issue was conceived and outline its dual focus. First, we reconstruct women’s contributions to the history of the Internet. Second, we examine gender identity and the role of LGBTQ+ communities within this history. Our approach is guided by two perspectives: understanding gender identity as a site of political mobilization and situating the Internet within the broader digital world. We also advocate for future directions that emphasize decolonizing and expanding Internet historiography.
Computational thinking and gender imbalance in computer science
Abbate, Janet E. (2025-01-06)
The percentage of female computer science majors is lower today at U.S. schools than in the 1980s, despite decades of effort by concerned computer scientists and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). Researchers have addressed a variety of possible reasons, ranging from the lack of female role models, to sexism on campus and in the workplace, to conflicts between work and motherhood. More recently, efforts to attract women have focused on the content of computer science as a factor deterring women. In particular, recent studies have proposed that the subject will be more appealing to underrepresented groups — especially girls — if teachers emphasize “computational thinking.” The idea that computer science has its own special way of thinking, which can both appeal to women and be transferred to non-computing fields, has been a subject of enthusiasm but also debate among computer education experts. This paper explores the implications of the claim that teaching computational thinking can help undo the gender imbalance in computing, and what this says about computer science itself.
404 Not Found: Quantitative Methods in Disability Studies
Blanchard, Aurelian; Blanchard, Enka; Shew, Ashley (SAGE, 2024-11-04)
Disability is sometimes theorised as existing between the world (including social norms and infrastructure) and the person (who gets labelled disabled in a ‘misfit’ between the world and them). Disability is often enacted through data systems and infrastructures and the history of disability studies reflects a fight against such systems. In this paper, we examine the fraught relationships between disability studies and data science — from institutions and historical marginalisation to current practices of policing and surveillance. We critique the resulting preeminence of qualitative methods in disability studies as one impediment to translating disability studies to data scientists and to effective policy-making. We then address hopeful movements to crip data studies, looking at work on AI and disability bias, crip technoscience, counterventional research, and cripped data.
Introduction: The future is disabled
Shew, Ashley (MIT Technology Review, 2025)
Cyborg-Technology Relations
Shew, Ashley; Earle, Joshua (TU Delft OPEN, 2024-11-08)
We advocate for a philosophizing of cyborg-technology relations that takes account disabled technology users. First, we sketch out how tech-driven ableism (“technoableism”) is present in most discourse about technology, and then address how ableism has shaped accounts of disability in philosophy more broadly too. We examine this in historical and media context, then turn to what an unapologetic disability-forward approach to cyborg-technology relations looks like, and what it means to listen to the cyborgs we know and love. This work draws from the interdisciplinary field of disability studies and STS work on crip technoscience. We situate this work mostly within North American media and history of disability and Silicon Valley boosterism on tech, but accounts of technology and of disability are not unique to these locations.
Fair Plastics: Advancing Industrial Decarbonization through Equitable Social Innovations
Breslau, Daniel; McMillan, Colin; Schmid, Sonja; Tsou, Tsung-Yen (The Department of Science, Technology, and Society, Virginia Tech, 2024-08-19)
Industrial decarbonization is an absolute and immediate requirement in the context of global climate change. Producing the basic materials that constitute the infrastructure of our modern societies (e.g. steel, cement, plastics) is the most significant source of industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, compared to areas such as electricity generation and ground transportation, where clear technological solutions for decarbonization have emerged, decarbonizing industry may follow any number of potential pathways. The Fair Plastics workshop brought together a group of experts and stakeholders from industry, government, research organizations, and environmental and community groups to discuss each group’s views of the significant obstacles and potential pathways of decarbonizing ethylene production. Industry representatives focused on technical pathways to ethylene decarbonization. While requesting infrastructure for electricity, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide, they emphasized the need for regulatory standards, carbon pricing, and government intervention to support the transition to decarbonization. Government and academic researchers assessed the existing pathways and highlighted carbon contributors other than ethylene, such as the steel and cement industries. The group also highlighted the economic challenges of the entire plastics lifecycle, noting the difficulty in reducing reliance on low-cost natural gas and the lack of replacement materials for ethylene-derived products. Environmental and community groups also took a lifecycle perspective and stressed the importance of addressing not only ethylene production, but also upstream and downstream activities to mitigate environmental and health impacts. They advocated for source reduction and greater industry accountability to ensure environmental justice for communities affected by petrochemical pollution. The report concludes that achieving ethylene decarbonization requires coordinated efforts across technical, social, and policy dimensions, with a focus on sustainability, innovation, and equity for affected communities.

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