Engineering collaborative social science toolkits. STS methods and concepts as devices for interdisciplinary diplomacy

Abstract

The smartification of industries is marked by the development of cyber-physical systems, interfaces, intelligent software featuring knowledge models, empirical real-time data, and feedback-loops. This brings up new requirements and challenges for HMI design and industrial labor. Social sciences can contribute to such engineering projects with their perspectives, concepts and knowledge. Hence, we claim that, in addition to following their own intellectual curiosities, the social sciences can and should contribute to such projects in terms of an ‘applied’ science, helping to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and providing toolkits and devices for what we call ‘interdisciplinary diplomacy’. We illustrate the benefits of such an approach, support them with selected examples of our involvement in such an engineering project and propose using methods as diplomatic devices and concepts as social theory plug-ins. The article ends with an outlook and reflection on the remaining issue of whether and in how far such ‘applied’ and critical social science can or should be integrated.