Studying Culture Differently: From Quantum Physics to the Music Synthesizer: An Interview with Trevor Pinch1

Abstract

This interview with Trevor Pinch, one of the most significant scholars in contemporary Science and Technology Studies (STS), reconstructs his career from the second half of the 1970s onwards, emphasizing the various points of contact and differences between social studies of science and technology, and several different approaches and authors in cultural sociology, cultural studies and culturalist approaches to the study of society. In doing so, the interview traces the evolution of debates in the sociological study of culture in relation to contemporaneous developments in the social study of science and technology. The interview moves on to explore one of the areas where Trevor Pinch has been active in recent years, namely the social and cultural study of music technologies. The interview ends with a reflection upon the political perspectives implicit in studies of science and technology generally, and in the work of Trevor Pinch particularly. © The Author(s) 2013.