Research Interests
Technologies are processes through which people (human agency) change the material (production forces) and social conditions (production relations) of existence and the knowledge underlying these changes. This definition ascribes two main features to technology. First, since technology is about processes through which people transfer the conditions of their existence, technology is considered to be social. Second, technology deals with both material conditions of existence (transformation of nature) and social conditions of existence (transformation of society and of culture). In other words, technology does not only reveal and produce the relation of human beings with nature, but also lays bare the process of the production of social relations. Therefore the study of technology is a study into social relations.
Research themes
Research projects may cover a wide range of topics (from studies into biotechnology and genomics to remote sensing and GIS). On a general level, CTC is dedicated to three (partly overlapping) fields of research and individual projects should address at least one of these themes.
1. Biotechnologies and Genomics 
The debate on biotechnology has since long reached a deadlock. This debate, we would argue, is dominated by a specific group of participants which may be called the splitters. These splitters consider technology and society separate domains. Whenever splitters discuss technology or society, they will do that as if technology and society are external to each other. These splitters are divided in two subgroups, the proponents and the opponents, those who think that biotechnology is part of the solution and those who emphasize biotechnology is part of the problem. But both groups start from the same basic assumption: technology and society are separate entities, and the object of analysis is the impacts of a specific factor (biotechnology) on a generalized and abstract institution or process (society). In the debate, both types of splitters focus on the identification of biotechnology with its most spectacular form, trans-genetics. The research of CTC tries to go beyond this pro-anti debate and the idea of technology and society as separate entities, having impact on each other. The research of CTC aims to contribute to analyses of technology as social constructions, in much the same way as, for example, institutions are. The group is as much interested in the question which social forces contribute to the shaping of technologies as the politics in technology, the influence of social resistance on research agenda’s and the reconstruction of biotechnology.
2. Critical Constructivism and Science in Society
An important characteristic of modern science and technology is the transformation of the world from one of ends into one of means. Today, science and technology are hardly concerned with ends themselves. They are concerned with the coordination of means with ends as given. The emphasis is on its instrumental character, efficiency, adequacy of procedures. Little importance is attached to the question whether the ends as such are reasonable. This in contract to classical thought, which was intended to achieve more than the mere regulation of the relations between means and ends: it was regarded as the instrument for understanding the ends, for determining them. The research of CTC into science & technology aims to take into account both the issues of means and ends. This is what we call our critical constructivist approach. Such analysis cannot be made by (social) scientists in isolation to society. Therefore, CTC aims to develop an approach in which science for society and science with society are transformed in a science in society. This science in society approach is characterized by close interaction and collaboration with stakeholders.
3. Social Spaces and Identities
Technology can be conceived of as a series of practices that design and remake social spaces. One may think about how the mechanization of agriculture reconstructed rural space, but also about the spatial effects of high yielding varieties or new processing methods and technologies. In this sub-program, CTC aims to create better insight on the spatial dimensions of (agrarian) technologies. Contributions to this program deal with questions such as what and how space is conceptualized in technological regimes, what and how spaces are created in technological practices?
Identity construction is about the binding together of people, either by a person's self-affiliation or as a result of categorization by others, as members of a particular group. In this sub-program it is analyzed what and how identities are created in modern technologies. An example of our research interest is in the relation between genetic testing and the construction of identities, but also the constitution of identities in enabling technologies, such as biotechnology and nanotechnology.
Research projects
For an overview of current research projects that CTC is involved in, please visit the Guido Ruivenkamp pages.