FASoS Colloquium ‘Writing the Rules for Europe’
Speaker: Johan Schot, director of SPRU
Date: Wednesday 8 October
Time and place: 15.30 – 17.00, Attic, room 1.003, Soiron building
In this lecture, Johan Schot (director of SPRU), will focus on the role of experts in international decision-making. He will unravel the technocratic origins of the European integration process and the dilemmas this poses for democracy.
The theme of the lecture is linked to Schot’s upcoming book Writing the Rules for Europe: Experts, Cartels, and International Organizations’ (with Wolfram Kaiser). This book is part of the “Making Europe” series, which is edited by Johan Schot and Phil Scranton.
This series has recently received the prestigious Freeman Award (EASST 2104). The award is given in recognition of a publication which reflects a significant collective contribution to the interaction of science and technology studies within the study of innovation.
‘Making Europe’ is a six volume book series, which investigates the question of ‘Who built Europe?’ and it is a product out of an ambitious collaboration of almost 300 scholars through the ‘Tensions of Europe’ project. The ‘Making Europe’ book series charts a new transnational history of Europe through the lens of technology by looking specifically at the people, ideas, goods and technologies that spread between countries— and between continents. Making Europe presents and interprets a history that is still in the making. It shows that technology will continue to play a central role in defining Europe; that the politics of Europe is the politics of technology as much as anything else.
Professor Johan Schot joined the University of Sussex as the Director of SPRU – Science Policy Research Unit – in January 2014. He is a Professor in the History of Technology and Sustainability Transitions Studies. His research is wide ranging but has always focused on integrating social science and historical perspectives for a better understanding of the nature and governance of radical socio-technical change. Prior to coming to Sussex, he held academic posts at the Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Twente, Netherlands.
