Schwarz, Claudia | Austria

Claudia Schwarz is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Social Studies of Science at the University of Vienna, where she has also been a project collaborator for four years. She studied Media and Communication Science, English and American Studies and Sociology at the University of Vienna. In 2005, she finished her studies with a master thesis on the reception of the Austrian Reality TV show “Starmania“ in family settings using ethnographic methods. Afterwards she worked in applied research and was a scholar at the postgraduate program in Sociology at the Institute for Advanced Studies as well as the advanced training course “SoQua - Vocational Qualification in the Social Sciences“ in Vienna.

Her current research interests are in science and technology studies, especially in technological visions of the future and public participation. Methodologically, her work focuses on qualitative methods of data collection and interpretative methods for data analysis. In her dissertation project she focuses on the role that analogies play for lay people when discussing and imagining futures of nanotechnology. 

Project at IAS-STS: Nanotechnology is like... The role of analogies in public engagement with nanotechnology in Austria

At the beginning of the 21st century nanotechnology is heralded to bring about major innovations in various industrial sectors and improvements in many areas of everyday life. Against the backdrop of recent experiences with new technologies and public reactions, policy actors have increasingly tried to integrate the public into nanotechnology governance at an early stage via public engagement exercises. But the use of public engagement with nanotechnology has raised questions about how and on which knowledge base citizens can discuss emerging technosciences. Drawing analogies to known and familiar phenomena, esp. to former technologies, plays a central role here. Building on a detailed analysis of analogical discourse in four discussion groups with Austrian citizens on different nanotechnological fields, my project explores which analogies are constructed and how they are negotiated among lay people. Such an approach is particularly promising for investigating national and cultural specificities in the public assessment of emerging technosciences. My work will also critically reflect the general role of analogies in debates on emerging technosciences - their potential and limitations - and tries to contrast the way citizens use analogies with analogies that are used in the policy arena and among scientists.

Selected Publications
Felt, Ulrike/Schumann, Simone/Schwarz, Claudia/Strassnig, Michael: Technology of Imagination. A Card-based Public Engagement Method for Debating Emerging Technologies. Accepted at Qualitative Research.

Schumann, Simone/Schwarz, Claudia: Natürlich Nano. Die argumentative Kraft von Naturkonzepten in Laiendiskussionen zu Nanotechnologie. In: Compagna, Diego (ed.): Leben zwischen Natur und Kultur. Zur Neuaushandlung von Natur und Kultur in den Technik- und Lebenswissenschaften. Bielefeld: transcript [in preparation].

Kubicek, Bettina/Miglbauer, Marlene/Muckenhuber, Johanna/Schwarz, Claudia (eds.) (2012): Arbeitswelten im Wandel. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven der Arbeitsforschung. Wien: facultas.

Binner, Kristina/Kubicek, Bettina/Schwarz, Claudia (2012): Wandel wissenschaftlicher Arbeit. Perspektiven der Arbeits-, Geschlechter- und Wissenschaftsforschung. In: Kubicek, Bettina/Miglbauer, Marlene/Muckenhuber, Johanna/Schwarz, Claudia (eds.) Arbeitswelten im Wandel. Interdisziplinäre Perspektive der Arbeitsforschung. Wien: facultas, 185-215.

Döveling, Katrin/Schwarz, Claudia (2010): Politics in the Living Room and the “Democratization of Fame” in Pop Idol Formats. In: Baruh, Lemi/Park, Ji Hoon (eds.): Reel Politics: Reality Television as a Platform for Political Discourse. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 95-114.