Mapping Controversies Vitrine

Topic outline

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  Welcome to the EPFL's Mapping Controversies course website
  
  At the dawn of the 21st century, technological and scientific questions can no longer be separated from political and social issues. And it is at their junction that our society's future is taking shape, as public debates on biotechnological advances, urban planning and the risks associated with climate changes show. The role of the expert in our society has also evolved: technical and scientific knowledge suddenly seem less certain and the dilemmas they produce are regularly brought into question and debated publicly.
  
  In view of this, the future graduate of the EPFL-whether engineer or architect-must be at once able to master the most technically specific of questions, as well as the social, political and moral issues that accompany with them. To appreciate this complexity, the graduate must be able to identify the actors, analyze the arguments, understand the positions and keep up with ever-increasing technological advances. In short, he or she must learn to "map controversies".
  
  In order to better prepare students to face these challenges, the EPFL has created the course 'Mapping Controversies' in partnership with an international network of top schools, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Ecole des Mines de Paris, Science Po (Paris), the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester.
  
  Through this course students will be introduced to different analytical methods and tools (computer software programs, imaging and mapping tools) to enable them to creatively analyze today's controversial issues. This teaching, based on interactive reasoning, relies on a variety of supports (texts, film, guest speakers, hands-on workshops, etc.) and offers students the opportunity to assess their progress in the form of an internet site created by the students themselves and judged by a panel of experts.
  
  Each year, the best EPFL site is featured on a hosting platform shared by the network's distinguished member institutions (Controversy websites browser, Medialab of Science Po Paris).
  
  
  

  EPFL teaching faculty:
  Valérie November valérie.november@epfl.ch
  Luca Pattaroni luca.pattaroni@epfl.ch
  Pascal Viot pascal.viot@epfl.ch
  Boris Beaude boris.beaude@epfl.ch
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  Cliquez sur les logos pour accéder aux sites des cours Mapping Controversies de nos partenaires
  
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  Topic 1

  Course Objectives
  

  
  This course is designed as an introduction to the ever-changing world of scientific and technological research. The goal is for students to learn how to map topics that are subject to rigorous technical expertise, and which at the same time often become embroiled in legal, moral, economic and political questions. This training also pertains to methods of the sociology of sciences and technologies, the study of scientific argumentation, media analysis as well as new techniques like scientometry and virtual geography, which are being developed to an ever greater extent on the internet.
  
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  Topic 2

  What is a controversy?
  

  
  Although the term 'controversy' often suggests heated debate, we use it here in a more limited sense of the term to mean 'a debate rooted in part in scientific or technical knowledge that is, as yet, unascertained.' A classic example of this is Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), but there are many more examples that are not necessarily subject to such visible debate in the media or public sphere. Our goal, above all, is for the student to be faced with uncertain knowledge for which there exists neither instruction manual nor handout-at least not yet. Thus, we seek scenarios where the usual incertitude of the social, the political and the moral are amplified (and not simplified) by the contribution of unwavering scientific or technical knowledge.
  
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  Topic 3

  Why examine controversial issues rather than unwavering scientific knowledge?
  

  
  The answer is: because the goal of the teaching at the EPFL in general is to provide students with solid foundations in science and technology in all the fundamental domains. And yet, nothing can be added to such viewpoints, except perhaps an historical perspective which would only serve to reinforce these unfaltering facts further. In this course, we invite students to reflect on the two-fold nature of the uncertainty created by the research itself and its related social issues. If tomorrow's expert must always rely on specialized technical skills, he or she will also need to be apt at analyzing controversial situations (technological risks, scientific uncertainty, multiplicity of potential scenarios, conflict of moral values, etc.) for which there is no existing or established model and in which they will, nonetheless, have to evermore frequently make on the spot decisions. In this regard, the pedagogical goal of this course is to prepare students to rise to these new challenges of the future.
  
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  Topic 4

  Why profile controversies instead of just settling them once and for all?
  

  
  Because the fundamental aptitude required of experts is no longer merely to choose the optimal technical solution but also-and above all-to identify all the possible solutions and various social, moral, economic and institutional reactions these might generate. In order to achieve this, we ask today's expert to be capable of mapping the gamut of popular positions, aberrant though they may seem, without taking sides. It is a unique yet essential form of objectivity, this capacity to familiarize oneself with a highly technical subject in which we have little expertise, and then, under the pressure of a deadline, to give an overview of the positions of those concerned most directly, an explanation of their thought processes, an interpretation of the dynamic and finally, a hypothesis for resolution.
  
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  Topic 5

  What does "choosing a technical controversy" mean?
  

  
  We do not ask that our students follow any issue that makes headlines-merely those that call technical expertise (in a very broad sense of the term) into play. Technical does not mean strictly related to physics, chemistry, engineering or biological sciences, but rather any specialized, esoteric knowledge limited to a small group of experts and whose results, though not necessarily made available to a wide audience, affect the outcome of the dispute. As such, the media harping on an event like the marriage of a princess is obviously not a controversial issue, whereas a highly-publicized subject like the postponing of the authorization for legal abortions in France could be subject to analysis in terms of its controversial nature, provided that we move away from the non-specialized press towards the specialized knowledge that underpins it-knowledge which could stem from law, theology, developmental biology or history as it could from anthropology or bioethics. That said (and contrary to popular belief), the more scholarly the controversy, the easier is it to follow and document.