Freeman Award

The Freeman award will be made for a publication which is a significant collective contribution to the interaction of science and technology studies with other disciplines or areas of study.

Selection will be based on originality and the successful development of interdisciplinary theories, concepts or empirical descriptions. Consideration will be given to the publication process (such as series of meetings, collective work, etc.) as well as the publication itself.

The 2024 Award was given to Andreas Birkbak (Roskilde University) and Irina Papazu (IT University of Copenhagen) for the edited book Democratic Situations, published by Mattering Press in 2022.

Statement from EASST:

"This year – 2024 – has been marked out a singly significant year for democracies across the world as so many important elections will take place that are likely to shape the course of the rest of the decade. Consequently, what we understand by democracy, how it operates in all of its messy complexities, is at the forefront of many of our thoughts at this time.

Democratic Situations makes a timely contribution by its exploration of the relationship between STS thought and democracy. The book looks anew at how ideas from political theory have come into STS circles and how STS topics are now so central to political debate. We are introduced to the notion of technodemocracy and to regard democracy as a ‘materially entangled phenomenon’ (p17).

The book is published open access by Mattering Press, which will help ensure it reaches a wide readership. While the book addresses itself more to the STS community than political theory or science, there is enough here to appeal to other audiences and generally the style is lucid and accessible."