Exploring the Intersection of Bodies and Technologies in Social Theory and Science and Technology Studies: An Introduction

In our contemporary technology-driven societies, every aspect of life connected to our bodies — such as birth, reproduction, sexuality, gender, and aging — is profoundly influenced by technoscientific advances. The body is no longer a fixed entity but a dynamic battleground, constantly reshaped by technologies. This compelling book delves into the evolving interface between human bodies and technoscience, exploring themes like technoscientific imaginaries, the cyborg concept, bodily transformations through technologies, datification, and biomedicalization. Approaching these topics from a Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspective, the book poses essential questions about the relationship between technology and the body: What are the consequences of our increasingly mutable physicality? What analytical frameworks can we use to study this ever-changing, hybrid body? How does STS help us understand the material and discursive construction of corporeality through technoscience? And how do our bodies, in turn, help shape the very nature of technoscience? This book is of interest for scholars and students in Science and Technology Studies (STS), Sociology of the Body, and Social Theory, offering fresh insights into the crucial interplay between scientific knowledge, technology, and bodily experience. It invites readers to reconsider the essential questions regarding the interplay between technoscience and corporeality.