Critical Review of the BookSocial Studies of Technology; Theoretical and Interdisciplinary reflection

The purpose of this article is to critically evaluate the book titled "Social Studies of Technology: Theoretical and Interdisciplinary reflection " by Reza Samim. This book is in the realm of science and technology studies. Science and Technology Studies is an interdisciplinary field that has been ignored in the Iranian scientific context and has not received much attention by scientists and researchers. The publication of this book has helped to enrich the scientific literature of this field in country. Another advantage of this book is to provide some of the local and cultural considerations in the area of science and technology studies. The content evaluation of the book shows that since the book editor had not had a clear picture of the questions in this field of study, he was not very successful in selecting and organizing the articles in both theoretical and interdisciplinary reflections. Articles had been written by different people but the book editor has not made them as homogenous as required. The presentation of the theoretical and interdisciplinary topics in most papers is mainly focused on the sociological perspective of technology and, therefore, its viewpoint seems to be closer to the traditional and conventional view in which the relationship between science and technology and society than to new approach named Science and Technology Studies. Also, categorizing the book's articles into two sections of theoretical and interdisciplinary reflections is not very meaningful considering interdisciplinary field of study, and perhaps a justified distinction should be made between the two sections of theoretical reflections and appropriate case studies.