Caring for Scholarship in Transition

Abstract

This editorial briefly reflects on the idea of transition—a theme that cuts across energy systems, migration, and education, to name a few—and is likely familiar to many readers. In this issue, we focus on transition within the context of scholarly publishing; maintenance and repair studies; and experimental methods. We reflect on how the Issue’s thematic collection, “Maintenance & its Knowledges” guest edited by Jérôme Denis, Daniel Florentin, and David Pontille, raises ontological questions about the systems we continuously repair and maintain. We also introduce two original research articles, both of which discuss projects that used collaborative ethnography to disrupt normative modes of knowledge generation. Many of the articles in this issue engage the theme of socio-technical change, a classic STS topic that becomes a point of intervention, if at varying scales and using contrasting approaches. Collectively, the Issue can be read as a theory-method buffet that offers tools for working with and through transition.