HOWARD P. SEGAL, FOR THE EDITORS In November 1979 the Humanities Department of the University of Michi gan's College of Engineering sponsored a symposium on ''Technology and Pessimism. " The symposium included scholars from a variety of fields and carefully balanced critics and defenders of modern technology, broadly defined. Although by this point it was hardly revolutionary to suggest that technology was no longer automatically equated with optimism and in turn with unceasing social advance, the idea of linking technology so explicitly with pessimism was bound to attract attention. Among...

The Yearbook addresses the overriding question: what are the effects of the opening up of science to the media? Theoretical considerations and a host of empirical studies covering different configurations provide an in-depth analysis of the sciences media connection and its repercussions on science itself. They help to form a sound judgement on this recent development."

This new Yearbook addresses the question of how policy, place, and organization are made to matter for a new research field to emerge.