ABSTRACT The concept of ‘public science’ has been fruitfully used to indicate the intricate interrelatedness of science and society. In studies of knowledge and its publics, however, technology has been routinely subsumed under science and the distinctive nature of technical knowledge neglected. We are aiming in this article at conceptualizing the public nature of technologies. First, we start with surveying the literature on public science. Second, we scrutinize various conceptual approaches to better understand the social and cultural factors embedded in technologies. In so doing, we reflect upon the twentieth-century history of technologies as public things. Third, we focus on nuclear energy in Europe as an exemplary case of a large-scale technology which has been shaped as part of public culture. We suggest that the specificities of the nuclear as a publicly shaped societal entity can be understood as an example of the wider category we propose to call ‘public technologies’.

中文翻译：

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公共技术：欧洲的核能

摘要 “公共科学”的概念已被卓有成效地用于表明科学与社会错综复杂的相互关系。然而，在对知识及其公众的研究中，技术通常被归入科学，而忽视了技术知识的独特性质。我们在本文中的目标是将技术的公共性质概念化。首先，我们从调查公共科学文献开始。其次，我们仔细审查各种概念方法，以更好地理解技术中嵌入的社会和文化因素。通过这样做，我们反思了 20 世纪技术作为公共事物的历史。第三，我们将欧洲的核能作为大规模技术的典范案例，该技术已成为公共文化的一部分。