The insides and outsides of parliamentary politics: Introduction to a special section of Social Studies of Science on parliamentary practices

Abstract

This introduction to a special section on parliaments identifies a tendency in STS to look for politics either inside or outside mainstream democratic institutions. Summarizing the insights of the contributions to the special section, the introduction argues that – in light of current challenges to dominant modes of doing politics across the globe – the task for STS scholars is neither to renew faith in what is happening in various legislatures, nor to look for alternatives elsewhere. Rather it is to carefully explore how their multiple insides and outsides are being connected, and what possibilities those connections offer as we continue to navigate spaces defined by the panopticon and the parliament as the twin diagrams of modernity.