It is the purpose of this special issue to acknowledge the shifting definitions and uses of the
conceptual and empirical in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), and to
explore the constructive potential of this condition. In this introductory essay we point to four
formulations in STS for the relation between the conceptual and the empirical which do not
figure them as binaries or opposites:(1) the empirical as a path to the conceptual,(2) the
conceptual as practical and empirical,(3) the empirical as an instantiation of the conceptual …

It is the purpose of this special issue to acknowledge the shifting definitions and uses of the
conceptual and empirical in the field of Science and Technology Studies, and to explore the
constructive potential of this condition. In this introductory essay we point to four formulations
in STS for the relation between the conceptual and the empirical which do not figure them as
binaries or opposites: the empirical as a path to the conceptual, the conceptual as practical
and empirical, the empirical as an instantiation of the conceptual, and a conceptual …