Abstract: The aim of this study is to critically focus upon two of the most influential approaches within the field of science and technology studies: the shift towards practice and the actor-network theoretical approach. It briefly describes them and carefully points out their problematic relationship with the social, as well as their inherent limitations, weaknesses and implications, from a sociological point of view. But critical interrogation is also tied to the search for remedies. This mainly involves the potential openness of contemporary science and technology studies towards modern social theory, as well as towards critical perspectives upon the nature and character of knowledge, culture and technoscientific expertise. The therapeutic attempts strongly emphasize the epistemologically healthy role of reflexivity and an alternative normative reconsideration of both the social and the human.