The Contest for Social Science: Relations and Representations of Gender and Class

'Knowledge', declared nineteenth-century students of social science, 'is power.' This exciting and iconoclastic work breaks away from orthodox interpretations of the development of social science to explore the subject as a contest for class and gender power.
Yeo gives a vivid picture of the experiences which made men and women feel passionate about the social science project, and explores how different groups aimed at self-liberation, or power over others. She details the contribution made by working-class people and by women to the social science story, and shows how language and metaphor were used to construct social identities in dignifying or disabling ways. This makes the book important reading for those concerned with social and cultural history, the history of natural and social science, gender and women's studies, social policy, social work and social action.

Eileen Janes Yeo teaches history in the school of Cultural and Community Studies at Sussex University.