Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty

Nowotny, Helga

ISBN 10: 0745626084 / ISBN 13: 9780745626086

Published by Polity, 2001

About this Item

Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged.

Seller Inventory # wbs1494977157

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty
• Publisher: Polity
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0745626084
• ISBN 13: 9780745626086
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 460 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Re-Thinking Science presents an account of the dynamic relationship between society and science. Despite the mounting evidence of a much closer, interactive relationship between society and science, current debate still seems to turn on the need to maintain a 'line' to demarcate them. The view persists that there is a one-way communication flow from science to society - with scant attention given to the ways in which society communicates with science.

The authors argue that changes in society now make such communications both more likely and more numerous, and that this is transforming science not only in its research practices and the institutions that support it but also deep in its epistemological core. To explain these changes, Nowotny, Scott and Gibbons have developed an open, dynamic framework for re-thinking science.

The authors conclude that the line which formerly demarcated society from science is regularly transgressed and that the resulting closer interaction of science and society signals the emergence of a new kind of science: contextualized or context-sensitive science. The co-evolution between society and science requires a more or less complete re-thinking of the basis on which a new social contract between science and society might be constructed. In their discussion the authors present some of the elements that would comprise this new social contract.

About the Author

Professor Nowotny is Chair of Social Studies of Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich
Professor Scott is Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Kingston University
Professor Gibbons is Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities