Summary
Contents
Subject index
`Fluid, readable and accessible ... I found the overall quality of the book to be excellent. It provides an overview of major (and preceding) developments in the field of science studies. It examines landmark works, authors, concepts and approaches ... I will certainly use this book as one of the course texts' Eileen Crist, Associate Professor, Science & Technology in Society, Virginia Tech Science is at the heart of contemporary society and is therefore central to the social sciences. Yet science studies has often encountered resistance from social scientists. This book attempts to remedy this by giving the most extensive, thorough and best argued account of the field and explaining to social scientists why science matters to them.This is a landmark book that demystifies science studies and successfully bridges the divide between social theory and the sociology of science. Illustrated with relevant, illuminating examples, it provides the ideal guide to science studies and social theory.
Reflection, Explanation and Reflexivity in Science Studies
Reflection, Explanation and Reflexivity in Science Studies
Introduction
This chapter is concerned with assessing the various lines of thought in science studies reviewed in the previous chapters, with evaluating what they contribute to sociological understanding of science and how they prepare us for the task of the third part of the book. In part, this assessment will depend on a judgement about how successfully science studies accounts for scientific conduct and helps us make sense of the character of scientific knowledge. But before arriving at that point, there is a prior consideration because some authors in the science studies tradition have made theoretical ideas and explanatory work in science studies the focus of their own analysis – in other words ...
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