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.
Experts in Public: Publics' Relationships to Scientific Authority
Experts in Public: Publics' Relationships to Scientific Authority
Introduction: The Public's Problems with Science
In many advanced industrial countries, but perhaps above all in Britain, the close of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first have witnessed repeated conflicts over the public's trust in and acceptance of scientific expertise. Without trying to be comprehensive, one can list several outstanding issues about which there was evident public disquiet despite attempts by the scientific establishment to suggest that there was little reason for anxiety. In many respects, the clearest case was about the MMR vaccine, a combined vaccine given to young children to inoculate them against measles, mumps and rubella. Isolated studies and some parents' testimonies suggested that there ...
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