Science Studies : Probing the Dynamics of Scientific Knowledge / Sabine Maasen, Matthias Winterhager

• HerausgeberIn: Maasen, Sabine; Winterhager, Matthias
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Sozialtheorie
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304)

How can we understand the intensifying interactions of science and society? It is the interdisciplinary field called science studies that provides us with a rich inventory of analytical approaches. They help us explore science as a practice, a subsystem, a culture, and an institution. Their joint observation: Science today is part and parcel of what has come to be known as 'knowledge society'. More than ever, knowledge production and consumption are in need of incessant monitoring and sophisticated reflection. Nine exemplary studies that inquire into, or are themselves examples of the dynamics of scientific knowledge, are included here: They cover issues as diverse as eugenics, climate research, and the role of historiography, and make use of different tools such as evolutionary reasoning, metaphor, and bibliometrics. Finally, they ponder the need for science to go public (PUS) as well as for society to regulate knowledge and to restructure universities as building blocks of our science system. Their joint message: Science studies can and should assume an active role in observing, reflecting, and communicating the intricate encounters of science and society today.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter 1 Contents 7 Introduction. Science Studies. Probing the Dynamics of Scientific Knowledge 9 Eugenics Looking at the Role of Science Anew. A Statistical Viewpoint on the Testing of Historical Hypotheses: The Case of Eugenics 55 Humanities Inquiry Into the Growing Demand for Histories. Making Sense 71 Bibliometrics Monitoring Emerging Fields. A Bibliometric Methodology for Exploring Interdisciplinary, 'Unorthodox' Fields of Science. A Case Study of Environmental Medicine 85 Science Policy Making Universities Cope with Science Today. German Universities on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century 123 Evolutionary Theory and the Social Sciences Increasingly a Mutual Exchange. Culture is Part of Human Biology. Why the Superorganic Concept Serves the Human Sciences Badly 145 Climatology Innovative Research Strategies in a Dynamic Field. Making Ice Talk: Notes from a Participant Observer on Climate Research in Antarctica 179 Metaphors Moving Targets in the (Social) Sciences. Why Metaphor? Toward a Metaphorics of Scientific Practice 213 Science and the Public Pushing PUS with Science Studies. What Kind of 'Public Understanding of Science' Programs Best Serve a Democracy? 235 Knowledge Politics The Paradox of Regulating Knowledge Dynamics. Policing Knowledge 257 Indices 291