Beyond the Science Wars
The Missing Discourse about Science and Society
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Contextualizes the "Science Wars" from interdisciplinary sociological, historical, scientific, political, and cultural perspectives.
Description
Beyond the Science Wars offers a broad contextualization of the "Science Wars"—an ongoing debate between scientists and social scientists over the nature and meaning of science—from interdisciplinary sociological, historical, scientific, political, and cultural perspectives. Beyond providing an understanding of the conflict itself, this book presents the comments of two science and technology studies' (STS) "founding fathers" (Bernard Barber and John Ziman), a scientist's protest that STS has abandoned its original mission, a historian's view of the fluctuating social support for science, and a sociologist's analysis of the motives of "anti-antiscience warriors." In addition, an STS statesman discusses ongoing structural changes in science, a sociologist sorts out different views of objectivity, and an STS veteran from the Science Wars brings us tales from the front and evaluates the meaning of recent events.
Contributors include Bernard Barber, Henry H. Bauer, Valery Cholakov, Stephan Fuchs, Steve Fuller, Ullica Segerstrale, and John Ziman.
Ullica Segerstrale is Professor of Sociology at Illinois Institute of Technology and the author of Defenders of the Truth: The Battle for Science in the Sociobiology Debate and Beyond.
Reviews
"Beyond the Science Wars provides an excellent, up-to-date, and scholarly analysis of the historical context and recent debates about science and 'antiscience.'" — Choice
"This book proposes to offer 'a broad contextualization of the "science wars"—an ongoing debate between scientists and social scientists over the nature and meaning of science,' and it largely succeeds in this effort. It provides a helpful and perceptive clarification of the intellectual struggle between certain practitioners of STS (Science and Technology Studies) and some self-appointed spokespersons for science … invaluable in helping readers understand and sort out the arguments offered by science warriors of every persuasion … current and timely … Its editor and authors bring to their task impressive learning as well as deep historical and broad social perspectives … its unpolemical characterization, contextualization and analysis of the science wars will serve as an effective and useful contribution to our understanding of this intellectual engagement." — Contemporary Sociology
"Readers interested in the science wars and its fallout should find much of this book illuminating." — The Quarterly Review of Biology
"Any scientist interested in establishing a more constructive dialogue with the science and technology studies community would be well-advised to read th[is] work." — Physics Today
"I really enjoyed reading this book, both for its insights into the 'Science Wars' and clarification of the issues (and the false issues or straw men) and for its perspectives on the history and context and motivations of this debate. It clarifies what is really at stake philosophically, politically, and sociologically, as well as the rhetorical strategies of the various participants and their efforts." — William E. Evenson, Brigham Young University
"This book is like a breath of fresh air in a room heated to suffocation by rancorous but irrelevant debate. All of the articles are fair and balanced and provide perspectives that are usually missing." — Marjorie Senechal, editor of The Cultures of Science
"Since this controversy has attracted widespread, recurring media attention that has been taken to be symptomatic of a broader trend in academia, a volume such as this one, analyzing debate from a moderate critical perspective, could attract broader interest." — Henry Etzkowitz, coeditor of Capitalizing Knowledge: New Intersections of Industry and Academia