Misunderstanding Science?: The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521432685 ISBN 13: 9780521432689

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Synopsis

Misunderstanding Science? offers a challenging new perspective on the public understanding of science. In so doing, it also challenges existing ideas of the nature of science and its relationships with society. Its analysis and case presentation are highly relevant to current concerns over the uptake, authority, and effectiveness of science as expressed, for example, in areas such as education, medical/health practice, risk and the environment, technological innovation. Based on several in-depth case-studies, and informed theoretically by the sociology of scientific knowledge, the book shows how the public understanding of science questions raises issues of the epistemic commitments and institutional structures which constitute modern science. It suggests that many of the inadequacies in the social integration and uptake of science might be overcome if modern scientific institutions were more reflexive and open about the implicit normative commitments embedded in scientific cultures.

About this title

Review

'The case studies in Irwin and Wynne's volume ... contain several insights that scientists would find stimulating.' A. J. Meadows, Nature

Book Description

Misunderstanding Science? offers a challenging new perspective on the nature of modern science and its relationship with the public. As such, it contributes to the current heated discussion over the public understanding of science.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521432685
• ISBN 13: 9780521432689
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Irwin Alan, Wynne Brian