Rationality and Ritual (The Earthscan Science in Society Series) - Softcover

Wynne, Brian

 
9781849711616: Rationality and Ritual (The Earthscan Science in Society Series)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1849711615 ISBN 13: 9781849711616
Publisher: Routledge, 2010

Synopsis

In Rationality and Ritual, internationally renowned expert Brian Wynne offers a profound analysis of science and technology policymaking. By focusing on an episode of major importance in Britain's nuclear history – the Windscale Inquiry, a public hearing about the future of fuel reprocessing – he offers a powerful critique of such judicial procedures and the underlying assumptions of the rationalist approach.

This second edition makes available again this classic and still very relevant work. Debates about nuclear power have come to the fore once again. Yet we still do not have adequate ways to make decisions or frame policy deliberation on these big issues, involving true public debate, rather than ritualistic processes in which the rules and scope of the debate are presumed and imposed by those in authority. The perspectives in this book are as significant and original as they were when it was written.

The new edition contains a substantial introduction by the author reflecting on changes (and lack of) in the intervening years and introducing new themes, relevant to today's world of big science and technology, that can be drawn out of the original text. A new foreword by Gordon MacKerron, an expert on energy and nuclear policy, sets this seminal work in the context of contemporary nuclear and related big technology debates.

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About the Author

Brian Wynne is Professor of Science Studies, Associate Director of the ESRC Research Centre CESAGen at Lancaster University and recipient of the J.D. Bernal Prize, 2010. He was an Inaugural Member of the Management Board and Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency (EEA), and a Special Adviser to the 2000 House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee Inquiry into Science and Society.

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Publisher
Routledge
Publication date
2010
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1849711615
ISBN 13 
9781849711616
Binding
Paperback
Edition number
2
Number of pages
256

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781849711623: Rationality and Ritual: Participation and Exclusion in Nuclear Decision-making (The Earthscan Science in Society Series)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  1849711623 ISBN 13:  9781849711623
Publisher: Routledge, 2010
Hardcover