The Contest for Social Science: Relations and Representations of Gender and Class - Hardcover

Yeo, Eileen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1854890689 ISBN 13: 9781854890689

Publisher: Rivers Oram Press, 1996

Synopsis

'Knowledge', declared nineteenth-century students of social science, 'is power.' This exciting and iconoclastic work breaks away from orthodox interpretations of the development of social science to explore the subject as a contest for class and gender power.
Yeo gives a vivid picture of the experiences which made men and women feel passionate about the social science project, and explores how different groups aimed at self-liberation, or power over others. She details the contribution made by working-class people and by women to the social science story, and shows how language and metaphor were used to construct social identities in dignifying or disabling ways. This makes the book important reading for those concerned with social and cultural history, the history of natural and social science, gender and women's studies, social policy, social work and social action.

About this title

Synopsis

Opening in the period of revolutions between 1789 and 1850, this book explores the contention over social science from above and below. It breaks away from othodox interpretations of the development of social science to explore the subject as a contest for class and gender power. The author gives a picture of the experiences which made men and women passionate about the social science project, and explores how different groups aimed at self-liberation, or power over others. She details the contribution made by working-class people and by women to the social science story, and shows how language and metaphor were used to construct social identities. This account of the production of knowledge as a contestable process, in its historical perspective, constructs a new politics of knowledge. The book may be important to those interested in social and cultural history, the history of natural and social science, gender and women's studies, social policy, social work and social action.

About the Author

Eileen Janes Yeo teaches history in the school of Cultural and Community Studies at Sussex University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rivers Oram Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 1854890689
• ISBN 13: 9781854890689
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352