Stengers, I. (2010). Cosmopolitics I. R. Bononno, (Trans.). Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press. *Note: I write about books for a number of reasons. Most often, it’s to share my thoughts or to critique them. In this case, I’m writing as part of an effort to figure out what it (the book) meant. The following post [...]
Tag Archives: social studies of science
Cosmopolitics I-1
Posted in Musings, Reviews Also tagged book, rhetoric of science, science & technology studies, technoscience 1 Comment
Recent Readings in STS
I’ve been reading pretty voraciously over the past two months and as such, I’ve not had time to keep up with my book reviews. So this is a catch up post. I don’t normally like to tackle so many works in a single review, but if I don’t write about these now I’ll never have [...]
Posted in Reviews Also tagged book, rhetoric of medicine, rhetoric of science, science & technology studies, science-policy interface, technoscience Leave a comment
Pickering (2010) The Cybernetic Brain
Andrew Pickering’s (2010) The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future offers readers a thorough and detailed view into this history of cybernetic science. This history focuses on and is presented through a series of professional biographies of six prominent British cyberneticians who conducted most of their work during the first half of the last century [...]
Posted in Reviews Also tagged book, rhetoric of science, science & technology studies, technoscience Leave a comment
Cozzens, S.E. & Gieryn, T.F. (1990). Theories of science in society. Bloomington: Indiana UP.
In Theories of Science in Society, Cozzens and Gieryn’s have collected an impressive set of contributed chapters detailing major theories in the sociology of science and the sociology of scientific knowledge. These essays present and explicate major sociological theories from Weberian bureaucracy theory and Anthony Giddens’ theory or structuraration, to theories of boundary work and [...]
Jasanoff, S.S. (1987). Contested boundaries in policy-relevant science. Social Studies of Science 17, 195-230.
In “Contested Boundaries,: Sheila Jasanoff explores different conceptualizations of the science-policy interface as articulated by a variety of scientific and policy institutions. Jasanoff uses the debate over the regulation formaldehyde and its designation as a carcinogen to explore these different conceptualizations. She draws on discourse from a veritable alphabet soup of government and scientific organizations [...]
Wayne, B. (1989). Sheepfarming after Chernobyl. Environment, 31(2), 10-39.
In “Sheepfarming after Chernobyl,” Brian Wayne explores communicaitons problems between scientists, government officials, and sheepfarmers in Cumbria, UK following Chernobyl. In the aftermath of the Chernobyl incident, radioactive isotopes rained on sheepfarming areas in Cumbria causing governmental concern over the safety of Cumbrian sheep for human consumption. During this time the English government enacted many [...]
Watson, R.T. (2005). Turning science into policy: Challenges and experiences from the science-policy interface. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 360, 471-477.
In “Turning Science into Policy,” world bank member and former Clinton-Gore adviser Robert T. Watson reflects on the relationship between science and policy within the debates on climate change, environmental sustainability, and population control. He argues that no fruitful directions in policy are likely without a through integration of research into scientific, economic, and social [...]
Starr, P. (1982). The social transformation of American medicine: The rise of a sovereign profession and the making of vast industry. USA: Basic Books.
In The Social Transformation of American Medicine, Paul Starr offers the reader a sweeping, thorough, and detailed history of the American medical profession. Book One interrogates American medicine’s establishment of sovereign cultural/ professional ethos and developing socio-economic dynamics from approximately 1790 to 1930. Book One traces the American medical establishment from fledgling pseudo-profession to cultural [...]