Misunderstanding Science? (original) (raw)

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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.

‘The case studies in Irwin and Wynne’s volume ... contain several insights that scientists would find stimulating.’

A. J. MeadowsSource: Nature

Contents

Contents

Select Frontmatter

Select Contents

Select Acknowledgements

Select Introduction

Select 2 - Science and Hell's kitchen: the local understanding of hazard issues

Select 3 - Disembodied knowledge? Making sense of medical science

Select 6 - Insiders and outsiders: identifying experts on home ground

Select 9 - Proteins, plants, and currents: rediscovering science in Britain

Select Conclusions

Select Notes on contributors

Select Select bibliography

Select Index

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