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This book offers a new account of what makes science special among other human pursuits, critically engaging with a variety of approaches, especially constructivist and relativist studies of science and technology. It focuses on the studied "lack of haste" of science, its relative freedom from ...

This book offers a new account of what makes science special among other human pursuits, critically engaging with a variety of approaches, especially constructivist and relativist studies of science and technology. It focuses on the studied "lack of haste" of science, its relative freedom from stress and its socially sanctioned withdrawal from the swift pace of ordinary life. Unhastening Science offers a balanced and thoughtful argument which emphasizes the dangers of cosseting science from the "scourge" of internal competition while at the same time highlighting the need for "distance" between the process of scientific thought and the faster machinery of politics, business, sports, and the media.

The world around us is continually being shaped by science, and by society's relationship to it. In recent years sociologists have been increasingly preoccupied with the latter, and now in this fascinating book, Massimiano Bucchi provides a brief introduction to this topical issue. Bucchi provides ...

The world around us is continually being shaped by science, and by society's relationship to it. In recent years sociologists have been increasingly preoccupied with the latter, and now in this fascinating book, Massimiano Bucchi provides a brief introduction to this topical issue. Bucchi provides clear and unassuming summaries of all the major theoretical positions within the sociology of science, illustrated with many fascinating examples. Theories covered include Thomas Kuhn's theory of scientific change, the sociology of scientific knowledge, actor-network theory, and the social construction of technology. The second half of the book looks at recent public controversies over the role of science in the modern world including: * the Sokal affair, otherwise known as the science wars * debates over public understanding of science, such as global warming and genetically modified food * the implications of the human genome project. This much needed introduction to a rapidly growing area brings theory alive and will be essential reading for all students of the sociology of science.

Science was a central pillar of colonialism, but the converse holds true as well: colonialism profoundly shaped the character of nineteenth-century science. Civilizing Natures unravels unexpected relationships between science, technology, and administrative systems in colonial India from the 1850s ...

Science was a central pillar of colonialism, but the converse holds true as well: colonialism profoundly shaped the character of nineteenth-century science. Civilizing Natures unravels unexpected relationships between science, technology, and administrative systems in colonial India from the 1850s to the 1930s, deepening our perspective on continuing conflicts over race, resources, and empire. Botanists, anthropologists, and foresters had their most important sources of data-nature and natives-located at colonial sites. In the hilly, forested regions of Madras Presidency, tribal populations were studied by ethnographers, managed by revenue officials, recruited by plantation contractors, and modernized by missionaries. Racial constructions of nature and modernity helped criminalize and domesticate unruly natives. This is a story about the construction of nature in southern India that is deeply local and irreducibly global. Through detailed case studies, Kavita Philip shows how race and nature are fundamental,to understanding colonial modernities. Through its insightful combination of methodologies from both the humanities and the social sciences, Civilizing Natures complicates our understandings of the relationships between science and religion, pre-modern and civilized, environment and society.

Harris seeks to diagnose the ailment that infects contemporary thinking and prevents adequate measures from being taken to counter the dangerous effect of the mechanistic and atomistic way of thinking. According to Harris, Newtonian science, despite Einstein's revolutionary change of paradigm ...

Harris seeks to diagnose the ailment that infects contemporary thinking and prevents adequate measures from being taken to counter the dangerous effect of the mechanistic and atomistic way of thinking. According to Harris, Newtonian science, despite Einstein's revolutionary change of paradigm, persists to this day and hinders the solution of major global problems.