Science Observed: Perspectives on the Social Study of Science

by Karin Knorr Cetina, Michael J. Mulkay

From the back Some of the most distinguished scholars in the field systematically survey new developments in the study of science as a social phenomenon. A whole range of new approaches to the field have reently appeared. These include the Edinburgh School of interest theory and the relativist programme, both covered in essays in this volume. Other developments reviewed include ethnomethodological study, discourse analysis, the knowledge perspective, and constructivist/ethnographic study. In addition there have been major revisions in the Marxist view of science. These, too, are discussed in this volume. Should studies of science concentrate on the internal processes of science, or on its relation to and impact on society? Controversies within the field such as this are also addressed. The essays show a concern to include the technical contest of science within the scope of sociological analysis. They also place a new emphasis on scientific publications and language as the medium through which scientific knowledge is exchanged. Technical knowledge is, in fact, a product of negotiation. The more science is studied, the more the technical is revealed to be part of a social process; these essays tend to reject the distinction between the technical and the social aspects of knowledge creation. The essays in this volume not only debate and review new developments, they also ask new, daring questions, and begin to lay the empirical foundation for answering them.

Genres: Science

263 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

About the author

Karin Knorr-Cetina (also Karin Knorr Cetina) (born 19 July 1944 in Graz, Austria) is an Austrian sociologist well known for her work on epistemology and social constructionism, summarized in the books The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science (1981) and Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge (1999).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Anil · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s an excellent book where authors observed scientists at work in a lab. I read it decades ago and felt such observations about the social context in. Which science is pursued are very insightful