Re-Thinking Science Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty

Re-Thinking Science presents an account of the dynamic relationship between society and science. Despite the mounting evidence of a much closer, interactive relationship between society and science, current debate still seems to turn on the need to maintain a 'line' to demarcate them. The view persists that there is a one-way communication flow from science to society - with scant attention given to the ways in which society communicates with science.

The authors argue that changes in society now make such communications both more likely and more numerous, and that this is transforming science not only in its research practices and the institutions that support it but also deep in its epistemological core. To explain these changes, Nowotny, Scott and Gibbons have developed an open, dynamic framework for re-thinking science.

The authors conclude that the line which formerly demarcated society from science is regularly transgressed and that the resulting closer interaction of science and society signals the emergence of a new kind of science: contextualized or context-sensitive science. The co-evolution between society and science requires a more or less complete re-thinking of the basis on which a new social contract between science and society might be constructed. In their discussion the authors present some of the elements that would comprise this new social contract.

Preface.

Chapter 1: The Transformation of Society.

Chapter 2: Beyond Modernity - Breaching the Frontiers.

Chapter 3: The Co-Evolution of Science and Society.

Chapter 4: The Context Speaks Back.

Chapter 5: The Transformation of Knowledge Institutions.

Chapter 6: The Role of Universities in Knowledge Production.

Chapter 7: How does Contextualization Happen?.

Chapter 8: Weakly Contextualized Knowledge.

Chapter 9: Strongly Contextualized Knowledge.

Chapter 10: Contextualization in the Middle Range.

Chapter 11: From Reliable Knowledge to Socially Robust Knowledge.

Chapter 12: The Epistemological Core?.

Chapter 13: Science Moves to the Agora.

Chapter 14: Socially Distributed Expertise.

Chapter 15: Re-Visioning Science.

Chapter 16: Re-Thinking Science is not Science Re-Thought.

References.

Index

Professor Nowotny is Chair of Social Studies of Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich

Professor Scott is Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Kingston University

Professor Gibbons is Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities