Showing papers on "Science studies published in 1998"
Book•
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: Harding as mentioned in this paper explores what the last three decades of European/American, feminist, and post-colonial science and technology studies can learn from each other, and proposes new directions for thinking about objectivity, method, and reflexivity in light of the new understandings developed in the post-World War II world.
Abstract: "Is Science Multicultural?" explores what the last three decades of European/American, feminist, and postcolonial science and technology studies can learn from each other. Sandra Harding introduces and discusses an array of postcolonial science studies, and their implications for 'northern' science. All three science studies strains have developed in the context of post-World War II science and technology projects. They illustrate how techno-scientific projects mean different things to different groups. The meaning attached by the culture of the West may not be shared or may be diametrically opposite in the cultures in other parts of the world. All, however, would agree that scientific projects - modern science included - are 'local knowledge systems.' The interests and discursive resources that the various science studies bring groups to their projects, and the ways that they organise the production of their kind of science studies, are distinctively culturally - local also. While their projects may be unintentionally converging, they also conflict in fundamental respects. How is this inevitable cultural-situatedness of knowledge both an invaluable resource as well as a limitation on the advance of knowledge about nature? What are the distinctive resources that the feminist and postcolonial science theorists offer in thinking about the history of modern science; the diversity of 'scientific' traditions in non-European as well as in European cultures; and the directions that might be taken by less androcentric and Eurocentric scientific projects? How might modern sciences' projects be linked more firmly to the prodemocratic yearnings that are so widely voiced in contemporary life? Carefully balancing poststructuralist and conventional epistemological resources, this study concludes by proposing new directions for thinking about objectivity, method, and reflexivity in light of the new understandings developed in the post-World War II world.
775 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: The role and character of the nature of science in science education is discussed in this article, with a focus on the role of science education as an element of science, technology and society.
Abstract: Foreword and Introduction M. Matthews. I: Rationales for the Nature of Science in Science Instruction. 1. The Role and Character of the Nature of Science in Science Education W.F. McComas, et al. 2. The Nature of Science in International Science Education Standards Documents W.F. McComas, J.K. Olson. 3. The Principal Elements of the Nature of Science: Dispelling the Myths W.F. McComas. 3. The Principal Elements of the Nature of Science: Dispelling the Myths W.F. McComas. II: Communicating the Nature of Science Plans, Approaches and Strategies. 4. The Card Exchange: Introducing the Philosophy of Science W.W. Cobern, C.C. Loving. 5. Avoiding De-Natured Science: Activities that Promote Understandings of the Nature of Science N. Lederman, F. Abd-El-Khalick. 6. Confronting Students' Conceptions of the Nature of Science with Cooperative Controversy P.L. Hammerich. 7. Nature of Science Activities Using the Scientific Theory Profile: From the Hawking-Gould Dichotomy to a Philosophical Checklist C.C. Loving. 8. Learning by Designing: A Case of Heuristic Theory Development in Science Teaching F. Jansen, P. Voogt. 9. Using Historical Case Studies in Biology to Explore the Nature of Science: A Professional Development Program for High School Teachers K.R. Dawkins, A.A. Glatthorn. 10. A History of Science Approach to the Nature of Science: Learning Science by Rediscovering It N. Kipnis. 11. Integrating the Nature of Science with Student Teaching: Rationales and Strategies M.P. Clough. III: Communicating the Nature of Science Courses and Course Elements. 12. A Thematic Introduction to the Nature of Science for Science Educators W.F. McComas. 13. The Nature of Science: Achieving Science Literacy by Doing Science J.O. Matson, S. Parsons. 14. Elementary Science Methods: Developing and Measuring Student Views about the Nature of Science Y. Meichtry. 15. Nature of Science: Implications for Education: An Undergraduate Course for Prospective Teachers K. Sullenger, S. Turner. 16. The Use of Real and Imaginary Cases in Communicating the Nature of Science: A Course Outline D. Boersema. 17. Teaching the Nature of Science as an Element of Science, Technology and Society B. Spector, et al. 18. Of Starting Points and Destinations: Teacher Education and the Nature of Science M.L. Bentley, S.C. Fleury. 19. A Programme for Developing Understanding of the Nature of Science in Science Teacher Education M. Nott, J. Wellington. 20. The Nature of Science as a Foundation for Teaching Science: Evolution as a Case Study C.E. Nelson, et al. IV: Assessing Nature of Science Understanding. 21. Assessing Understanding of the Nature of Science: A Historical Perspective N. Lederman, et al. Notes on Contributors. Index.
568 citations
TL;DR: Stump as mentioned in this paper discusses the context of disunity in science and its relation to gender politics and the unity of science in a philosophy of science studies context, and proposes new directions in science studies.
Abstract: Contributors Introduction: the context of disunity Part I. Boundaries: 1. The disunities of the sciences Ian Hacking 2. Styles of reasoning, conceptual history, and the emergence of psychiatry Arnold I. Davidson 3. Metaphysical disorder and scientific disunity John Dupre 4. Computer simulations and the trading zone Peter Galison 5. The unity of science: carnap. neurath, and beyond Richard Creath 6. Talking metaphysical turkey about epistemological chicken, and the poop on pidgins Steve Fuller Part II. Contexts: 7. From relativism to contingetism Mario Biagioli 8. Contextualizing the canon Simon Schaffer 9. Science made up: constructivist sociology of scientific knowledge Arthur Fine 10. From epistemology and metaphysics to concrete connections David J. Stump 11. The care of the self and blind variation: the disunity of two leading sciences Karim Knorr Cetina 12. The constitution of archaelogical evidence: gender politics and science Alison Wym Part III. Power: 13. Otto neurath: politics and the unity of science Jordi Cat, Nancy Cartwright, and Hasok Chang 14. The naturalized history museum Timothy Lenon and Cheryl Lynn Ross 15. Beyond epistemic sovereignty Joseph Rouse 16. The dilemma of scientific subjectivity in postvital culture Evelyn Fox Keller 17. Modest witness: feminist diffractions in science studies Donna J. Haraway 18. Afterword: new directions in the philosophy of science studies David J. Stump Notes Select bibliography Index.
377 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the efficient spread of scientific knowledge is not a phenomenon that argues against the applicability of geographical sensibilities towards science but actually calls for an even more vigorous project in the geography of knowledge.
Abstract: Over the past two decades broadly geographical sensibilities have become prominent in the academic study of science. An account is given of tensions in science studies between transcendentalist conceptions of truth and emerging localist perspectives on the making, meaning and evaluation of scientific knowledge. The efficient spread of scientific knowledge is not a phenomenon that argues against the applicability of geographical sensibilities towards science but actually calls for an even more vigorous project in the geography of knowledge.
287 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that despite the recent outpouring of writing on the history, philosophy and sociology of science, and its significance for science education, the school science curriculum continues to promote some grossly distorted views of science and scientists.
Abstract: Despite the recent outpouring of writing on the history, philosophy and sociology of science, and its significance for science education, the school science curriculum continues to promote some grossly distorted views of science and scientists. Ten common myths are identified, seven of which are discussed in detail. The article concludes with a plea for teachers to present a more authentic view of science and a more appealing image of scientists as one step towards attracting a wider range of students to science.
105 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the methodological implications of sociocultural approaches for the study of scientific knowledge and practices and provide a review of the history of nature of science (NOS) research to trace the methodological influence of Science and Technology Studies in science education.
Abstract: In this paper we explore the methodological implications of sociocultural approaches for the study of scientific knowledge and practices. Research in science studies and science education is reviewed with a focus on methodological considerations. Informed by empirically-based studies of scientific practices from multiple disciplinary perspectives, we describe our perspective for investigating science education which combines ethnography and discourse analysis. This theoretical position on the discursive nature of the social construction of school science-in-the-making forms the basis for theoretical and methodological critique and discussion. We provide a review of the history of nature of science (NOS) research to trace the methodological influence of Science and Technology Studies in science education. Four methodological issues associated with studying science as cultural practices are discussed: the local and contingent nature of situated definitions of science; theory dependence and coherence of research methodologies; attention to the study of school science-in-the-making; and reflexivity.
104 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors raise pointed questions about the complicity of Enlightenment philosophies of science with failures of Third World development policies and the current environmental crisis, and link androcentric, economistic, and nature-blind aspects of development thinking to the Enlightenment dream.
Abstract: Recent “gender, environment, and sustainable development” accounts raise pointed questions about the complicity of Enlightenment philosophies of science with failures of Third World development policies and the current environmental crisis. The strengths of these analyses come from distinctive ways they link androcentric, economistic, and nature-blind aspects of development thinking to “the Enlightenment dream.” In doing so they share perspectives with and provide resources for other influential schools of science studies.
54 citations
TL;DR: The volume is fullest for the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, where entries often have explanatory paragraphs, either qualifying the information or expounding briefly the career of the individual being cited.
Abstract: for many years the chief compiler of 'Garrison and Morton', and the present volume naturally leans heavily on that bible of the antiquarian bookseller. GM numbers are given at the end of relevant entries. Each year with an entry, from 3000 BC (Edwin Smith Papyrus) to 1996 (three deaths), is divided, where appropriate, into three main categories, events, births and deaths. Since 1901, information about the Nobel Prize (always for medicine or physiology, but also for chemistry or physics if there were medical implications) heads the list of events, and the authors are understandably chary ofjudging what was significant in the recent world of discovery: AIDS in 1981 and BSE in 1985 are the only two non-Nobel events noted since 1978. The volume is thus fullest for the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, where entries often have explanatory paragraphs, either qualifying the information or expounding briefly the career of the individual being cited. Morton and Moore have been admirably cosmopolitan in their trawling, and the full list of journal titles in which something significant was published occupies sixteen pages. A simple system of numbering, reasonable amount of cross-referencing and good subject and name indexes increase the usefulness of the volume. People looking for something to celebrate can start here, of course: 1999 will be the centennial, inter alia, of the founding of the London School of Tropical Medicine, the introduction of aspirin, the births of Max Theiler, Charles Best, Alfred Blalock and Macfarlane Burnet, and the deaths of Lawson Tait, James Paget and Theodore Puschmann. More generally, historians will appreciate the ready access to \"context\" which this attractive volume provides.
53 citations
TL;DR: In the years since a symposium on science and ignorance at the 1993 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a small but growing number of scholars have begun to study scientific ignorance as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In the years since a symposium on science and ignorance at the 1993 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a small but growing number of scholars has begun to study scientific ignorance. This essay offers informal descriptions of three major projects on the social construction of ignorance and raises the possibility for the development of a sociology of scientific ignorance (SSI) to complement the existing sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK). As currently conceptualized, SSI would draw attention to a wide range of phenomena in scientific discourse and practice; these include a rich assortment of ignorance claims, and ignorance arrangements, social arrangements that work to deprive people of scientific knowledge. For SSI to develop its full potential will require scholars to overcome ignorance of existing scholarship and resistance within both science and science studies to ignorance as an organizing idea. The benefits, if scholars can do these things, may be ...
47 citations
TL;DR: The privileging of this discourse, which draws heavily on outmoded epistemological ideas about science and the process of knowledge production, gives rise to a number of problematic contradictions in the prescribed training of aspiring practitioners that are likely to impede their understanding of psychological practice.
Abstract: What is understood as the scientist-practitioner model is disclosed in particular ways of talking and writing, or in a discourse that positions the psychological practitioner as a scientist invested with legitimate epistemic authority. This discourse constitutes the psychological enterprise, and various social arrangements and practices associated with it, in familiar ways. The privileging of this discourse, which draws heavily on outmoded epistemological ideas about science and the process of knowledge production, gives rise to a number of problematic contradictions in the prescribed training of aspiring practitioners that are likely to impede their understanding of psychological practice. Recent developments in science studies and the sociology of scientific knowledge suggest that psychological practice might be rendered more intelligible by explicating the way in which it is discursively constituted as a mundane aspect of social reality instead of trying to shoe-horn it into a preconceived ide...
33 citations
TL;DR: The implications of social constructivism for science education are considered in this paper, where it is argued that if education in physics consistently followed the philosophy of sociology of scientific knowledge in its more extreme versions it would mean the end of physics.
Abstract: During the last two decades, science studies have increasingly been dominated by ideas related to social constructivism and the sociology of scientific knowledge. This paper offers a critical examination of some of the basic claims of this branch of science studies and argues that social constructivists cannot explain some of the most characteristic features of the physical sciences. The implications of social constructivism for science education are considered. I conclude that if education in physics consistently followed the philosophy of sociology of scientific knowledge in its more extreme versions it would mean the end of physics. However, the rejection of social constructivism does not imply a rejection of social or cultural studies of science or their value in science education.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors attempt to redefine left from right without identifying left with forms of scientism; it is thus an attempt at finding a movement forward not associated with the notion of progress.
Abstract: By studying the practice of science, the domain called "science studies" had a deep implication on the definition of politics; it is for this reason that the author was asked to portray what image of politics one could get from a science studies perspective; since the traditional difference between left and right depends on the choice of the frame of reference chosen, this paper is also an attempt at redefining left from right without, as it is customary, identifying left with forms of scientism; it is thus an attempt at finding a movement forward not associated with the notion of progress.
Dissertation•
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors trace the changing aesthetics, ethics and economics of natural history film-making at the BBC over a period of over 60 years, using archive material, interviews and participant observation to look at how shifting relationships between broadcasting values, scientific and film making practices are negotiated by individuals within the Unit, and present challenges as the Unit seeks to preserve its institutional identity as these networks shift.
Abstract: In May 1953 the first natural history television programme was broadcast from Bristol by naturalist Peter Scott and radio producer Desmond Hawkins. By 1997 the BBC's Natural History Unit has established a global reputation for wildlife films, providing a keystone of the BBC's public service broadcasting charter, playing an important strategic role in television scheduling and occupying a prominent position in a competitive world film market. The BBC's blue-chip natural history programmes regularly bring images of wildlife from all over the globe to British audiences of over 10 million. This thesis traces the changing aesthetics, ethics and economics of natural history film-making at the BBC over this period. It uses archive material, interviews and participant observation to look at how shifting relationships between broadcasting values, scientific and film-making practices are negotiated by individuals within the Unit. Engaging with vocabularies from geography, media studies and science studies, the research contextualises these popular representations of nature within a history of post-war British attitudes to nature and explores the importance of technology, animals and conceptions of the public sphere as additional actors influencing the relationships between nature and culture. This history charts the construction of the actor networks of the Natural History Unit by film-makers and broadcasters as they seek to incorporate and exclude certain practices, technologies and discourses of nature. These networks provide the resources, values and constraints which members of the Unit negotiate to seek representation within the Unit, and present challenges as the Unit seeks to preserve its institutional identity as these networks shift. The thesis tells a series of stories of natural history film-making that reflect one institution's contributions and responses to the contemporary formations of nature, science, the media and modernity.
TL;DR: Bloor often wrote that Karl Mannheim had "stopped short" in his sociology of knowledge, lacking the nerve to consider the natural sciences sociologically as discussed by the authors, which runs counter to Mannheim's own work, which responded in quite specific ways both to an encroaching "modernity" and a looming fascism.
Abstract: David Bloor often wrote that Karl Mannheim had “stopped short” in his sociology of knowledge, lacking the nerve to consider the natural sciences sociologically. While this assessment runs counter to Mannheim's own work, which responded in quite specific ways both to an encroaching “modernity” and a looming fascism, Bloor's depiction becomes clearer when considered in the light of his principal introduction to Mannheim's work — a series of essays by Robert Merton. Bloor's reading and appropriation of Mannheim emerged from his background in experimental psychology and his attempts to supercede Merton's own structural-functionalist program for the sociology of knowledge. By retracing this extended trail of readings and re-readings, we may begin to understand the roots of Bloor's curious interpretation of Mannheim's sociology of knowledge, and inquire in a reflexive way about the present and future directions of science studies.
TL;DR: The background knowledge requirements for successful science educators in secondary schools are discussed in the light of current poor recruitment to both science studies and science teaching.
Abstract: This paper discusses the background knowledge requirements for successful science educators in secondary schools. This discussion is illustrated by a short study in which science and non science PGCE students were asked about their background qualifications, what they were required to teach in their school placements and their confidence in doing so. The science students claimed that around 50% of their teaching was in topics outside their main subject area and reported difficulty and low confidence teaching these topics. This was compared with the experience of non‐science students and discussed in the light of current poor recruitment to both science studies and science teaching.
TL;DR: Research policy as discussed by the authors is based on a set of papers originally commissioned for a conference held in November 1997 at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne and dealt with the mechanisms that link scientific research and the users of its products, with special emphasis on the consequences this has for the cognitive development of science.
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: The authors argue that biblically based Judeo-Christian beliefe are congruent with diese presuppositions and argue that the failure of science to answer questions about the purpose of life, or how we ought to behave, has brought to science its detractors.
Abstract: The scientific enterprise, in common with other studies, cannot be pursued without making certain presuppositions which themselves cannot be derived from science. I shall argue that biblically based Judeo-Christian beliefe are congruent with diese presuppositions. Historically, such beliefe have provided fertile soil within which Western science has developed and flourished from the seventeenth century onwards (Brooke, 1991; Hooykaas, 1972; Russell, 1985). This favourable environment can be seen as springing from characteristics of the world that might be expected from Judeo-Christian beliefe about the nature of God and the nature of humankind as created ‘in God’s image’. However, now mat modern science has become a mature cluster of disciplines, a diametrically opposite belief has become associated with it in popular thought. It is a belief that turns its back on the origins of Western science within theism and presents science as atheistic. This volte-face has been accompanied by various unsuccessful attempts to derive ultimate answers to the meaning of life from science itself. But the failure of science to answer questions about the purpose of life, or how we ought to behave, has brought to science its detractors. However, rather than bemoaning science’s failure to deliver something which was never in its gift, it could be appropriate to look again for answers to these kinds of questions, to the Judeo-Christian worldview within which science developed and found a prominent place.
TL;DR: In this paper, the benefits of teaching science as a social process is discussed and some suggestions that can be introduced by classroom teachers into pre-existing science curricula are discussed. But they do not propose either a comprehensive curricular framework or a report on a pilot classroom project, as their research perspective comes from science studies rather than from education.
Abstract: In this paper, we support the validity of drawing from science studies to reshape science education. While true educational reform must involve alternative curricular structures, we stress that we do not propose here either a comprehensive curricular framework or a report on a pilot classroom project, as our research perspective comes from science studies rather than from education. Instead this paper is intended to encourage educators to draw from methodologies used in science studies to further their goals in education research and in classroom teaching. First, we examine theoretical connections and divergences between science studies and theories of education. Secondly, we discuss the benefits of teaching science as a social process and offer some suggestions that can be introduced by classroom teachers into pre-existing science curricula.
Book•
01 Dec 1998
TL;DR: The most notable figures in this debate are Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper as mentioned in this paper, who argued that the problems all reside in the reasoning of the critics, as well as their collective dependency on a single argument made by the philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment, David Hume.
Abstract: Little known outside his native Australia, David Stove was one of the most illuminating and brilliant philosophical essayists of his era A fearless attacker of intellectual and cultural orthodoxies, Stove left powerful critiques of scientific irrationalism, Darwinian theories of human behavior, and philosophical idealism Since its inception in the 1940s, the field of science studies, originally intended to bridge the gap between science and the humanities, has been the center of controversy and debate The most notable figures in this debate are Thomas Kuhn and Karl Popper In Scientific Irrationalism, now available in paperback, David Stove demonstrates how extravagant has been the verbiage wasted on this issue and how irrational the combatants have been He shows that Kuhn and Popper share considerable common ground Stove argues that the problems all reside in the reasoning of the critics He identifies the logical mistakes and conceptual allusions made by Kuhn and Popper and their supporters, as well as their collective dependency on a single argument made by the philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment, David Hume He then demonstrates how little potency that argument actually has for the claims of science In his foreword, Keith Windschuttle explains the debate surrounding the field of science studies and explores David Stove's contribution as well as his lack of recognition In an afterword, James Franklin discusses reactions to Stove's work
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the image of interspecies reproduction as both a metaphor of some historical standing and as a new, and troubling, medical/scientific capability, and demonstrate the value of contextualizing the most seemingly transparent scientific or medical intervention, in order to achieve the fullest understanding of its implications.
Abstract: This article explores the image of interspecies reproduction, arguably the most disturbing of the range of contemporary images of reproductive technology, as both a metaphor of some historical standing and as a new, and troubling, medical/scientific capability. Moving from the 1994 report of the Human Embryo Research Panel of the NIH, also known as the Muller Panel, through a range of sites – natural history, popular science writing, social critique, fiction, feminist theory and science studies – the article explores the context in which our current scientific perspective on interspecies reproduction is constructed. The study demonstrates the value of contextualizing – both in terms of history and literature – even the most seemingly transparent scientific or medical intervention, in order to achieve the fullest understanding of its implications. A concluding consideration of the philosophical/theoretical construction of interspecies reproduction in the present (postmodern) moment explores its implication...
TL;DR: In this article, the Belgian physicist Jean Bricmont separated out some of the distinct strands in "science studies" and tried to provide a considered critique of sociology and history of scientific knowledge.
Abstract: In his article last year, the Belgian physicist Jean Bricmont separated out some of the distinct strands in "science studies" and tried to provide a considered critique of sociology and history of scientific knowledge (Physics World December 1997 pp 15–16). He saw that there is a difference between "philosophical relativism" and "methodological relativism". He grasped that the former view, which says that the truth of a proposition depends on who interprets it, is a perfectly tenable philosophical position, even though it has little leverage on the world. And he saw that methodological relativism – impartial assessment of how knowledge develops – is the key idea for sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK).
TL;DR: In an age of managed care, such an insistence on craft knowledge and skills may prove the best line of defence of professional autonomy against the intrusions of the bureaucrats.
Abstract: The term 'scientific medicine' must count as one of the most consequential yet perplexing uses of the word 'scientific' of our times. After all, in what sense do health professionals, patients, biomedical researchers or science studies analysts understand the practice of medicine to be scientific or not? For many, the mysterious doings of doctors are considered scientific because modern medicine is taken to be grounded in laboratory sciences: the expertise of physicians rests on their ability skilfully to apply knowledge that comes their way from elsewhere. By this reading, physicians are not scientific except in a derivative sense. In fact, in the subtle practice of their healing 'arts', they may often scoff at textbook knowledge and privilege their own, hard-earned judgement and hands-on experience. And in an age of managed care, such an insistence on craft knowledge and skills may prove the best line of defence of professional autonomy against the intrusions of the bureaucrats.
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: The importance of science is conveyed in the above quote from paleontologist and science popularizer Stephen Jay Gould as mentioned in this paper, and there are alarming disparities amongst people living within DCs that must be addressed.
Abstract: The reason for the book is straightforward. The profession of science education has not offered a single volume that synthesizes the research and scholarship in science studies on the purpose of science education and the effect of traditionally constituted science education on the everyday lives of people. Such a volume is needed due to the almost universal pressures to increase the level of public literacy in the sciences. The importance of science is conveyed in the above quote from paleontologist and science popularizer Stephen Jay Gould. The pressures exist because of increasing economic, political, and scientific disparities between nations whose economies and technology are highly developed (DCs) and nations with lesser economic and technological development (LDs). Similarly, there are alarming disparities amongst people living within DCs that must be addressed. Thirdly, there is an almost universal problem of increasing alienation from science as suggested in the above quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. The purpose of this volume is to offer insightful commentary on these issues that will be of value to university and college professors who teach courses and conduct research on science education, science curriculum writers, governmental policy makers — and in general to all who are interested in the science/public interface.