Controversial Science

Thomas Brante is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Steve Fuller is Associate Professor at the Center for Study of Science in Society at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and he is the author of Philosophy of Science and Its Discontents and Social Epistemology. William Lynch is Doctoral Fellow in the History of Science and Technology Program at Cornell University.

"I think that the whole notion of 'controversy' is a good handle to start with for a critical assessment of the field. Controversy is now seen as not only normal but also a way of framing a research site for looking at the field of scientific endeavor. The editors have also brought together a group of very well-known scholars."Until 1970 most studies of science were hagiographic, paeans to science. We generally not only accorded scientists exceptionally high status, but took their point of view as correct and appropriate. But today we've had second thoughts about positivism and scientists as truth-tellers, and view them as imbedded in a cultural matrix, like everyone else. It is not a new viewpoint, but is the prevailing one in the field today, a highly critical one." — Gerald Markle, Western Michigan University

• Preface Introduction PART I. CONTENTS: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES AND THEORETICAL PROPOSALS The Feminist Challenge to Social Studies of ScienceJulia Loughlin Science, Sociology of Science, and the Anarchist TraditionSal Restivo Counteranalysis: Toward Social and Normative Restraints on the Production and Use of Scientific and Technological KnowledgeFrans Birrer Bringing the Scientist Back In: The Need for an Alternative Sociology of Scientific KnowledgeUllica Segerstrale Biotechnology and EthicsHenk Verhoog A Strategy for Making Science Studies Policy RelevantSteve Fuller Science as the Continuation of Politics by Other MeansAant Elzinga Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Science and the Context of RelevancePeter Weingart PART II. CONTENTIONS: EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF CONTROVERSIES Reasons for Studying Scientific and Science-Based ControversiesThomas Brante Comparing "Tool Controveries": Science, Contexts, Institutional Power, and the Development of Medical ControversiesSune Sunesson Causal Stories, Scientific Information, and the Ozone Depletion Controversy: Intrusive Scenarios in the Policy ProcessAndrew Weiss Value Communities in Science: The Recombinant DNA CaseTibor Szanto The Image of Man in SociobiologyMargarita Jeliazkova Cultural Bias and Regulating Risky Technologies: The Dutch Debate on Regulating LPG-Related ActivitiesRob Hoppe and Rob Pranger Ethical Controversies of Science and Society: A Relation Between Two Spheres of Social ConflictRandall Collins Contributors Index