Sergio Sismondo - Böcker

This philosophical introduction to and discussion of social and political studies of science argues that scientific knowledge is socially constructed.By looking at science as a social and political activity, researchers have created novel accounts of scientific practice and rationality, accounts that largely contradict the dominant ideologies of science. Science without Myth is a philosophical introduction to and discussion of these social and political studies of science-a discussion of the social construction of scientific knowledge as a product of communities and societies marked by the circumstances of its production.The book argues that there are a number of important and interesting ways in which scientific knowledge can be a social construction but that it often is knowledge of the material world; therefore, this book is an essay on mediation or the mediatory roles of scientists between nature and knowledge. By identifying and separating different senses of the "construction" metaphor, this book displays senses in which scientists construct knowledge, phenomena, and even worlds. It shows science as made up of thoroughly social processes and that those processes create representations of a pre-existing material world. Science without Myth's argument provides a counter-balance to skeptical tendencies of constructivist studies of science and technology by showing that skepticism cannot cut so deeply as to deny the possibility of knowledge and representation.

The Pharmaceutical Studies Reader is an engaging survey of the field that brings together provocative, multi-disciplinary scholarship examining the interplay of medical science, clinical practice, consumerism, and the healthcare marketplace. Draws on anthropological, historical, and sociological approaches to explore the social life of pharmaceuticals with special emphasis on their production, circulation, and consumptionCovers topics such as the role of drugs in shaping taxonomies of disease, the evolution of prescribing habits, ethical dimensions of pharmaceuticals, clinical trials, and drug research and marketing in the age of globalizationOffers a compelling, contextually-rich treatment of the topic that exposes readers to a variety of approaches, ideas, and frameworksProvides an accessible introduction for readers with no previous background in this area

The Pharmaceutical Studies Reader is an engaging survey of the field that brings together provocative, multi-disciplinary scholarship examining the interplay of medical science, clinical practice, consumerism, and the healthcare marketplace. Draws on anthropological, historical, and sociological approaches to explore the social life of pharmaceuticals with special emphasis on their production, circulation, and consumptionCovers topics such as the role of drugs in shaping taxonomies of disease, the evolution of prescribing habits, ethical dimensions of pharmaceuticals, clinical trials, and drug research and marketing in the age of globalizationOffers a compelling, contextually-rich treatment of the topic that exposes readers to a variety of approaches, ideas, and frameworksProvides an accessible introduction for readers with no previous background in this area

An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies, Second Edition reflects the latest advances in the field while continuing to provide students with a road map to the complex interdisciplinary terrain of science and technology studies. Distinctive in its attention to both the underlying philosophical and sociological aspects of science and technologyExplores core topics such as realism and social construction, discourse and rhetoric, objectivity, and the public understanding of science  Includes numerous empirical studies and illustrative examples to elucidate the topics discussedNow includes new material on  political economies of scientific and technological knowledge, and democratizing technical decisionsOther features of the new edition include improved readability, updated references, chapter reorganization, and more material on medicine and technology