Beyond the Science Wars: The Missing Discourse About Science and Society

Contextualizes the “Science Wars” from interdisciplinary sociological, historical, scientific, political, and cultural perspectives.

Beyond the Science Wars offers a broad contextualization of the “Science Wars”–an ongoing debate between scientists and social scientists over the nature and meaning of science–from interdisciplinary sociological, historical, scientific, political, and cultural perspectives. Beyond providing an understanding of the conflict itself, this book presents the comments of two science and technology studies’ (STS) “founding fathers” (Bernard Barber and John Ziman), a scientist’s protest that STS has abandoned its original mission, a historian’s view of the fluctuating social support for science, and a sociologist’s analysis of the motives of “anti-antiscience warriors.” In addition, an STS statesman discusses ongoing structural changes in science, a sociologist sorts out different views of objectivity, and an STS veteran from the Science Wars brings us tales from the front and evaluates the meaning of recent events.

“I really enjoyed reading this book, both for its insights into the ‘Science Wars’ and clarification of the issues (and the false issues or straw men) and for its perspectives on the history and context and motivations of this debate. It clarifies what is really at stake philosophically, politically, and sociologically, as well as the rhetorical strategies of the various participants and their efforts.” — William E. Evenson, Brigham Young University

“This book is like a breath of fresh air in a room heated to suffocation by rancorous but irrelevant debate. All of the articles are fair and balanced and provide perspectives that are usually missing.” — Marjorie Senechal, editor of The Cultures of Science

“Since this controversy has attracted widespread, recurring media attention that has been taken to be symptomatic of a broader trend in academia, a volume such as this one, analyzing debate from a moderate critical perspective, could attract broader interest.” — Henry Etzkowitz, coeditor of Capitalizing New Intersections of Industry and Academia

Contributors include Bernard Barber, Henry H. Bauer, Valéry Cholakov, Stephan Fuchs, Steve Fuller, Ullica Segerstrale, and John Ziman.