STS.011
Democratizing science
5 questions
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Science & democracy inherently related?
Peer review
Democratic v authoritarian technologies
Lay knowledge & expertise
consent
Science & democracy related?
• Karl Popper, The Open Society & Its
Enemies (1966)
• Robert Merton, “The Normative Structure
of Science” (1942) reprinted in Merton’s Sociology of
Science (1973)
Problems
• Russian science
• Science inherently elitist?
• Prejudiced science embraced by
scientists:
– Craniometry
– Nazi view of “Jewish” science
– Lysenkoism
Peer review
• NASA
• Oligarchic corruption: Sheldon Rampton
&John Stauber, Trust Us, We’re Experts!
• Gender bias & exclusion
– Christine Wenneras & Agnes Wold, “Nepotism and
Sexism in Peer Review” Nature 1997
Democratic technologies?
• Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization,
1964
• Langdon Winner, “Do Artefacts Have
Politics?” (The Whale and the Reactor,
1986)
Authoritarian technologies
• Nuclear power plants
• Nuclear weapons (Richard Falk, “Nuclear
Weapons and the End of Democracy” 1982)
• Robert Moses’ Long Island bridges
• Computer surveillance & deskilling (Barbara
Garson, The Electronic Sweatshop, 1988)
Democratic technologies
• Internet
• Cell phones
Lay expertise
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AIDS activists (Steve Epstein, Impure Science, 1998)
Cumbrian sheep farmers (Brian Wynne)
Bioprospecting
Fishermen & amateur naturalists
Stephen Lansing (Goddess & the Computer)
Cancer clusters
NGOs
– Tri-Valley CAREs
– UCS
Consent
• Fritz Bach & Xenotransplantation
– Who consents?
• GM Food
• Yucca Mountain