STS.011 Democratizing science 5 questions • • • • • 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 • • • • • • • 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