Science and Democracy: A Science and Technology Studies Approach

✍ Scribed by Linda Soneryd; Göran Sundqvist

• Publisher: Bristol University Press
• Year: 2023
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 183
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This accessible book introduces students to perspectives from the field of science and technology studies. Putting forward the thesis that science and democracy share important characteristics, it shows how authority cannot be taken for granted and must continuously be reproduced and confirmed by others. At a time when fundamental scientific and democratic values are being threatened by sceptics and populist arguments, an understanding of the relationship between them is much needed. This is an invaluable resource for all who are interested in the role of scientific knowledge in governance, societal developments and the implications for democracy and concerned publics and citizen engagement.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Cover
Science and Democracy: A Science and Technology Studies Approach
Copyright information
Table of Contents
Preface
1 The Best Knowledge and the Best Mode of Governance
Introduction
Science and democracy as representation
Science
Democracy
Political complexity and technoscience
From complexity to over- simplification
Post- truth and STS
Participation and STS
The structure of the book
PART I Separation
2 Science and Politics as Separate Domains
Introduction
Societal development as increased differentiation
Autonomous institutions
Plato’s cave and Latour’s two chambers
Delegative democracy
Conclusions
3 The Relationship between Science and Politics
Introduction
Scientific consensus and autonomous experts
The linear model
The deficit model
Beyond technocracy and decisionism
Political experts
The third wave of STS
Conclusions
PART II Overlap
4 Close but Not Too Close
Introduction
Research policy and the social contract between state and research
From science to expertise and advice
Useful knowledge
Scientific experts
The research policy landscape
The distance
The direction
Boundary work and boundary organizations
Hybridization
Conclusions
PART III Co-production
5 Co-production of Scientific Knowledge and Societal Order
Introduction
Co-production
Hybrid forums and technical democracy
Reflexive experts
Politicization of expertise
Conclusions
6 Participation as Co-production
Introduction
Why participation?
Listening to the public
Invited and uninvited publics
Organizing participation
How the EU Water Framework Directive has been applied
Public engagement on GM crops
The climate issue and approaches targeting consumption
The conditions for citizen participation
The unpredictability of participation
Reflexivity
Conclusions
7 Scientific Citizenship
Introduction
STS and scientific citizenship
Citizenship, citizens, and acts of citizenship
Exploring the contours of scientific citizenship: three examples
Air quality and the sensing citizen
User-driven innovation is the future
Food advice as popular science
The state as present through its non-presence
Conclusions
8 What Can Science and Technological Studies Say about Science and Democracy?
Introduction
Representation and participation
The danger of celebrating hybrids
Studies of situated practices, theories of democracy, and political philosophy
STS and normativity
Conclusions
References
Index