Knowledge Politics: Governing the Consequences of Science and Technology

by Stehr,Nico

• ISBN13: 9781594510878
• ISBN10: 1594510873
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2006-01-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This book argues that new technologies and society's response to them have created a relatively new phenomenon, 'knowledge politics'. Nico Stehr describes Western society's response to a host of new technologies developed only since the 1970s, including genetic experiments, test-tube human conception, recombinant DNA and embryonic stem cells; genetically engineered foods, neurogenetics and genetic engineering, and reproductive cloning and the reconstruction of the human ancestral genome. He looks also at the prospective fusion of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, transgenic human engineering and cognitive science whose products may, as its boosters claim, some day cure disease, slow the aging process, eliminate pollution and generally enhance human performance.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Overview	1	(4)
Introduction: A Millsian World of Knowledge	5	(14)
Knowledge about Knowledge	19	(52)
Knowledge as a Capacity to Act	24	(3)
Additional Knowledge	27	(4)
Knowledge and Information	31	(5)
The Contingency of Knowledge	36	(1)
The Self-Realization of Knowledge	37	(3)
The Self-Protection of Knowledge	40	(4)
Knowledge Becomes Superfluous	44	(1)
The Power of Ideas	45	(26)
Knowledge and Power	49	(7)
The Disappearance of Human Agency	56	(3)
Moral Indifference, Power, and Science	59	(12)
The Governance of Knowledge	71	(80)
On Machinery and Class Interests	80	(13)
The Ascendancy of Knowledge Politics	82	(4)
Regulating Knowledge	86	(7)
Knowledge as a Weapon	93	(16)
The Social Regulation of Inquiry	96	(6)
The Social Control of Knowledge in Science	102	(2)
Knowledge Politics	104	(5)
Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis	109	(17)
Dangers, Risks, and Opportunities	112	(7)
Technology Assessment	119	(3)
Knowledge Management	122	(3)
The Societal Regulation of Knowledge	125	(1)
Committees for Knowledge Affairs	126	(9)
The Public and Science	130	(5)
The Haeckel-Virchow Controversy	135	(16)
Rules, Regulations, and Restrictions	151	(20)
Work-in-Progress or the Development of Social Controls	152	(2)
Regulatory Practices	154	(1)
Bioethics or Governing the Genome	155	(16)
Expert Control	157	(1)
Participatory Control	158	(2)
Hybrid Control Mechanisms	160	(2)
The Limits of Knowledge Politics	162	(9)
The Moralization of the Market	171	(18)
The Civilization of Capitalism	174	(1)
The Logic of Modernity	175	(1)
The Knowledge-Based Economy	176	(2)
Affluence and Consumer Sovereignty	178	(2)
Biotechnological Processes and Products	180	(2)
Conclusion	182	(7)
Globalization and Knowledge Politics	189	(14)
Mass Societies	190	(1)
The Globalization of the World	191	(6)
Economic Development and Knowledge Politics	197	(6)
Outlook	203	(6)
Bibliography	209	(28)
Name Index	237	(4)
Subject Index	241