Science and Technology in Society From Biotechnology to the Internet

by Kleinman, Daniel Lee

• ISBN13: 9780631231820
• ISBN10: 063123182X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-01-16
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This thoughtful and engaging text challenges the widely held notions that science exists outside of society, and that technology proceeds automatically down a singular and inevitable path. Through specific case studies involving contemporary debates, this book shows that science and technology are fundamental parts of, and undeniably shaped by, society. Drawing on concepts from political sociology, organizational analysis, and contemporary social theory, this book is a first-rate study of technoscience that places power, stratification, and discourse at its center. The author shows how social groups and organizations in powerful positions shape developments in technoscience in significant ways, and how new developments affect people differently depending on class, race, gender, and geographical location. Avoiding dense theoretical debate, this book is ideal for those seeking a fresh approach to science and technology studies.

Author Biography

Daniel Lee Kleinman is Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. He is the author most recently of Impure Cultures: University Biology and the World of Commerce (2003).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Abbreviations	xi
1 Science is Political/Technology is Social: Concerns, Concepts, and Questions	1	(14)
Why is Thinking about Science and Technology So Hard?	3	(2)
Technoscience is Social	5	(5)
Technoscience is Political	10	(5)
2 Ceding Debate: Biotechnology and Agriculture	15	(19)
Biotechnology and the Social Organization of Agriculture and Agribusiness	16	(11)
The Discursive Landscape in the Debate over Biotechnology	27	(5)
Conclusions	32	(2)
3 Rethinking Information Technology: Caught in the World Wide Web	34	(16)
Understanding the Digital Divide	35	(3)
High-Technology Education	38	(6)
Politics, Civic Action, and the Internet	44	(3)
Conclusions	47	(3)
4 Owning Technoscience: Understanding the New Intellectual Property Battles	50	(19)
Intellectual Property, Social Common Sense, and the Knowledge Commons	52	(1)
Intellectual Property and the Information Technology Revolution	53	(5)
Owning Life: Intellectual Property in Biological Materials	58	(7)
Intellectual Property and Innovation	65	(2)
Conclusions	67	(2)
5 Technoscience in the Third World: The Politics of Indigenous Resources	69	(15)
Science, Technology, and Colonialism	70	(5)
From Colonialism to Biocolonialism	75	(4)
Towards Equity in the Exchange of Biological Resources	79	(3)
Conclusions	82	(2)
6 Gender and the Ideology of Merit: Women, Men, Science, and Engineering	84	(18)
"Merit" and Stratification in Science	85	(2)
Women, Men, and Academic Science	87	(8)
Women and Men in Science-Based Industry	95	(3)
Beyond Stratification in Science and Engineering: Artifacts and Research as Gendered	98	(2)
Conclusions	100	(2)
7 Democracy and Expertise: Citizenship in a High-Tech Age	102	(21)
The Limits to Expert Knowledge	103	(5)
The Virtues of Lay Knowledge	108	(5)
Barriers to Democratizing Technoscience and Expertise	113	(5)
Strategies for Overcoming the Obstacles	118	(3)
Conclusions	121	(2)
8 Confronting the Problem: A Summary and Coda	123	(5)
References	128	(11)
Index	139