Michael T. Gibbons

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Re-thinking science

I "RE-THINKING science" utforskar Michael T. Gibbons frågor kring vetenskapens roll och betydelse i samhället. Boken publicerades under 2000-talet och tar upp centrala teman inom politik och samhällsvetenskap. Gibbons analyserar hur vetenskaplig verksamhet påverkar och formas av kulturella och sociala faktorer.

Boken ger en djupgående insikt i vetenskapens dynamik och dess relation till samhället. Gibbons diskuterar hur vetenskap inte enbart är en objektiv strävan efter sanning, utan också en aktivitet som är djupt rotad i kulturella och politiska kontexter. Genom att belysa dessa aspekter bidrar författaren till en mer nyanserad förståelse av vetenskapens funktion.

Gibbons framhäver vikten av att kritiskt granska de normer och värderingar som präglar vetenskaplig forskning. Han argumenterar för att en medvetenhet om dessa faktorer kan leda till en mer inkluderande och reflekterande vetenskaplig praktik. Boken riktar sig till akademiker, studenter och alla som är intresserade av vetenskapens plats i det moderna samhället.

I "Re-thinking science" erbjuds läsaren ett perspektiv som uppmanar till eftertanke kring hur vetenskapen kan utvecklas i samklang med samhälleliga behov. Gibbons bidrar med viktiga insikter som kan inspirera till diskussioner om framtidens vetenskapliga metoder och deras inverkan på vår värld.

'What you always wanted to know about the "knowledge society" is laid bare by Nowotny, Scott and Gibbons in Re-Thinking Science, the sequel to their much acclaimed book The New Production of Knowledge (1994). This is a splendid book, full of empirical insight and intellectual vision. Re-Thinking Science is reliable and robust at the same time.'

Wolf Lepenies, Rektor, Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin

'The authors take us beyond the dichotomies of science and society in their oval new work, Re-Thinking Science, into a new agora of interactive forces in which old institutional boundaries of science, industry and government are transcended. Re-Thinking Science re-thinks society.'

Henry Etzkowitz, Director, Science Policy Institute, State University of New York at Purchase

Re-Thinking Science presents an account of the dynamic relationship between society and science. Despite the mounting evidence of a much closer, interactive relationship between society and science, current debate still seems to turn on the need to maintain a "line" to demarcate them. The view persists that there is a one-way communication flow from science to society - with scant attention given to the ways in which society communicates with science.

The authors argue that changes in society now make such communications both more likely and more numerous, and that this is transforming science not only in its research practices and the institutions that support it but also deep in its epistemological core. To explain these changes, Nowotny, Scott and Gibbons have developed an open, dynamic framework for re-thinking science.

The authors conclude that the line which formerly demarcated society from science is regularly transgressed and that the resulting closer interaction of science and society signals the emergence of a new kind of science: contextualized or context-sensitive science. The co-evolution between society and science requires a more or less complete re-thinking of the basis on which a new social contract between science and society might be constructed. In their discussion the authors present a flexible model to define the elements that would comprise this new social contract.

Helga Nowotny holds the Chair in Social Studies of Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich and is Director of the Collegium Helveticum;

Peter Scott is Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University; Michael Gibbons is Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.