This dissertation focuses on the life of Dixy Lee Ray as it examines important developments in marine biology and biological oceanography during the mid twentieth century. In addition, Ray's key involvement in the public understanding of science movement of the 1950s and 1960s provides a larger social and cultural context for studying and analyzing scientists' motivations during the period of the early Cold War in the United States. The dissertation is informed throughout by the notion that science is a deeply embedded aspect of Western culture. To understand American science and society in the mid twentieth century it is instructive, then, to analyze individuals who were seen as influential and who reflected widely held cultural values at that time. Dixy Lee Ray was one of those individuals. Yet, instead of remaining a prominent and enduring figure in American history, she has disappeared rapidly from historical memory, and especially from the history of science. It is this very characteristic of reflecting her time, rather than possessing a timeless appeal, that makes Ray an effective historical guide into the recent past. Her career brings into focus some of the significant ways in which American science and society shifted over the course of the Cold War. Beginning with Ray's early life in West Coast society of the 1920s and 1930s, this study traces Ray's formal education, her entry into the professional ranks of marine biology and the crucial role she played in broadening the scope of biological oceanography in the early 1960s. The dissertation then analyzes Ray's efforts in public science education, through educational television, at the science and technology themed Seattle World's Fair, and finally in her leadership of the Pacific Science Center. I argue that Ray was ideally suited to promote a dominant conception of a socially useful and instrumental form of science that lay at the core of the public understanding of science through the 1960s. These efforts in the public understanding of science reflected a broad endeavor among scientists to spread knowledge about and values of modern science from elite American society to a broader public. The dissertation concludes with a short examination of Ray's neutral gendered identity which, considered within the largely masculine context of science, played a significantly role in the successes of her professional career. / Graduation date: 2006

Thesis (PhD) -- Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy, Dept. of Sociology, 2008. / Bibliography: p. 233-248. / Academic vessels: STS and HPS -- SSK : scientism as empirical relativism -- Latour and actor-network-theory -- Tensions and dilemmas in science studies -- Kuhn - paradigm of an uncritical turn -- Critical theory of technology: Andrew Feenberg -- Critical theory and science studies: Jürgen Habermas -- Concluding remarks: normativity and synthesis. / Science Studies is an interdisciplinary area of scholarship comprising two different traditions, the philosophical History and Philosophy of Science (HPS) and the sociological Science and Technology Studies (STS). The elementary tension between the two is based on their differing scholarly values, one based on philosophy, the other on sociology. This tension has been both animating the field of Science Studies and complicating its internal self-understanding. --This thesis sets out to reconstruct the main episodes in the history of Science Studies that have come to formulate competing constructions of the cultural value and meaning of science and technology. It tells a story of various failed efforts to resolve existing antimonies and suggests that the best way to grapple with the complexity of the issues at stake is to work towards establishing a common ground and dialogue between the rival disciplinary formations: HPS and STS. --First I examine two recent theories in Science Studies, Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (SSK) and Actor-Network Theory (ANT). Both of them are found to be inadequate as they share a distorted view of the HPS-STS divide and both try to colonise the sociology of science with the tools of HPS. The genesis of this colonizing impulse is then traced back to the Science Wars which again is underpinned by a lack of clarity about the HPS-STS relationship. This finding further highlights the responsibility of currently fashionable theories such as ANT that have contributed to this deficit of understanding and dialogue. / This same trend is then traced to the work of Thomas Kuhn. He is credited with moderate achievements but recent re-evaluations of his work point to his culpability in closing the field to critical possibilities, stifling the sociological side and giving rise to a distorted view of the HPS-STS relationship as seen in SSK and ANT. Now that the origins of the confused and politically divided state of Science Studies is understood, there is the urgent task of re-establishing a balance and dialogue between the HPS and the STS sides. --I use two important theoretical threads in critical theory of science and technology to bring clarity to the study of these interrelated yet culturally distinct practices. Firstly I look at the solid line of research established by Andrew Feenberg in the critical theory of technology that uses social constructivism to subvert the embedded values in the technical code and hence democratize technology. --Secondly I look at the work of Jürgen Habermas's formidable Critical Theory of science that sheds light on the basic human interests inside science and technology and establishes both the limits and extent to which social constructivism can be used to study them. --Together Feenberg and Habermas show the way forward for Science Studies, a way to establish a common ground that enables close scholarly dialogue between HPS and STS yet understands and maintains the critical difference between the philosophical and the sociological approaches that prevents them from being collapsed into one indistinguishable entity. Together they can restore the HPS-STS balance and through their shared emancipatory vision for society facilitate the bringing of science and technology into a democratic societal oversight, correcting the deficits and shortcomings of recent theories in the field of Science Studies. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / vii, 248 p

How do we systematise our knowledge without undermining mores and beliefs that have thus far guided our conduct? How do we account for free will in a cosmos made of molecules and universal laws? Is a metaphysical rebellion against the absurdity of a universe devoid of ethical significance unavoidable? Is this rebellion inevitably leading to the organization of the world in exclusively human terms? These are the problems that have been tackled among others by Dostoevskij, Kafka, Dickens, and Camus, thinkers who framed questions of paramount importance without finding persuasive answers (Davison 1997; Dodd 1992; Lary 1973). These are the same problems that many bio-scientists have grappled with in the past and I analyze the solutions they have identified. This work of mine could be seen as a follow-up to the qualitative survey carried out by Kerr, Cunningham-Burley, and Amos in 1998 among British scientists and clinicians with a well-established reputation. That investigation looked into the way the latter distance themselves from the dark shadow of eugenics and revealed that die equation of old eugenics and new genetics is deemed irrational because; scientific knowledge has grown by leaps and bounds ever since o the socio-political circumstances are radically different as coercion is unthinkable and the final decision rests with the individual who is protected by the principle of informed choice; o the aims of eugenics simply cannot be technically met; o the new genetics involves therapeutic aims as opposed to eugenics that concentrated on the alteration of the human gene pool; o the application of science is not necessarily one of scientists' main concerns; My contention is that these objections are too facile and unpersuasive. I submit that there is an obvious connection between how the existential and humanistic side of science failed to prove humanitarian, namely benevolent, compassionate and ultimately useful - the good -, the effort by several academicians to ground ethics on scientific evidence - the true -, And our incapacity to confront abnormality - the beautiful. This connection is eugenics. Eugenics is the scientific response to modern existential angst and social predicaments and is here to stay.

Orientador: Maria Conceição da Costa / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Geociencias / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-13T10:07:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Piolli_AlessandroLuis_M.pdf: 3431431 bytes, checksum: e1844117c6ac0d0279ed63392cc86fec (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: A centralidade da ciência e da tecnologia no mundo atual gera, cada vez mais, um aumento da participação de cientistas em decisões públicas, especialmente na resolução de controvérsias. Esta participação crescente de cientistas aponta dois problemas para o futuro das democracias. Um desses problemas seria resultante das desigualdades de conhecimentos entre especialistas e leigos, que são incompatíveis com o princípio da igualdade das democracias liberais. Outro problema ocorre quando o Estado, ao dar especial status à opinião de experts, fere o princípio da neutralidade. Pensados separadamente, esses dois problemas poderiam ser solucionados nos caminhos da política: as desigualdades de conhecimento ou a suposta "incapacidade pública" de participar das decisões seriam resolvidos com a educação; já a questão da neutralidade, ou o suposto descontrole democrático do conhecimento especializado poderia ser resolvido por meio dos concílios de cidadãos em tecnologia ou conselhos e comitês gestores com participação do público. Pensados juntos, no entanto, os dois problemas trazem uma questão mais complexa: se os experts são o princípio do conhecimento público, e esse conhecimento não deveria ser pensado como superior à opinião do público leigo, o público é, então, menos competente que os experts e está sob o controle cultural ou intelectual desses especialistas. Para discutir esses problemas, será feita uma análise compreensiva, com uso de tipos ideais de experts e de expertises, a partir do estudo de caso na Câmara Técnica Rural dos comitês federal e estadual das bacias hidrográficas dos rios Piracicaba, Capivari e Jundiaí, que terá como foco três aspectos: a elaboração de uma proposta de cálculos para cobrança pelo uso das águas no meio rural; as disputas entre setor rural e de saneamento para a definição das formas de cobrança e pela alocação de recursos arrecadados; e as propostas dos comitês estudados para divulgação e educação científica de aspectos ligados a gestão das águas. O presente estudo demonstra que a diversidade permitida na gestão por comitês promove a formação de novas formas de expertise, como a expertise híbrida - entre as expertises interacional e contributiva - que têm fortalecido o processo democrático. A análise dos processos de formação dessas expertises é o ponto de partida para o desenvolvimento de dois argumentos centrais. O primeiro é o de que a contraposição feita entre ciência e política, comum nas disputas do comitê estudado, desvaloriza um dos principais avanços do novo modelo de gestão das águas: a diversidade política, técnica e científica gera uma maior abertura ao debate político, fundamental ao processo democrático, e não a despolitização do debate. O segundo argumento parte da noção de que é possível se estabelecer, por meio de negociações, um mínimo necessário de conhecimentos que permite ao público "leigo" o engajamento na discussão, permitindo a ele, mesmo mantendo suas características de não especialista, participar das decisões políticas de assuntos científicos. / Abstract: The science and the technology are in the center of the world nowadays, which generates the crescent increase of the scientists' participation on public decisions, especially on the resolution of controversies. These scientists increasing participation highlights two problems for the future of democracies. One of these problems would result in inequality of knowledge between experts and lay people, which are incompatible with the principle of equality in liberal democracies. Another problem takes place when the State gives special status to the view of experts, offending the principle of neutrality. If considered separately, these two problems could be solved in the path of politics: the inequality of knowledge or the supposed "public failure" to participate in decisions would be solved with education, while the issue of neutrality, or the supposed lack of democratic expertise could be solved through the councils of citizens in technology or management boards and committees with public participation. If considered together, however, the two problems bring up a more complex issue: if experts are the principle of public knowledge, and this knowledge should not be taken as superior to the opinion of the lay people, the public is the less competent than experts and is under the intellectual or cultural control of experts. To discuss these issues, a comprehensive analysis will be done, with use of ideal types of experts and expertise from the case study in the Rural Technical Chamber of federal and state committees of the river basins of the rivers Piracicaba, Capivari and Jundiaí, which will focus three aspects: the preparation of a draft recovery calculations for the use of water in rural areas, disputes between the rural sector and sanitation for the definition of the forms of recovery and the allocation of funds raised and the proposals of the committees studied to disseminate scientific and educational aspects of water management. This study shows that the diversity allowed by the management committees promotes the formation of new forms of expertise such as hybrid expertise - between the interactional and contributory expertises, which has strengthened the democratic process. The analysis of the formation procedures of such expertise is the starting point for the development of two central arguments. The first is that the opposition made between science and policy, common in disputes of the committees studied, devalues one of the main advances of the new model of water management: the policy, technical and scientific diversity generates greater openness to political debate, fundamental the democratic process, not the depoliticization of the debate. The second argument comes from the notion that it is possible to establish, through negotiations, a minimum necessary of knowledge which enables the lay public to the engagement in discussion, enabling him, even while maintaining its characteristics of non-specialists, to participate in decisions policies for scientific affairs. / Mestrado / Mestre em Política Científica e Tecnológica

Orientador: Jose Carlos Pinto de Oliveira / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-11T13:32:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Gomes_VicentedePaula_D.pdf: 2624567 bytes, checksum: 6aecc59d0f8b76e4425938903112917f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Este trabalho averigua a adequação do uso do princípio de causalidade na investigação sociológica da ciência, um dos pilares do ¿programa forte¿ defendido pela Escola de Edimburgo. Para David Bloor, as pesquisas nesse campo devem buscar as ¿causas das crenças, isto é, leis gerais relacionando as crenças às condições que são necessárias e suficientes para determiná-las¿. Nessa definição, predominam elementos identificados com a concepção dedutivista de ciência, entre eles o de que o objetivo da ciência é buscar explicações causais. Análise do vínculo efetivo entre saber e fatores sociais em estudos de casos exemplares revelou que seus autores não utilizam argumentações contendo leis causais e condições necessárias e suficientes. Tal ocorre porque a conexão entre os ¿fatos¿ ivestigados ¿ o saber e os fatores sociais ¿ não tem uma natureza conceitual causal, essa conexão não pode ser representada como a expressão de uma lei causal. Argumentamos que a relação entre os objetos culturais (saber, fatores sociais, etc.) não pode ser expressa causalmente porque os significados destes ¿transcendem¿ a sua dimensão espaço-temporal. Para a adequada caracterização da interpenetração entre experiências psíquicas e situações sociais, a identificação de elementos como a motivação e a intencionalidade dos agentes envolvidos não pode ser efetivada por critérios causais. Apontamos na sociologia do conhecimento de Karl Mannheim um modelo alternativo. Neste, a expressão do vínculo entre os ¿fatos¿ investigados é realizada por método hermenêutico. Aqui, a interpretação é apresentada como o processo de explicitação de como os antecedentes dos atos ou obras humanos ¿ ânimos, ideais, normas, crenças, hábitos, etc., bem como o contexto social destes ¿ imprimem sentido a esses atos e obras. A defesa do método hermenêutico não significa a proposição de um programa ¿fraco¿ para a sociologia da ciência, porque este método é capaz de caracterizar a ¿determinação¿ do conteúdo do conhecimento científico por fatores sociais. A volta a Mannheim não representa um passo atrás em relação ao avanço do programa forte em considerar as ciências naturais vinculadas ao contexto social. Não há impedimento a que uma investigação da relação de uma teoria em ciências naturais e fatores sociais utilize o modelo argumentativo hermenêutico. A proposta hermenêutica tampouco representa uma volta ao debate do século XX, caracterizado por uma oposição entre explicar e compreender. A proposta é atual pois um interpretive turn é cada vez mais presente na filosofia da ciência contemporânea / Abstract: The aim of this work is examine use of principle of causality in sociology of science investigation, like defend the School of Edinburgh¿s strong programme. For David Bloor sociology of science must locate ¿causes of belief, that is, general laws relating beliefs to conditions which are necessary and sufficient to determine them¿. In this definition predominate elements of deductivist conception of science, among them that science must pursue causal explanations. Analysis of link between knowledge and social factors in exemplaries cases studies detected that their authors not use arguments holding causal laws and necessary and sufficient conditions. In that cases the connection among facts not have a causal conceptual nature, this connection not can be represented like a expression of a causal law. The relation among cultural objects not can be express in a causal form because their meanings ¿transcend¿ their space-time dimension. For appropriate characterization of interpenetration between psycho experiences and social situation the identification of elements like motivation and intencionality of subjects not can be brought about by causal criterion. There is a alternative model in Karl Mannheim¿s sociology of knowledge. In this the investigation of facts involved is achieved by hermeneutics method. Here the interpretation é presented like a process of explicitness how the preceding of acts or human works ¿ intention, ideal, rules, beliefs, habits, and his social context ¿ impress meaning to this acts or works. The apology of the hermeneutics method not mean the proposal of a weak programme to sociology of science, because hermeneutics é able to characterize the determination of content of knowledge by social factors. The return to Mannheim not represent a backstep in relation to the progress of strong programme in to consider the natural sciences linked to social context. There is not impediment to a investigation of relation of theory in natural sciences and social factors use the hermeneutics model. Neither hermeneutics proposition represent a return to debate of twentieth century, characterized for a oposition between explanation and understanding. The proposition is up to date because a ¿interpretive turn¿ is more and more present in contemporary philosophy of science / Doutorado / Filosofia da Ciencia / Doutor em Filosofia

What were the knowledges, scientific evidence and terms of recognition that constituted the object minority in the Indian subcontinent? How was minority produced simultaneously as a generalizable identity and as a naturalized marker of the Muslim identity? Focusing on the late colonial and the early postcolonial period, this dissertation is an analysis of the emergence of minority in relation to the nation-state in India. In doing that, I examine how minority came to be constituted as much by scientific knowledge produced about non-dominant communities, as by the discourse around electoral politics and constitutional rights. I demonstrate the possibilities and limitations in the way minority came to be constructed as a marginalized subject in governance and at the same time a difference from the national norm that threatened the ideal of the homogenous nation. Drawing on and contributing to scholarship in political history, history and sociology of science, and race and religious studies, this dissertation offers a reimagination of the relation between minority, nation and population.

This paper is a critical assessment of the political intersections of knowledge and power in the feminist critiques of science conducted by Evelyn Fox Keller, Sandra Harding, and Donna Haraway. In it I argue that feminist theory approaches the practicing discourses of science from political purviews that enable us to better understand and critique the political contexts of science and technology, as well as the cognitive content of scientific research. Some of the questions I address are: How is our scientific knowledge of the world structured by particular social, economic, and political imperatives? What get to be defined as scientific problems according to these imperatives? How do the methodologies employed within the sciences produce and reproduce knowledges about the world under such extremely strict and exclusionary conditions? What are the dangers involved with the uses of such methodologies? How is “scientific authority” to know presented to justify research claims, and how does it reify ontological and epistemological assumptions about the validity of scientific knowledge? These questions emphasize the power-knowledge nexus in scientific theories of knowledge and research practices largely ignored by many contemporary critiques of science. In addition, gender, race, and class critiques of the sciences can help us to deconstruct the epistemological and ontological presuppositions woven throughout the fabric of science. Keller, Harding, and Haraway also offer alternative conceptions of science that are more sensitive to the embeddedness of all scientific research and theoretical formulation. In this thesis I shall examine each theorist’s Critique of modern science and assess whether their alter-science project is able to overcome the problems in science that their critique renders problematic. / Master of Arts

The fewer numbers of girls that take part in Mathematics and Science programmes than those of boys in Namibia prompted this study. Few Namibian students pass Grade 12 Mathematics and Science with symbols required by the University of Namibia and other higher educational institutions in Africa and abroad. When the numbers of male students and female students who graduate both at secondary school and university levels are compared, it becomes clear that very few female students graduate. The study investigated how socio-cultural factors influence girls’ participation in Mathematics and Science. Information used in this study was collected from 1442 girls from 14 schools in Hardap and Khomas regions. Literature has demonstrated the importance of self-concept, motivation and influence from parents and teachers as imperative factors for a change in girls’ perceptions of Mathematics and Science. The analysis showed that both beliefs and attitudes of girls are negatively influenced by some cultural and traditional norms. Additional barriers include lack of support from parents, teachers and peers as well as the masculine face that is given to Mathematics and Science. The investigation also revealed the need to motivate girls from an early age. This can be done by empowering and preparing them socially, physically and mentally in these fields. Motivating female students can also be achieved with the help and support from parents, teachers and the entire education sector. / Further Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study investigated the nature of a steel production process in South Africa. The Iron and Steel Corporation of South Africa (Iscor) was analysed within various theoretical approaches within the sociology of science and technology. Iscor follows the production processes that are based on a particular paradigm practiced throughout the world by steel-making organisations. The study aims to unlock this paradigm by using specific theoretical (ANT, SCOT and SSR) and disciplinary (MOT) approaches. Each approach provides a unique analytical dimension to the study: the influence of various human and non-human actors, the influence of social pressures, the historical evolution of the current practices and the management of risk. The study explores how Iscor adheres to mainstream scientific work. Hence there is a focus on endogeneous approaches - "processes of technological change and their outcomes are part of what has to be explained and understood" (Rip et ai, 1995). It is also noted that the technologies are derived from practical experiences and processes of scientific research. There is an ongoing attempt to formulate an understanding between technical and social content of steel-making processes because automated plant machinery continue to replace manual labour. Finally, the study investigates how dominant steel-making technologies within lscor's Vanderbijlpark (VP) and Saldanah Bay (SB) plants have evolved to achieve a position of stability. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die studie het oorsake van die staal produksie proses in Suid Afrika geondersoek. Die Yster en Staal Korperasie van Suid Afrika (Yskor) was geanaliseer binne die verskillende teoretiese benaderings in die sosiologie van wetenskap en tegnologie. Yskor volg 'n produksie wat gebaseer is op 'n spesifieke paradigm wat deur alle staal vervaardigde organisasie wereld wyd gepraktiseer word. Die studie beoog om hierdie paradigm te ontbloot, deur spesifieke teoretiese (ANT, SCOT and SSR) en disiplinere (MOT) benaderings te gebruik. Elk van hierdie benaderings sal 'n unieke analiese demensie voortbring aan die studie: die invloed van verskillende menslike en nie-menslike aspekte, die invloed van sosiale druk, die geskiedkundige evolusie van die huidige praktyke en die bestuur van risikos. Die studie ondersoek hoe Yskor riglyne volg in die wetenskaplike veld. AI te mits is daar 'n mikpunt op endogeniese benadering - "tegnologiese prosese verandering en die resultate wat deel vorm van hoe die proses verduidelik word en verstandbaar moet wees" (Rip et al, 1995). Dis is dus duidelik dat die tegnologie verkry word deur praktiese ondervinding en wetenskappe navorsing prosese. Daar is voortdurend pogings om die verwantskap tussen tegniese en die sosiale inhoud van die staal vervaardigings prosese te formuleer, deurdat auto-matiese mashienerie all deurgans oorneem van werkers. Laastens die studie ondersoek hoe die dominante staal vervaardigde tegnologie binne in Yskor Vanderbijlpark (VP) en Saldanha Baai (SB) verander het om 'n stabiele stands poort te verkry.

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract