Science Studies: An Advanced Introduction

For Additional Information

For Additional Information For those interested in the attacks on STS known as the "science wars," a good place to start is issue 46-47 of Social 'Text (1996, vol. 14, nos. 1 and 2), which itselfbecame part of the controversy. For an introduction to the philosophy of science, I have found Fuller (1993a), Hacking (1983), and Kourany's reader (1987) to be the most useful, and Idhe (1993) is a useful guide to the philosophy of technology. Callebut's collection of interviews (1993) gives a good taste of some contemporary debates in the field. For feminist philosophy of science, the standard starting points are philosophers such as Longino (1994) and Harding (1986, 1992). The journals Social Epistemology and Studies in the History and Philosophy ifScience are examples of philosophically oriented journals where one tends to find an interdisciplinary orientation. For the sociology of science, the classic text is Merton (1973), but the survey by Cole (1992) is more up-to-date and it provides one example of how American sociologists of science have responded to the sociology of scientific knowledge. The other main line ofAmerican sociologists includes Allison, Hagstrom, Hargens, Long, McGinness, and Reskin, whose work is cited in the bibliography. There is no equivalent introductory book for them, but their articles are reviewed in the chapter on the sociology of science, and Hagstrom (1965) may be a good starting point. The psychology of science literature is undeveloped and largely irrelevant to the other STS social sciences, but its use of variables and quantitative methods overlaps in some cases with the sociology of science, as in productivity studies and creativity studies. See Fuller et al. (1989) and Shadish and Fuller (1994) for introductions to the psychology ofscience. For the sociology of scientific knowledge (sometimes called the new sociology of science), one might begin with introductions by Woolgar (1988), whose book is more programmatic; Webster (1991), whose book is more general and includes policy discussions; or Restivo (1994a), whose introductory chapter surveys a variety ofsociological frameworks in science 157 158 I For Additional Information studies. For the SSK approach to technology, key articles are found in the reader by Bijker, Hughes, and Pinch (1987) and a subsequent collection by Bijker and Law (1992). There are also detailed reviews of work in the sociology of science and scientific knowledge in the huge Handbook of Science and Technology Studies Oasanoff et al. 1994). For those who prefer to learn about a field by flipping through journals, I suggest Scientometrics for the quantitative end of the spectrum, American Sociological Review and Social Forces for the sociology of science, Social Studies of Science for the social studies of knowledge, and Science, Technology, and Human Tillues for a more general range ofinterdisciplinary social science articles. There are some general surveys of the history ofscience and technology (e.g., Bernal 1969 or Pacey 1990), but I would encourage the reader to follow up the specialty literature in a specific area of interest. The conceptual debates tend to occur more around interpretations ofspecific historical events rather than around general theoretical issues, as in sociology and philosophy. The major American journals in the field are Isis and Culture and Technology, but there are many other journals in the history of science, technology, and medicine. For critical science and technology studies, one would do well to survey the past issues of Science as Culture, but there are sometimes interesting articles on technology in the issues of Research in Philosophy and Technology and in Science, Technology, and Human Tillues. The reader by MacKenzie and Wajcman (1985) contains a general sample oftechnology studies, with some citation classics in critical technology studies included. Richard Sclove's Loka Institute is a good way to hook up with relevant activist groups. It can be reached at http://www.amherst.edu/-Ioka/. For cultural studies and the anthropology of science and technology, I have written a survey book that focuses on cultural aspects of science and technology, including cross-cultural, multicultural, and temporal cultural issues (Hess 1995). I have used this book in my advanced undergraduate courses along with the excellent reader by Harding (1993). A volume edited by Downey, Durnit, and Traweek (1997) brings together some contributions by anthropologists and provides helpful information to newcomers to the field. Anthropology journals that occasionally include STSrelated essays are Cultural Anthropology, Current Anthropology, and, for more applied and development-oriented material, Human Organization. The journal Minerva is another source of cross-cultural studies of science and technology...