136-321 Science As Practice, Culture and Politics

Credit Points:

When taken from History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Arts:

16.7 2nd and 3rd year

When taken from History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Science:

16.7

Prerequisite/s:

Timetable:

Contact:

Objectives:

Students completing this subject should:

• be familiar with methodological issues in the social study of contemporary science;

• have undertaken a practical study through which central themes of understanding science as production and product have been explored;

• have developed the analytical tools for mapping the interconnections between science and society, knowledge and power, technology and culture.

Content:

The subject offers an opportunity to develop puzzles and problems which arise out of your encounters with scientific knowledge and technologies in the laboratory, in daily life and in the workplace. As part of your study you will engage in field projects which throw light on how we can disaggregate science as representational truth, and understand science as activity within a field of power relations, as gendered and/or as the expression of particular values.

Assessment: