136-041 Science and Other Traditions

Usually 75 points of first year study across any discipline areas.

This subject is a study of the ways the sciences might work with other traditions. The sciences often operate in situations where the local knowledge traditions of communities need to be recognised and respected. Yet local knowledge is usually embodied in practices and only mobilised with difficulty. This can make things difficult for marine biologists who work with indigenous communities on turtle biology; for computer scientists who work with farmers struggling with land degradation; for geomatics personnel who work with property rights secured through indigenous land tenure; for taxonomists surveying rainforest plots with the help of villagers who own the plot; for a mathematics teacher struggling to appreciate the understandings of his/her non-Western students. This subject gives students the opportunity to become acquainted with the major analytic questions which inform social inquiry into the nature of scientific practice.