Science and Democracy ─ Making Knowledge and Making Power in the Biosciences and Beyond

In the life sciences and beyond, new developments in science and technology and the creation of new social orders go hand in hand. In short, science and society are simultaneously and reciprocally coproduced and changed. Scientific research not only produces new knowledge and technological systems but also constitutes new forms of expertise and contributes to the emergence of new modes of living, at times empowering and at times disempowering citizens. These dynamic processes are tightly connected to significant redistributions of wealth and power, and they sometimes threaten and sometimes enhance democracy. Understanding this phenomenon poses important intellectual and normative challenges: neither traditional social sciences nor prevailing modes of democratic governance have fully grappled with the deep and growing significance of knowledge-making in twenty-first century politics.

Building on new work in science and technology studies (STS), this book advances the systematic analysis of the coproduction of knowledge and power in contemporary societies. Using case studies in the new life sciences, supplemented with cases on informatics and other topics such as climate science, this book presents a theoretical framing of coproduction processes while also providing detailed empirical analyses and nuanced comparative work.

It will be interesting for students of sociology, science and technology studies, the history of science, genetics, political science and public administration.

Stephen Hilgartner is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University. His research examines the social dimensions and politics of contemporary and emerging science and technology, an area he has explored through research on science advice, on risk, and on genomics. His book Science on Stage: Expert Advice as Public Drama—which examines how the authority of scientific advisory bodies is produced, contested, and maintained—won the Carson Prize from the Society for Social Studies of Science in 2002. Earlier work has examined the popularization of science and the rise and fall of collective definitions of social problems. Recent publications include "Constituting Large-Scale Biology: Building a Regime of Governance in the Early Years of the Human Genome Project" (BioSocieties, 2013), "Selective Flows of Knowledge in Technoscientific Interaction: Information Control in Genome Research" (British Journal for the History of Science, 2012), "Staging High-Visibility Science: Media Orientation in Genome Research" (Yearbook in Sociology of the Sciences, 2011), "Intellectual Property and the Politics of Emerging Technology" (Chicago-Kent Law Review, 2010), and a special issue of Science & Public Policy (October 2008) on anticipatory knowledge and the state.

Clark A. Miller is Associate Director of the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes and Chair of the PhD in Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology at Arizona State University. His research focuses on science and technology policy, with an emphasis on the politics of transformation in global systems and global governance. Over the past decade, he has written extensively about the confluence of knowledge, expertise, and democracy, including his book Changing the Atmosphere: Expert Knowledge and Environmental Governance (with Paul Edwards, MIT Press, 2001). His current projects focus on the politics of transforming large-scale socio-technological systems in the context of democratic societies. Recent publications include Nanotechnology, the Brain, and the Future (with Sean Hays, Jason Robert, and Ira Bennett, Springer, 2013), "The Social Dimensions of Energy Transitions" (with Alastair Iles and Christopher Jones, Science as Culture, 2013), "Democratization, International Knowledge Institutions, and Global Governance" (Governance, 2007), "Epistemic Constitutionalism in International Governance" (Foreign Policy Challenges for the 21st Century, 2009), and "Thinking Longer-Term About Technology" (Science and Public Policy, 2008).

Rob Hagendijk is Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Dean Emeritus of the International School for Humanities and Social Sciences of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands. From 1996-2000 he was President of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST). He is specialist in social theory and science and technology studies. In his research he has focused on public controversies about science and technology and public participation in decision-making with respect to science and technology. A major study funded by the EU analyzed the different ways in which public engagement is organized in various European countries and across various disciplines and policy fields. The results are summarized in ''Public deliberation and governance: Engaging with science and technology in contemporary Europe" ,Minerva, 2006 (with Alan Irwin). Other publications in English: "Patients as Publics in Ethics Debates: Interpreting the Role of patient organisations in democracy." In New Genetics, New Identities (Routledge, 2007, with Nelis and DeVries); and: "Equal Before the Law: On machineries of sameness in forensic DNA practice." Science, Technology, & Human Values (2012, with MCha