Science and technology in society: from biotechnology to the Internet

Abstract

Acknowledgments. Abbreviations. 1. Science is Political/ Technology is Social: Concerns, Concepts, and Questions. Why is Thinking about Science and Technology so Hard?. Technoscience is Social. Technoscience is Political. 2. Ceding Debate: Biotechnology and Agriculture. Biotechnology and the Social Organization of Agriculture and Agri-business. The Discursive Landscape in the Debate over Biotechnology. Conclusions. 3. Rethinking Information Technology: Caught in the World Wide Web. Understanding the Digital Divide. High Technology Education. Politics, Civil Action, and the Internet. Conclusions. 4. Owning Technoscience: Understanding the New Intellectual Property Battles. Intellectual Property, Social Common Sense, and the Knowledge Commons. Intellectual Property and the Information Technology Revolution. Owning Life: Intellectual Property in Biological Materials. Intellectual Property and Innovation. Conclusion. 5. Technoscience in the Third World: The Politics of Indigenous Resources. Introduction. Science, Technology, and Colonialism. From Colonialism to Bio-Colonialism. Towards Equity in the Exchange of Biological Resources. Conclusions. 6. Gender and the Ideology of Merit: Women, Men, Science, and Engineering. Merit and Stratification in Science. Women, Men, and Academic Science. Women and Men in Science-Based Industry. Beyond Stratification in Science and Engineering: Artifacts and Research as Gendered. Conclusions. 7. Democracy and Expertise: Citizenship in a High Tech Age. The Limits to Expert Knowledge. The Virtues of Lay Knowledge. Barriers to Democratizing Technoscience and Expertise. Strategies for Overcoming the Obstacles. Conclusions. 8. Confronting the Problem: A Summary and Coda. References. Index.