Social Studies of Scientific Knowledge

Abstract

Social Studies of Scientific Knowledge or Science Studies are concerned with what counts as scientific knowledge and how it comes to count as scientific knowledge. Science Studies incorporates a wide range of methods and disciplinary approaches, but shares skepticism about the claim that scientific methods can produce universal, objective truths about the world which are independent of the social and environmental contexts of their production. Science Studies claims that scientific knowledges are socially constructed and that scientific explanations of the world are not equally effective at all times or in all places. Within geography, Science Studies has been used to offer a critical perspective on the use of scientific approaches within the discipline, and to question the division of disciplinary labor into human and physical geographies. Drawing on the methods and insights of Science Studies, geographers have developed new approaches to geography which consider the interaction of scientific knowledge with other factors in areas such as agriculture, environment, and medicine. This work emphasizes the interconnections between natural and social agencies, focusing less on the human as a discrete social entity and instead emphasizing the relationships between humans, nonhumans (including animals), and machines.