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Expository Science: Forms and Functions of Popularisation

  • Book
  • © 1985

Overview

Editors:
  1. Terry Shinn

    1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France

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  2. Richard D. Whitley

    1. Manchester Business School, Manchester, UK

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook (SOSC, volume 9)

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Introductory Essay

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Knowledge Producers and Knowledge Acquirers

      • Richard Whitley
      Pages 3-28

  3. Expository Contexts and Knowledge Types

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 29-29
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    2. Expository Practice

      • Michel Cloître, Terry Shinn
      Pages 31-60

    3. Popularisation within the Sciences

      • Joske Bunders, Richard Whitley
      Pages 61-77

    4. Representing Geology

      • Steven Yearley
      Pages 79-101

    5. Attuning Science to Culture

      • Gerard De Vries, Hans Harbers
      Pages 103-117

    6. The Reaction to Political Radicalism and the Popularisation of Political Economy in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain

      • Gregory Claeys
      Pages 119-136

  4. The Scientific Appropriation of Major Publics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-137
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    2. Media Sensationalisation and Science

      • Jeremy Green
      Pages 139-161

    3. Speaking Out About Competition

      • Edward Yoxen
      Pages 163-181

    4. Popularization and Scientific Controversy

      • Michel Biezunski
      Pages 183-194

    5. The Cathedral of French Science

      • Jacqueline Eidelman
      Pages 195-207

    6. Spreading the Spirit of Science

      • Kurt Bayertz
      Pages 209-227

    7. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Meets the Atom Bomb

      • Nathan Reingold
      Pages 229-245

  5. The Social Appropriation of Science

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 247-247
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    2. Industrial Science as a “Show”

      • Christine Blondel
      Pages 249-258

    3. Popular Political Economy for the British Working Class Reader in the Nineteenth Century

      • Max Goldstrom
      Pages 259-273

  6. A Practitioner’s View of Popularisation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 275-275
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Keywords

About this book

The prevailing view of scientific popularization, both within academic circles and beyond, affirms that its objectives and procedures are unrelated to tasks of cognitive development and that its pertinence is by and large restricted to the lay public. Consistent with this view, popularization is frequently portrayed as a logical and hence inescapable consequence of a culture dominated by science-based products and procedures and by a scientistic ideology. On another level, it is depicted as a quasi-political device for chan­ nelling the energies of the general public along predetermined paths; examples of this are the nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution and the U. S. -Soviet space race. Alternatively, scientific popularization is described as a carefully contrived plan which enables scientists or their spokesmen to allege that scientific learn­ ing is equitably shared by scientists and non-scientists alike. This manoeuvre is intended to weaken the claims of anti-scientific protesters that scientists monopolize knowledge as a means of sustaining their social privileges. Pop­ ularization is also sometimes presented as a psychological crutch. This, in an era of increasing scientific specialisation, permits the researchers involved to believe that by transcending the boundaries of their narrow fields, their endeavours assume a degree of general cognitive importance and even extra­ scientific relevance. Regardless of the particular thrust of these different analyses it is important to point out that all are predicated on the tacit presupposition that scientific popularization belongs essentially to the realm of non-science, or only concerns the periphery of scientific activity.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France

    Terry Shinn

  • Manchester Business School, Manchester, UK

    Richard D. Whitley

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Expository Science: Forms and Functions of Popularisation

  • Editors: Terry Shinn, Richard D. Whitley

  • Series Title: Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-5239-3

  • Publisher: Springer Dordrecht

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

  • Copyright Information: D. Reidel Publishing Company 1985

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-277-1831-0Published: 30 June 1985

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-90-277-1832-7Published: 30 June 1985

  • eBook ISBN: 978-94-009-5239-3Published: 06 December 2012

  • Series ISSN: 0167-2320

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-1796

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIV, 294

  • Topics: History, general

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