Scientific controversies and political situations

Lecture recording:

An Echo 360 recording of this lecture is available online.

Information

All are welcome to join this lecture which discusses the nature of the relation between science and politics. This relationship preoccupied social theorists in the Twentieth Century, animating the emergence and development of the field of Science and Technology Studies from the 1970s onwards. In an era of climate change and peak oil, and when concerns over the safety of drugs and agrichemicals have become commonplace, an understanding of the politics of science has become critical to the study of politics more broadly.

In this talk Professor Andrew Barry will consider some of the ways in which the relation between science and politics has been typically understood. Andrew's focus is on the continuing political importance of scientific controversies;

• How can we understand the relation between disputes about matters of scientific fact and political disagreements?
• Is a scientific controversy a form of political dispute or not?
• Does the resolution of scientific controversies serve as a way of closing down the possibility for politics, or as a means for generating new problems that should inform public debate more broadly?

Andrew's responses to these questions are geographical and historical. His proposition is that we need to conceive of scientific controversies as elements of what I term political situations. To call a series of events a political situation, he suggests, is to recognise that the constituents of a controversy, its identity, history, location and dispersion, its force and passion, and its scale and significance, cannot be assumed.

Scientific controversies often turn out to be about much more than disputes about scientific knowledge. Their study should be of interest to natural scientists and students of politics alike.

Programme

17.30    Arrival with tea and coffee

18.00    Scientific controversies and political situations, Professor Andrew Barry

18.45    Q&A session

19.00    Drinks reception

19.30    Close

Registration

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