A striking characteristic of modern knowledge society is the rapid spread of certain ideas and concepts back and forth from everyday to scientific discourses, and across many different contexts of meaning. This work attempts to open up a new road to the study of these dynamics of knowledge. Sociologists of knowledge and recently evolutionary theorists have offered explanations that either attribute social attention to particular ideas or shifts of meaning to the predominance of certain groups. Maasen and Weingart, however, offer a radical new explanation that explores knowledge dynamics by...
A striking characteristic of modern knowledge society is the rapid spread of certain ideas and concepts back and forth from everyday to scientific dis...
not lie in the conceptual distinctions but in the perceived functions of metaphors and whether in the concrete case they are judged positive or negative. The ongoing debates reflect these concerns quite clearly namely that metaphors are judged on the basis of supposed dangers they pose and opportunities they offer. These are the criteria of evaluation that are obviously dependent on the context in which the transfer of meaning occurs. Our fundamental concern is indeed the transfer itself its prospects and its limits. Looking at possible functions of metaphors is one approach to under standing...
not lie in the conceptual distinctions but in the perceived functions of metaphors and whether in the concrete case they are judged positive or negati...
When the socialist regime in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was overthrown around the end of the eighties, beginning of the nineties, an overall transforma- tion of whole societies started. Not only the political and the economic systems of these countries, but all societal sectors underwent deep changes. These changes presented opportunities, but they also spelled trouble. On one hand, getting rid of stifling political control and excessive bureaucratic regulation was something which most members of these societies desired. On the other, it be- came apparent very soon that the necessary...
When the socialist regime in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was overthrown around the end of the eighties, beginning of the nineties, an overall tra...
Academic disciplines provide a framework for the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. Not only do they shape our education and understanding, they structure our professional lives. Interdisciplinarity, the reconfiguration of academic disciplines and the boundaries between them, has lately become a field of major interest to scholars and policy makers. This collection brings together the latest research and analysis from this emerging field.
The editors take as their central thesis the idea that the existing matrix of disciplines is dissolving, leading to fundamental...
Academic disciplines provide a framework for the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. Not only do they shape our education and un...
Academic disciplines provide a framework for the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. Not only do they shape our education and understanding, they structure our professional lives. Interdisciplinarity, the reconfiguration of academic disciplines and the boundaries between them, has lately become a field of major interest to scholars and policy makers. This collection brings together the latest research and analysis from this emerging field.
The editors take as their central thesis the idea that the existing matrix of disciplines is dissolving, leading to fundamental...
Academic disciplines provide a framework for the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. Not only do they shape our education and un...
Representing a wide range of disciplines -- biology, sociology, anthropology, economics, human ethology, psychology, primatology, history, and philosophy of science -- the contributors to this book recently spent a complete academic year at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) discussing a plethora of new insights in reference to human cultural evolution. These scholars acted as a living experiment of "interdisciplinarity in vivo." The assumption of this experiment was that the scholars -- while working and residing at the ZiF -- would be united intellectually as well as...
Representing a wide range of disciplines -- biology, sociology, anthropology, economics, human ethology, psychology, primatology, history, and philoso...
not lie in the conceptual distinctions but in the perceived functions of metaphors and whether in the concrete case they are judged positive or negative. The ongoing debates reflect these concerns quite clearly namely that metaphors are judged on the basis of supposed dangers they pose and opportunities they offer. These are the criteria of evaluation that are obviously dependent on the context in which the transfer of meaning occurs. Our fundamental concern is indeed the transfer itself its prospects and its limits. Looking at possible functions of metaphors is one approach to under standing...
not lie in the conceptual distinctions but in the perceived functions of metaphors and whether in the concrete case they are judged positive or negati...
'Scientific advice to politics', the 'nature of expertise', and the 'relation between experts, policy makers, and the public' are variations of a topic that currently attracts the attention of social scientists, philosophers of science as well as practitioners in the public sphere and the media. This renewed interest in a persistent theme is initiated by the call for a democratization of expertise that has become the order of the day in the legitimation of research funding. The new significance of 'participation' and 'accountability' has motivated scholars to take a new look at the science...
'Scientific advice to politics', the 'nature of expertise', and the 'relation between experts, policy makers, and the public' are variations of a t...
The interrelations of science and technology as an object of study seem to have drawn the attention of a number of disciplines: the history of both science and technology, sociology, economics and economic history, and even the philosophy of science. The question that comes to mind is whether the phenomenon itself is new or if advances in the disciplines involved account for this novel interest, or, in fact, if both are intercon nected. When the editors set out to plan this volume, their more or less explicit conviction was that the relationship of science and technology did reveal a new...
The interrelations of science and technology as an object of study seem to have drawn the attention of a number of disciplines: the history of both sc...
Edward Gibbon's allegation at the beginning of his Essay on the Study of Literature (1764) that the history of empires is that of the miseries of humankind whereas the history of the sciences is that of their splendour and happiness has for a long time been accepted by professional scientists and by historians of science alike. For its practitioner, the history of a discipline displayed above all the always difficult but fmally rewarding approach to a truth which was incorporated in the discipline in its actual fonn. Looking back, it was only too easy to distinguish those who erred and...
Edward Gibbon's allegation at the beginning of his Essay on the Study of Literature (1764) that the history of empires is that of the miseries of huma...
