First the Seed spotlights the history of plant breeding and shows how efforts to control the seed have shaped the emergence of the agricultural biotechnology industry. This second edition of a classic work in the political economy of science includes an extensive, new chapter updating the analysis to include the most recent developments in the struggle over the direction of crop genetic engineering.
1988 Cloth, 1990 Paperback, Cambridge University Press
Winner of the Theodore Saloutos Award of the Agricultural History Society
Winner of the Robert K. Merton Award of the...

Written for general readers, teachers, journalists, and policymakers, this volume explores four controversial topics in science and technology, with commentaries from scientists and experts in such fields as sociology, religion, law, ethics, and politics: Antibiotics on the Farm and in Our Food; Genetically Modified Crops and Gene Flow: the science of genetic modification, genetic diversity, agricultural biotech and the environment, corporate patents and farmers' rights; Women, Hormone Replacement Theory, and Menopause: the history of hormone replacement therapy, the medicalization of...

This thoughtful and engaging text challenges the widely held notion of science as somehow outside of society, and the idea that technology proceeds automatically down a singular and inevitable path. Through specific case studies involving contemporary debates, this book shows that science and technology are fundamentally part of society and are shaped by it.

• Draws on concepts from political sociology, organizational analysis, and contemporary social theory.
  
• Avoids dense theoretical debate.
  
• Includes case studies and concluding...

This thoughtful and engaging text challenges the widely held notion of science as somehow outside of society, and the idea that technology proceeds automatically down a singular and inevitable path. Through specific case studies involving contemporary debates, this book shows that science and technology are fundamentally part of society and are shaped by it.

• Draws on concepts from political sociology, organizational analysis, and contemporary social theory.
  
• Avoids dense theoretical debate.
  
• Includes case studies and concluding...

Activists, scientists, and scholars in the social sciences and humanities explore in productive dialogue what it means to democratize science and technology. The contributors consider what role lay people can have in a realm traditionally restricted to experts, and examine the socio-economic and ideological barriers to creating a science oriented more toward human needs. Included are several case studies of efforts to expand the role of citizens--including discussions of AIDS treatment activism, technology consensus conferences in Europe and the United States, the regulation of nuclear...

In the last decade or so, the field of science and technology studies (STS) has become an intellectually dynamic interdisciplinary arena. Concepts, methods, and theoretical perspectives are being drawn both from long-established disciplines and from relatively young ones. From its origins in philosophical and political debates about the creation and use of scientific knowledge, STS has become a wide and deep space for consideration of the place of science and technology in the world, past and present. This title seeks to capture the dynamism and breadth of the field by presenting work which...

In 2005, beekeepers in the United States began observing a mysterious and disturbing phenomenon: once-healthy colonies of bees were suddenly collapsing, leaving behind empty hives full of honey and pollen. Over the following decade, widespread honeybee deaths--some of which have come to be called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)--have continued to bedevil beekeepers and threaten the agricultural industries that rely on bees for pollination. Scientists continue to debate the causes of CCD, yet there is no clear consensus on how to best solve the problem. Vanishing Bees takes us inside the...

In 2005, beekeepers in the United States began observing a mysterious and disturbing phenomenon: once-healthy colonies of bees were suddenly collapsing, leaving behind empty hives full of honey and pollen. Over the following decade, widespread honeybee deaths--some of which have come to be called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)--have continued to bedevil beekeepers and threaten the agricultural industries that rely on bees for pollination. Scientists continue to debate the causes of CCD, yet there is no clear consensus on how to best solve the problem. Vanishing Bees takes us inside the...

When it comes to any current scientific debate, there are more than two sides to every story. Controversies in Science and Technology, Volume 4 analyzes controversial topics in science and technology-infrastructure, ecosystem management, food security, and plastics and health-from multiple points of view. The editors have compiled thought-provoking essays from a variety of experts from academia and beyond, creating a volume that addresses many of the issues surrounding these scientific debates.
Part I of the volume discusses infrastructure, and the real meaning behind the term in...