Acting in an Uncertain World by Michel Callon - ISBN: 9780262515962
Paperback
A call for a new form of democracy in which “hybrid forums” composed of experts and laypeople address such sociotechnical controversies as hazardous waste, genetically modified organisms, and nanotechnology.

Acting in an Uncertain World

An Essay on Technical Democracy

$70.86

  • Paperback

    300 pages

  • Release Date

    21 January 2011

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Summary

A call for a new form of democracy in which “hybrid forums” composed of experts and laypeople address such sociotechnical controversies as hazardous waste, genetically modified organisms, and nanotechnology.Controversies over such issues as nuclear waste, genetically modified organisms, asbestos, tobacco, gene therapy, avian flu, and cell phone towers arise almost daily as rapid scientific and technological advances create uncertainty and bring about unforeseen concerns. The authors of Acting…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780262515962
ISBN-10:0262515962
Author:Michel Callon, Pierre Lascoumes, Yannick Barthe, Graham Burchell
Publisher:MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:MIT Press
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:300
Release Date:21 January 2011
Weight:431g
Dimensions:229mm x 152mm x 17mm
Series:Inside Technology
What They're Saying

Critics Review

“This book is a path breaking contribution to the study of democracy. Its novel approach to understanding technical and ethical controversies shows how the uncertainties people share about the world and its future can become the source of new forms of democratic life.” –Timothy Mitchell, Columbia University “This lucid and engaging book not only breathes new life into science and technology studies, but it also reinvents and re-enchants politics. It traces a new democratic politics of the unknown.”–Ash Amin, Department of Geography, Durham University – Ash Amin “In this provocative book, Michel Callon analyses the hybrid forums taking shape in the controversial sites where science overflows into the everyday world, where specialist knowledge is being challenged, new kinds of dialogic democracy are being born, and new styles of measured action are coming into being that enable human beings to reach decisions despite endemic uncertainty. Such a democratization of democracy could have implications far beyond the public understanding of science. The crucial contribution of this book is to suggest that this ‘philosophy in the wild’ could provide the basis for all who have to act in an uncertain world.” Nikolas Rose , Martin White Professor of Sociology, and Director, BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society, London School of Economics “This lucid and engaging book not only breathes new life into science and technology studies, but also reinvents and re-enchants politics. It traces a new democratic politics of the unknown.” Ash Amin , Department of Geography, Durham University

About The Author

Michel Callon

Michel Callon, developer (with Bruno Latour and others) of Actor Network Theory, is Professor at the cole des mines de Paris and a Researcher at the Centre de Sociologie de l’innovation there.Pierre Lascoumes is Director of Research at CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientfique).Yannick Barthe is a Researcher at CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique) and a member of the Centre de sociologie de l’innovation.

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