“Science and Democracy:” Replayed or Redesigned?

Abstract Mid‐Twentieth Century declarations characterizing science as a ‘Little democracy’ and as autonomous from society continue to shape the arguments of scientists’ and critics of science studies, including Meera Nanda’s arguments. Yet such an image of science has long lost whatever empirical support it ever posessed. This article shares Nanda’s concern to envision sciences which support social justice projects, but not the particular criticisms she makes of Feminist, post‐colonial, and post‐kuhnian science studies. Keywords: ScienceDemocracyFeminismIndigenous knowledgeScience studies Notes [1] Subsequent unspecified citations are to this book. [2] The Science and Technology Studies department at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, NY. [3] Oddly, these acknowledgement pages are to be found on pp. 269–70, hidden between the text and the footnotes, rather than in their usual location in the front matter. [4] See, for example, the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor at http://www.nuffic.ni/ciran/ikdm.html; many of the essays in Nader Citation1996; and the more than 600 essays in Selin (1992). See also Goonatilake (Citation1998) and Harding (Citation1998). [5] The phrase comes from Smith (Citation1990). See also Harding (Citation2004). [6] See, for one perception of these issues, Rouse (Citation1996). [7] For example, Adas (Citation1989), Kochhar (Citation1992–93), Kumar (Citation1991, Citation1995), Nandy (Citation1983), Prakash (Citation1999), Sardar (Citation1988). Nandy is one of her main targets of criticism. [8] See Daedalus (Citation2000), and especially Eisenstadt (Citation2000), for provocative arguments about the multiplicity of modernities developed around the globe. [9] In addition to the authors cited earlier as providing accounts which do not support Nanda’s, it is worth noting that accounts of the role of imperialism in the development of European sciences have been produced for virtually every part of the European empire. See, for example, Brockway (Citation1979), McClellan (Citation1992), and the studies reported in Harding (Citation1998) for well‐known such cases. [10] Hollinger (pp. 99–100) cites also Hagerstrom (Citation1965), Machlup (Citation1962), Price (Citation1963), and Price (Citation1964). Ravetz (Citation1971) and others subsequently made influential contributions to analyses of how scientific communities were organized. [11] By “communism” Merton meant collective or public ownership of the results of research. [12] Indeed, Hollinger notes that Robert Merton had a Jewish upbringing. “Merton has described his childhood in Philadelphia as ‘Meyer H. Schkolnick’, and the process by which he took on the very English name by which he has been known throughout his career” (Hollinger, pp. 80–1; Merton, Citation1994).

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