Department of Anthropology

An Inquiry into the Contemporary Politics of STS: Democracy, Expertise and Post-Truth Worries

There has been an outbreak of anguish recently concerning the place of STS in what seems an increasingly populist post-truth world. After some preliminaries concerning parallels with the Lippmann-Dewey controversy of an earlier era, I posit the existence of a sharp divide between what might be called the Levellers vs the Diggers-- those who believe in 'epistemic democracy' vs those who seek to shore up walls between scientists and the public. I finish with consideration of recent developments in 'open science' as revealing weaknesses in both positions.

Sponsors: Anthropology, CAHI, Cultural Studies, Geography, Horizons of Knowledge, and International Studies

Please refer flyer for more information