Science studies

Science studies is an interdisciplinary field examining how scientific knowledge, practices, institutions, and technologies develop and shape society.

Science and technology studies: An interdisciplinary field studying science and technology as social, cultural, and political practices. This closely related field provides the most established framework for examining science in society.
Social construction of technology: An approach explaining how social groups shape the design and meaning of technologies. It extends science-studies analysis from knowledge-making to technological development.
Thomas Kuhn: An American historian and philosopher of science best known for The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. His account of paradigm shifts helped make scientific change a central problem for the field.
Responsible research and innovation: A policy approach that aligns research and innovation with societal needs and ethical considerations. It translates scrutiny of science’s social effects into research governance.
Logical positivism: A philosophical movement that sought to ground meaningful knowledge in logic and empirically verifiable claims. Its emphasis on formal justification contrasts with studies of science as situated practice.
Philosophy of science: The branch of philosophy that examines scientific reasoning, evidence, explanation, and knowledge. It analyzes the standards of knowledge that science-studies research investigates in practice.
Boundary-work: The rhetorical and institutional work used to distinguish science from non-science. It explains how scientific authority is defended by drawing boundaries around expertise.
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 book arguing that science develops through periods of normal research and revolutionary change. Its historical account challenged the idea that science advances only by steady accumulation.
Science communication: The communication of scientific knowledge among researchers, publics, policymakers, and other groups. Science-studies insights challenge one-way models of public understanding.
Scientific realism: The view that successful scientific theories describe a mind-independent world, including unobservable entities. Debates over realism frame disputes about whether social explanations undermine scientific truth.

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