STS Currents against the “Anti-Science” Tide

  • Abby J. Kinchy Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Keywords: social movements, activism, politics, climate, environment

Abstract

This essay considers some possible relationships that STS scholars can have with activists who are resisting attacks on environmental science. STS scholars can document the counter-currents to the “anti-science” moment, work in partnership with activists outside of academia, use access to institutional resources to give environmental movements strength, use STS research to help activists better understand the policy process and the history of science funding, and help people to develop a sociological imagination about science and the environment.

Author Biography

Abby J. Kinchy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Abby Kinchy is a sociologist and associate professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. She is the author of Science by the People: Participation, Power, and the Politics of Environmental Knowledge (Rutgers, 2019). Her current research explores collaborative, community-based approaches to studying urban soil contamination.

References

Breyman, Steve, Nancy Campbell, Virginia Eubanks, and Abby Kinchy. 2017. “STS and Social Movements: Pasts and Futures” in the Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, Fourth Edition. pp. 289-318 Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Brulle, Robert J. 2018. “Critical Reflections on the March for Science.” Sociological Forum 33 (1): 255–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12398.

Dillon, Lindsey, Rebecca Lave, Becky Mansfield, Sara Wylie, Nicholas Shapiro, Anita Say Chan, and Michelle Murphy. 2019. “Situating Data in a Trumpian Era: The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative.” Annals of the American Association of Geographers 109 (2): 545–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2018.1511410.

Kimura, Aya H., and Abby Kinchy. 2018. “Citizen Science in North American Agri-Food Systems: Lessons Learned.” Honolulu, HI. https://sih.berkeley.edu/research-project/citizen-science-in-agri-food-systems-lessons-and-recommendations/.

———. 2019. Science by the People: Participation, Power, and the Politics of Environmental Knowledge. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Kinchy, Abby J, and Daniel Lee Kleinman. 2005. “Democratizing Science, Debating Values.” Dissent Summer.

Walker, Dawn, Eric Nost, Aaron Lemelin, Rebecca Lave, and Lindsey Dillon. 2018. “Practicing Environmental Data Justice: From DataRescue to Data Together.” Geo: Geography and Environment 5 (2): e00061. https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.61.

Wise, Tim. 2019. “Forget STEM, We Need MESH: The importance of media literacy, ethics, sociology and history education.” Medium-Our Human Family (17 September) https://medium.com/our-human-family/forget-stem-we-need-mesh-43ab6f6273cd. Accessed 19 September 2019.

Published
08 Jan 2020
Section
Thematic Collections