Course information

The objective of the course is the study of science as a social institution and as a social practice. During the course, we will focus on the form of social relationships among those who practice science, on the communication networks they develop, on the reward system and funding methods for scientific research, on the figure of the male and female scientist; in short, on the social organization of the sciences. We will step outside the boundaries of the scientific laboratory to see how science is organized and how it influences and is influenced by society. At the same time, however, we will also be concerned with the very content of science/sciences and we will examine the view of the social construction of the very content of scientific knowledge. While in their early form, the social studies of science were thought to challenge science, today sociologists of science are in close collaboration with scientists themselves to understand the phenomenon of science.