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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government
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Science on Stage - Expert Advice as Public Drama (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R2,800
Discovery Miles 28 000
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Science on Stage - Expert Advice as Public Drama (Hardcover)
Series: Writing Science
Expected to ship within 18 - 22 working days
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Behind the headlines of our time stands an unobtrusive army of
science advisors. Panels of scientific, medical, and engineering
experts evaluate the safety of the food we eat, the drugs we take,
and the cars we drive. But despite the enormous influence of
science advice, its authority is often problematic, and struggles
over expert advice are thus a crucial aspect of contemporary
politics. "Science on Stage" is a theoretically informed and
empirically grounded study of the social process through which the
credibility of expert advice is produced, challenged, and
sustained.
Building on the sociology of Erving Goffman, the author analyzes
science advice as a form of performance, examining how advisory
bodies work to bring authoritative advice to the public stage. From
this perspective, advisory bodies emerge as performers who engage
in impression management: they selectively reveal and conceal
themselves, actively presenting some things to their audiences
while hiding others "backstage."
The book demonstrates that techniques for information
control--including stagecraft, strategic self-presentation, and
unauthorized disclosures or "leaks"--play a fundamental role in
efforts to create and contest expert authority. The author uncovers
this complex assemblage of dramaturgical machinery through a richly
detailed comparative analysis of three controversial reports on
diet and health, including a proposed revision to the Recommended
Daily Allowances, prepared by the National Academy of Sciences--the
most prestigious source of expert advice in the United States
today.
This lively and accessible analysis--which includes its own drama,
complete with Greek chorus--provides not only new insights about
science advice but also a fresh look at the social dimensions of
scientific writing. The theatrical metaphor highlights issues that
more familiar theoretical frameworks often leave waiting in the
wings. In the author's hands, scientific texts emerge not just as
rhetorical constructions or forms of discourse, but also as crucial
parts of systems for controlling the enclosure and disclosure of
information, and thereby for structuring relations between experts
and their audiences.
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