This book proposes to consider new ways in which science can be used to sustain our planet and enrich our lives. New information technologies and other techno-sciences developing mega projects such as climate geo-engineering are set to change fundamentally our received definitions of humankind, culture and nature, and thus urgently require attention.

This book neither embraces techno-science nor rejects science-based approaches to global problems but rather aims to redefine science. For science to remain a legitimate and trustworthy source of knowledge, society will have to engage in the collective processes of knowledge co-production, which not only includes science, but also other types of knowledge. This process of change has to include a new commitment to knowledge creation and transmission and its role in a plural society. Social responsibility has historically played an important role in science and engineering, but has lost momentum nowadays because many facets of science are lost due to reduction caused by the hybridization of science and policy. This book helps to release and reactivate social responsibility within contemporary science and technology. It uses relevant cases of contemporary scientific endeavours that have been promoted as essential for the well-being of humanity within the Cartesian paradigm a new conception of science relabelled as "innovation research" and characterized by high capital investment, centralised control of funding and quality, exclusive expertise, and a reductionism that is philosophical as well as methodological.

This is an accessible and relevant book for scholars in Science and Technology Studies, History and Philosophy of Science, and Science, Engineering and Technology Ethics. Providing an array of concrete examples, it supports scientists, engineers and technical experts, as well as policy-makers and other non-technical professionals working with science and technology to re-direct their approach to global problems, in a more integrative, self-reflective and humble direction."