Controversy: Politics of Technical Desisions

One way to analyze the political values and beliefs that underlie decisions about science and technology is through the study of controversies, since it is during the course of disputes that vital concerns and hidden assumptions are clearly revealed. Details of controversies can illustrate the reasoning and motivation behind public agencies, government officials, scientists and protest groups. They provide an understanding of science and technology policy, its social and political context and its public impact. They can also highlight social contradictions inherent in many decisions about science and technology, and the problems of developing public policies. In the second edition, the case material, originally written in 1Nelkin, Dorothy is the author of 'Controversy: Politics of Technical Desisions', published 1984 under ISBN 9780803922501 and ISBN 0803922507.