BEYOND EPISTEMOLOGY - RELATIVISM AND ENGAGEMENT IN THE POLITICS OF SCIENCE

In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that work in the soc ial studies of science and technology can be appropriated, or consciou sly deployed, to serve political ends. Correspondingly, pressure has r isen on scholars in this field to choose sides in controversies involv ing science and technology. This paper argues that 'co-production' - t he simultaneous production of knowledge and social order - provides a more satisfying conceptual framework than 'controversy' for understand ing the relationship between science and society, and she scholar's ro le in that relationship. Political engagement is better achieved throu gh reflexive, critical scholarship than through identification with ap parent 'winners' or 'losers' in well-defined but contingent controvers ies. Reflexivity is especially desirable when selecting sites for rese arch, styles of explanation, and methods of articulating normative pos itions.