The "Racial" Economy of Science
Toward a Democratic Future
Published on 22. October 1993
Book
Paperback/Softback
544 pages
978-0-253-20810-1 (ISBN)
Description
"The classic and recent essays gathered here will challenge scholars in the natural sciences, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and women's studies to examine the role of racism in the construction and application of the sciences. Harding . . . has also created a useful text for diverse classroom settings." -Library Journal
"A rich lode of readily accessible thought on the nature and practice of science in society. Highly recommended." -Choice
"This is an excellent collection of essays that should prove useful in a wide range of STS courses." -Science, Technology, and Society
" . . . important and provocative . . . " -The Women's Review of Books
"The timeliness and utility of this large interdisciplinary reader on the relation of Western science to other cultures and to world history can hardly be overemphasized. It provides a tremendous resource for teaching and for research . . . " -Ethics
"Excellent." -The Reader's Review
"Sandra Harding is an intellectually fearless scholar. She has assembled a bold, impressive collection of essays to make a volume of illuminating power. This brilliantly edited book is essential reading for all who seek understanding of the multicultural debates of our age. Never has a book been more timely." -Darlene Clark Hine
These authors dispute science's legitimation of culturally approved definitions of race difference-including craniology and the measurement of IQ, the notorious Tuskegee syphilis experiments, and the dependence of Third World research on First World agendas.
"A rich lode of readily accessible thought on the nature and practice of science in society. Highly recommended." -Choice
"This is an excellent collection of essays that should prove useful in a wide range of STS courses." -Science, Technology, and Society
" . . . important and provocative . . . " -The Women's Review of Books
"The timeliness and utility of this large interdisciplinary reader on the relation of Western science to other cultures and to world history can hardly be overemphasized. It provides a tremendous resource for teaching and for research . . . " -Ethics
"Excellent." -The Reader's Review
"Sandra Harding is an intellectually fearless scholar. She has assembled a bold, impressive collection of essays to make a volume of illuminating power. This brilliantly edited book is essential reading for all who seek understanding of the multicultural debates of our age. Never has a book been more timely." -Darlene Clark Hine
These authors dispute science's legitimation of culturally approved definitions of race difference-including craniology and the measurement of IQ, the notorious Tuskegee syphilis experiments, and the dependence of Third World research on First World agendas.
Reviews / Votes
"By racial economy Harding means those institutions, assumptions, and practices that are responsible for disproportionately distributing along 'racial' lines the benefits of Western science to the haves and the bad consequences to the have-nots, thereby enlarging the gap between them. Challenging traditional views of Western science as a progressive force and pure intellectual endeavor, she instead locates it as a Eurocentric institution shaped by the racist, sexist, and imperialist character of the dominant social order (from which ranks its practitioners are still largely drawn), and disserving the needs and interests of the peoples of the Third World and minorities in Western society. She further suggests that science itself has suffered as a creative force by neglecting the potential of non-Western contributions. An impressively broad array of scholarship has been assembled to explore these issues, drawn from scientists and historians of science, activists, and public policy analysts. The essays address themes of non-Western scientific traditions, scientific views of race, who gets to do science, regressive effects of technology on peoples of non-European origin, the supposed value neutrality of science, and the possibilities for a different relationship between science and society. A rich lode of readily accessible thought on the nature and practice of science in society. Highly recommended. General; undergraduate; graduate."-L. W. Moore, formerly, University of Kentucky, Choice, May 1994More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Bloomington, IN
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
4 b&w photos
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
685 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-253-20810-1 (9780253208101)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
SANDRA HARDING, a philosopher, is Professor of Education and Women Studies at UCLA. She is author of Whose Science: Whose Knowledge?: Thinking from Women's Lives and The Science Question in Feminism, and editor of Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues.
Content
Preface
Introduction: Eurocentric Scientific Illiteracy-A Challenge for the World Community
Sandra Harding
I. Early Non-Western Scientific Traditions
Poverties and Triumphs of the Chinese Scientific Tradition
Joseph Needham
Black Athena: Hostilities to Egypt in the Eighteenth Century
Martin Bernal
Early Andean Experimental Agriculture
Jack Weatherford
II. Science Constructs "Race"
American Polygeny and Craniometry before Darwin: Blacks and Indians as Separate, Inferior Species
Stephen Jay Gould
Racial Classifications: Popular and Scientific
Gloria A. Marshall
The Study of Race
S.L. Washburn
On the Nonexistence of Human Races
Frank B. Livingstone
IQ: The Rank Ordering of the World
R.C. Lewontin, Steven Rose, and Leon J. Kamin
The Health of Black Folk: Disease, Class, and Ideology in Science
Nancy Krieger and Mary Bassett
Appropriating the Idioms of Science: The Rejection of Scientific Racism
Nancy Leys Stepan and Sander L. Gilman
III. Who Gets to Do Science?
Aesculapius Was a White Man: Race and the Cult of True Womanhood
Ronald T. Takaki
Co-Laborer-in the Work of the Lord: Nineteenth-century Black Women Physicians
Darlene Clark Hine
Ernest Everett Just: The role of Foundation Support for Black Scientists 1920-1929
Kenneth R. Manning
Never Meant to Survive: A Black Woman's Journey-An Interview with Evelynn Hammonds
Aimee Sands
Increasing the Participation of Black Women in Science and Technology
Shirley Malcom
Without More Minorities, Women, Disabled, U.S. Scientific Failure Certain, Fed Study Says
Eileen M. O'Brien
Modern Science and the Periphery: The Characteristics of Dependent Knowledge
Susantha Goonatilake
IV. Science's Technologies and Applications
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: "A Moral Astigmatism"
James Jones
Calling the Shots? The International Politics of Depo-Provera
Phillida Bunkle
Colonialism and the Evolution of Masculinist Forestry
Vandana Shiva
Applied Biology in the Third World: The Struggle for Revolutionary Science
Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin
Environmental Racism
Karl Grossman
V. Objectivity, Method, and Nature: Value Neutral?
Methods and Values in Science
National Academy of Sciences
Nazi Medicine and the Politics of Knowledge
Robert Proctor
Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science
Nancy Leys Stepan
The Bio-politics of a Multicultural Field
Donna Haraway
Cultural Differences in High-Energy Physics: Contrasts between Japan and the United States
Sharon Traweek
The "Relevance" of Anthropology to Colonialism and Imperialism
Jack Stauder
VI. The Future: Toward a Democratic Strategy For World Sciences
Science and Democracy: A Fundamental Correlation
Joseph Needham
People's Science
Bill Zimmerman et al.
Science and Black People
Editorial, The Black Scholar
Science, Technology and Black Community Development
Robert C. Johnson
Towards a Democratic Strategy for Science: The New Politics of Science
David Dickson
Modern Science in Crisis: A Third World Response
Third World Network
Name Index
Introduction: Eurocentric Scientific Illiteracy-A Challenge for the World Community
Sandra Harding
I. Early Non-Western Scientific Traditions
Poverties and Triumphs of the Chinese Scientific Tradition
Joseph Needham
Black Athena: Hostilities to Egypt in the Eighteenth Century
Martin Bernal
Early Andean Experimental Agriculture
Jack Weatherford
II. Science Constructs "Race"
American Polygeny and Craniometry before Darwin: Blacks and Indians as Separate, Inferior Species
Stephen Jay Gould
Racial Classifications: Popular and Scientific
Gloria A. Marshall
The Study of Race
S.L. Washburn
On the Nonexistence of Human Races
Frank B. Livingstone
IQ: The Rank Ordering of the World
R.C. Lewontin, Steven Rose, and Leon J. Kamin
The Health of Black Folk: Disease, Class, and Ideology in Science
Nancy Krieger and Mary Bassett
Appropriating the Idioms of Science: The Rejection of Scientific Racism
Nancy Leys Stepan and Sander L. Gilman
III. Who Gets to Do Science?
Aesculapius Was a White Man: Race and the Cult of True Womanhood
Ronald T. Takaki
Co-Laborer-in the Work of the Lord: Nineteenth-century Black Women Physicians
Darlene Clark Hine
Ernest Everett Just: The role of Foundation Support for Black Scientists 1920-1929
Kenneth R. Manning
Never Meant to Survive: A Black Woman's Journey-An Interview with Evelynn Hammonds
Aimee Sands
Increasing the Participation of Black Women in Science and Technology
Shirley Malcom
Without More Minorities, Women, Disabled, U.S. Scientific Failure Certain, Fed Study Says
Eileen M. O'Brien
Modern Science and the Periphery: The Characteristics of Dependent Knowledge
Susantha Goonatilake
IV. Science's Technologies and Applications
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment: "A Moral Astigmatism"
James Jones
Calling the Shots? The International Politics of Depo-Provera
Phillida Bunkle
Colonialism and the Evolution of Masculinist Forestry
Vandana Shiva
Applied Biology in the Third World: The Struggle for Revolutionary Science
Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin
Environmental Racism
Karl Grossman
V. Objectivity, Method, and Nature: Value Neutral?
Methods and Values in Science
National Academy of Sciences
Nazi Medicine and the Politics of Knowledge
Robert Proctor
Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science
Nancy Leys Stepan
The Bio-politics of a Multicultural Field
Donna Haraway
Cultural Differences in High-Energy Physics: Contrasts between Japan and the United States
Sharon Traweek
The "Relevance" of Anthropology to Colonialism and Imperialism
Jack Stauder
VI. The Future: Toward a Democratic Strategy For World Sciences
Science and Democracy: A Fundamental Correlation
Joseph Needham
People's Science
Bill Zimmerman et al.
Science and Black People
Editorial, The Black Scholar
Science, Technology and Black Community Development
Robert C. Johnson
Towards a Democratic Strategy for Science: The New Politics of Science
David Dickson
Modern Science in Crisis: A Third World Response
Third World Network
Name Index