SOC 376 Wars on Science: AIDS, Autism, and Other Controversies

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1 SOC 376 Wars on Science: AIDS, Autism, and Other Controversies Onur Özgöde Office Hours Wed: 1:00 2: Chicago Ave, #305 Does truth still matter? Why did we lose faith in the ability of experts to resolve scientific controversies ranging from AIDS, Ebola and autism epidemics to climate change? How can experts regain their authority? This course will examine how expertise became a key aspect of politics in our society and why this made experts vulnerable to attacks. Bridging power, knowledge and science, we will study how experts produce knowledge, shape our identities, and wield power. To understand how this process contributes to the making of our society, we will focus on experts use of often conflicting forms of expertise to find solutions to pressing socio-political and economic problems. Rather than concentrating on pure sciences of the academia, we will treat expertise as a vessel for the deployment of power, knowledge, and truth in action out in the world. Our task will be to critically analyze the social and political strategies experts use for establishing their authority over truth, as well as the weaknesses these strategies pose for the rule of experts. Course Mechanics & Grading: Participation: 15% This course is designed as a seminar. I will introduce the assigned readings with a brief background on the author and topic, explaining the significance of the issues addressed and how it is relevant for the course. Then we will discuss the central themes, arguments and analytical concepts taken up in the readings together. Midterm: 35% The Midterm will be a take-home exam that will cover the first five weeks of classes. It will feature four short essay questions, and you will be responsible for answering two. Each essay should be five to six pages long, excluding references, and typed up double-spaced, in Times New Roman, and in 12 size font with standard 1 inch margins. I will send out the questions at 12:01 pm on February 9 th, and your responses will be due at 12:01 pm the next Friday, February 16 th. Please, leave your papers in my mailbox at the Sociology Department and me a copy. Final Paper: 50% The final paper will be a take-home exam, covering the entire quarter. It will feature five essay questions, and you will be responsible for answering three. Each essay should be four to five pages long, excluding references, and typed up 1

2 double-spaced, in Times New Roman, and in 12 size font with standard 1 inch margins. I will send out the questions at 12:01 pm on March 13 th, and your responses will be due at 12:01 pm the next Friday, March 23 rd. Please, leave your papers in my mailbox at the Sociology Department and me a copy. Required Books: Gil Eyal et. al.. The Autism Matrix. (Polity, 2010) * Andrew Lakoff. Unprepared: Global Health in a Time of Emergency. (University of California Press, 2017) Schedule of Readings and Assignments: Week 1: AIDS, Lay Expertise & the Problem of Legitimacy January 8: Introduction January 10: Gieryn, Thomas F. Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non- Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists. American Sociological Review 48, no. 6 (1983): Steven Epstein, The Construction of Lay Expertise: AIDS Activism and the Forging of Credibility in the Reform of Clinical Trials, Science, Technology and Human Values, 20, 4 (Autumn 1995), Brian Wynne. Sheepfarming After Chernobyl: A Case Study in Communicating Scientific Information. Environment 31, no. 2 (March 1989): * You can purchase Lakoff s book on the publisher s website at a 30 percent discount with the following code: 16M

3 Week 2: Problem of Extending Expert Knowledge January 15: No Class - MLK Day January 17: Harry Collins and Robert Evans, The Third Wave of Science Studies: Studies of Expertise and Experience, Social Studies of Science 32, 2 (April 2002), (Read only up to page 272; skip the Appendix.) Bruno Latour. Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern. Critical Inquiry 30, no. 2 (January 1, 2004): (Skip the part that starts with Martin Heidegger at the bottom of page 232 and ends right before the first paragraph on page 234) Bruno Latour, a Veteran of the Science Wars, Has a New Mission. Science, October 10, Week 3: Autism: Sociology of Expertise January 22: Gil Eyal et. al.. The Autism Matrix. (Polity, 2010): 1-40 January 24: Gil Eyal et. al.. The Autism Matrix. (Polity, 2010): , Week 4: Power & Knowledge: Normal and the Abnormal January 29: January 31: Michel Foucault The Great Confinement (chapter from Madness and Civilization. A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, 1967). Pp in Paul Rabinow (ed.) The Foucault Reader. Random House. Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic. (Vintage Books, 1994): ix-21, Michel Foucault. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. (Pantheon Books, 1977): Part III, Ch 2 & 3 ( , ) 3

4 Week 5: Ebola, SARS, and other Viruses: Paradoxes of Contagious Diseases February 5: February 7: Andrew Lakoff. Unprepared: Global Health in a Time of Emergency. (University of California Press, 2017): (Selected Chapters) Andrew Lakoff. Unprepared: Global Health in a Time of Emergency. (University of California Press, 2017): (Selected Chapters) FEBRUARY 9: MIDTERM QUESTIONS DISTRIBUTED Week 6: Microbes, Modernity, and Development: Expertise as Network February 12: February 14: Bruno Latour. Give Me a Laboratory and I Will Raise the World. In Science Observed: Perspectives on the Social Study of Science, Bruno Latour. We Have Never Been Modern. (Harvard University Press, 1993.): 1-12 Timothy Mitchell. Can the Mosquito Speak. In Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno- Politics, Modernity, (University of California Press, 2002.) FEBRUARY 16 : MIDTERM IS DUE AT 12:01 PM Week 7: Hybrid Knowledge: Field Analysis February 19: Thomas Medvetz. Think Tanks in America. (University Of Chicago Press, 2014.):

5 February 21: Pierre Bourdieu, The Specificity of the Scientific Field and the Social Conditions of the Progress of Reason, Social Science Information 14, 6 (1975): Thomas Medvetz. Think Tanks in America. (University Of Chicago Press, 2014.): Eyal, Gil. Spaces Between Fields. In Bourdieu and Historical Analysis, edited by Philip S. Gorski, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, Week 8: State, Science and Politics February 26: February 28: Michel Foucault, Governmentality, in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon and Peter Miller (Eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), , Robert Casters, From Dangerousness to Risk, in The Foucault Effect (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991): Sheila Jasanoff, The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policy Makers. (Harvard University Press, 1990): 1-19, Week 9: Climate Change: Truth, Knowledge Infrastructures, and Models I March 5: March 7: Paul Edwards. A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming. MIT Press, 2010), 1-25, Paul Edwards. A Vast Machine: Computer Models, Climate Data, and the Politics of Global Warming. (MIT Press, 2010), (Selected excerpts between pages ) 5

6 Week 10: : Classification and Its Consequences: Looping and Identity March 12: Ian Hacking. Making Up People. In Reconstructing Individualism: Autonomy, Individuality, and the Self in Western Thought (Stanford University Press, 1987) Ian Hacking, Rewriting the Soul (Princeton University Press, 1995), (Selected Chapters). Bowker, Geoffrey C. and Susan Leigh Star. Introduction: To Classify is Human in Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. (The MIT Press, 2000). MARCH 13: QUESTIONS FOR FINAL PAPERS DISTRIBUTED March 14: Reading Period No Class MARCH 23: FINAL PAPERS ARE DUE AT 12:01 PM 6