Civic Epistemologies
My book Designs on Nature introduces the notion of civic epistemology as an element of modern political culture. Civic epistemologies are the stylized, culturally specific ways in which publics expect the state’s expertise, knowledge, and reasoning to be produced, tested, and put to use in decisionmaking. The following papers further develop the concept:
- “In the Democracies of DNA: Ontological Uncertainty and Political Order in Three States,” New Genetics and Society 24(2):139-155 (2005).
- “Judgment under Siege: The Three-Body Problem of Expert Legitimacy,” in P. Weingart and S. Maasen, eds., Democratization of Expertise? Exploring Novel Forms of Scientific Advice in Political Decision-Making, Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2005), pp. 209-224.
- “Restoring Reason: Causal Narratives and Political Culture,” in B. Hutter and M. Power, eds., Organizational Encounters with Risk (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 209-232.
- “Citizens at Risk: Cultures of Modernity in Europe and the U.S.,” Science as Culture 11(3):363-380 (2002).