The "Racial" Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future (Race, Gender, and Science) [Hardcover]

Sandra Harding (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Race, Gender, and Science | Publication Date: October 1993

"Sandra Harding is an intellectually fearless scholar. She 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. Fueled by the declining legitimacy of Western authority and by critiques of Eurocentrism, a number of widely acclaimed analyses of the sciences have recently appeared. Sandra Harding draws from this body of scholarship to assemble an anthology of classic essays by Third World and Western thinkers who link the sciences to local, national, and international projects for making and remaking democracy. In this rich, diverse collection, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, political theorists, and scientists treat a wide range of issues: revaluating the sciences in premodern high cultures of China, Africa, and the Andes; disputes over science's legitimation of culturally approved definitions of race difference, from craniology to the measurement of IQ; overcoming the dependence of Third World research on First World agendas; race, imperialism, and the application of scientific technologies in health and reproductive areas; the notorious Tuskegee syphilis experiments; developmental agriculture and applied biology in the Third World; environmental racism and environmental crises in developing countries; questions of values, objectivity, method, and nature in sciences; and visions of programs that create sciences for a democratic world community.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Have Western sciences been entirely progressive, particularly in regards to "race?" Or is their inherent Eurocentrism responsible for perpetuating a "racial economy"--that is, for parceling out along racial lines the benefits of these sciences to the West and the drawbacks to the Third World? By addressing these questions, this book should move the social studies of science into a dimension that editor Harding admits has been largely absent in Western critiques of science, even the feminist critiques for which Harding is noted. In fact, 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 ( Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's Lives , Cornell Univ. Pr., 1991) has also created a useful text for diverse classroom settings. Recommended for academic libraries.
- Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

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 1994

(L. W. Moore, formerly, University of Kentucky Choice 1994) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr (October 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253326931
• ISBN-13: 978-0253326935
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,360,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read!!, June 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The "Racial" Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic Future (Race, Gender, and Science) (Paperback)

This excellent book will uncover for you the dangers inhent with the modern paradigm of science. The "S knows that P" model, and the atrocities that it can alow will become evident after reading just a few essays in the Racial Economy of Science. Chanllenge yourself to face the problems that feminism presents.