This unusually innovative book treats reflexivity, not as a philosophical conundrum, but as a practical issue that arises in the course of scholarly research and argument. In order to demonstrate the concrete and consequential nature of reflexivity, Malcolm Ashmore concentrates on an area in which reflexive "problems" are acute: the sociology of scientific knowledge. At the forefront of recent radical changes in our understanding of science, this increasingly influential mode of analysis specializes in rigorous deconstructions of the research practices and textual products of the scientific enterprise. Through a series of detailed examinations of the practices and products of the sociology of scientific knowledge, Ashmore turns its own claims and findings back onto itself and opens up a whole new era of exploration beyond the common fear of reflexive self-destruction.
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About the Author
Malcolm Ashmore is a lecturer in sociology at Manchester Polytechnic.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A playfully serious critique of the Sociology of Knowledge,
This review is from: The Reflexive Thesis: Wrighting Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (Hardcover)
If you want a book the explores the radical implications of the paradoxes of self-reference for the social production of scientific knowledge, look no further. Ashmore's work is funny, infuriating, deep and unyielding in it's exploration of some of the fundamental dilemmas involved in investigating scientific knowledge with--scientific tools. While it is a substantive critique of the philosophical questions of realism and relativism, Ashmore takes great care to use the critique to open a "conceptual space", as it were, beyond the tired juxtapositions of realism/idealism and absolutism/relativism, all the while making critical comments on just what is wrong and right in attempting to look at both the history and historiography of science and epistemology in post-Kuhnian ways. At the same time, he nests the various themes of the book inside one another like Russian dolls and/or Onions, never passing up the opportunity to explore self-reflexiveness in all it's richness. Realists have yet to come up with an adequate rejoinder to Ashmore's exploratory work on meta-epistemology. If you're fascinated by self-reference in all it's guises, this is a must read.
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Lecturer: The sociology of scientific knowledge [SSK] is a fairly young subfield of sociology, having been in self-conscious existence for less than fifteen years (and possibly less than ten). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hard case argument, special relativism, replication claim, three little dinosaurs, constitutive reflexivity, variability claim, relativist discourse, methodological horrors, mere technical difficulty, bootstrapped induction, variability accounting, empirical programme, reflexive fiction, seven sexes, variability accounts, quoque arguments, reflexive writing, reflexive inquiry, factual document, strong programme, reflexive application, reflexive practice, new literary forms, methodological theories, practice dichotomy Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Other Author, First Text, Second Text, Phil Candidate, The Seven Sexes, Harry Collins, Science Studies Unit, Stage Three, Steve Woolgar, Barry Barnes, Opening Pandora's Box, Professor Geezer, Warranting Scientific Belief, David Caute, Trevor Pinch, Variability Talk, Michael Mulkay, Stage Two, University of Bath, Wrighting Knowledge, David Silverman, Frank Supervisor, Malcolm Ashmore, Conclusion One, Conclusion Two New!
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Lecturer: The sociology of scientific knowledge [SSK] is a fairly young subfield of sociology, having been in self-conscious existence for less than fifteen years (and possibly less than ten). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hard case argument, special relativism, replication claim, three little dinosaurs, constitutive reflexivity, variability claim, relativist discourse, methodological horrors, mere technical difficulty, bootstrapped induction, variability accounting, empirical programme, reflexive fiction, seven sexes, variability accounts, quoque arguments, reflexive writing, reflexive inquiry, factual document, strong programme, reflexive application, reflexive practice, new literary forms, methodological theories, practice dichotomy Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Other Author, First Text, Second Text, Phil Candidate, The Seven Sexes, Harry Collins, Science Studies Unit, Stage Three, Steve Woolgar, Barry Barnes, Opening Pandora's Box, Professor Geezer, Warranting Scientific Belief, David Caute, Trevor Pinch, Variability Talk, Michael Mulkay, Stage Two, University of Bath, Wrighting Knowledge, David Silverman, Frank Supervisor, Malcolm Ashmore, Conclusion One, Conclusion Two New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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37
books
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- Frames of Meaning by H. M. Collins on 4 pages
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn on 4 pages
- Lost in the Funhouse (Anchor Literary Library) by John Barth on 4 pages
- Don Quixote (Modern Library Classics) by Miguel de Cervantes on page 51, and Back Matter
- Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra on page 51, and Back Matter
See all 100 books this book cites
- Reflexivity: A Practical Guide for Researchers in Health and Social Sciences by Linda Finlay on page 18, page 20, and page 248
- Mathematics, Science, and Postclassical Theory (Science and Cultural Theory) by Barbara Herrnstein Smith on page 115, and Back Matter
- Conflicts in Social Science (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought) by Anton Van Harskamp on page 19, and page 20
- Beyond the Great Story: History as Text and Discourse by Robert F. Berkhofer Jr. in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Disunity of Science: Boundaries, Contexts, and Power (Writing Science) by Peter Galison in Back Matter
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