Science, Technology, and Society : New Perspectives and Directions

This book explores the ways that scientific and technological advances affect society - from politics to family life to ethics - and what we can do about them. It is a valuable aid to graduate students and researchers in the social sciences and to those in science and technology studies.

This book gathers inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary perspectives on the effects that today''s advances in science and technology have on issues ranging from government policy-making to how we see the differences between men and women. The chapters investigate how invention and innovation really take place, how science differs from competing forms of knowledge, and how science and technology could contribute more to the greater good of humanity. For instance, should there be legal restrictions on ''immoral inventions''? A key theme that runs throughout the book concerns who is taken into account at each stage and who is affected. The amount of influence users have on technology development and how non-users are factored in are evaluated as the impact of scientific and technological progression on society is investigated, including politics, economy, family life, and ethics.