Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• 1. The Timescape of Science
• 2. What (Again) is So Special about Science?
• 3. Two Traditions in the Social Theory of Knowledge
• 4. The Natural Proximity of Facts and Values
• 5. Knowledge Politics and Anti-Politics: Bourdieu on Science and Intellectuals
• 6. The Politics of Symmetry
• 7. Reflexivity: One Step Up
• 8. Intellectual Autonomy and the Politics of Slow Motion
• Epilogue: Weak Social Theory
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

About the Author

DICK PELS has been Professor of Sociology at Brunel University since 1998, having previously taught at the Universities of Amsterdam and Groningen in the Netherlands, latterly as a Professor in the Social Theory of Knowledge. He is a Research Fellow of CRICT (Brunel's Centre for Research into Innovation, Culture and Technology) and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research. He has edited various Dutch sociological journals and has been an Associate Editor of the journal Theory, Culture and Society since 1990. Professor Pels is the author or co-author of a number of books in Dutch as well as the author of Property and Power in Social Theory. A Study in Intellectual Rivalry (Routledge) and The Intellectual as Stranger. Studies in Spokespersonship (Routledge).