Alan Irwin
Biographic Data
| ID | 3719045 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alan Irwin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alan |
| FAMILY NAME | Irwin |
| SIGNATURE | IRWIN A |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 197 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1983 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
STS and Innovation: Building and Jumping Fences
In this short contribution, I reflect upon the thematic collection as a whole, returning in particular to the three original questions posed in the collection’s introduction. In conclusion, I argue that STS has a substantial heritage in researching and engaging with innovation. However, drawing inspiration from the contributions in this collection, now is the time to take the STS-innovation relationship even further forward
STS and Innovation: Borderlands, Regenerations and Critical Engagements
This introduction to a thematic collection on the relationship between STS and innovation poses three main questions. When it comes to engaging with and acting upon socio-technical change, is ‘innovation’ part of the solution or of the problem? How should we view the relationship between STS approaches to innovation and neighbouring fields, especially Innovation Studies (IS)? What new conceptual and empirical resources can STS bring to the study …
Re-making 'quality' within the social sciences: The debate over rigour and relevance in the modern business school
Against the background of previous discussions over the state of academic institutions and the specific operation of research evaluation and measurement systems, this article focuses on the relationship between academic quality and larger societal value within social scientific research. Adopting a perspective from Science and Technology Studies (STS), it specifically explores what has become known as the 'rigour-relevance' debate within business…
If the Indicator Game is the Answer, Then What is the Question
This contribution begins by arguing that indicators in themselves do not have effects, but that it is crucial to understand which questions in the wider culture and governance of academia their use speaks to. Drawing partly on the author’s own experience in university management but also as an STS scholar, five important questions are presented to which indicators provide a kind of answer: ranging from public accountability over public research i…
On the local constitution of global futures. Science and democratic engagement in a decentred world
This essay focuses on the relationship between public engagement with science and larger discussions of globalized and decentred democracy. In particular, it asks whether public engagement on very specific issues and in the form of carefully-planned exercises should be seen as a distraction (or irrelevance) with regard to the democratic process or else as an enhancement and invigoration of it. It will be argued that we cannot tackle these issues …
Science, Public Engagement with
Un espace d'engagement citoyen: La participation profane et le changement institutionnel dans la gouvernance contemporaine des risques
Ces dernières années, une transition dans les approches européennes de gouvernance du risque et, en particulier, de la participation citoyenne à l'expertise scientifique a pu être observée. Alors que les politiques de gestion des questions liées aux risques entrent traditionnellement dans la compétence des bureaucrates et des scientifiques, certaines expériences menées dernièrement ont élargi la portée de ces processus à un plus grand nombre de p…
Transboundary Risk Governance
Governing environmental risk, particularly large-scale transboundary risks associated with climate change and pollution, is one of the most pressing problems facing society . This book focuses on a set of key questions relating to environmental regulation: How are activities regulated in a fragmented world - a world of nation states, regulators, domestic and international law and political contests - and one in which a range of actors, such as go…
Public Deliberation and Governance: Engaging with Science and Technology in Contemporary Europe
European Scientific Governance in a Global Context: Resonances, Implications and Reflections
Science, Social Theory and Public Knowledge
Citizen Science: A Study of People, Expertise and Sustainable Development
We are all concerned by the environmental threats facing us today. Environmental issues are a major area of concern for policy makers, industrialists and public groups of many different kinds. While science seems central to our understanding of such threats, the statements of scientists are increasingly open to challenge in this area. Meanwhile, citizens may find themselves labelled as `ignorant' in environmental matters. In Citizen Science Alan …
Regulatory Science, Europeanization, and the Control of Agrochemicals
This article addresses issues of regulatory convergence and Europeanization as they have developed within the agrochemicals sector. Taking the United Kingdom as a case study, the article considers the continuing importance of local and national factors within systems that are ostensibly international and standardized. In particular, the article shows how the embedded social relations of regulatory science in the United Kingdom, including institut…
Misunderstanding Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology
Risk, the environment and environmental knowledges
Regulatory science—Towards a sociological framework
Misunderstanding Science: The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology
Misunderstanding Science? offers a challenging new perspective on the public understanding of science. In so doing, it also challenges existing ideas of the nature of science and its relationships with society. Its analysis and case presentation are highly relevant to current concerns over the uptake, authority, and effectiveness of science as expressed, for example, in areas such as education, medical/health practice, risk and the environment, t…
The social management of environmental change
Technological trajectories and R&D for environmental innovation in UK firms
The Nuclear Peninsula
Risk and the Control of Technology: Public Policies for Road Traffic Safety in Britain and the United States
Public Attitudes to Technological Risk: The Contribution of Survey Data to Public Policy-Making
A growth in public awareness and concern over the hazards caused by technological and industrial development has become increasingly evident during the last two decades. Equally, it is now more widely accepted by regulatory authorities that public attitudes should form an essential part of the decision-making process over specific risks. This paper considers the value of attitudinal survey data in reflecting public concern and in informing polici…
The Control of Chemical Carcinogens in Britain
This paper considers the state management of a particular form of technological risk. It focuses on the control of carcinogenic substances in Britain and on the advisory structures which have been established to aid decision-making. The major advisory committees involved are examined with a view to characterising their major features and principles of operation. The paper also discusses how consistency and co-ordination might be achieved between …
Misunderstanding Science: The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology
Misunderstanding Science? offers a challenging new perspective on the public understanding of science. In so doing, it also challenges existing ideas of the nature of science and its relationships with society. Its analysis and case presentation are highly relevant to current concerns over the uptake, authority, and effectiveness of science as expressed, for example, in areas such as education, medical/health practice, risk and the environment, t…
Public Deliberation and Governance: Engaging with Science and Technology in Contemporary Europe
Regulatory science—Towards a sociological framework
Technological trajectories and R&D for environmental innovation in UK firms
Regulatory Science, Europeanization, and the Control of Agrochemicals
This article addresses issues of regulatory convergence and Europeanization as they have developed within the agrochemicals sector. Taking the United Kingdom as a case study, the article considers the continuing importance of local and national factors within systems that are ostensibly international and standardized. In particular, the article shows how the embedded social relations of regulatory science in the United Kingdom, including institut…
The social management of environmental change
Re-making 'quality' within the social sciences: The debate over rigour and relevance in the modern business school
Against the background of previous discussions over the state of academic institutions and the specific operation of research evaluation and measurement systems, this article focuses on the relationship between academic quality and larger societal value within social scientific research. Adopting a perspective from Science and Technology Studies (STS), it specifically explores what has become known as the 'rigour-relevance' debate within business…
Public Attitudes to Technological Risk: The Contribution of Survey Data to Public Policy-Making
A growth in public awareness and concern over the hazards caused by technological and industrial development has become increasingly evident during the last two decades. Equally, it is now more widely accepted by regulatory authorities that public attitudes should form an essential part of the decision-making process over specific risks. This paper considers the value of attitudinal survey data in reflecting public concern and in informing polici…
Un espace d'engagement citoyen: La participation profane et le changement institutionnel dans la gouvernance contemporaine des risques
Ces dernières années, une transition dans les approches européennes de gouvernance du risque et, en particulier, de la participation citoyenne à l'expertise scientifique a pu être observée. Alors que les politiques de gestion des questions liées aux risques entrent traditionnellement dans la compétence des bureaucrates et des scientifiques, certaines expériences menées dernièrement ont élargi la portée de ces processus à un plus grand nombre de p…
European Scientific Governance in a Global Context: Resonances, Implications and Reflections
The Control of Chemical Carcinogens in Britain
This paper considers the state management of a particular form of technological risk. It focuses on the control of carcinogenic substances in Britain and on the advisory structures which have been established to aid decision-making. The major advisory committees involved are examined with a view to characterising their major features and principles of operation. The paper also discusses how consistency and co-ordination might be achieved between …
The Control of Chemical Carcinogens in Britain
This paper considers the state management of a particular form of technological risk. It focuses on the control of carcinogenic substances in Britain and on the advisory structures which have been established to aid decision-making. The major advisory committees involved are examined with a view to characterising their major features and principles of operation. The paper also discusses how consistency and co-ordination might be achieved between …
Public Attitudes to Technological Risk: The Contribution of Survey Data to Public Policy-Making
A growth in public awareness and concern over the hazards caused by technological and industrial development has become increasingly evident during the last two decades. Equally, it is now more widely accepted by regulatory authorities that public attitudes should form an essential part of the decision-making process over specific risks. This paper considers the value of attitudinal survey data in reflecting public concern and in informing polici…
Risk and the Control of Technology: Public Policies for Road Traffic Safety in Britain and the United States
The social management of environmental change
Technological trajectories and R&D for environmental innovation in UK firms
The Nuclear Peninsula
Misunderstanding Science: The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology
Misunderstanding Science? offers a challenging new perspective on the public understanding of science. In so doing, it also challenges existing ideas of the nature of science and its relationships with society. Its analysis and case presentation are highly relevant to current concerns over the uptake, authority, and effectiveness of science as expressed, for example, in areas such as education, medical/health practice, risk and the environment, t…
Risk, the environment and environmental knowledges
Regulatory science—Towards a sociological framework
Misunderstanding Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology
Regulatory Science, Europeanization, and the Control of Agrochemicals
This article addresses issues of regulatory convergence and Europeanization as they have developed within the agrochemicals sector. Taking the United Kingdom as a case study, the article considers the continuing importance of local and national factors within systems that are ostensibly international and standardized. In particular, the article shows how the embedded social relations of regulatory science in the United Kingdom, including institut…
Citizen Science: A Study of People, Expertise and Sustainable Development
We are all concerned by the environmental threats facing us today. Environmental issues are a major area of concern for policy makers, industrialists and public groups of many different kinds. While science seems central to our understanding of such threats, the statements of scientists are increasingly open to challenge in this area. Meanwhile, citizens may find themselves labelled as `ignorant' in environmental matters. In Citizen Science Alan …
Science, Social Theory and Public Knowledge
European Scientific Governance in a Global Context: Resonances, Implications and Reflections
Public Deliberation and Governance: Engaging with Science and Technology in Contemporary Europe
Transboundary Risk Governance
Governing environmental risk, particularly large-scale transboundary risks associated with climate change and pollution, is one of the most pressing problems facing society . This book focuses on a set of key questions relating to environmental regulation: How are activities regulated in a fragmented world - a world of nation states, regulators, domestic and international law and political contests - and one in which a range of actors, such as go…
Un espace d'engagement citoyen: La participation profane et le changement institutionnel dans la gouvernance contemporaine des risques
Ces dernières années, une transition dans les approches européennes de gouvernance du risque et, en particulier, de la participation citoyenne à l'expertise scientifique a pu être observée. Alors que les politiques de gestion des questions liées aux risques entrent traditionnellement dans la compétence des bureaucrates et des scientifiques, certaines expériences menées dernièrement ont élargi la portée de ces processus à un plus grand nombre de p…
Science, Public Engagement with
On the local constitution of global futures. Science and democratic engagement in a decentred world
This essay focuses on the relationship between public engagement with science and larger discussions of globalized and decentred democracy. In particular, it asks whether public engagement on very specific issues and in the form of carefully-planned exercises should be seen as a distraction (or irrelevance) with regard to the democratic process or else as an enhancement and invigoration of it. It will be argued that we cannot tackle these issues …
If the Indicator Game is the Answer, Then What is the Question
This contribution begins by arguing that indicators in themselves do not have effects, but that it is crucial to understand which questions in the wider culture and governance of academia their use speaks to. Drawing partly on the author’s own experience in university management but also as an STS scholar, five important questions are presented to which indicators provide a kind of answer: ranging from public accountability over public research i…
Re-making 'quality' within the social sciences: The debate over rigour and relevance in the modern business school
Against the background of previous discussions over the state of academic institutions and the specific operation of research evaluation and measurement systems, this article focuses on the relationship between academic quality and larger societal value within social scientific research. Adopting a perspective from Science and Technology Studies (STS), it specifically explores what has become known as the 'rigour-relevance' debate within business…
STS and Innovation: Building and Jumping Fences
In this short contribution, I reflect upon the thematic collection as a whole, returning in particular to the three original questions posed in the collection’s introduction. In conclusion, I argue that STS has a substantial heritage in researching and engaging with innovation. However, drawing inspiration from the contributions in this collection, now is the time to take the STS-innovation relationship even further forward
STS and Innovation: Borderlands, Regenerations and Critical Engagements
This introduction to a thematic collection on the relationship between STS and innovation poses three main questions. When it comes to engaging with and acting upon socio-technical change, is ‘innovation’ part of the solution or of the problem? How should we view the relationship between STS approaches to innovation and neighbouring fields, especially Innovation Studies (IS)? What new conceptual and empirical resources can STS bring to the study …
Political science (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Economics (10 works) · Business (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Management (6 works) · Public Administration (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Geography (5 works)