Introduction to the Special Issue

Our changing times provide numerous opportunities for interesting research into different aspect of the knowledge-based society. Science is becoming a powerful institution influencing people's daily lives in various ways. But it is also increasingly influenced by social, economic and political forces shaping its direction and controlling its applications. The boundaries between private and public, nature and society, are increasingly challenged by scientific and technical advances. Technological products or tools embody knowledge and mediate it at the same time. Creating and disseminating knowledge by means of such tools is problematic in many ways, although the tools tend to be taken for granted as objective and neutral. The status and authority of experts in the knowledge-based society is neither automatic nor self-evident. The maintenance of expert status and control requires legitimation and validation displays to fight off public disinterest and scepticism, or legal challenge. Despite the importance of science and technology, mundane and tacit forms of knowledge are still crucial. The implications of recent scientific and technological developments for public welfare seem to indicate that the knowledge society and the welfare state can coexist in a mutually supportive relationship

Engineering ethics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Knowledge Society · Legitimation · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Skepticism · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of scientific knowledge · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Engineering · Law · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance · University-Industry-Government Innovation Models

• The Knowledge Society

  Open Access•Gernot Bohme, Nico Stehr•Knowledge Society•1986

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• Social Epidemiology and the Fundamental Cause Concept

  Open Access•Bruce G Link, Lexi Harari et al.•Milbank Quarterly•1998

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• The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society

  Daniel Bell•The Educational Forum•1976

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• Formal Theory in Sociology

  Walter L Wallace, J Hage•Contemporary Sociology A Journal…•1995

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• Skipper Science

  Open Access•Þórólfur Þórlindsson, Thorolfur Thorlindsson•Sociological Quarterly•1994

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• Globalization or Europeanization? Evidence on the European Economy Since 1980

  Open Access•Neil Fligstein, Frederic Merand•Acta Sociologica•2002

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• Working knowledge

  Douglas A Harper•Working knowledge•1987

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• Re-Thinking Science

  Fletcher Linder, Joe Spear et al.•Contemporary Sociology A Journal…•2003

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• The Credential Society

  Christopher F Armstrong, Randall Collins•Social Forces•1981

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• The Reality of Experts and the Imagined Lay Person

  Open Access•Alessandro Maranta, Michael Guggenheim et al.•Acta Sociologica•2003

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• The Scandinavian Challenge

  Open Access•Mats Benner•Acta Sociologica•2003

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• The Social as Trans-Genic

  Open Access•Thora Margareta Bertilsson•Acta Sociologica•2003

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• The Culture of Production

  Gary Alan Fine•American Journal of Sociology•1992

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• Is 1980s Sociology in the Doldrums

  Randall Collins•American Journal of Sociology•1986

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