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Scientists and public affairs
315 pages
A rigorous, scholarly exploration of how scientific expertise shapes and is shaped by the machinery of government.
What it feels like
Reading this collection feels like sitting in on a high-level graduate seminar at MIT during a period of profound institutional soul-searching. The pace is steady and methodical, demanding the reader's full intellectual engagement as it unpacks the dense, bureaucratic realities of science policy. There is no narrative sweep here; instead, the mood is formal, analytical, and deeply serious, steeped in the quiet hum of archives and policy briefings. The prose is rigorously academic, prioritizing structural clarity and evidence over stylistic flair. It is a book that rewards the patient policy wonk or historian of science, offering a sobering, nuanced look at the ethical and practical friction that occurs when the pursuit of objective knowledge collides with the messy realities of political power.
- Mood
- intellectual
- contemplative
- formal
- Tone
- analytical
- objective
- scholarly
- measured
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- intersection of knowledge and power · civic responsibility · institutional influence · ethics of expertise
- The writing
- Dense, methodical, and rigorously structured, prioritizing clarity and evidence over stylistic flourish.
- The arc
- Moves from a detached curiosity about institutional mechanics to a sobering appreciation of the complex responsibilities borne by scientific experts.
- Who it's for
- Academics, policy wonks, and historians of science who are fascinated by the bureaucratic and political realities of scientific advancement.
About the book
Includes bibliographical references. Essays based on Ph.D. theses in the Science and policy program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Description from Open Library.
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