We live in times of increasing public distrust of the main institutions of modern society. Experts, including scientists, are suspected of working to hidden agendas or serving vested interests. The solution is usually seen as more public scrutiny and more control by democratic institutions – experts must be subservient to social and political life.

In this book, Harry Collins and Robert Evans take a radically different view. They argue that, rather than democracies needing to be protected from science, democratic societies need to learn how to value science in this new age of uncertainty. By emphasizing that science is a moral enterprise, guided by values that should matter to all, they show how science can support democracy without destroying it and propose a new institution – The Owls – that can mediate between science and society and improve technological decision-making for the benefit of all.

Harry Collins is a Fellow of the British Academy, and Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University.
Robert Evans is Professor in Sociology at Cardiff University.

Preface

Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: Science as a Moral Choice

Part II: Elective Modernism
Chapter 2: Choosing Science
Chapter 3: The Birds: Elective Modernism, Democracy and Science

Part III: Academic Context
Chapter 4: Elective Modernism in Context
Chapter 5: Institutional Innovations

Part IV: Manifesto
Conclusion: Elective Modernism and Democracy

Notes
References Cited