Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Sociological Study of a Social Movement at the Interface of Science and Religion

博士论文研究：科学与宗教交汇处的社会运动的社会学研究

• 批准号: 1126535
• 负责人: Thomas Gieryn
• 金额: $ 0.96万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-08-01 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1126535&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Sociological; Study

Introduction This award supports doctoral dissertation research in the sociology of science on relations between science and religion. It shifts the focus of analysis away from longstanding controversies involving religion and science from courtroom battles and textbook-adoption squabbles to a new setting for exhibitions that opened in Kentucky in 2007. The researcher will examine this struggle for credibility and cultural authority in a new way, by focusing on the materialization of religious beliefs and in particular on the exhibition technologies used to legitimate those beliefs for visitors. This sociology of science case study draws on interviews with informants involved with the new setting, content analyses of pertinent primary documents and literatures, secondary media coverage, and on extensive field notes prepared during successive visits to the site. Intellectual Merit Science, Technology, and Society scholars have an enduring interest in sites of knowledge production, such as gentleman's houses, laboratories, field sites, courtrooms, and exhibition halls. Until now, exhibition halls have been examined primarily as places where the cultural authority of mainstream science is reproduced, not as places where scientific understandings are challenged. Science, Technology, and Society scholars have recently turned their attention to social movement organizations such as patient-rights advocacy groups and scientist-activists, but the increased understandings resulting from those studies have not yet been applied to a religious social-movement organization that seeks unequivocally to challenge scientific worldviews. This dissertation extends Science, Technology, and Society interests to sites of knowledge-production by asking how places such as museums get implicated in social movement organization efforts to secure credibility and legitimacy for beliefs widely denounced by mainstream science. Potential Broader Impacts Analyzing religious social-movement goals, tactics, and outcomes will shed light on how a movement that is marginalized by the scientific community can nevertheless have an impact on public understandings of science. The cultural authority of science is buttressed by a network of exhibition halls designed and built on the premise that scientific worldviews are "right." What are the consequences for popular opinions about science when a natural history museum uses similar displays and artifacts to convince visitors of the legitimacy of an alternative worldview? This project raises issues of considerable importance for science education policies and for the negotiation of epistemic plurality in the public sphere.

该奖项支持科学社会学中关于科学与宗教关系的博士论文研究。它将分析的焦点从涉及宗教和科学的长期争议，从法庭之争和教科书采用的争论，转移到2007年在肯塔基州开幕的展览的新环境。研究人员将以一种新的方式来审视这种对信誉和文化权威的斗争，重点关注宗教信仰的物质化，特别是用于使这些信仰合法化的展览技术。这一科学社会学案例研究借鉴了对参与新环境的线人的采访，对相关主要文件和文献的内容分析，二级媒体报道，以及在连续访问网站期间准备的广泛的实地记录。科学、技术和社会学者对知识生产场所有着持久的兴趣，如绅士的住宅、实验室、现场、法庭和展览霍尔斯。到目前为止，展览霍尔斯主要是作为主流科学的文化权威再现的地方，而不是作为科学理解受到挑战的地方。科学、技术和社会学者最近将注意力转向社会运动组织，如病人权利倡导团体和科学家活动家，但这些研究所产生的更多理解尚未应用于宗教社会运动组织，这些组织明确寻求挑战科学世界观。本文将科学、技术和社会的兴趣扩展到知识生产的场所，询问博物馆等场所如何参与社会运动组织的努力，以确保主流科学广泛谴责的信仰的可信度和合法性。分析宗教社会运动的目标、策略和结果将揭示一个被科学界边缘化的运动如何对公众对科学的理解产生影响。科学的文化权威得到了一个展览霍尔斯网络的支持，这个网络是在科学世界观是“正确的”的前提下设计和建造的。“当一个自然历史博物馆使用类似的展览和文物来说服游客另一种世界观的合法性时，对科学的流行观点会有什么后果？该项目提出了科学教育政策和公共领域知识多元性谈判的重要问题。