Science and Social Movements

Abstract

Scientific knowledge has been a growing subject for organized political movements primarily since World War II. Science developed as a distinctive form of social activity in the seventeenth century, and refers to the collectivities of knowledge, tools, practices, and people who create verifiable, reliable knowledge about the natural world. Scientific knowledge may be in the form of words or formulas, or it may be represented in material things, such as a weapon or a drug. The growth of movements that challenge aspects of science parallel the immense government investments in science research post‐World War II, particularly in the areas of weapons development, agriculture, health and medicine, and industrial processes. As governments have used measurable standards to characterize more aspects of their citizens' lives—race, population, crime rates—social movements have come to challenge what Jürgen Habermas in his influential work Theory and Practice (1973) called interference in the “life world” of citizens. Today, many active social movements in the US, including Creationism, the pro‐life movement, health social movements, and environmental movements and their critics, use science to frame their claims. Ironically, although scientific claims are ubiquitous in political debates, they are often highly contested and therefore have less power than they once did.