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Palgrave Macmillan

Science under Siege

Contesting the Secular Religion of Scientism

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Editors:
  1. Dick Houtman

    1. Center for Sociological Research, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

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  2. Stef Aupers

    1. Institute for Media Studies, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  3. Rudi Laermans

    1. Center for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

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  • Creatively applies theories from the sociology of religion to the authority of science
  • Presents a timely discussion of the erosion of confidence in the authority of science through a cultural-sociological frame
  • Argues for the eradication of claims of the “neutrality” of science, opening the door to a science that is more critical of how its own biases impede the quest for truth

Part of the book series: Cultural Sociology (CULTSOC)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
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  2. Introduction: A Cultural Sociology of the Authority of Science

    • Dick Houtman, Stef Aupers, Rudi Laermans
    Pages 1-34

  3. Scientific Authority in the Face of Pluralism

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 35-35
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    2. The Disenchantment of the World and the Authority of Sociology: How the Queen of the Sciences Lost Her Throne

      • Dick Houtman
      Pages 37-63

    3. Down the Rabbit Hole: Heterodox Science on the Internet

      • Stef Aupers, Lars de Wildt
      Pages 65-87

    4. The Pluralization of Academia: Disentangling Artistic Research

      • Rudi Laermans
      Pages 89-111

  4. Cultural Worldviews and the Authority of Scientific Truth Claims

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 113-113
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    2. Elective Affinities Between Religion and Neuroscience: The Cases of Conservative Protestantism and Mindfulness Spirituality

      • Liza Cortois, Anneke Pons-de Wit
      Pages 115-132

    3. Cultural Worldviews and Lay Interpretations of Research Findings: The Role of the Scientific Consensus

      • Paul Tromp, Peter Achterberg
      Pages 133-152

  5. Contesting the Authority of Scientific Institutions

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 153-153
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    2. ‘Science Without Scientists’: DIY Biology and the Renegotiation of the Life Sciences

      • Massimiliano Simons
      Pages 155-178

    3. Contesting Epistemic Authority: Conspiracy Theories on the Boundaries of Science

      • Jaron Harambam, Stef Aupers
      Pages 179-202

    4. A Science Confidence Gap: Education, Trust in Scientific Methods, and Trust in Scientific Institutions in the United States, 2014

      • Peter Achterberg, Willem de Koster, Jeroen van der Waal
      Pages 203-229

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 231-242
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Keywords

About this book

Identifying scientism as religion’s secular counterpart, this collection studies contemporary contestations of the authority of science. These controversies suggest that what we are witnessing today is not an increase in the authority of science at the cost of religion, but a dual decline in the authorities of religion and science alike. This entails an erosion of the legitimacy of universally binding truth claims, be they religiously or scientifically informed. Approaching the issue from a cultural-sociological perspective and building on theories from the sociology of religion, the volume unearths the cultural mechanisms that account for the headwind faced by contemporary science. The empirical contributions highlight how the field of academic science has lost much of its former authority vis-à-vis competing social realms; how political and religious worldviews define particular research findings as favorites while dismissing others; and how much of today’s distrust of science is directed against scientific institutions and academic scientists rather than against science per se.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Center for Sociological Research, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Dick Houtman

  • Institute for Media Studies, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Stef Aupers

  • Center for Sociological Research, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Rudi Laermans

About the editors

Dick Houtman is Senior Professor of Sociology of Culture and Religion at the Center for Sociological Research at the University of Leuven, Belgium, and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University, USA.

Stef Aupers is Senior Professor of Media Culture at the Institute for Media Studies at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

Rudi Laermans is Senior Professor of Social Theory at the Center for Sociological Research at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Science under Siege

  • Book Subtitle: Contesting the Secular Religion of Scientism

  • Editors: Dick Houtman, Stef Aupers, Rudi Laermans

  • Series Title: Cultural Sociology

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69649-8

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-69648-1Published: 13 May 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-69651-1Published: 14 May 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-69649-8Published: 12 May 2021

  • Series ISSN: 2946-3572

  • Series E-ISSN: 2946-3580

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVI, 242

  • Number of Illustrations: 4 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Sociology of Culture, Sociology of Religion, Sociological Theory, Social Theory, Political Sociology

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