Study theory of science
What is theory of science? Society is increasingly dependent on scientific knowledge. Almost no political decisions are made today without the justification of scientific knowledge. Mass media is constantly reporting from the research front and state and other authorities are informing citizens on health, environmental or other issues currently on the agenda.
How are we to live healthy lives? What is the evidence for evidence based medicine and health care? Are there colonial structures in malaria research? How is statistics used in the social sciences and how does this affect society and political decision-making? Is it possible to measure scientific quality? What is the relationship between science and democracy? How can different actors exploit scientific uncertainties? How is scientific knowledge used to enhance athletic performance?
These are some of the questions currently addressed by the researchers in the theory of science.
Theory of science as a subject is concerned with the production, interpretation and use of scientific knowledge in different settings. This means that theory of science is a so-called ”meta subject”. Researchers in the theory of science have developed ways to study other sciences and their place in society.
Some of the important concepts to do this are co production, actor network theory, the strong programme, interpretative flexibility, boundary objects, symmetry, translations, scientific citizenship and performativity. Internationally these concepts are subsumed under the headline science studies.
Theory of science is influenced by and developing its analytical tools in collaboration with the sociology of science, philosophy of science, history of science as well as with cultural and policy studies of knowledge and science.
The majority of our courses on theory of science and evidens-basing have Swedish as their language of instruction. We give a Master's Programme in Evidence-Basing.
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