SOC 354—Can Science Save the World?

A common assumption is that if we can only develop the right science and technology, we can solve any problem. But is this true, really? Does science, instead, have limits? If so, what are they? Moreover, in this technological age, how can we best think about relationships between science, technology, and our lives? What have these relationships looked like in the past? How might they look in the future? In this class, we will discuss these and other questions to develop a critical understanding of the ways in which science can both tell us a lot about how we might live in the world yet is also created by real, imperfect, people who produce science through specifical historical, political, practical, cultural, gendered, racialized and other social contexts.