| Science and Society in Southern Africa Contributor(s): Thompson, Andrew (Editor), Dubow, Saul (Editor), MacKenzie, John M. (Editor) |
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ISBN: 0719080487 ISBN-13: 9780719080487 Publisher: Manchester University Press OUR PRICE: $28.45 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: June 2009 Annotation: This collection, dealing with case studies drawn from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Mauritius, examines the relationship between scientific claims and practices on the one hand and the exercise of colonial power on the other. It challenges conventional views that portray science as a detached mode of reasoning with the capacity to confer benefits in a more or less even-handed manner. That science has the potential to further the collective good is not fundamentally at issue, but science can also be seen as complicit in processes of colonial domination. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Africa - South - Republic Of South Africa - History | Africa - General - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social |
| Dewey: 303.483 |
| Series: Studies in Imperialism (Paperback) |
| Physical Information: 0.54" H x 6.14" W x 9.21" (0.80 lbs) 256 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Southern Africa - Cultural Region - African |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This collection, dealing with case studies drawn from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Mauritius, examines the relationship between scientific claims and practices, and the exercise of colonial power. It challenges conventional views that portray science as a detached mode of reasoning with the capacity to confer benefits in a more or less even-handed manner. That science has the potential to further the collective good is not fundamentally at issue, but science can also be seen as complicit in processes of colonial domination. Not only did science assist in bolstering aspects of colonial power and exploitation, it also possessed a significant ideological component: it offered a means of legitimating colonial authority by counter-poising Western rationality to native superstition and it served to enhance the self-image of colonial or settler elites in important respects. This innovative volume ranges broadly through topics such as statistics, medicine, eugenics, agriculture, entomology and botany. |