Knowledge: Three Contexts of Use

The notion of a crisis of science (or scientic knowledge) has two opposing potential meanings:
At the technical level it could refer to the realization that specic scientic claims were no longer valid More commonly, however, it refers to how the philosophical self-understanding of science is in crisis as reected in rival metatheories (epistemologies and related ontologies)

The late 20th century crisis of science was essentially the decline of positivism as the dominant perspective
In natural science this crisis was evident in the emergence of environmental studies which proposed new paradigms for understanding In the social science this crisis was expressed in the new legitimacy given to qualitative methodologies

 1. Most commonly the idea of knowledge refers to scientic knowledge

such knowledge has been validated based on a relative consensus within the relevant scientic communities such knowledge is held to be universal and superior to competing claims philosophers use the term this way in talking about theories of knowledge - which is synonymous with epistemology this notion if prescriptive and evaluative in differentiating between true and false claims to knowledge

2. In disciplines such as sociology and anthropology, knowledge can refer to any kind of belief system
such belief systems are analyzed neutrally from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge (e.g. production, circulation, reception) no effort is make to judge whether it is true for example, religious knowledge for a social scientist is just another form of culture, not an epistemological claim

 Contested knowledges
Some forms of knowledge have a controversial scientic status Speaking of knowledges in the plural stresses the diversity of knowledge claims, following the examples of French social theorist Michel Foucault Examples: for a long time midwifery and acupuncture were excluded from medical science In some cases forms of knowledge can be marginalized through the abuse of power and are sometimes referred to as subjugated knowledges form example, there was initially opposition to nursing as the basis of doctoral programs some forms of indigenous knowledge have become recognized as traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) in some cases such knowledge takes the forms of experiences of marginalized groups (e.g. delinquents, the insane, sexual and ethnic minorities, etc.) the methodological concpet of giving voice alludes to these issues

Conclusion: the crisis of science and instability and negotiation between knowledge claims have become central features of risk societies
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