The theory of a post-industrial knowledgeable society was accompanied by ambitious claims regarding the power and capacity of science in social planning and policy-making. These exaggerated claims are based on a number of cardinal errors concerning the relation between social scientific knowledge and social practice. These errors are exposed and refuted by reference to theories of the role of science in relation to politics to be found in the works of C.E. Lindblom and Gernot Böhme.
Bell, D. (1976) The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. New York: Basic Books.
2.
Böhme, G. (1979) “Alternatives in Science - Alternatives to Science?”, in H. Novotny and H. Rose (eds) Counter-Movements in the Sciences, Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook 1979, pp. 105-127. Dordrecht: Reidel.
3.
Böhme, G. (1992) Coping with Science. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
4.
Böhme, G. and Stehr, N. (1986) “The Growing Impact of Scientific Knowledge on Social Relations”, in Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook 1986, pp. 7-31. Dordrecht: Reidel.
5.
Bradbury, R.H. , Green, D.C. and Reichelt, R.E. (1986) “Qualitative Patterns and Processes of Marine Ecology”, Marine Ecology - Progress Series24: 209-304.
6.
Etzioni-Halevy, E. (1985) The Knowledge Elite and the Failure of Prophecy. London: Allen and Unwin.
7.
Lane, R.E. (1966) “The Decline of Politics and Ideology in a Knowledgeable Society”, American Sociological Review31(5): 652-665.
8.
Lindblom, C. E. (1988a) “The Science of Muddling Through”, in Democracy and the Market System, pp. 171-190. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.
9.
Lindblom, C. E. (1988b) “Integration of Economics and the other Social Sciences through Policy Analysis”, in Democracy and the Market System, pp. 263-279. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.
10.
Lindblom, C.E. (1990) Inquiry and Change: The Troubled Attempt to Understand and Shape Society. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
11.
Lindblom, C.E. and Cohen, David (1989) Usable Knowledge. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
12.
Lustig, J. (1982) Corporate Liberalism: The Origins of Modern American Political Theory 1890-1920. Berkeley: University of California Press.
13.
Redner, H. (1994) A New Science of Representation. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
14.
Van den Daele, W. , Krohn, W. and Weingart, P. (1977) “The Political Direction of Scientific Development”, in E. Mendelsohn, P. Weingart and R. Whitley (eds) The Social Production of Scientific Knowledge, Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook 1977, pp. 219-243. Dordrecht: Reidel.
15.
Vernant, J.P. and Detienne, M. (1978) Cunning Intelligence in Greek Culture and Society. Brighton: Harvester Press.
