Science(s) which, when and whose? Probing the metanarrative of scientific knowledge in the social construction of nature

Abstract

The role of ‘scientific knowledges’ in the social construction of nature(s) and realities has become a focal point of deconstruction and debate in both geography and science and technology studies over the past decades. In this article, I demonstrate that many authors have constructed a metanarrative of ‘science’ as a discursive strategy for their critiques of society. Science is portrayed as a homogenous activity with its ‘products’ implicated in various aspects of poltical-economic-social exploitation/oppression. This metanarrative belies the contempo-rary complexity of scientific endeavor and its diverse epistemic cultures. Suggestions to clarify the epistemologies of scientific knowledges and arbitrate between competing knowledges are presented.