This thoughtful and engaging text challenges the widely held notion of science as somehow outside of society, and the idea that technology proceeds automatically down a singular and inevitable path. Through specific case studies involving contemporary debates, this book shows that science and technology are fundamentally part of society and are shaped by it.

• Draws on concepts from political sociology, organizational analysis, and contemporary social theory.
• Avoids dense theoretical debate.
• Includes case studies and concluding chapter summaries for students and scholars.

Daniel Lee Kleinman is Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. He is the author most recently of Impure Cultures: University Biology and the World of Commerce (2003).