Soap science

I had a hard time picking which presentations to look at for this blog post, but I decided that I thought the intersections between the projects on soap and "Humanity and the Sciences" (not sure I got that title right but the one about the flow of funding toward different kinds of research and education) created a good illustration of the broadest themes that have directed this class. Between these two we see a process of legitimation that develops historically and socially, which leads to an end goal of a monetary value for the result of this process and the result only. We see how facts and scientific truth are constructed, and that both their creation and acceptance are inevitably influenced by their broader contexts. We see how in turn this process is continually rewarded and that this creates a cycle that perpetuates the currently unequal distribution of value and importance on different ways of looking at and understanding the world. We go so far as to deem some almost unquestionably "truth" and others at best speculation and and worst bullshit. And we're starting to see the risks we take in creating this stratification. It seems that the key concepts here are legitimation and context, and the two are inextricably linked. What we understand and accept as representing or upholding reality and truth, and consequently worth the investment of our time and money, is constantly molded by our ever-changing settings.