Feminism The doctrine that wo

men should have the same economic, social, and political rights as men.

A movement for granting women political, social, and economic equality with men. 

Feminist Vision The critical theoretical concept of 'gender', 

introduced as a way of distinguishing the social constitution of masculine and feminine from the biological categories of male and female.

feminists began to recognize this concept as an analytic tool for studying the impact of gender ideology on the structure of social and intellectual worlds extending far beyond the minds and bodies of individual men and women. Using gender as a lens, or as an analytic tool for examining the implications of coding some spheres as masculine and others feminine,

(Feminism and Science ,1996)

continue the use of exclusively male subjects in

both experimental and clinical biomedical research, the selection of male dominant animal populations as model species in ethology, and the focus on male dominance and activity and concomitant invisibility of females in research protocols. ( Bleier 1984; Fausto-Sterling 1985)

Eco feminist Men dominate women,and human

dominate nature.Eco feminist views the oppression of women and nature as interconnected.

Carolyn Merchant(1980) Brian Easlea(1980) Evelyn Fox Keller(1985)

The psychoanalytic view Keller describes is ‘Object Relation Theory’.She refers to the work of psychoanalyst

D Winnicott(1971) Nancy Chodorow(1978) Dorothy Dinnerstein(1976)

Continue Object Relations Theory, Predicts that when females are the primary caregivers,the

girls and boys in their care will differ in their patterns of gender,cognitive,and emotional development.

Male children learns ‘Masculine Gender Identity’by relating to their female mother in behavioral opposition to her and all that is feminine.

A female child’s pattern of coming to know the world involves,empathetic understanding,modeling and identification with mother.

Keller explains that the male child/Science comes to define his/its self as “not female”as different from mother/nature.

Calls for Dynamic Autonomy, for a Dynamic Objectivity. Self Identity is to recognize interdependence and relatedness. (Keller,1982).

Lynda Birke She talks about Dualisms of Nature-Culture,

Feminine-Masculine, and Animal-Human. Explored interconnections between a certain

masculine training in scientific method and the suppression of sensibility to Laboratory animal subjects.and Feminist opposition to Biological determinisms.

Donna .J.Haraway Adressed the ,Woman-Human-Animal-

Science nexus,with a particular focus on the discourses of primatology.

Conclusion

Feminists vision, gives an alternative approach, respectful of its objects, democratically accountable to its wider citizenry, and open to full participation on the part of previously excluded or marginalized human groups.

The Reflexive TurnConstructing Nature and Society

The followers of ,Strong Programmes’ were criticised for being making Rational Choices, and for inconsistencies about the claim of being REAL by natural scientists..

Consistency could be restored only by’reflexively’extending scepticism to the sociologists own explanatory concepts and methods.

Both natural and social worlds to be treated as ‘Constructs’.

Characterization of contemporary institutions and social processes

Ulrich Beck,referred to Reflexivity the way modren institutions,most especially Science and technology were through their own development putting themselves in jeopardy.

Security and Ecological Risks from Large Scale technologies, such as nuclear power,the chemical industry, and genetic manipulation.

Actor Net work theory (Bruno Latour) An Anti Realist French Philosopher,attempts to overcome

rigid dichotomies between nature and Human agency,Subject and Object of knowledge,

Latour pioneered anthropological study of Scientists and engineers at work.

The aim was to capture in detail daily practices of Science and technology in the making,opposed to abstract representations of the philosophers and the retrospective certainties of the historians.

Implication The instruments,buildings,reagents,microbes, particles and so on are involved in laboratory

practice. The spread of railways,telegraphy,information

technology,robotics,are at the core of transformation of modes of life.

Separation of society from nature is unsustainable.

Technoscience Latour attempts to overcome dualistic

separation of nature and culture focuses on the way modren science and technology.e,g,Frozen embryo,digital machines,hybridcorns,databanks,psychotrpoic drugs,the hole in the ozone.

This multipicity of produced objects is at the center of our social life,components yet cannot be allocated to either side between ,Nature and Society,they are Hybrids,Quasi objects,quasi subjects.

Evaluating Latour’s proposal He does not give clear understanding of concept

of Constructs,defining his most basic idea. The desire to find terms by linking human to

non humans into a Uniform network looks metaphorical.

Concept of extending networks beyond Laboratory,has practical applicability problem.

He has not exactly departed from Sociologists of science he has criticized.eg,again given concept of Hybrid,quasi object,and subject.

cont

Latour presents, technoScience ,as seems to be a war of Machines and Scientists as powerplay.Denounciation of reason itself employs reason.

Conclusion

nature and society has a Bidirectional cause and effect relationship Criticism on strong programmes, gave a new turn to Reflexivity.Taking in to account, technoscience, dualism of nature and science,which Latour tried to over come.History is No longer history of people,it becomes history of natural things as well(Latour,1993).