Contemporary Change: Liberalization and Epistemic Modernization
The chapter discusses the problem of developing a historical sociological perspective on science, technology, and social movements during the period of the 1980s through 2015. It argues in favor of a historical dynamic based on liberalization and reflexive modernization that is similar to Polanyi’s double movement. The dynamic is formulated specifically for technological and industrial change based on the relationship between the liberalization of regulatory policy and the epistemic modernization of policy and knowledge production. Epistemic modernization involves the opening up of the research agendas of the scientific field to the concerns of undone science and the research needs of industrial transition movements and counterpublics. The theoretical framework is applied to a case history on the movement that supports greater access to and more research on cancer treatment based on complementary and alternative medicine. Both liberalization and epistemic modernization processes are documented for the movement.