Abstract

Genetic engineering, acid rain, nuclear accidents, ozone depletion, computerization — in the years around 1980, science moved center-stage as a socio-political quandary. First and foremost, it were the new social movements that cultivated critiques of science and technology; but soon enough, the desire for an alternative science, or a “counter-knowledge”, diffused into the broader realms of politics, economics and, not least, establishment science. What was this “counter"-science? Where did it succeed? Where did it fail? And why is this relevant again today?