Brian Wynne is Professor Emeritus of Science Studies and a former Research Director of the
Centre for the Study of Environmental Change (CSEC) at the
Lancaster University
Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...
. His education includes an MA (Natural Sciences, Cambridge 1968), PhD (Materials Science,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
1971), MPhil (Sociology of Science,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
1977). His work has covered technology and risk assessment, public risk perceptions, and public understanding of science, focusing on the relations between expert and lay knowledge and policy decision-making.
Prizes and public engagements
He was an inaugural member of the management board and scientific committee of the
European Environment Agency
The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides independent information on the environment.
Definition
The European Environment Agency (EEA) is the agency of the European Union (EU) which provides ...
, (EEA), (1994-2000) and a special adviser to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
Science and Technology
Select committee Inquiry into Science and Society, (March 2000). He was a member of the London Royal Society's Committee on Science in Society.
He chaired a
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
DG Research expert group on the European Knowledge Society which published in 2007 "Taking European Knowledge Society Seriously: Report of the Expert Group on Science and Governance to the Science, Economy and Society Directorate, Directorate-General for Research, European Commission".
Wynne was awarded the
John Desmond Bernal Prize
The John Desmond Bernal Prize is an award given annually by the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) to scholars judged to have made a distinguished contribution to the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS).About th ...
by the
Society for Social Studies of Science
The Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) is a non-profit scholarly association devoted to the social studies of science and technology (STS). It was founded in 1975 and it has grown considerably over the years. In 2024, over 3,000 people ...
in 201
Expert and lay knowledge
In Wynne's contribution ''May the Sheep Safely Graze?'' to the book ''Risk, Environment and Modernity'' (1995), he elaborates on the responses of sheep farmers in
Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...
, who had been subjected to administrative restrictions because of radioactive contamination, allegedly caused by the nuclear accident at
Chernobyl
Chernobyl, officially called Chornobyl, is a partially abandoned city in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to the north of Kyiv and to the southwest of Gomel in neighbouring Belarus. ...
in 1986. The sheep farmers suffered economical losses, and it turned out that the source of radioactivity was actually the
Sellafield
Sellafield, formerly known as Windscale, is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste storage, nuclear waste processing and storage and nucle ...
nuclear reprocessing complex; thus, the experts who were responsible for the duration of the restrictions were mistaken.
This particular case illustrates how the exercise of scientific interpretation controlled the farmers and furthermore how scientific knowledge neglects specialist lay knowledges, as it defines lay resistances as based on ignorance or irrationality. It also indicates the social basis of scientific knowledge and its public credibility. This is a development in the field of the
Risk Society
Risk society is the manner in which modern society organizes in response to risk. The term is closely associated with several key writers on modernity, in particular Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens. The term was coined in the 1980s and its popul ...
, as developed by
Ulrich Beck
Ulrich Beck (; 15 May 1944 – 1 January 2015) was a German sociologist, and one of the most cited social scientists in the world during his lifetime. His work focused on questions of uncontrollability, Sociology of scientific ignorance, ignora ...
and
Anthony Giddens
Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens (born 18 January 1938) is an English sociologist who is known for his theory of structuration and his holistic view of modern societies. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern sociologists and is ...
.
[Wynne, B. (1991). Knowledges in Context. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 16(1), 111–121.]
More Reading
* Wynne, B. (1993). Public uptake of science: a case for institutional reflexivity. Public Understanding of Science, 2(4), 321–337.
* Wynne, B. (2014). Further disorientation in the hall of mirrors. Public Understanding of Science, 23(1), 60–70.
See also
*
Risk assessment
Risk assessment is a process for identifying hazards, potential (future) events which may negatively impact on individuals, assets, and/or the environment because of those hazards, their likelihood and consequences, and actions which can mitigate ...
*
Steven Yearley
Steve Yearley (born 6 September 1956) is a British sociologist. He is Professor of the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge at the University of Edinburgh, a post he has held since 2005. He has been designated a Fellow of the Royal Society of Ed ...
*
Sociology of Scientific Knowledge
The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is the study of science as a social activity, especially dealing with "the social conditions and effects of science, and with the social structures and processes of scientific activity." The sociology ...
External links
Brian Wynne's webpage at the University of Lancaster
Science & Democracy Network
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wynne, Brian
1947 births
Living people
British non-fiction writers
Academics of Lancaster University
Sociologists of science
British male writers
British male non-fiction writers