Sheila Jasanoff: "Democracy in an Unknowable World"

Holberg Prize Talks

The Holberg Lecture by Sheila Jasanoff was held on 8 June 2022 in Bergen, as part of the 2022 Holberg Week Programme. Science and technology are so commonly seen as drivers of progress that their role in forming the horizons of individual and collective self-understanding often passes unnoticed in political theory and practice. STS corrects this imbalance by revealing what we know and how we apply our knowledge to be thoroughly political projects. By unsettling the parameters of social order, science and technology also trouble—and perhaps expand—how we exercise political agency and enact life’s purposes. Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School. A pioneer in her field, she has authored more than 130 articles and chapters and is author or editor of more than 15 books, including "The Fifth Branch" (1990), "Science at the Bar" (1995), "Designs on Nature" (2005), "The Ethics of Invention" (2016), and "Can Science Make Sense of Life?" (2019). Her work explores the role of science and technology in the law, politics, and policy of modern democracies.