ABSTRACT
The overview of the book briefly summarizes the argument that how an effort is made to show that a new field of political activity is emerging that responds to public concerns and objections to the use of new scientific and technical knowledge in modern societies. The book presents a discussion of when it is that knowledge acquires an active function in social action and how knowledge may assimilate to power. It discusses the difference between knowledge and information, recognizing the regularity with which the two concepts are conflated in everyday and scientific discourse. The book refers to the famous metaphor that knowledge is power, and that cutting-edge knowledge is only of immediate use to elites. In our day and age, in as much as social, economic, political, scientific, and cultural processes operate not merely within national boundaries but are subject to the now much-discussed globalization process, knowledge politics cannot be treated in isolation from globalization.
