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The Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies Reader. Edited by Sandra Harding. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011. Pp. xii+476. $29.95.
Colonialism stands discredited in most intellectual circles, yet scientific and technological institutions and practices seemingly resist transformation in a postcolonial, globalizing world. These challenges are addressed in Sandra Harding's new reader, which contains an original introductory essay plus twenty-five academic articles, all published previously. Most of these articles are not easily accessed from JSTOR and Project Muse, as they originated in edited volumes that are hard to find. For this reason, Harding's reader makes an especially helpful contribution to faculty and students at institutions that lack large libraries. The book will serve admirably in classes for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in which the history and future of global science and technology policy are discussed.
The introductory essay by Harding lays the groundwork for the selections in the rest of the volume. She reminds readers that the complicity of scientists in the extension of empires was recognized, fifty years ago, by...