The contest for social science: relations and representations of gender and class

Opening in the period of revolutions between 1789 and 1850, this book explores the contention over social science from above and below. It breaks away from othodox interpretations of the development of social science to explore the subject as a contest for class and gender power. The author gives a picture of the experiences which made men and women passionate about the social science project, and explores how different groups aimed at self-liberation, or power over others. She details the contribution made by working-class people and by women to the social science story, and shows how language and metaphor were used to construct social identities. This account of the production of knowledge as a contestable process, in its historical perspective, constructs a new politics of knowledge. The book may be important to those interested in social and cultural history, the history of natural and social science, gender and women's studies, social policy, social work and social action.