Steven Yearley

Steve Yearley FRSE (born 6 September 1956)[1] 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. Between 2006 and 2013, he was seconded from the sociology unit to be Director of the Economic and Social Research Council Genomics Policy and Research Forum, more often known as the Genomics Forum. He has been designated a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is currently Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities.

Steven Yearley

FRSE
Born (1956-09-06) 6 September 1956
Walthamstow, London, England
Academic background
Alma mater
Doctoral advisorMichael Mulkay
Academic work
DisciplineSociology
Sub-disciplineSociology of scientific knowledge
Institutions

Career

Yearley was educated at Sir George Monoux Grammar School, Walthamstow, and studied natural sciences and then social and political sciences at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He completed a PhD in sociology, supervised by Michael Mulkay, at the University of York from 1978 to 1981. In 1983, he got a lectureship in sociology at Queen's University Belfast. While there, he began to concentrate on environmental issues and was closely associated with Friends of the Earth, the Ulster Wildlife Trust and Northern Ireland Environment Link.

He became the first Professor of Sociology at the University of Ulster in 1992, returned briefly to Queen’s as professor in 1994, and then moved to the sociology professorship at the University of York in 1995. He worked in York from 1995 to 2005, spending his last six years there as Head of Department. During this time, he worked with the Stockholm Environment Institute. Yearley has also spent periods as Visiting Professor in Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University, at the Technical University of Denmark and at the University of Melbourne.

In 2006, Yearley became director of the Genomics Forum, a research institute funded by the ESRC which aims to communicate social science research about genomics with non-academic audiences. At the Forum, he focuses primarily on environmental aspects, such as issues regarding synthetic biology, and on new ventures in public engagement with the science and technologies of genomics. For example, the Forum has hosted events including short story and poetry competitions related to genomics.[2]

In 2010, Yearley was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[3]

Yearley is on the editorial boards of the journals Social Studies of Science and Nature and Culture,[4][5] and he co-edited The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology.

Yearley is known chiefly for three kinds of work within this field: theoretical analysis of trends within the sociology of scientific knowledge, the application of arguments from the sociology of scientific knowledge to environmental issues and to the understanding of environmental controversies and campaigning, and work that demonstrated how public participation in the evaluation of environmental modelling could lead to refinement and better uptake of the models.

Books
  • Yearley, Steven (1984). Science and sociological practice. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. ISBN 9780335105816.
  • Yearley, Steven (1988). Science, technology, and social change. London Boston: Unwin Hyman. ISBN 9780043012598.
  • Yearley, Steven; Varcoe, Ian; McNeil, Maureen (1990). Deciphering science and technology: the social relations of expertise. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan. ISBN 9780333465554.
  • Yearley, Steven; Varcoe, Ian; McNeil, Maureen (1990). The new reproductive technologies. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312035990.
  • Yearley, Steven (1992). The green case: a sociology of environmental issues, arguments and politics. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415083812.
  • Yearley, Steven; Baker, Susan; Milton, Kay (1994). Protecting the periphery: environmental policy in peripheral regions of the European Union. Ilford: Frank Cass. ISBN 9780714645841.
  • Yearley, Steven (1996). Sociology, environmentalism, globalization reinventing the globe. London Thousand Oaks California: Sage. ISBN 9780803975170.
  • Yearley, Steven (2005). Making sense of science: understanding the social study of science. London: Sage. ISBN 9781412933896.
  • Yearley, Steven (2005). Cultures of environmentalism: empirical studies in environmental sociology. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403901200.

References
  1. "Yearley, Steven". Library of Congress. Retrieved 15 February 2015. data sheet (b. 9/6/56)
  2. Cunnane, Sarah (26 August 2010). "Forum calls on lovers of verse to find muse in genomics". Times Higher Education. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  3. "RSE Fellows" (PDF). Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  4. "Social Studies of Science". Sage Publications. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  5. "Editorial Board: Nature and Culture". Berghahn Books. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
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