Who speaks for science in a technologically dominated society? In his latest work of cultural criticism Andrew Ross contends that this question yields no simple or easy answer. In our present technoculture a wide variety of people, both inside and outside the scientific community, have become increasingly vocal in exercising their right to speak about, on behalf of, and often against, science and technology.

Arguing that science can only ever be under-stood as a social artifact, Strange Weather is a manifesto which calls on cultural critics to aban-don their technophobia and contribute to the debates which shape our future. Each chapter focuses on an idea, a practice or community that has established an influential presence in our culture: New Age, computer hacking, cyberpunk, futurology, and global warming.

In a book brimming over with intelligence -both human and electronic, Ross examines the state of scientific countercultures in an age when the development of advanced information technologies coexists uneasily with ecological warnings about the perils of unchecked growth. Intended as a contribution to a 'green' cultural criticism, Strange Weather is a provocative investigation of the ways in which science is shaping the popular imagination of today, and delimiting the possibilities of tomorrow.

Andrew Ross teaches English and Cultural Studies at Princeton University. His previous books include No Respect and The Failure of Modernism; he has co-edited Technoculture and edited Universal Abandon; his No Sweat: Fashion, Free Trade and the Rights of Garment Workers is also available from Verso, and his The Celebration Chronicles will be published by Verso in June 2000.

A marvellous, sceptical history of the culture of prediction. Between the technocrat's theme-park dreams and the catastrophist's ominous signs, he sees futures that we can live in. -- Meaghan Morris

Sharply critical yet generously appreciative, Strange Weather will stand as the definitive study of the technoculture which increasingly dominates our lives. -- Joel Kovel

Publication
1991

Haymarket Series

275 pages

Paper
0 86091 567 0
US$20