The research
program of Social Epistemology is embedded into the tradition of the
Sociology of Knowledge of Karl Mannheim and tries to indicate the role
of social embeddedness of knowledge producers. Hence, it questions the
motives and intentions of producing knowledge and considers the fact
that “no knowledge producer can fully predict and/or control how his
research will be used by others in their research” (Fuller, 2002, S. 15)
and “that any knowledge producer is relatively free to tailor other
knowledge claims to his specific research situation” (ebd., p. 15). The
lecture, held by Steve Fuller, one of the main protagonists in this
field since the 1980s, aims at an identification of the societal
relevance of these implications, which address students, scientists,
entrepreneurs as well as citizens who are all in charge of coping with
pieces of knowledge in their everyday life, which they have to evaluate
in certain contexts.