Many films, works of art and novels express popular concerns about these developments. In a society where icons of progress are drawn from science, technology and medicine, they are either celebrated or demonized. Often their progress is feared as 'unnatural', while their critics are labelled 'irrational'. Public concerns are rebuffed by ostensibly value-neutral experts and positivist polemics. Yet the culture of science is open to study like any other culture.
Cultural studies analyses the role of expertise throughout society.
Many journals address the history, philosophy and social studies of science, its popularisation, and the public understanding of science. However, amidst these journals, Science as Culture is 'the only source of critique of the way science is going', as one reader put it. Science as Culture analyses the underlying frameworks, assumptions and terms of reference of expertise. It emphasises the fundamental role of values, interests, ideology and purposes which would otherwise remain hidden in the guise of neutrality and objectivity. Science as Culture is an interdisciplinary journal placing science within the wider debate on the values which constitute culture.