Steve Yearley (born 6 September 1956) is a British sociologist. He is Professor of the

Sociology of Scientific Knowledge The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is the study of science as a social activity, especially dealing with "the social conditions and effects of science, and with the social structures and processes of scientific activity." The sociolo ...

at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, a post he has held since 2005. He has been designated a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. He is currently Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities.

Career

Yearley was educated at

Sir George Monoux Grammar School ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only a ...

, Walthamstow, and studied natural sciences and then social and political sciences at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican m ...

. He completed a PhD in sociology, supervised by

Michael Mulkay Michael Joseph Mulkay (born 1936) is a retired British sociologist of science. Biography Mulkay worked as a reader and researcher at Aberdeen University until 1966, he was then lecturer in sociology at Simon Fraser University 1966 to 1969, at ...

, at the

University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...

from 1978 to 1981. H began to concentrate on environmental issues in 1983 while at

Queen's University Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

and was closely associated with

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split wi ...

, the Ulster Wildlife Trust and Northern Ireland Environment Link. He became the first Professor of Sociology at the

University of Ulster sco, Ulstèr Universitie , image = Ulster University coat of arms.png , caption = , motto_lang = , mottoeng = , latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae , established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...

in 1992. In 2006, Yearley became director of the Genomics Forum, a research institute funded by the ESRC. At the Forum, he focused primarily on environmental aspects, such as issues regarding

synthetic biology Synthetic biology (SynBio) is a multidisciplinary area of research that seeks to create new biological parts, devices, and systems, or to redesign systems that are already found in nature. It is a branch of science that encompasses a broad ran ...

, and on new ventures in public engagement with the science and technologies of genomics. In 2010, Yearley was elected Fellow of the

. Yearley is on the editorial boards of the journals ''

Social Studies of Science ''Social Studies of Science'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers relating to the history and philosophy of science. The journal's editor-in-chief is Sergio Sismondo (Queen's University). The journal was established ...

'' and ''

Nature and Culture ''Nature and Culture'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Berghahn Books that covers the historical and contemporary relationships that societies have with nature. The editors-in-chief are Sing C. Chew and Matthias Gross. The p ...

'', and he co-edited ''The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology''.

Books

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yearley, Steven 1956 births Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of York British sociologists Environmental sociologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Living people People from Walthamstow Sociologists of science