The Cunning of Uncertainty

"Helga Nowotny in her quite brilliant new book argues that uncertainty is inextricably enmeshed with human existence. It is cunning because uncertainty is constantly changing and acting in different ways. Uncertainty can reveal itself in the next action or decision, or it may arise slowly over time. Previous certainties unravel into mysteries, previous safe assumptions become risky options."
Sydney Morning Herald
 
"With rapid advances in technology intersecting with human behavior in unpredictable ways, how we approach issues surrounding uncertainty will inevitably impact every aspect of life. In this thought-provoking book, Professor Helga Nowotny brings unique perspectives on uncertainty from her extensive background as a scholar, policy maker and research administrator.'
Subra Suresh, President, Carnegie Mellon University
 
"This brilliant new book confirms Helga Nowotny as the voice of social science in an initially unsympathetic milieu, and its intellectual champion in her insistence that without understandings of, and through, society, understandings of, and through, science cannot flourish.'
Marilyn Strathern, Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge