Editing Science studies (section)

=== Sheepfarming after Chernobyl ===
[[File:Pair of Herdwicks grazing.jpg|thumb|[[Herdwick]]s grazing in Cumbria]]

A showcase of the rather complex problems of scientific information and its interaction with lay persons is [[Brian Wynne]]'s study of Sheepfarming in Cumbria after the [[Chernobyl disaster]].<ref name=vulc/><ref name=mah>Wynne B (1989) Sheepfarming after Chernobyl: a case study in communicating scientific information. ''Environment'' 31(2):33–39.</ref> He elaborated on the responses of sheep farmers in [[Cumbria]], who had been subjected to administrative restrictions because of [[radioactive contamination]], allegedly caused by the nuclear accident at [[Chernobyl]] in 1986.<ref name=mah/>  The sheep farmers suffered economic losses, and their resistance against the imposed regulation was being deemed irrational and inadequate.<ref name=mah/>  It turned out that the source of radioactivity was actually the [[Sellafield]] nuclear reprocessing complex; thus, the experts who were responsible for the duration of the restrictions were completely mistaken.<ref name=mah/> The example led to attempts to better involve local knowledge and lay-persons' experience and to assess its often highly geographically and historically defined background.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lash |first1=Scott |last2=Szerszynski |first2=Bronislaw |last3=Wynne |first3=Brian |date=1996 |title=Risk, environment and modernity: towards a new ecology |series=Theory, culture & society |location=London |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |isbn=978-0803979376 |doi=10.4135/9781446221983}}</ref>