Professor Barry Barnes

Extension: 5125

Telephone: 01392 269125

Professor of Sociology/Co-Director, Egenis

Barry Barnes obtained degrees in Natural Sciences and in Sociology before taking a post in the Science Studies Unit, in the Faculty of Science at Edinburgh University. In due course he became Director of the Unit and a Professor of Sociology in the University.

In 1992 he moved to the established chair in the Dept of Sociology at Exeter University, and is now a co-director of Egenis.

Barry Barnes is known for his pioneering work on the sociological study of knowledge generation and evaluation in science, and on the basis of the credibility of scientific expertise. He has also a longstanding interest in the fundamental problems of the social sciences, particularly in collective action problems, in status groups as generators of [exclusionary] collective action, and in self-referring knowledge as constitutive of social order and systems of power. Since the mid-1990s he has been increasingly focusing his work upon the new human biotechnologies and their social and cultural significance.

He is the author of seven books, five edited or jointly authored books, and over fifty major papers. His works have appeared in translation in most European languages, and in Chinese and Japanese. In 1998 he accepted the J.B Bernal Prize of the Society for Social Studies of Science for his career achievement in that field.