Bigfooters and Scientific Inquiry

On the Borderlands of Legitimate Science
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-77783-2
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Bigfoot exists. Not necessarily as a biological creature, but certainly as an object around which thousands of Americans organise their lives, analysing evidence and making knowledge. This book examines the Bigfooting community sociologically. Using concepts from science and technology studies (STS) as well as cultural sociology, Lewis and Bartlett shed new light on what it is to do ‘science’, what it is to behave ‘scientifically’, and where the borders of legitimate scientific practice lie.

Through detailed interviews with Bigfooters themselves, this book explores the ways in which the Bigfooting community makes sense of traces and absences to make knowledge claims that are acceptable to those within that community. It also shows how Bigfooters - in the face of scepticism - attempt to render Bigfoot a proper object of scientific inquiry outside their own circle.

This fascinating, accessible, and entertaining reading will appeal to scholars and students of science and technology studies, cultural sociology, and the sociology of mystery, as well as to those interested in public trust and understanding of science.

Zielgruppe

General, Postgraduate, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bartlett, Andrew

Lewis, Jamie

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Populärkultur
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Freizeitsoziologie, Konsumsoziologie, Alltagssoziologie, Populärkultur
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Gesellschaftstheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prologue: Credible Sightings: The Garden Rat and the Woodland Ape; Introduction: A Science and Technologies Studies Perspective on Bigfooting; 1. Becoming Sensitised to Bigfoot; 2. Following in the Footsteps; 3. The Camera Never Lies; 4. Encounters as Evidence; 5. Impressions of Bigfoot; 6. Standards and Significance: The Sounds of Bigfoot; 7. Bringing Back the Body (Parts); 8. Big Feet and Tall Tales; Conclusion: The State and Status of the Field; Epilogue: A Note on Truth and Post-Truth.

Über Autor(innen)

Jamie Lewis is a Reader in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. His research interests include the sociology of science and the sociology of mystery as well as qualitative research methods. He is the co-author of Completing Your Research Project: a guide for the social sciences published in 2025.

Andrew Bartlett is based at the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations at Sheffield University. He is interested in transformations in the social organisation of science, including questions of interdisciplinarity, boundary work, and the role in knowledge making of communities outside traditional scientific institutions.