Book
The Science of Repair: How People who Believe in Facts Can Build a Better Future
19 Feb 2026
Abstract
The Science of Repair clarifies the role that research plays in combatting injustice. Examining the thirty-year history of communities’ efforts to measure oil refinery emissions in the air they breathe, the book comes to a surprising conclusion: It’s the process of investigation, not the proof of harm, that helps get injustice recognized and remedied. Case studies show how research collaborations involving people from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives can foster good moral relations—the bedrock of justice—by strengthening shared standards for right and wrong, expanding ideas of who deserves protection from harm, increasing ordinary people’s ability to hold powerful actors accountable, and bolstering hope that wrongs will be redressed. Based on these insights, The Science of Repair urges researchers to focus less on arriving at facts and more on engaging in “reparative science”—processes of investigation that model and foster good moral relations. Reparative science, the book argues, respects the reasoning of people without formal scientific credentials, actively seeks to strengthen standards for knowing well, and is inquisitive about a wide range of experiences of injustice. While individual researchers can pursue reparative science, The Science of Repair also highlights the role that universities, foundations, and other research institutions can play in creating the conditions for reparative science by committing to values of anti-ignorance, scrutability, and pluralism.
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Details
- Title
- The Science of Repair
- Creators
- Gwen Ottinger - Drexel University
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press; New York
- Resource Type
- Book
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Politics; Center for Public Policy; Center for Science, Technology, and Society
- Other Identifier
- 9780197769867; 0197769861; 0197769896; 9780197769898; 991022162862404721