Current events of social polarisation for science-related existential issues reveal more profound efforts to contest the cultural and political influence of scientific expertise. Our inquiry shares the commitment to the social character of science: the cultural wars over various themes politicising science’s cultural authority manifest a mutual dependence on the legitimacy of science, the administrative-regulatory mode of governmentality, and the rational-legal authority of the state. Our explorative research program aims primarily to encourage graduate and postgraduate students' involvement in diverse ways of sociological investigation and interpretation. It invites students to participate in overlapping projects that pursue documenting and understanding empirical evidence by utilising multiple layers of highly specialised academic research and broader public culture. The project questions the current sociology's public image as split between methodological rigour and activistic innovation.

Publikace