Abstract

Since the late 20th century, Germany’s federal science policy has shifted towards an emphasis on commercialization and/or applicability of academic research. University researchers working within such strategic funding schemes then have to balance commitments to their government commission, their research, and their academic careers, which can often be at odds with each other. Drawing on an ethnographic study of the development of a ‘smart’ video surveillance system, I analyze some of the strategies which have helped a government-funded, transdisciplinary group of researchers to navigate conflicting expectations from their government, academia, and the wider public in their everyday work. To varying degrees, they managed to align conflicting expectations from the government and their departments by tailoring research problems which were able to travel across different social worlds. By drawing attention to work practices ‘on the ground’, this article contributes ethnographic detail to the question of how researchers construct scientific problems under pressures to make their work relevant for societal and commercial purposes.

Highlights

  • Since 2007, the German Ministry for Education and Research has funded projects which are supposed to develop security technologies and procedures with a funding scheme called the “Security Research Program.” The program has heavily emphasized the development of new surveillance technologies, such as those used to monitor urban spaces

  • Directed funding schemes like the Security Research Program can be situated in an ongoing debate on ‘neoliberal technoscience’ and the increasing commercialization and applicability of scientific research

  • It remains a subject of ongoing debate how and to what extent knowledge production is changing under conditions of ‘neoliberal technoscience.’

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Summary

Introduction

Since 2007, the German Ministry for Education and Research has funded projects which are supposed to develop security technologies and procedures with a funding scheme called the “Security Research Program.” The program has heavily emphasized the development of new surveillance technologies, such as those used to monitor urban spaces. The rollback of long-term funding makes scientists more dependent on short-term directed funding schemes sponsored by industry or governments, and more amenable to the latter’s demands to make their research relevant for societal or commercial purposes. It remains a subject of ongoing debate how and to what extent knowledge production is changing under conditions of ‘neoliberal technoscience.’. Drawing on an ethnographic study involving a transdisciplinary research group commissioned by the Security Research Program to develop an automated closed-circuit television system (CCTV), I show how scientists navigated conflicting expectations in their work by tailoring research problems that were able to travel across different social worlds.

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