Which science for which Europe? Between the lines of policy discourses in European science policies

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the European Union science policies, studying the «conceptual frames» employed to legitimise and develop them, and identifying tensions and critical points in the communitarian discourses on scientific research. The reference background is the science-democracy interplay, addressing the dynamics of scientific knowledge – its status, role, orientation, management and interaction with the other forms of knowledge – in the democratic public arena. Starting from the three priorities of the current Framework Programme, Horizon 2020 – «Industrial Leadership», «Societal Challenges» and «Excellent Science» –, this work analyses in detail the relevant EU production of documents, identifying the origins and features of the three corresponding fundamental frames, distinguished by the orientation of scientific research: the overarching ‘innovation paradigm’, where research is aimed at economic growth, the ‘science for society’ frame, geared towards the resolution of common problems, and the ‘pure science’ model, targeted exclusively to the production of new knowledge. Each frame appears in EU discourses in conjunction with sub-narratives, with explanatory and legitimising function. The thesis argues that the European vision of research policy incorporates multiple friction points, linked to the different coexisting orientations but also to competing framings of policy instruments and actors, like the tendency to reduce knowledge policies to innovation support, or the critical conceptualization of the features and role of citizenry; the recurrence of reductionist visions is also highlighted and examined. Every narrative, moreover, is closely connected to its production context: this work studied on one hand the historical development of European research policies, underlining their close interconnection with the integration process, and emphasizing the evolution of research funding understandings; on the other hand, the policy-making process for the research field is traced, both analysing the more formal, and public, approval and law promulgation phase, and investigating the previous, crucial but undisclosed, policy-design stage.