Production Of Scientific Knowledge Research Articles

PAOLO SYLOS-LABINI’S CONTRIBUTION TO AND AFFINITIES FOR INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMIC THOUGHT

The text proposes a study of Sylos-Labini’s interdisciplinary orientation and how this relates to the institutional approach. Sylos-Labini’s multi-disciplinary approach seems to stand between Old Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics. He states that an interdisciplinary approach, in which economic theory is juxtaposed with history, sociology, anthropology, and empirical research, is realistic and does not entail any limitation on the production of scientific knowledge. Thus, Sylos-Labini seems to be more interested in the old institutionalist school and sociology than new institutional economics and the theory of firms and contracts. Therefore, this paper investigates whether Sylos-Labini’s multidisciplinary approach to economics can represent a possible bridge between Old Institutional Economics and New Institutional Economics.

Influence of spirituality on quality of life in community-dwelling elderly: integrative literature review

Aging brings with it some limitations that become more pronounced with advancing age, and psychological, physical, behavioral, and social changes can reduce the quality of life of the elderly, who seek spirituality. Spirituality is a tool for coping with difficulties and attributing meaning to life, providing hope, faith, and motivation. This study analyzed the health aspects associated with spirituality in community-dwelling elderly people. This is an integrative review that synthesized the scientific production with the guiding question: What scientific knowledge production on health-related aspects are associated with better levels of spirituality in community-dwelling elderly people in Brazil? Articles with the descriptors in Portuguese and English were selected: spirituality, aged , and quality of life with the following inclusion criteria: published in full, available electronically, in Portuguese, English, and/or Spanish, published between 2015 and 2020, in the SciELO, LILACS, PubMed, and Capes Periodical Portal databases. A total of 130 articles were identified, and 15 were selected that presented evidence on the influence of spirituality on the quality of life of the elderly. After reading the articles, two categories of analysis emerged: I – The experience of spirituality in situations of chronic diseases, and II – The relationship of spirituality with the well-being/quality of life of the elderly. Most of the studies showed positive effects of spirituality on health outcomes, with better physical health conditions, quality of life, longer survival, lower rates of depression and lower prevalence of chronic diseases. In addition, it demonstrated the ability to withstand limitations and protect against stress in the face of changes in aging. Finally, the results indicate a positive influence of spirituality on the quality of life of the elderly. The importance of spirituality for health practices and the need to value it and include it in professional health training are highlighted.

Geography of Knowledge Production in European Urban Studies

The production of scientific knowledge in urban studies is not evenly distributed. Studies produced in some academic centres are cited more frequently than others and have a larger impact on the academic community. This article traces the spatial concentration of urban studies in European countries over the last decade. On a theoretical level, it refers to the theory of dependent development, distinguishing areas of global core, periphery and semi-periphery, and applying this theory to the production of academic knowledge.Based on the bibliometric data of articles from selected renowned international journals, the article constructs a synthetic index of the centrality of academic knowledge production in urban studies, developed in the academic centres of individual countries. In particular, it draws attention to the peripheral or semi-peripheral position of almost all Central and Eastern European countries.

A indexação da informação jurídica: mapeamento sistemático na área de Ciência da Informação

This paper addresses the information processing, more precisely, the theme of the indexing of legal information. Its objective is to analyze the scientific production on the theme in the area of Information Science, aiming at the elaboration of a systematic mapping of literature and identification of an overview of these publications. This is a theoretical, exploratory and descriptive research, with a qualitative and quantitative approach. The bibliographic databases searched were BRAPCI, LISTA, Redalyc, SciELO, Scopus and CAPES Periodicals Portal. The works analyzed point to the librarian’s need for specialized knowledge about the indexing of legal information. All articles dealt with the scarcity of works and discussions about the theme, and the need for further research in order to minimize noise at the time of searching. The conclusion is that the production of scientific knowledge disseminated by scientific journals on the theme, in the period from 2002 to 2022, includes ten articles by Brazilian authors associated mainly with universities. The articles bring important contributions to the research and practice of indexing legal information, but the problem of scarcity of works persists.

Status positions and scientific Capital in Russian Science

The paper addresses scientific capital distribution and describes status positions of scientists in the field of modern Russian science. Inequalities in science are associated with a variety of factors including gender, wealth, symbolic and moral authority etc. However, technological development has emphasized the significance of new inequality forms based on digital and networking skills. An important question is how these new inequality factors change the field of science. The theoretical and methodological framework of the paper is based on the ideas of R. Merton on the differentiated allocation of rewards, as well as the provisions of P. Bourdieu on dominance in the field of science and on the types of scientific capital. The authors present the result of an online survey of Russian scientists (N=551), the aim of which was to identify the gaps and contradictions within the field of Russian science. To differentiate between the status positions of scientists the authors constructed an integral index of scientific status, according to which all the scientists were divided into three categories with low, medium and high status positions. Empirical data show that there is a contradiction between the scientific dominance based on formal status, and the one based on the production of advanced scientific knowledge. Formal characteristics of the scientific status do not fully reflect subjective perception of the return on the accumulated scientific capital. It is suggested that the elimination of contradictions by means of science policies may contribute to the development of Russian science.

The Moral Economies of Reflexive Migration Studies

Abstract Reflexive Migration Studies has emerged as a subfield of Migration Studies. Drawing on moral economy perspectives, we explore how the entanglement of, and tensions between, moral and economic rationalities shape the development of a field of knowledge production in which we ourselves partake. Clearly, Reflexive Migration Studies has not emerged in a vacuum but through socio-material practices and in a specific scientific context and community. Using the case of the Migration Studies landscape in Germany, we suggest that a moral economies perspective allows us to examine the production of knowledge infrastructures, scholarly identities, and research outputs that are key in creating a new academic field. By scrutinizing these infrastructures, identities, and outputs, we point to tensions between some of the morally charged claims and the material conditions and labour contexts of doing Reflexive Migration Studies. With our contribution, we want to raise questions regarding the direction that we, as scholars participating in the field, are taking. We see the risk that the critique brought forward in Reflexive Migration Studies falters in light of prevailing economies of scientific knowledge production and academic labour.

‘Axis of Evil’ and the Academic Repression of Palestine Solidarity

In general, Palestine solidarity activism—irrespective of how and where it happens—faces censorship and repression, whereby solidarity with Palestine as a (national) cause is stigmatized and considered toxic to any mainstream discussion of the politics of Palestine/Israel. Academia tends to follow this norm of stigmatization and toxification of Palestine solidarity and any recognition of the legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle for liberation is viewed as a violation of the norms of scientific (i.e. objective) knowledge production. More recently, the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism has played a critical role in censuring and censoring individual scholars and scholarship deemed too supportive of the Palestinian struggle. In this article, however, I view this manner of repression as embedded in a political project that extends far beyond the working definition. Specifically, I argue that the academic repression of Palestine solidarity draws on the lasting discursive legacies of the Global War on Terror that sought to bifurcate the world into ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ Drawing on my personal experiences of repression where my work has been charged as being antisemitic, sympathetic to terrorism/terrorists and defending fundamentalism, I argue that lumping Palestinian solidarity with all things evil, abnormal, disruptive, negative, and inappropriate represents a continuation of the Global War on Terror as the Palestinian cause is toxified as nothing more than an extension of the ‘Axis of Evil.’

Long-term holistic ethnography for new digital worlds

The article contributes to ongoing conversations on digital ethnography as a methodological approach that in the last two decades has gained popularity across a large variety of disciplines and fields. It argues that the principles that lie at the heart of long-term holistic ethnographic fieldwork are of crucial importance for studying new digital worlds, especially communicative practices in private and semi-private digital spaces. It also claims that methodological innovations in the ethnographic study of new digital media are not necessarily beneficial to scientific knowledge production. Finally, the article invites anthropologists to contaminate the interdisciplinary field of digital ethnography with their commitment to long-term holistic fieldwork.

East Asian Social Science: State of the Art or Next Big Thing?

The paper offers a cursory overview of the state of social scientific knowledge production in East Asia. Conceptually, East Asia is strongly anchored in Eurocentric premises. These have been questioned not only by postcolonial critics but also by the globalization of social reality that has made them theoretically untenable. Steeped in epistemological conservatism and an empiricism inherited from the Anglophone world, East Asia does not yet seem ready to let go of the delusionary certainty these premises provide and of the short-term gratifications the construction of more of the same awards. Given its position in the world, the region should be poised to become a genuine social scientific innovator. But this presupposes coming to terms with an intellectual legacy that has run its course.

Practical Realism and the Philosophy of Science and Technology

In this article, I analyse the role of the concepts of ‘practice,’ ‘relations,’ and ‘process’ in Rein Vihalemm’s philosophy of science and the way he defined and articulated these concepts to study the production of scientific knowledge. Then, following Vihalemm’s line of reasoning, I will show how this approach is promising for thinking in a new way about some developments in contemporary sciences and technology.

Gentlemen, husbandmen, and industrious wives: The role of gender in imagining Indian agriculture

The Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India (AHSI), founded in 1820, remains the most important producer of English-language knowledge regarding the cultivation of plants in colonial India. Members included missionaries, colonial officials, tea and indigo planters, merchants and bankers, as well as the Bengali bhadralok elites of Calcutta and some Indian princes. The writings it produced were highly gendered. Often they focus on how “improving” the political economy and agricultural productivity would create masculine identities, such as gentlemen landowners and industrious peasant husbandman. Yet I also argue that women’s agricultural work was fundamental in imagining this path towards “improvement.” Using descriptions of Indian farming and labor practices from the Society’s meeting minutes and published transactions, as well as additional writings by its members and missionary founders, I show how many European members of the Society viewed women working outside of domestic pursuits as a sign of Indian inferiority. At the same time, many argued for the benefits of women’s work, which they viewed as fundamental in making Indian households more productive. Women and their labor were a lynchpin in creating the idea of the effeminate Indian man as well as the solution for improving him. It was this intersection of race with gender which helped to define agriculture as a discipline much closer to practical knowledge than abstract science. While some European women were able to participate in the Society’s production of scientific knowledge because of agriculture’s practical nature, Indian knowledge (whether from men or women) tended to be openly dismissed as tradition or habit rather than truly practical. The overlap of gender with race consequently helped to create a hierarchy between practical knowledge and tradition.

The University As Infrastructure of Becoming: Re-Activating Academic Freedom Through Humility in Times of Radical Uncertainty

ABSTRACT Traditionally, the field of science and technology studies (STS) considered the scientific laboratory as the central site of knowledge production and technological development. While providing rich analyses of the social construction of scientific knowledge and the role of non-human actors, STS scholars have often neglected the university – the very context in which laboratories themselves are embedded – as a relevant object of research. In this paper, we argue for re-introducing the university as a relevant category and object of analysis by using the notion of epistemic virtues to link epistemic culture – traditionally the focus of STS – and epistemic structure – traditionally the focus of higher education studies. Advancing this line of argumentation, we make three analytical moves. First, we explore academic freedom as a specific version of negative liberty that extends beyond disciplinary boundaries. We suggest that academics continuously negotiate academic freedom considering culturally and socially situated epistemic virtues such as objectivity and neutrality. Second, we introduce the notion of humility to revisit scientific knowledge production more generally and academic freedom in particular. Finally, we argue that practicing humility leads to enacting the university as an infrastructure of becoming otherwise, thereby enriching our understanding of universities as distinct and highly complex social spaces with a logic of their own.

INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS OF THE TECHNOLOGIC ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP DYNAMICS

The article deals with identifying the obstacles to the commercialization of academic research results generated by the differences in institutional environment for the production of scientific knowledge and the production of technological products by innovative start-ups. To do this, it gives the characteristics of the above-mentioned institutional environments, as well as patterns of behavior in them that do not have the character of formal or informal institutions. Particular attention is paid to psychological traits of entrepreneurs and their cognitive abilities, which may not be available to teachers and researchers at universities and research organizations. Comparison of the content of these environments gives grounds for distinguishing two types of institutional barriers: the first one is of a general economic nature and can generate significant costs for the work of innovative start-ups; the second one is intra-organizational in nature and can generate high risks of transition from science to commercial industry, preventing researchers and teachers from making decisions about creating innovative technology start-ups. The paper concludes with recommendations to reduce the level of barriers of the second type. In particular, to compensate for the risks associated with possible consequences of failure to create a startup and the difficulties of returning to the field of research activity, university management could legally guarantee a teacher or researcher a return to work in scientific or educational departments of faculties for at least five years after creating a startup.

To Catch a Cicada

This paper examines the role of tacit knowledge and embodied sonic skills involved in catching cicadas (Cicadoidea Latreille in the order Hemiptera) for scientific study in Australia. Cicada researchers rely on identifying the unique “call patterns” of male cicadas to locate populations and track individuals to net. Drawing on an ethnographic study of the authors’ own practices as cicada researchers, we demonstrate that cicada-catching involves tacit and embodied skills that are mastered in a community of practice that has a local epistemology centred on sonic skills for the multimodal production of knowledge. Through analysing their own cicada-hunting fieldwork, the authors demonstrate how sonic skills, as a form of active embodied knowing, enable the production of scientific knowledge.

Leaps of Knowledge

Chagas Disease is the main cause of heart failure in the Western Hemisphere. Initially restricted to the American continent, the people's migration to the Northern Hemisphere caused the disease to become present in the five continents. A scientific revolution occurs when an important discovery removes an obstacle to the serial production of new scientific knowledge of social interest. Such a revolution creates a paradigm accepted after experimental analysis and verification by scientists investigating the subject. An example of a leap in knowledge was the discovery of the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, its invertebrate and vertebrate hosts, an agent of a new human disease recognized by Dr. Carlos Chagas at the beginning of the twentieth century. Certainly, the seminal work of Carlos Chagas inseminates enthusiasm that is essential to disturb the minds of scientists who produce leaps of knowledge about recondite aspects of Chagas disease at the University of Brasilia.

Who Authors Social Science? Demographics and the Production of Knowledge

Author demographics are of key epistemic importance in science—shaping the approaches to and contents of research—especially in social scientific knowledge production, yet we know very little about who produces social scientific publications. We fielded an original demographic survey of nearly 20,000 sociology, economics, and communication authors in the Web of Science from 2016–2020. Our results include not only details about gender and race/ethnicity but also the first descriptive statistics on social science authors’ sexuality, disability, parental education, and employment characteristics. We find authorship in the social sciences looks very different from other measures of disciplinary membership like who holds PhDs or faculty positions. For example, half of the authors in each discipline’s journals say that they are not a member of the discipline in which they published. Moreover, social science authors are considerably less diverse than other measures of disciplinary membership. In sociology, women constitute a majority of PhDs, faculty, and American Sociological Association members; by contrast, men make up a majority of sociology’s authors. Additionally, we include a wide array of descriptive statistics across a range of demographic characteristics, which will be of interest to inequality scholars, science scholars, and social scientists engaged in diversifying their disciplines.

A study on comparison of economic and scientific performances of BRICS countries

PurposeThis study investigates the correlation between economic development and scientific knowledge production indicators in the BRICS countries from 2000 to 2020, highlighting the importance of human resources, natural resources, and innovation. Addressing a gap in the existing literature, this study aims to contribute significantly to understanding this relationship.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a descriptive statistical approach, this study utilizes GDP and per capita income as economic indicators and scientific data from WoS and SCOPUS databases, focusing on scientific document production and citations per document.FindingsThe analysis reveals a strong correlation between economic development and scientific performance within the BRICS nations during the specified period. It emphasizes the interdependence of economic progress and scientific prowess, underscoring that they cannot be considered independently.Research limitations/implicationsHowever, limitations exist, notably the reliance on specific databases that might not cover the entire scientific output and the inability to capture all factors influencing economic and scientific development.Originality/valueUnderstanding this interdependence has crucial originality. Policymakers and stakeholders in BRICS countries can leverage these insights to prioritize investments in human capital development and scientific research. This approach can foster sustainable economic growth by reducing reliance on natural resources.

Networked research and open science: the WEIWER® experience

ABSTRACT This text addresses the importance of scientific collaboration networks in the context of open science, presenting the experience achieved within the International Academic Network WEIWER®. From this particular case, it will be possible to show that scientific entrepreneurship initiatives, based on collaborative research, are an effective way to overcome the individualism still present in many university institutions, e.g. due to their traditional or conventional features. Therefore, we aim to reflect on the contribution of these research networks to the policies that sustain the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge. In a current situation, in which there is a consolidation of the culture of openness, both at the governmental and academic levels, the WEIWER® experience allows us to conclude that networked research enables the construction of an open, collaborative and social space for science, respecting the autonomy, reflection and independence of each researcher. In short, we argue that in the context of open science, these research networks contribute to promote the construction of knowledge in collective settings, creating enriching dialogues and understandings on the complexity of both the research objects and designs dealt with.

Science as exploration in a knowledge landscape: tracing hotspots or seeking opportunity?

The selection of research topics by scientists can be viewed as an exploration process conducted by individuals with cognitive limitations traversing a complex cognitive landscape influenced by both individual and social factors. While existing theoretical investigations have provided valuable insights, the intricate and multifaceted nature of modern science hinders the implementation of empirical experiments. This study leverages advancements in Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques to investigate the patterns and dynamic mechanisms of topic-transition among scientists. By constructing the knowledge space across 6 large-scale disciplines, we depict the trajectories of scientists’ topic transitions within this space, measuring the flow and distance of research regions across different sub-spaces. Our findings reveal a predominantly conservative pattern of topic transition at the individual level, with scientists primarily exploring local knowledge spaces. Furthermore, simulation modeling analysis identifies research intensity, driven by the concentration of scientists within a specific region, as the key facilitator of topic transition. Conversely, the knowledge distance between fields serves as a significant barrier to exploration. Notably, despite potential opportunities for breakthrough discoveries at the intersection of subfields, empirical evidence suggests that these opportunities do not exert a strong pull on scientists, leading them to favor familiar research areas. Our study provides valuable insights into the exploration dynamics of scientific knowledge production, highlighting the influence of individual cognition, social factors, and the intrinsic structure of the knowledge landscape itself. These findings offer a framework for understanding and potentially shaping the course of scientific progress.

Non-institutional model of social sciences and humanities: to the question of import of pedagogical technologies

In postmodern reality the methods of production and transmission of scientific knowledge are being transformed: along with the academic model of the social sciences and humanities, there are also non-institutional channels of humanities, which are characterized by their own ways of intellectual dialogue, pedagogical techniques and technologies. In the period of sociocultural transformation and complex challenges, it is important for academic humanists to import technologies and methods accumulated in the field of non-institutional humanities.