Science In Contemporary Society Research Articles

How do we know if and when science makes a difference?

In a roundtable of discussion three executives discussed the impact and role of scientists and science in contemporary society are presented. The program director, Leslie Swartz, a Professor of Psychology at Stellenbosch University and Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Science, stressed the importance of the relationship between science and society in his opening. He drew the attention of the audience and the presenters to the interest sparked by this webinar in calling upon scientists to have a conversation on the impact of science on society. On a different note, Ernest Dube, an agronomy research scientist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Natural Resource Management at Nelson Mandela University, spoke to the audience about agronomy and food security in South Africa. He maintained that current food production in South Africa is mostly driven by agronomy research. Agronomy is, according to Dube, 'the application of different scientific methodologies for the improvement and management of major stable food crops'.

現代社会における心理科学の課題 : 権利主体をどう捉えるか( 心理科学の役割-心理科学研究会40周年を迎えて-)

現代社会における心理科学の課題 : 権利主体をどう捉えるか( 心理科学の役割-心理科学研究会40周年を迎えて-)

Advocacy Science: Explaining the Term with Case Studies from Biotechnology

The paper discusses the use of term ‘advocacy science’ which is communication of science which goes beyond simple reporting of scientific findings, using the case study of biotechnology. It argues that advocacy science should be used to distinguish the engagement of modern civil society organizations to interpret scientific knowledge for their lobbying. It illustrates how this new communicative process has changed political discourse in science and general perception of the role of science in contemporary society.

Systematicity and the Continuity Thesis

Hoyningen-Huene (Systematicity: the nature of science, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013) develops an account of what science is, distinguishing it from common sense. According to Hoyningen-Huene, the key distinguishing feature is that science is more systematic. He identifies nine ways in which science is more systematic than common sense. I compare Hoyningen-Huene’s view to a view I refer to as the “Continuity Thesis.” The Continuity Thesis states that scientific knowledge is just an extension of common sense. This thesis is associated with Quine, Planck, and others. I argue that Hoyningen-Huene ultimately rejects the Continuity Thesis, and I present further evidence to show that the Continuity Thesis is false. I also argue that it is the systematicity of science that ultimately grounds the epistemic authority of science. Hoyningen-Huene thus draws attention to an important feature of science that explains the place of science in contemporary society.

Cerebral Drawings between Art and Science: On Gilles Deleuze’s Philosophy of Concepts

In What Is Philosophy?, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari distinguish the functions of philosophy, art and science. According to this distinction, the primary purpose of philosophy is to invent concepts, the purpose of art to bring forth percepts, or sensorial aggregates, and that of science to delineate functions. This article aims to show that these distinctions are not as clear-cut as they appear. Using Deleuze and Guattari’s proposition that ‘philosophy is the art of forming, inventing, and fabricating concepts’ as a reference point, it suggests that the corresponding philosophical practice is intimately connected to art and science. Studying the conceptual drawings in Deleuze’s texts, the article situates his philosophy in the French tradition of epistemology (Cavaillès, Bachelard and Canguilhem). As a result, the conceptual work of this philosophy can be seen as intensively responding to the creative problems posed by the dynamics of science in contemporary societies.

The Role of Historians of Science in Contemporary Society

The Role of Historians of Science in Contemporary Society

Norms, competition and visibility in contemporary science: The legacy of Robert K. Merton

Can Robert K. Merton’s seminal work in the sociology of science still offer useful insights to understand key features, trends and challenges of science in contemporary societies? This article focuses on two main topics. It addresses the general theme of values and norms in science in the light of relevant organizational changes that have marked science in recent decades, as well as the resilience of the concept of ‘scientific community’ to those changes. Starting from Merton’s classical study of the ‘Matthew effect’, the article then analyses the theme of competition in science, with particular regard to the dynamics that characterize the reputation and visibility of scientists.

The decline of natural sciences in the culture of mass media

AbstractThis study sets out to determine if the interest in and study of natural sciences is declining in western countries as scientists currently contend. Part one demonstrates how survey results reveal a decline of interest in scientific news in the EU. Part two explores the decline of interest further through examining data such as the number of students interested in scientific subjects and scientific careers. I explore the hypothesis that the lack of interest in scientific subjects is influenced by the culture of the mass media, and the manner in which the media covers scientific items. I examine a range of media outlets, from reality TV shows and TV series, to movies and the press. Many aspects of this paper have been discussed in depth in my book published in 2008: La razón estrangulada (Reason Strangled: the Crisis of Science in Contemporary Society).

Uncertainty, environmental policy and social learning

This note puts the research project which led to this Special Issue in the context of developments in and around environmental policy over the past two decades, from the perspective of someone closely involved. It links political and institutional problems over sustainable development to the changing role and authority of science in contemporary society, and to the new kind of emphasis on social learning to be found in the papers that follow.

Postmodernism and Popularisation: The Cultural Life of Chaos Theory

Popular accounts of science have helped to stimulate greater public interest in the role of science in contemporary society. For example, chaos theory and complexity theory have proven to be highly marketable science "products". These concepts have increasingly travelled into wider culture and, notably, the study of organization. Through an interpretation that promotes a leaning towards uncertainty, unpredictability and ambiguity, these accounts of science have been seen to provoke a (postmodern) re-conceptualisation of our view of the world. Indeed the overtly philosophical style of many of these stories has provided a rich source of material for social scientists seeking to explain and legitimise developments in organization and cultural studies. Concentrating upon the treatment of chaos theory as a "postmodern science", this paper examines and questions the historical and cultural influences that have encouraged the appropriation of theories from the natural science.

Science in Contemporary Society

Science in Contemporary Society