Scientific Canon Research Articles

Zeitlichkeit des Gegenwissens in der Ökologischen Landbau-Szene der Bundesrepublik (1970–1999): aus Alt mach Neu!

ZusammenfassungDie Mitte der 1970er Jahre gegründete Stiftung Ökologischer Landbau (SÖL) trat an, den ökologischen Landbau in der Bundesrepublik zu fördern. Zu diesem Zweck führte sie Protagonisten aus Wissenschaft und Umweltbewegung zusammen, die unter Rückgriff auf die wissenschaftlich geprägten Konzepte des natürlichen und biologischen Landbaus der 1920er und 1930er Jahre eine Wissensgrundlage für den ökologischen Landbau aufbauen sollten. Anhand der Gründungsgeschichte, Struktur und Arbeit der SÖL lässt sich zeigen, dass Zeitlichkeit eine wesentliche Rolle bei der Etablierung alternativer Wissensbestände spielte. Entgegen dem etablierten Modell linearen wissenschaftlich-technologischen Fortschritts ging es um die Rückbesinnung auf Wissensbestände und Praktiken, die in vorhergegangenen Prozessen des Vergessens und der Marginalisierung aus dem wissenschaftlichen Wissenskanon, aber auch aus der landwirtschaftlichen Praxis verschwunden waren. Dies zeigt sich am Beispiel der sogenannten Spatendiagnose, einer in den 1930er Jahren von Bodenbiologen entwickelten Methode zur Beurteilung des Ackerbodens. Konzepte und Praxis des Gegenwissens liefen auf ein Modell konservativer Modernisierung im ökologischen Landbau hinaus.

Dispirited Away: The Peer Review Process

Dispirited Away: The Peer Review Process

Where Women Scientists Belong: Placing Feminist Memory in Biography Collections for Children

For decades, feminists have observed a double bind in commemorations of women who attempt to enter male-designated places: Women must simultaneously be honored as rightfully occupying those places and yet noted as worthy of unique commendation as women. This essay examines how these challenges are negotiated rhetorically in biography collections about women scientists produced for children and adolescents. We perform a rhetorical analysis of such collections to explore how they complicate demarcations of what counts as science and who counts as a scientist. While these collections challenge gendered assumptions, many also reinforce divisions between men and women in order to celebrate the unique achievements of women scientists. Combining scholarship on feminist public memory and tropes in the rhetoric of science, we argue that the biography collection creators rely upon placial topoi, both metaphorical and literal, to recover and celebrate women scientists in the scientific canon and in public memory.

Remembering in the Second Shift

Remembering in the Second Shift

The construction and dissemination of knowledge through african tales

Esta produção faz uma breve reflexão sobre a forma de construção e difusão de conhecimento a partir de práticas orais da cultura africana por meio dos contos e lendas repassados entre as gerações. O tema escolhido para a observação, investigação e construção teórica foi a cosmologia, a forma de encarar o surgimento do universo, fazendo um paralelo da ciência formal com a cultura africana. Faz, de forma introdutória, uma análise comparativa da difusão do conhecimento da ciência formal e os dos contos africanos, acerca do assunto, tendo as distintas visões, sem com isso legitimar ou hierarquizar nenhuma das possibilidades observadas. Trata-se de duas formas de representação do conhecimento, o cânone científico formal da concepção do universo e a maneira lúdica, e não menos importante, que a tradição africana concebe a criação do mundo e dos seres humanos. A construção e o emprego do conceito de oralitura sobre o tema é uma das conquistas do texto, trazendo também consigo e em consequência, a dimensão das africanidades incrustadas no processo de difusão de saberes e conhecimento.

Theoretical and Practical Issues of Innovation Research: Social Innovation in Hungary

In recent decades, innovation research has played an important role in exploring the drivers of local and regional economic development. Nowadays, it is part of the generally accepted scientific canon that various forms of innovation (technological, business and social innovation) play a defining role in the economic development and competitiveness of cities, regions and countries. The context above points out that innovation is an important factor in the spatiality of society, but at the same time geography, more precisely geographical distance or proximity, is a determining element of innovation. In the present study, we provide an overview of the latest theoretical and empirical research developments in the “geography of innovation”, more precisely in the “geography of social innovation”, with application in Hungary. Keywords: social innovation, social innovation geography, regional development, geographical proximity

Independência ou Norte: reflexões sobre a influência do estrangeirismo no campo do conhecimento da administração no Brasil

Resumo Este ensaio teórico levanta os principais aspectos da formação da teoria da administração e realiza uma aproximação com a abordagem de Boaventura de Sousa Santos, que advoga uma epistemologia do Sul. Evidencia-se que a ciência positivista demarcou o que é válido como conhecimento e excluiu o que fica além desse "cânone científico". Em síntese, toda e qualquer produção científica fora dos padrões considerados verdadeiros e aceitos pela academia mundial torna-se inválida. Sob essa perspectiva, a obra de Boaventura de Sousa Santos, particularmente a sociologia das ausências e emergências, destaca a hegemonia dos valores notados no processo de interpretação e condução das pessoas em sociedade sob a óptica hegemônica do Norte. Assim, foi traçada uma linha (invisível) abissal, que demarca como válidas somente as experiências do Norte, produzindo ausências epistemológicas nos demais países que, por condições determinantes de sua história como colônias, importaram teorias. Por meio de um ensaio teórico, apresentamos a influência do estrangeirismo na ciência administrativa e as contribuições de Boaventura de Sousa Santos, as quais podem inspirar a construir um conhecimento emancipatório e interdisciplinar, de modo que a administração também utilize sua ecologia de saberes para superar suas ausências epistemológicas.

History and the relationship between scientific and pedagogical knowledge: anatomy lectures then and now

In recent years, school science has been the target of increasing critique for two reasons. On the one hand, it is said to enforce ‘epic’ images of science that celebrate the heroes and heroic deeds that established the scientific canon and its methods and thereby falsifies the history and nature of science. On the other hand, the sciences are presented as objective, making factual statements independent of location and time—a claim that runs counter to the current mainstream canon of scientific knowledge as socially and individually constructed. In this article, we suggest that contexts leading to new scientific knowledge make science objective and subjective simultaneously. Our approach, which focuses on the performative dimensions of (school) science, works to overcome the distinctions between knowledge and knowing and the associated distinction between theory and practice. We show the significance of the performative dimension through a comparison of anatomy lectures and texts from the 17th century and in present-day biology classrooms. We underscore the need to retain and investigate the historical connections between the founding of (scientific) knowledge and its present-day form taught in schools.

Incommensurable worldviews? Is public use of complementary and alternative medicines incompatible with support for science and conventional medicine?

Proponents of controversial Complementary and Alternative Medicines, such as homeopathy, argue that these treatments can be used with great effect in addition to, and sometimes instead of, ‘conventional’ medicine. In doing so, they accept the idea that the scientific approach to the evaluation of treatment does not undermine use of and support for some of the more controversial CAM treatments. For those adhering to the scientific canon, however, such efficacy claims lack the requisite evidential basis from randomised controlled trials. It is not clear, however, whether such opposition characterises the views of the general public. In this paper we use data from the 2009 Wellcome Monitor survey to investigate public use of and beliefs about the efficacy of a prominent and controversial CAM within the United Kingdom, homeopathy. We proceed by using Latent Class Analysis to assess whether it is possible to identify a sub-group of the population who are at ease in combining support for science and conventional medicine with use of CAM treatments, and belief in the efficacy of homeopathy. Our results suggest that over 40% of the British public maintain positive evaluations of both homeopathy and conventional medicine simultaneously. Explanatory analyses reveal that simultaneous support for a controversial CAM treatment and conventional medicine is, in part, explained by a lack of scientific knowledge as well as concerns about the regulation of medical research.

Keeping Our Eye on the Ball: The American Society of Preventive Oncology in 2009

A common adage among those who play games that involve balls-baseball, for example-is that one must keep one's eye on the ball. The baseball player attempting to catch a grounder or fly ball must watch the ball-where it has been, where it is-into his or her glove; the player who diverts his or her

Contemporary Science and Worldview-Making

This paper discusses the impact of contemporary scientific knowledge on worldviews. The first three sections provide epistemological background for the arguments that follow. Sections 2 and 3 discuss the reliable part of science, specifically the characterization, scope and limits of the present scientific canon. Section 4 deals with the mode of thinking responsible for both the canon’s credibility and its power to guide speculative activity. With these preliminaries in place, the remainder of the paper addresses the issue of tolerance to “alternative perspectives”. The analyses in this part focus on the extent to which mature scientific thought embodies open-mindedness, with pluralism and competition between perspectives as central themes. I argue for four related claims, concerning scientific literacy, the impact of the canon on rational speculation, the limits of scientific pluralism, and the popular idea that recent forms of “scientific (natural) theology” have rational merit and can help worldview-making in our age, respectively: (C1) Which theories and narratives (or parts of them) belong in the scientific canon, and whether they are worldview independent, are matters contingent upon the state of knowledge—not something one can convincingly determine on metascientific or transcendental insight. (C2) The current scientific canon and its associated methodology provide research with strong directionality, often against popular currents. (C3) Current science does marginalize some views dear to many people. (C4) Although natural theology “officially” purports to embody scientific methodology, all it presently has on offer are poorly thought out ventures embodying (at best) only relaxed versions of that methodology; if so, the relationship between current projects in natural theology and science cannot (without begging the question) be reasonably described as one of “partial overlap”, “mutual modification”, or “ongoing complementarity”.

Creating contextually authentic science in a “low‐performing” urban elementary school

AbstractThis article reports on a 2½‐year collaborate project to reform the teaching and learning of science in the context of Mae Jemison Elementary, the lowest performing elementary school in the state of Louisiana. I outline a taxonomy of authentic science inquiry experiences and then use the resulting framework to focus on how project participants interpreted and enacted ideas about collaboration and authenticity. The resulting contextually authentic science inquiry model links the strengths of a canonically authentic model of science inquiry (grounded in the Western scientific canon) with the strengths of a youth‐centered model of authenticity (grounded in student‐generated inquiry), thus bringing together relevant content standards and topics with critical social relevance. I address the question of how such enactments may or may not promote doing science together and consider the implications of this model for urban science education. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 695–721, 2006

Publishing and the classics: Paley’s Natural theology and the nineteenth-century scientific canon

This article seeks a new way to conceptualise the ‘classic’ work in the history of science, and suggests that the use of publishing history might help avoid the antagonism which surrounded the literary canon wars. It concentrates on the widely acknowledged concept that the key to the classic work is the fact of its being read over a prolonged period of time. Continued reading implies that a work is able to remain relevant to later generations of readers, and, although some of this depends upon the openness of the original text, much more depends on the actions of subsequent publishers and editors in repackaging the work for later audiences. This is illustrated through an examination of the long publishing history of William Paley’s Natural theology (1802). Over the course of the century, Natural theology was read as a work of gentlemanly natural theology, as a work which could be used in a formal or informal education in science, and as a work of Christian apologetic. These transformations occurred because of the actions of the later publishers and editors who had to make the work suit the current interests of the literary marketplace. Comparisons are made to Constitution of man, Vestiges of the natural history of creation and Origin of species.

Students' talk about rotational motion within and across contexts, and implications for future learning

The investigations reported in this article are part of a larger study concerned with understanding learning as it emerges from the enacted curriculum which in itself is mediated by: students' views of the nature of science, beliefs about learning, views of laboratory learning environments; teacher's beliefs about knowing and learning science and knowledge of student ideas about content. In this article, the results of two studies of students' discourse about rotation phenomena are presented with a particular focus on the consistency of this talk across different phenomena. Study 1 presents an inventory of students' observational and theoretical descriptions after they had been taught rotational motion during the previous school year; it simultaneously constitutes an inventory of students' knowing before another physics unit that presupposed knowledge of the first instructional cycle. Study 2 reports on the same students' discourse after a four-week unit on the dynamics of rotational motion. The results of Study 1 indicate that in spite of prior instruction, students' observational and theoretical descriptions of rotational phenomena were different from scientific canon and inconsistent within and across contexts. Study 2 further underscores the variations in student discourse about rotational motion within and across context and the differences with canonical discourse. More importantly, it illustrates that only a minority of students provided adequate observational and theoretical descriptions about the dynamics of rotational motion.

The Role of Ibin Al Haitham in Scientific Research

This research is a thorough study of the role of the outstanding scientist, Ibin Al Haitham, in scientific research. Many scholars attribute the development of scientific research to Islamic scientists, among these was Ibin Al Haitham, who initiated the origins of the modern scientific principles. This study I tried to highlight the role of Arab and Islamic traditions in enriching human culture. This role is exemplified through the scientific canon of Ibin Al Haitham. The study also emphasized the urges of transferring the general heritage and the urges of Ibin Al Haitham in particular.The study, further, includes a presentation of Ibin al Haitham’s scientific mission, his manners, his positions and attitudes and major accomplishments. The study also sought to discover Ibin al haitham’s intellectual attitudes and to locate his basic scientific methods, which depended on induction, syllogism, analogy, preference and the hypothetical method. The study then examined the scientific tools and their importance in scientific research through presenting illustrations from Ibin Al Haitham’s works and commenting on them. This research shows the virtues of this outstanding scientist and his distinguished role in scientific research as he touched on the concepts leading to it. The research then concludes with a call for a revival of the legacy and memory of the Islamic scientists who served humanity and made an important contribution to its heritage.

State Sciences and Development Histories: Encoding Local Forestry Knowledge in Bengal

Informed by debates on development discourse, local knowledge, and the history of colonial conservation, this article argues for a careful historical investigation of the manner in which scientific managerial knowledge emerges in the field of forestry. It makes its case by focusing on the specific period in the history of Bengal (1893–1937) when scientific forestry was formalized and institutionalized. The processes and conflicts through which local knowledge gets encoded as scientific canon have to be understood to generate effective managerial devolution in participatory projects. This requires an engagement with public understandings of science as practice that arises from a dynamic critique of static, and undifferentiated, notions of development discourse or local knowledge.