scholarly journals Tracing Technoscientific Collectives in Synthetic Biology: Interdisciplines and Communities of Knowledge Application

2021 ◽  
pp. 163-181
Author(s):  
Alexander Degelsegger-Márquez
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Research Governance ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Scientific Communities ◽  
Knowledge Application ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Sociological Literature

AbstractThe relevance of collectives for scientific research has long been a matter of debate among sociologists of science and STS scholars. In this article, I revisit the notion of scientific communities from the perspective of practices in technoscientific fields of research. The case I focus on is synthetic biology, a field of research characterised by introducing engineering principles to biology. Drawing from field observations, a discussion of community concepts in sociological literature and interview data, I argue that concepts of community in the technosciences oversimplify the aspects and types of collectives that come to matter in research practices. The case of synthetic biology suggests that, when thinking about technoscientific communities, we have to consider aspects of research practices that point beyond knowledge production. To address this issue, I propose the notion of communities of knowledge application, which helps to reflect current trends in technoscientific research and research governance. Both contexts of knowledge production and contexts of knowledge application should be taken into account in an analysis of technoscientific communities.

Imagining E-Science beyond Computation

2006 ◽  
pp. 48-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Wouters ◽  
Anne Beaulieu
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Women's Studies ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Women’S Studies ◽  
Epistemic Culture ◽  
Epistemic Cultures

This chapter problematizes the relation between the varied modes of knowledge production in the sciences and humanities, and the assumptions underlying the design of current e-science initiatives. Using the notion of “epistemic culture” to analyze various areas of scientific research practices, we show that current conceptions of e-science are firmly rooted in, and shaped by, computer science. This specificity limits the circulation of e-science approaches in other fields. We illustrate this using the case of women’s studies, a contrasting epistemic culture. A view of e-science through the analytic lens of epistemic cultures therefore illustrates the limitations of e-science and its potential to be reinvented.

Effective Management over Government Led Research: A Study of Research Institutions in Gambia

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-166
Author(s):  
Frederick Ozor
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Scientific Output ◽  
Scientific Committee ◽  
Research Governance ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Scientific Knowledge Production ◽  
The Impact

Using primary data generated from samples of research units within the Gambia public research sector, this two-phased inquiry seeks to identify and explain factors in research governance that influence scientific knowledge production. In contributing to empirical discussions on the impact levels of different governance models and structures to scientific output, which appear limited and mixed in literature, this study suggests, first, that scientific committee structures with significant research steering autonomy could not only directly contribute to scientific output, but also indirectly through moderating effects on research practices. It further argues that autonomous scientific committee structures tend to play a better steering role than a management-centric model and structure of research governance. Second, elaborating and providing a more insightful explanation and perspective on individual research behaviours and outcome of research, the study argues that communication and collaborative networks could improve research practices and behaviours, which is a most important predictor of scientific performance. Third, research related behaviours are multi-dimensional; they include publication behaviour, publication orientation, funding behaviour, decisions about research priorities and agenda, as well as the communication behaviour of the scientist — all of which are critical for scientific knowledge production. Fourth, analysis of results suggests that intrinsically motivated curiosity is crucial in driving creative and innovative research. For this reason, results of analysis showing negative contribution of non-supportive institutional conditions and positive contribution of intrinsic motivation suggest far reaching implications for the competiveness of a country like Gambia, which is still working to build and improve its science and technology base.

Abstracting lexocigraphical works

2018 ◽  
pp. 23-36
Author(s):  
V. V. Goncharova
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Information Value ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Information Compression ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
User Groups ◽  
Secondary Information ◽  
Negative Factors

The increasing interest towards abstracting as a type of analytical and synthetical information processing due to science globalization trend, is emphasized. The professionals who study this primary information compression are bibliographers, linguists, and information specialists. The author argues that modern professors and students all have to and must learn abstracting in accordance with the international standards for scientific, research, reference and instructional works.The author points to the diversity of the national lexicographical studies and, based on the abstracts index obtained as a result of her study, characterizes the current trends in abstracting linguistic dictionaries. The key user groups are defined. Publishers’ abstracts of dictionaries are discussed and represented. The example of dictionary Internet-based abstract analysis is given (50 items). Based on the abstracts texts, main negative factors to impact information value of this secondary information source are revealed, that is: lacking data essential for users, incomplete description of targeted readership, etc.The author introduces a model plan for digital guides of Russian lexicographical works and complements the plan with the systematic aspect analysis. She concludes that abstracting is an intellectually intensive process. It is underexplored as far as lexicographical works are concerned, and offers many possibilities for further studies.

Sociology and Social Work: Current Educational and Scientific Research Practices

2020 ◽  
pp. 161-162
Author(s):  
Natalya Avdoshina ◽  
◽  
Vladislav Bocharov ◽  
◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Research Practices

Values in Science and the Erosion of Trust

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín ◽  
Kristen Intemann
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Stakeholder Involvement ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Values In Science ◽  
Scientific Communities ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Political Values ◽  
The Public

This chapter considers another factor that plays a role in eroding the public’s trust in science: concerns about the negative influence of nonepistemic values in science, particularly in controversial areas of inquiry with important effects on public policy. It shows that the credibility of scientists can be undermined when the public perceives that scientists have a political agenda or will be biased by their own personal or political values. However, to assume that the best way to address this problem is try to eliminate such values from science altogether would be a mistake. Ethical and social values are necessary and important to knowledge production. Consequently, the chapter explores alternative strategies to increase transparency and stakeholder involvement so as to address legitimate concerns about bias and sustain warranted trust in scientific communities.

For a Sociology of Sectarianism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rima Majed
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Disciplinary Knowledge ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Specific Research ◽  
Sociological Literature

This chapter offers an overview of the study of sectarianism in the Middle East. It argues that, because it has often been treated as an area studies topic, the study of sectarianism has long been absent from the mainstream sociological literature. By bridging between disciplinary knowledge production and the area-specific research agenda, this chapter proposes some conceptual and methodological notes to advance our understanding of the sectarian phenomenon in the Middle East. This chapter is a call for the development of a “sociology of sectarianism,” one that moves beyond Middle East exceptionalism to study the phenomenon of sectarianism in its complexity by locating it historically and analyzing it globally within the broader interlocking systems of social stratification.

Geographies of transport III

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Schwanen
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Global South ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Heuristic Classification

This third report in the series reviews recent research on the geographies of transport in Africa, Asia and Latin America to reflect on the spatialities of knowledge production and the question as to whether a post/decolonial turn is occurring in geographical scholarship on transport. A simple and heuristic classification scheme is developed and deployed to demonstrate that predominantly western worldviews, theories, concepts, methods and research practices continue to prevail in geographical scholarship on transport in the Global South. It is also shown that this hegemony is being reworked and resisted in various ways, and the report concludes with suggestions about how geographical scholarship on transport can be worlded and ultimately decolonized further.

The Revolutionary Conservatism of Normal Science

2020 ◽  
pp. 167-160
Author(s):  
Evgeniy V. Maslanov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Community ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Normal Science ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Leading Position ◽  
Science Subject

The article analyzes the functioning of normal science. It has conservative fea­tures and implies the restriction of research practices to solving puzzle, rarely reflects on the ontological assumptions of its own paradigm. Such functioning of normal science allows it to solve a large number of various scientific and sci­entific-technical problems. As a result, normal science is developing quite rapidly. At the same time, revolutionary features can be distinguished in its func­tioning. They are associated with the struggle of each specific normal science for its position in the field of science, in the desire, through the dissemination of the results of its research beyond the scientific community and active participa­tion in the examination, to enlist the support of extra-scientific actors. Alliances with extra-scientific actors allow normal sciences to actively participate in the struggle for the redistribution of public attention and the financing of scientific research. With the help of such alliances, they are trying to introduce the results of their research into industry and public life. The success of such implementa­tions leads to an active redistribution of positions in the field of science. In this case, the revolutionary element of normal science is associated not with the de­sire to reconsider the fundamental ideas underlying it, but in the desire to rebuild the system of relations within the field of science, to take a leading position in it. As a result, it is concluded that the successful functioning of normal science is associated with the desire to make permanent micro-revolutions in the field of science, subject to a conservatively protective attitude to the fundamental as­sumptions of its own paradigm.

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